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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.'"
Unlike the other recent revelations, this is actually the NSA's job.
...since only 2011?!? Consider yourselves lucky. I remember hearing about Echelon decades ago.
In C++, your friends can see your privates.
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?
well isn't breaking law abroad technically CIA's job? ..either way, the news is that some country is actually saying that "hey fuckers, it's not all right to break the law you wrote a contract not to break - also, you promised to send us people who would break these laws on our property if we asked for them so what the fuck guys??".
I mean, why the fuck should belgium honor american intellectual property rights for example if america doesn't honor even basic property rights?(hacking is messing with property with tangible damages, at least when usa is being hacked..)
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Yeah, major drug cartels and especially Iceland have massive data centers that rival what the US has. Right. That must be why so many of the job postings for those with related skills are in Columbia and Iceland.
Look, we know that the NSA hires shills to mock all of us who are concerned with this stuff. You're probably not one of them. You probably just do it for free.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
And Israel spies on the US more than anybody else. It's hardly a shocker that the US would be spying on Belgium, I'm sure we're spying on pretty much everybody.
Doesn't necessarily make it right, but it's unrealistic to believe that they aren't spying on us as well. It's how international relations work. Perhaps someday that will change, but until then, nobody can allow others to do that without also joining in.
We should shut down every relations with such hostile and aggressive country.
Try the translated page
It's hardly a shocker that the US would be spying on Belgium, I'm sure we're spying on pretty much everybody.
The EU government is located in Brussels . . . in Belgium. So if they are spying in Belgium, they are spying on all the EU countries that have offices there.
No surprise.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
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
Look at what Europe does to people who oppose the USA. We're already occupied!
Since drug cartels run multiple governments in Latin America, why not?
Israel, Russia and China certainly have a pretty high level of skill in this arena as well.
They must be laughing up their sleeves at the NSA. They would have taken Snowden out LONG ago.
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 ..
Who will come to your aid the next time you're occupied? You're going to have a real problem in 30-50 years.
Learn history. The USA have liberated the pacific islands from the Japanese forces. The US did not liberate Europe. That was accomplished at over 80% by the soviets. The US played a very little part in the liberation of Europe and went on to gain a lot in the aftermath of the war (same as the soviets by the way).
If you think the US "participated" in the european theater out of the kindness of their hearts to aid their european bretheren I have the Brooklyn bridge to sell you along with the state of New York. Great deal !
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"
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.
You're free to believe whatever crap you want, but there's no evidence these countries were spying in this case.
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.
As an american citizen, I do not want them doing this.
What is the point of even acting like we have diplomacy if we subvert the very principals of the diplomatic process in the first place?
Given how little of the espionage actually benefits the average american, and how much of it might hurt the average american, I am not so sure we should 'want' them doing it.
Historically such things have benefited a fairly small number of people, usually a few well connected corporations and political parties. On the other hand it tends to increase ill will between countries and that usually gets taken out on travelers and small business interactions.
Who will come to your aid the next time you're occupied?
The British, just like they usually do. And the Americans will turn up 3 years late, just like they usually do.
No left turn unstoned.
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
While it is probably true that every nation maintains some degree of spying, nothing like this has ever happened in the history of the world. Get some degree of understanding please.
It is true for example that the USA broke Japanese codes in 1941. That hardly compares with rifling the transactions of everyone in Japan!
It is probably a good idea to have some spying but total information awareness isn't exactly rational. It has to demonstrate a high degree of insanty to want it at all.
Unlike the other recent revelations, this is actually the NSA's job.
What is?
Performing actions that US govt sees as 'acts of war', against other, *allied*, country?
Great job.
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 :(
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.
Because they are doing it right back at us.
So continue the cycle of pointless spying and warmongering! I thought the USA was supposed to be exceptional, not some loser country that just continues doing 'evil' because everyone else is doing it...
If you truly believe that the USA is the only one spying you really need to wake up.
No one ever said that.
Da derp dee derp da teedly derpee derpee dum. Rated PG-13.