Slashdot Mirror
NSA Cracked Into Encrypted UN Video Conferences
McGruber writes "According to documents seen by Germany's Der Spiegel, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) successfully cracked the encryption code protecting the United Nations' internal videoconferencing system. NSA first breached the UN system in the summer of 2012 and, within three weeks of initially gaining access to the UN system, the NSA had increased the number of such decrypted communications from 12 to 458. On one occasion, according to the report, while the American NSA were attempting to break into UN communications, they discovered the Chinese were attempting to crack the encryption code as well."
were trying to break in , so we did it first to warn you.
If the NSA can do it, so can other people. So should the NSA reveal what they can do so the UN can switch to more secure communications. Or should the NSA have continued to monitor with the knowledge that the Chinese, Russians and probably a few others were also listening in?
If I was the state department I would be furious about this.
Short of a direct attack on a diplomat I don't think there is a worse breach of international custom and law.
Snooping on citizens is bad enough, but this is playing with fire.
Am I the only one seeing a war on information soon descending upon us?
Governments, once they realize the full breadth & capability of the US surveillance, and the fact that they themselves are vulnerable, and not only their citizen... they will soon decide to take action! And of course the US, having the confrontation with China in mind (and that it cannot weaken its position in such a critical time), will not back down easily.
Net neutrality is the first that could go, but I'm not sure it will be the last.
Do you think that Snowden will prove to be the trigger to the 3rd WW? (but an information/electronic one this time)
So where did Der Spiegel get these documents? On Friday, Edward Snowden accused the US government of intentionally leaking documents to The Independent that were potentially damaging, in an effort to discredit the responsible reporting being done by The Guardian and the Washington Post. He said he had never worked with nor even spoken to anyone at The Independent. Is the same thing happening here?
Breakfast served all day!
RT is infamous for being virulently anti-American; it's a Russian news organization with an agenda that is fairly obvious at times. Now, that said, Der Spiegel is a totally valid news organization...so can someone provide something directly from that, instead of interpretation by people with their own agenda regarding this?
Ah, never mind: here you go: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/25/us-usa-security-nsa-idUSBRE97O08120130825
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
USA.
First you make bribing politicians legal, destabilize the entire world's banking industry and start war after war in 3rd world countries so your military industrial complex can get more tax payer money. And now new private contractors show up and bribe some politicians who in return give them the right and money to spy on whoever they want.
And do you even protest or riot? No you assholes whine on /. I think there have been more protests here in germany over that than in the US
Why would any country trust a closed-sourced product produced by a US Technology firm?
Was the encryption cracked, or was it just bypassed?
Very worrisome if it's the former.
I can't tell if they just disabled encryption on one of the end points.
the chinese where exploiting huawei routers firmware, while nsa where at it with the cisco stuff
And you, Sir|Ma'am|Fido, could stand to improve your vocabulary.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
The US hasn't declared war since WWII.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Oh give it up. How about early European settlers wiping out 12 million indigenous Americans by smallpox and influenza within a decade of landing on shore? Yes, we should remember the Holocaust during WWII. And Rwanda. And Nanking. And godknowswhatelse. Nobody's ancestors have much of a moral high ground.
Move along.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
The video conferencing equipment we have at work is terrible. There is no reason why other solutions should be more secure.
* Root login is enabled with default passwords
* Incredibly weak encryption
* Writable persistent storage, which means that you can plant stuff there which then attack the rest of the company.
The only thing that is impressive by this is how little companies care about security.
I'm not condoning what the NSA has done, but this is firmly within their mandate. Who they spy on and how may be completely secret. The fact that this is what they do is not.
From their Mission Statement:
The Signals Intelligence mission collects, processes, and disseminates intelligence information from foreign signals for intelligence and counterintelligence purposes and to support military operations.
Cheers,
Bruce.
Bruce A. Knack
Silicon Surfers
A state spy agencies first objective is to find information helpful in protecting their state.
Here we see a spy agency not knowing who is their enemy.
Please remember the UN was for a significant part set up and is still financed by the US.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
Past vs. present. You dig?
Seriously: 'The Germans' are out, the Turks are out, the french, the British, the Spanish, the Dutch, the Japanese... All those nations with a history (sic)... oh, never mind.
It's sat, btw.
What about bugging the White House? I mean, anyone can get to be president (in theory of course, in practice it is any multimillionaire with lots of friends in the US establishment). You've got to check on them, or else how can they be trusted? And what about all those that know the president or is related to the president, you've got to check on what they are saying ... and so on.
That is a great point, and a perfect analogy! The NSA is just trying to help US win the war against the UN !!!
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
You're still suffering under the delusion that the U.S. are the "good guys"? lol.
"Since the 1979 Iranian revolution and the downfall of the US Puppet Ruler the Shah, Iran has been an Islamic state. In that interval of time, 1979 to the present, Iran has not invaded anyone. Not once. People of all religions live in peace in Iran, even Jews, who find life so comfortable in Iran they refused an offer by the government of Israel to emigrate!
