British Intelligence Responds To Slashdot About Man-in-Middle Attack

Nerval's Lobster writes "The GCHQ agency, Britain's equivalent of the National Security Agency, reportedly used fake LinkedIn and Slashdot pages to load malware onto computers at Belgian telecommunications firm Belgacom. In an emailed statement to Slashdot, the GCHQ's Press and Media Affairs Office wrote: 'We have no comment to make on this particular story.' It added: 'All GCHQ's work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensure that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight, including from the Secretary of State, the Interception and Intelligence Services Commissioners and the Intelligence and Security Committee.' Meanwhile, LinkedIn's representatives suggested they had no knowledge of the reported hack. 'We have read the same stories, and we want to clarify that we have never cooperated with any government agency,' a spokesperson from the social network wrote in an email to Slashdot, 'nor do we have any knowledge, with regard to these actions, and to date, we have not detected any of the spoofing activity that is being reported.' An IT security expert with extensive knowledge of government intelligence operations, but no direct insight into the GCHQ, hypothesized to Slashdot that carrying out a man-in-the-middle attack was well within the capabilities of British intelligence agencies, but that such a 'retail' operation also seemed somewhat out of character. 'Based on what we know they've done, they are doing industrialized, large scale traffic sweeping and net hacking,' he said. 'They operate a wholesale, with statistical techniques. By "statistical" I mean that they send something that may or may not work.' With that in mind, he added, it's plausible that the GCHQ has software that operates in a similar manner to the NSA's EGOTISTICAL GIRAFFE, and used it to redirect Belgacom employees to a fake download. 'However, the story has been slightly garbaged into it being fake [LinkedIn and Slashdot] accounts, as opposed to network spoofing.'" Update: You can read the official statement from Slashdot's parent company, Dice Holdings, here on our blog.

Comments

First Spoof

[anagama]

First Spoof.

Though this is no laughing matter.

Really? British intelligence went after slashdot?

[damn_registrars]

I have a hard time believing that someone convinced them this site was worthwhile. Was this just some kind of training exercise for them, to make sure that they could handle the traffic volume from a dying site before they go and try to intercept traffic from one that is relevant?

Re:https?

[girlintraining]

2) You've been pawned.

1.e4 e5
2.Bc4 Nf6
3.d3 c6
4.Bg5 h6
5.Bxf6 Qxf
6 6.Nc3 b5
7.Bb3 a5
8.a3 Bc5
9.Nf3 d6
10.Qd2 Be6
11.Bxe6 fxe6
12.O-O g5
13.h3 Nd7
14.Nh2 h5
15.g3 Ke7
16.Kg2 d5
17.f3 Nf8
18.Ne2 Ng6
19.c3 Rag8
20.d4 Bb6
21.dxe5 Qxe5
22.Nd4 Kd7
23.Rae1 h4
24.Qf2 Bc7
25.Ne2 hxg3
26.Qxg3 Qxg3+
27.Nxg3 Nf4+
28.Kh1 Rxh3
29.Rg1 Rxh2+

You were saying?

we have never cooperated...

[Anonymous Coward]

we have never cooperated with any government agency

What they mean to say is, "We have never cooperated with any government agency, unless compelled by law, or because the FBI asked nicely while threatening to throw us in jail, and even if we did cooperate, we aren't allowed to reveal that we did, and even if we are allowed to reveal that we did, we wouldn't because that would make us look bad."