Slashdot Mirror
NSA Infected 50,000 Computer Networks With Malicious Software
rtoz writes "The American intelligence service — NSA — infected more than 50,000 computer networks worldwide with malicious software designed to steal sensitive information, documents provided by former NSA-employee Edward Snowden show."
The NSA was conducting a military operation against an ally.
Wasn't this exactly what the USA declared to be considered an act of war, that would justify retaliation with conventional weapons?
I thought this was illegal? What can victims claim who lost data due to this?
Are they allowed under the law to break it?
It's reasonable to expect every intelligence agency to spy on anyone they can.
Perhaps as regards governments the hypocrisy should be dropped, and caught spies simply traded for other caught spies as was Cold War custom. Business IS business, and trusting anyone, even "allies" (whatever that means) can be childish especially if they are penetrated by enemy operatives.
How much we wish to restrain internal spying is another matter.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Going forward, how can we nogotiate peace with the NSA? who can nogotiate on Americans behalf?
So the NSA has committed illegal acts, violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or whatever it is that they charge people with for "hacking."
A "warrant" can't authorize this kind of access, because warrants for "everything" are void, per the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution.
Now nobody can argue that they are nothing but a bunch of criminals.
The only surprising part is the quantity ... but then it's counting whole networks, not quantity of installs ...
I hate that my taxes paid for this.
For the sake of the argument, don't such agencies need tools/methods to do their stuff ? So they infected computer networks.. where's the similar outrage with common spammers, that actually do have a global impact on internet traffic / quality of service ? We're in 2013.. the Internet isn't safe. Anything networked isn't safe. What does it matter that you can now put (another) face on the big bad Internet Bad Guy ? I mean, really, they can be "activated with the push of a button" - what are we talking about here, networks with internet access ? Were the owners expecting them to be private or something ? I too dislike an orwellian future, but some things just aren't worth fussing over. If the internet was a pristine place full of trust and good will, sure this would be shocking news. But it isn't.
So which systems were compromised, number would help. More importantly were any Linux or Unix systems compromised ?
He read about it in the paper, just today.
If you like your privacy, you can keep it. Period.*
*ends 1/21/2009. Subject to approval.
NSA targets Windows machines the most for obvious reasons This isnt exactly unknown news
People once told me 68K ram was all we needed,
I'm flashing back to that scene here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UKUGZz5Hjw
Did the NSA force AV companies to not track the NSA virus, then keep it "legally" secret?
These are the two options of how to classify this thing. It is not really possible to get more evil in nature, just in scale.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
The best way to stop the NSA from doing such kinds of things is to make spying on citizens a Casus foederis in the NATO contracts.
In case of ongoing spying, the attacked contries could defend themselves (hopefully with nuclear weapons).
As the US seem not to care about other peoples' human rights , it would be probably the best way, to stop this totalitarian goverment and fashist country.
What's the latest on Honey Boo-Boo?
The US is choosing the path of aggression instead of the path
of civilized behavior.
This is a strategy designed by fools. If the fools responsible were the
only ones who would pay for their crimes that wouldn't be so bad.
But every American will pay for what a tiny minority of American swine have done.
By the way, before you start in with your xenophobic redneck moron responses, I AM an American,
and I see what is coming and I do not like it one bit. When the rest of the world has had enough
of the US overstepping its bounds, all the US military power won't make a bit of difference.
Economic sanctions alone can and will bring the US to its knees. If you don't believe this is
possible, you need to read more history.
.
I would imagine there's a whole lot more of windows installations...
Haha, look at all the AC posts. You guys are fricken cowards. Like posting anonymously is somehow going to prevent the government from knowing who you are.
Look, you give an agency the task of preventing damage to your country - that is what they are going to try and do, any way they can or have to. And lets be real, laws are just a game. Everyday we see how loopholes, misinterpretations etc are used to get around anything. You think ANYONE at ANYTIME expected GE, Apple, Microsoft to pay 0 taxes? And yet they do, year after year, because with the right efforts, all laws can be gotten around. Laws are what naive people follow, like religions (and religious laws).
If you want the NSA/FBI/CIA to stop spying on everyone, abolish them. Then enjoy your free country for about a year, because that is as long as it will last.
Otherwise understand it is a balance. A balance that people in those positions understand much better than the general public. Let them do their job.
slashdot troll = you make a compelling argument I do not like the implications of.
More and more the concept album "Year Zero" by Nine Inch Nails is becoming less "concept" and more "reality."
You can dance if you want to.
these people are not warriors - they are parasites, and should be treated as such.
it's simply criminal, they should go to jail, like all the rest.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzrZukr3mbU
Windows Update is the main mechanism, not "malicious" software.
I'm sick of the lack of concern over security by everybody. People shouldn't say "the site requires active-x or the site requires flash or the site requires java" and accept that. Say NO and complain. It's ridicules that we should have to accept an active-x plug-in in order to find out if a default judgment has been levied against oneself for instance.