In the same period of time, Israel, a self-declared Jewish state, attacked Iraq in 1981, bombing the power station at Osirik, claiming it was a clandestine weapons factory. Subsequent examination of the ruins following the 2003 invasion proved Israel had lied. In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon. This led to the Massacres at Sabra and Shatilla. In February 2003 Israel staged incursions into Gaza and Nablus. In September 2007 Israel bombed Syria, again insisting they were destroying a clandestine weapons laboratory. Again there was no evidence to support Israel’s claims. In 2006, Israel attacked Lebanon, killing 1200, mostly civilians, several UN observers, and littering the landscape with land mines on their way out. In February 2008 Israel again raided Gaza, killing over 100. HAMAS agreed to a cease fire and kept it for 6 months until November 4, when Israel again attacked without warning, killing 6 HAMAS members, and launching operation CAST LEAD.
1300 Gazans, mostly civilians, were killed. Israel lost 13 soldiers. Violations of international law included the use of White Phosphorus incendiary bombs against civilians and non-military targets. The United Nations investigated, but Israel refused to cooperate. In May 2010, Israel attacked an international aid flotilla bringing food and medical supplies to Gaza in international waters. 9 people were murdered including an American from New York.
In the same period of time, the United States, officially a secular nation but predominantly Christian, attacked El Salvador (1980), Libya (1981), Sinai (1982), Lebanon (1982 1983), Egypt (1983), Grenada (1983), Honduras (1983), Chad (1983), Persian Gulf (1984), Libya (1986) , Bolivia (1986), Iran (1987), Persian Gulf (1987), Kuwait (1987), Iran (1988), Honduras (1988), Panama (1988), Libya (1989), Panama (1989), Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru (1989), Philippines (1989), Panama (1989-1990), Liberia (1990), Saudi Arabia (1990), Iraq (1991), Zaire (1991), Sierra Leone (1992), Somalia (1992), Bosnia-Herzegovina (1993 to present), Macedonia (1993), Haiti (1994), Macedonia (1994), Bosnia (1995), Liberia (1996), Central African Republic (1996), Albania (1997), Congo/Gabon (1997), Sierra Leon (1997), Cambodia (1997), Iraq (1998), Guinea/Bissau (1998), Kenya/Tanzania (1998 to 1999), Afghanistan/Sudan (1998), Liberia (1998), East Timor (1999), Serbia (1999), Sierra Leon (2000), Yemen (2000), East Timor (2000), Afghanistan (2001 to present), Yemen (2002), Philippines (2002) , Cote d’Ivoire (2002), Iraq (2003 to present), Liberia (2003), Georgia/Djibouti (2003), Haiti (2004), Georgia/Djibouti/Kenya/Ethiopia/Yemen/Eritrea War on Terror (2004), Pakistan drone attacks (2004 to present), Somalia (2007), South Ossetia/Georgia (2008), Syria (2008), Yemen (2009), Haiti (2010), etc. etc. etc. etc.
So, who is the danger to world peace?"
It's newsworthy because it's in the public spotlight.. it's topical.. and that means ad revenue. It's not about whether or not something is "newsworthy" it's about what's currently being discussed and how that relates to the corporate revenue stream.
Are you telling me the NSA actually spends time and money on doing the job it's supposed to, not just spying on US citizens? I am absolutely shocked.
The NSA appears to slowly be learning that there is always someone just a little smarter, just a little further ahead of you out there.
Just a little personal message to the boys cracking this and breaking that: when the paranoia gets to you, I recommend going fishing (like with a boat, and some tackle). Might save your life.
I am John Hurt.
You would chew a limb off like an animal in a leg hold trap to get out of sitting through one of those baffle gab fests.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
That particular German was very likely not yet born back then.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Impressive. You just presented both "Just doing my job" and "Everyone else does it" arguments in a single post. Well done.
I saw that your window was poorly secured so I broke in and took all your stuff. I am leaving this note so that you know how risky it is leaving your house unsecured. This isn't a very good neighborhood you really should buy an alarm and better locks. I hope this letter find you well. You're welcome The NSA.
Let me define why both arguments are actually valid in this case.
1. They were hired by congress to do this job. The American people approve of some kind of electronic intelligence organziation working. As such, this is not an argument you want to have with the NSA but rather the American people.
The American people do not have a problem with the NSA itself conducting intelligence work on foreign governments or organizations or persons. The issue is domestic spying. They are forbidden to do that and they have done it. That is the issue that is most troubling to Americans.
2. Everyone else does it justifies pretty much all military and defense activities and must justify such actions.
IF I have a knife and train to kill with a knife and stand right next to you... do you feel a need to have some sort of defense against me? Precisely. Everything more or less logically flows from that reality.
In short, your comment was naive. You might not like that these arguments are valid or that they can be expansively used to justify almost anything. But they are inherently reactive systems which are dynamic by nature. The point is to be flexible so you can respond to enemy action. You move, I move to respond. You have the ability to move faster or more secretively thus precluding an effective reaction? Then I must anticipate and react to things you MIGHT not just what you did do. The last point of course limited by the negative repercussions of counter reactions.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
There are a few subtle differences between this scenario and cracking the nazin transmissions.
Except spying on diplomats is also illegal.
is it ? If so, then I don't know that. Do you have some source on that?
