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Belgium Investigates Suspected Cyber Spying By Foreign State
First time accepted submitter julf writes "The Belgian newspaper De Standaard reports that in an internal investigation, Belgacom, the mostly state-owned telecoms operator in Belgium, discovered evidence that the NSA has been listening in (Dutch) on the Belgacom network since 2011. From the Reuters article: 'Belgium said on Monday it was investigating suspected foreign state espionage against its main telecoms company, which is the top carrier of voice traffic in Africa and the Middle East, and a newspaper pointed the finger at the United States. Federal prosecutors said in a statement that the former state telecoms monopoly Belgacom had filed a complaint in July about the hacking of several servers and computers. "The inquiry has shown that the hacking was only possible by an intruder with significant financial and logistic means," they said.'"
Story at 11. *Yawn.*
...since only 2011?!? Consider yourselves lucky. I remember hearing about Echelon decades ago.
In C++, your friends can see your privates.
Belgium was the home of the most notorious super villains EVAR.
And the last thing the US needs is to be blackmailed again for *dum-dum DAH* ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS!
This is an interesting development.
Having said that, the Germans, French, and other European states have publicly denounced NSA spying. Yet, they all quietly continue to work as normal with the US. So... what gives? Are they politically motivated to put limits on NSA spying or is it all for public show?
...discovered evidence that the NSA has been listening in (Dutch) on the Belgacom network since 2011.
Meanwhile, the French, British, Iranians, North Koreans, Chinese, Russians, several major drug cartels, Iceland, New Zealand, Germans, Australians... their taps on the same wires were left alone and unnoticed. Because everyone on the internet knows that only the NSA and those pesky American's ever spy on anyone else, because they're all signals intelligence virgins who just don't see the point in espionage when we're all just one big happy carebear family.
Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need to start treatment immediately... because writing that much snark just gave me cancer.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
We should shut down every relations with such hostile and aggressive country.
Why? Obama never promised to stop spying on foreign nations and such a policy would be completely irresponsible.
Then again, you're a troll so what do I care what you think.
You care what I think because I am saying something bad about your hero.
The fact that you even rationalize his activity because he "never promised to stop spying" is hilarious. It isn't that he never promised to stop. He actually increased the spying -this case started in 2011- that the government is doing, which he claimed was wrong before he was in office.
Try the translated page
Who will come to your aid the next time you're occupied? You're going to have a real problem in 30-50 years.
While your post is a bit trollish, there is a ring of truth.
Obama was supposedly going to be this guy who would mend relations with foreign entities (frankly I felt embarrassed for America when he does those stupid bows to foreign leaders) and really the only thing he has done to improve America's image is just get elected in the first place due entirely to the fact that most people just assume he's going to do something good for them. Hence he gets the first "Nobel Peace Prize for Absolutely Nothing At All"(tm).
Other than doing nothing more than simply winning the election, he's actually rather made things worse.
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
Why is this post tagged with 'netherlands'? Belgium hasn't been part of the netherlands since 1830 ... I know you lot are a bit retarded when it comes to history, but nearly 200 years is a pretty long time ..
International agreements have 2 parts, if one of the parts misbehave that agreement could be nullified. The other countries could just leave the dollar as international trade standard. They can reject all US IP claims (if they as policy of state ignores the IP of foreing citizens/companies/etc, they well can do the same). Can do trade embargos (US love to do them, the rest can do it too). Can loose ties with US and move to i.e. China as main market. And, of course, can cut dependence on US based internet services and software.
Else they are just boiling frogs.
The USA has got form here. Remember the Greek Vodafone hacks in 2004 - technically sophisticated and never traced, but available evidence pointed to the geographic region of the US Embassy in Athens. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_wiretapping_case_2004–05
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled"
Seriously, what do they expect, giving their country a name like that? Of course they're going to piss people off!
It's one thing when the local news uses the word 'cyber' when talking about things like cyberbullying or cyberattacks, but it feels like a punch in the stomach when a tech site does the same. To me that is a word that should not be synonymous with the Internet. I mean, it's not like we're all walking around with VR helmits on here.
Obama was supposedly going to be this guy who would mend relations with foreign entities (frankly I felt embarrassed for America when he does those stupid bows to foreign leaders) and really the only thing he has done to improve America's image is just get elected in the first place due entirely to the fact that most people just assume he's going to do something good for them. Hence he gets the first "Nobel Peace Prize for Absolutely Nothing At All"(tm).
Other than doing nothing more than simply winning the election, he's actually rather made things worse.
Obama is what happens when you have a binary political system. The other guy wanted to steal everything that wasn't nailed down and give it to the rich. Obama said he didn't. The other guy wanted to attack and occupy as many other countries as possible, to show how tough he was. Obama said he didn't. The other guy was an idiot who couldn't talk in complete sentences. Obama was a great talker. The other guy was a rich white dude who'd always had a silver spoon in his mouth. Obama was a black guy who'd been a community organizer.
We believed Obama was a better choice. He likely was. We thought that all things equal, it would be great to have a black guy win the post, that it would improve relations between whites and "others". It probably did, though nowhere near as much as we hoped. We wanted to believe that Obama would be a big improvement, and some people actually got sucked into believing that he would be. He wasn't. After eight years of the dumbest and worst president in American history, the guy who attacked Iraq and flew the economy into the ground, we wanted something better. We got it. But "better" is relative.
When you have to choose between dreadful and not-quite-as-bad with a few good points, you do the best you can. The fact that the result isn't great doesn't mean that the other choice wouldn't have been worse.
The other countries could just leave the dollar as international trade standard.