If more people would stop following the non-free software model and switch to picking out the best distributors (ie not the ones which include everything under the kitchen sink to make it 'easier') we wouldn't have this problem.
You don't even have to give up *everything*. Just pick some things. Stop using Microsoft Windows, stop using Microsoft Office, stop using Java/Flash/active-x, etc. Pick several and stick to it.
I use Adobe Flash, but have moved off of Microsoft Windows/active-x/Java and refuse to use anything requiring digital restrictions (like Netflix, Hulu, etc). I stream content from sites that are not DRM'd and use torrents.
I have one weakness. I do go to the movies so sadly the entertainment industry is getting paid still. However they aren't getting money from me in other ways either. Although mostly because I object to paying a cable company that advertises in the most unethical of manor and otherwise is horrible anyway. I don't accept that you can claim cable is 50x faster than DSL for instance. It's not. It's totally dependent on the speeds available in your area, the congestion of the cable system in your neighborhood, etc. Cable is always 'up to' whereas DSL is usually at the advertised speed short of line conditions or distance related issues. That's not the same thing as knowingly lying to customers about your capabilities (which are always limited) compared to the competition (which is only limited by, if,).
The USA pursued Gary McKinnon for a decade for cracking some USA military and NASA computers, mainly those where incompetent sysadmins had not changed default passwords. What Gary McKinnon was wrong; but this is also wrong and worse by an order of magnitude.
Do we assume that the USA gov't will hand over those responsible as it wanted the UK to hand over Gary McKinnon ? I would eat all of my hats if the USA gov't even talked about the possibility.
That malicious software wouldn't happen to be called SELinux, would it?
Sit, Ubuntu, sit. Good dog.
The U.S. government is EXTREMELY corrupt, and the response of U.S. citizens is to make foolish jokes.
Which Jew? Maybe it's one of my cousins.
What are you guys complaining about NSA monitoring you guys using illegal method. In Malaysia the gov cronnies own the isp here and they can monitor us 24/7 seeing what we type and so on unless we encrypt all our data. They can even see what I am typing now, best part of all we cant do anything while you guys can since it is illegal to sniff people privacy
Wow, antisemitism in 2013.
troll harder, AC.
That is a FUCKING LIE
So they infected the internet. That's one. What were the other 49,999?
Yes, The "Do as I say, not as I do" standard.
"American Exceptionalism" in NewSpeak. Double-plus FTFY.
Wow isn't that a bit low cause rumor has it NSA can't pee without being caught
I don't appreciate it when someone who is supposed to be representing my interests just sits there and does nothing while Clapper and Alexander lie to their faces under direct questioning, and then continue to be allowed to violate not only my fourth amendment rights, but the fourth amendment rights of hundreds of millions of other americans. Where are the goddamned indictments, reps?
I believe that the only method to get rid of such threat is to make files executable by change of their attributes, not their extension. You understand what I mean ;-)
Center top of the slide is a list of compromised regional networks identified by major cities. It is fascinating that half were redacted. There are apparently corresponding dots on the world map diagram that do not appear to be redacted. A quick count suggests that the number of redacted and unredacted cities is approximately the number of dots on the map. I propose that it should be possible to deduce what the redacted regional network cities are from the map.
A government spokesperson states that any disclosure of classified material is harmful to our national security.
What a useless PR hack. Two points:
Yes, any disclosure of any classified information whatsoever could cause the end of the world....Just how much classified material is there these days? At least exascale data centers in the USA, taking up over 400 square miles of petabyte drives and massive supercomputers...
How often in the last month did we hear of you guys saying "china is cybar attacking us !", "cyber war ! eleventy !". What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
So what OS did they infect?
Really? Sounds great, but why didn't our rabbi tell us anything about this?
In America Governments infects you!
I suspect an upwardly mobile legal type wanted a big trophy to put in his wall so hyped this UFO nut that was trespassing on poorly secured sites as some sort of international master criminal. It sounds better on the CV than hassling a guy with a history of mental illness for looking around bits of the net where there is supposed to be better security than there is.
All we've seen is a lot of opinions and hearsay but that's as good a grasp as I can get on it. You would think that "more then simple snooping" would have resulted in some solid evidence. There's nothing in his background that indicates he'd be capable of more than that.
The USA is a rogue state. I have no desire to visit there and wish to limit its influence on my life to a minimum.
My commiserations to the citizens of the USA who have to endure its Orwellian regime and unfair, capitalist system.
they used the exploit at all - i gather the majority of these incursions are left hanging because the NutSoupAhats are smart enough to not want to get caught with their fingers in anyone savvy enough to bite.
Lets redefine the word "terrorist" by expanding it's meaning to, not just "One that engages in acts or an act of terrorism." but to include the ones that are inducing fear to get bigger salaries and shiny supercomputers. By promoting fear without a real threat, NSA and friends are contributing to global terror.
Post 911 every human is a 'potential' terrorist for US regime
Casteism