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
There are treaties governing the presence of the UN on US soil. If these have been breached by the NSA action, the US has broken treaty obligations. Now, as the Native American Tribes of the US will testify, this usually doesn't make a lot of difference, but there's a chance that such a breach is actionable in US courts, which could get VERY messy.
Read at least a little history. The SDP and German Communist party fought valiantly against Hitler, right up until the enabling acts were forced through parliament (and that only succeeded because the Communists were evicted before the vote). The German left fought street battles against the brown shirts trying to prevent their rise to power.
The Nazis were way more committed to what they were doing than the US Government is. If the dissenters in the US (I'm looking at you, Occupy) showed a fraction of the resolve that the Weimar left showed, we'd have cleaned house by now.
Even after Hitler came to power, leaders in the one place there was still some free speech -- the independent churches -- continued to voice and rally dissent. German intellectuals fled the country and loudly protested the Hitler regime from around the world.
The first concentration camps were set up to detain Nazi political opponents, they were only turned to the purpose of ethnic cleansing in 1938.
You frankly don't know what you're talking about.
What surprises me is ... the surprise.
Seriously, what do you guys think spy agencies DO?
The moment you say "well, THAT's off-limits", then if I were a bad guy, I'd be quite the idiot not to use that method to communicate.
It's like you morons think there are RULES or something?
-Styopa
Wow! NSA just wont die.
Gen. Alexander, NSA Director, will be called to Congress yet again to explain why he lied yet again!
Well, we know what a credible source Putin's lavishly-funded personal propaganda outfit is, don't we?
Obama has no concrete information or more likely any earthly clue who did what in Syria.
It appears then that the NSA were not quick enough so the Chinese thought there's no point waiting to buy it from one of the weak points of the commercialised outsourced parts of the NSA - sometimes if you want a job done well you have to do it yourself.
I expected slashdot (and many other news outlet) to have at least some specific technical details. What encryption did UN use? How was it compromised?
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
Not to mention, that if the SDP and Communist parties had agreed to cooperate and stand together as one against the Nazi party, it's highly likely the Nazis would have never made it to power in the first place. Unfortunately, it was politics as usual and the threat was not neutralized before it was too late.
The Nazis fought the Communists not because they were polar opposites, but because they were the wrong kind of leftists. Just think of the Trotskyite heresy or the part of Life of Brian about the Judean People's Front and the People's Front of Judea and you'll get the idea. Other leftists are worse enemies than the actual stated enemies of leftism.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
This may come as a shock to everyone, but nearly every nation that participates at the United Nations is *gasp* spying on the United Nations or other nations' missions at the United Nations. If they don't, it's probably more reflective of the fact that the nation doesn't have the resources to do it. The United States, the Chinese, the French... Before you quote Scandinavian nations, just ask yourself, what exactly do you think the Swedish KSI is doing?
.1% of its annual budget for espionage, that's still $60B.
The shock is not that the United States, or any other nation for that matter, is spying on the United Nations, the shock is that the United States is as good as it is. Even this shouldn't be a surprise given that the United States has a total of $6T in government spending a year, so even if you carve out a mere
Oh give it up. How about early European settlers wiping out 12 million indigenous Americans by smallpox and influenza within a decade of landing on shore? Yes, we should remember the Holocaust during WWII. And Rwanda. And Nanking. And godknowswhatelse. Nobody's ancestors have much of a moral high ground.
Move along.
What are you talking about? My Puritanical ancestors were saints! They followed the word of God religiously and did much good in this world. In fact, they helped prevent the witches and warlocks of Europe from starting an American chapter Hogwarts. You should be thankful that they stood on such moral high ground!
There are treaties governing the presence of the UN on US soil. If these have been breached by the NSA action, the US has broken treaty obligations. Now, as the Native American Tribes of the US will testify, this usually doesn't make a lot of difference, but there's a chance that such a breach is actionable in US courts, which could get VERY messy.
I do not believe that the UN building in NY is on US Soil. I believe that, for political purposes, it would be considered just as an embassy is. Sovereign land that happens to be surrounded by the country that hosts the Embassy delegation./P.
1. The point is not that it is moral or not. The point is that it is not the NSA's place to decide what is and is not moral. It is rather the American people's job to make that judgment.
If you want to argue that spying is morally wrong, that's fine. Make an argument to the American people that the US government shouldn't spy on foreign governments.
And I'm sure the American people will agree to this so long as you can get every other government on earth to agree likewise. You won't... and so it will go on... and you'll just have to live with that.
2. As to justifying "everyone else does it", no. I am saying instead that we must do it BECAUSE everyone else does it. Not that it is okay because others do it. Rather, that others do it means we have no choice and must do it ourselves.
If I pull out a knife and try to stab you are you permitted to use a knife to defend yourself?
Precisely.
Do you know what happens to those that don't pull out their own knives? They get their throats slit like cattle.
You either respond or get eaten. Deal with it.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
I see a great comedy TV series and/or movie coming within a year.
Actually I'm surprised it's as many as that; usually American Presidents have been allergic for a mixture of xenophobic and pseudo-legal reasons to place American troops under the command of any other nation.