They'd have to sell off most of their US assets first, and do it carefully so as not to give the game away. Don't want to crash an economy you're heavily invested in.
It's not so much that the NSA spied but the message this sends out...the US sees not only its own citizens as enemies but now also Europeans
Belgacom is a main global provider of GRX and IPX connectivity, in layman's terms, the private IP networks that are used to transport voice, messaging and data traffic between Wireless network providers when their subscribers roam abroad. If they can hack into Belgacom, they can probably get access to upwards of 50% of global romaing traffic that they otherwise wouldn't see on the public internet taps they have around the place.
Def: Oh Belgium
A galacticly frowned upon word, it is used when no other word can describe the circumstance in which on is in. Coincidentally it is also the name of a country on the entirely insignificant planet Earth. The word "Belgium" is often used by people such as Zaphod Beeblebrox, former galactic president, in many situations.
"Man you're hanging off the edge of that bottomless pit again and this time I don't think I can really be bothered to help."
"Oh Belgium man! Belgium! Belgium! Belgium! Help me you zarking zark! Holy Zarquon singing fish."
"Hang on a second, what does "Holy Zarquon singing fish" mean?"
"I really don't want to go into it right now thanks"
Is there a left-wing Colbert Report Special News Flash you didn't mention in that ridiculous monologue?
discovered evidence that the NSA has been listening in (Dutch) on the Belgacom network
So French speakers should be fine, right?
Repetition does not transform a lie into the truth. - FDR
If you are using american operating systems (Windows, notably), and Israeli products (Checkpoint, NetApp), what are you expecting? That the Mossad and CIA won't take advantage of it? Seriously? Using Huawei too? Are you they so delusional, naive, or are they just covering the tracks of their own stupidity? China got it in the right direction with red flag Linux and Loongson.
I also presume US government will extradite these criminals who were breaking all kinds of international (and domestic) laws, and were waging cyber warfare against another sovereign country.
After all, this is what US expects from others, so it would only be nice that they start following what they preach, eh?
United States of Corruption. That's what USA has became. Any 'moral high ground' that US had, on pretty much *any* issue, is simply gone.
It is beyond sad, a country we all looked up to some 20 years ago. Turned into complete shit :(
When is the US going to realize that under traditional definitions THIS IS AN ACT OF WAR!
The US needs to put a leash on the NSA or eliminate those B@#$%^&* entirely.
By and large he did mend things though. The Chinese absolutely love him and he's done a far better job of mending things with the Europeans than either McCain or Romney would have.
As for the Nobel Peace Prize, signalling to the world that a black man can be elected President of a nation that's mainly populated by black people is significant. It's never happened before and it's something worth recognizing.
Compared to the Nobel Peace Prizes given out in 1994 it made at least some sense. Giving the Peace Prize out to terrorists and war criminals pretty much debased the prize to the point where it's not a worthy accomplishment any more.
If that's what the US considers "left wing" -- well, I think some people should study world politics a bit more.
The entire point here is that people saw Obama as "not as right wing as Bush". Nobody voted for the guy from the Communist Party; very few voted Libertarian; nobody voted to increase government and social programs or to switch from a penal system to a correction system.
In fact, the monologue basically said "people voted for Obama because he didn't have Bush's track record." That doesn't sound very wingy to me -- in fact, your response appeals to the same binary political system the GP is pointing out is a complete fabrication in reality.
If I said "Vote Green!" would you call me a tailfeather?
Obama never promised to stop spying on foreign nations and such a policy would be completely irresponsible.
Not if those countries aren't hostile towards us.
Da derp dee derp da teedly derpee derpee dum. Rated PG-13.
If that's what the US considers "left wing" -- well, I think some people should study world politics a bit more. ... Nobody voted for the guy from the Communist Party;
So the difference between the "American left wing" and the "true left wing" is that even those Americans who are left-of-center believe we are allowed to own property, and the communists believe the state owns the property communally. Things like social programs, college and medical costs, abortion rights, etc., aren't enough to get in the "left-wing" category. Thanks for drawing that line for us.
Awfully strange place to clip my comment....
You're talking like it's a binary issue again, and not a 2-D continuum (there's really a front-of-center and back-of-center as well)
There are Americans who believe all sorts of things. Both the Dems and Reps are right of center on many policies, and left of center on a few. But the American people as a whole tend to be slightly-right-of-centrist, and lately have been voting against the party whose policies they want to prevent from being executed.
How you could respond with "thanks for drawing that line" to a comment that was pointing out there's no line is a bit of a head scratcher.
From your examples (some of which I also mentioned), it appears to me that you think that left wing is about the government telling people how to run their lives (abortion rights notwithstanding). Maybe this is a good time to point out that governance as a whole boils down to telling people how to run their lives. There's no "center" here -- just degrees of governance, with some degree being culturally "too much".
So maybe the right analogy would had been burning platform instead of boiling frogs? In any case, the more things stay as they are, the more damage they will keep getting, till it gets fatal. Maybe losing an arm would be bad, but is better than dying. And that will happen for sure if they keep supporting the big bully.
The Belgian government commented on the situation a few days ago, saying that they will take "certain measures" if it turns out to be cyber espionage.
As a Belgian and a heavy user of a lot of American online services, I actually hope it doesn't turn out to be the NSA. I really don't want Belgium to become the next Iran or China and some websites are already DNS-blocked here (thepiratebay for one).
Something needs to be done to make the internet open and secure again, or the internet will soon have geographical borders. The problem is we can't do much, it's up to you, Americans, to tell your government to get its shit back together.
"...a black man can be elected President of a nation that's mainly populated by black people..."
Are we still talking about the US? The US black population is less than 13%.