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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."

44 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. Belgium is a NATO member by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The NSA was conducting a military operation against an ally.

    1. Re:Belgium is a NATO member by shentino · · Score: 4, Informative

      NSA is a subagency of the DOD and is headquartered inside a military base.

    2. Re:Belgium is a NATO member by Angeret · · Score: 5, Informative

      Didn't stop them from scaring seven shades of shit out of the Russians before, during and after WWII though.

    3. Re:Belgium is a NATO member by larry+bagina · · Score: 5, Informative

      You are aware that the Director of the NSA is Keith Alexander, an active duty 4-star general in the US Army, right? If you look at the previous NSA Directors, you'll probably notice a curious pattern.

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

    4. Re:Belgium is a NATO member by NettiWelho · · Score: 4, Informative

      For contrast, Finland has a population significantly smaller than New York City.

      And the original question was "What country doesn't spy on allies?"

    5. Re:Belgium is a NATO member by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes it does matter that some countries do have moral standards. Unlike, as displayed by the article, USA and UK.

    6. Re:Belgium is a NATO member by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      New Yorkers do that to people all the time.

    7. Re:Belgium is a NATO member by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      If you look at the previous NSA Directors, you'll probably notice a curious pattern.

      They're all white men?

    8. Re:Belgium is a NATO member by NettiWelho · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Existential risk? Since 800 AD? Wars? Um, Finland has not existed at all as a country during most of that time.

      Yes, existential risk to Finns .
      Finnic tribe habitation. 800 ad Finnic tribe habitation. 912 ad, also,
      Earliest conflicts with Russians during existance of written records.

      And by the 14th century we arrive at this

    9. Re:Belgium is a NATO member by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's what the other countries want you to think.

      Countries don't really have moral standards. Just budgets.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    10. Re:Belgium is a NATO member by NoKaOi · · Score: 4, Informative

      AFAIK it is illegal for Finnish government agents to stage hostile operations inside foreign nations.

      It is illegal for the NSA to do what they are doing too, but that doesn't seem to be stopping them.

    11. Re:Belgium is a NATO member by davester666 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I didn't think the NSA considers US citizens as "allies". More like "terrorists with no known links to proven terrorists".

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    12. Re: Belgium is a NATO member by zevans · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I like your summary there. Interesting that the two countries doing terrible things because groupthink and budget ... are the two with the most thoroughly broken FPTP electoral systems.

      --
      "... and more and more now there are all kinds of electronic goodies available" -- Pink Floyd 1972
  2. Act of war. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wasn't this exactly what the USA declared to be considered an act of war, that would justify retaliation with conventional weapons?

    1. Re:Act of war. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Probably. You have to remember that the government has different standards for others than for us. We don't care if we violate international law. We only care if others violate the rules we set (be they laws we set or otherwise).

    2. Re:Act of war. by Nyder · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Probably. You have to remember that the government has different standards for others than for us. We don't care if we violate international law. We only care if others violate the rules we set (be they laws we set or otherwise).

      Yes, The "Do as I say, not as I do" standard.

      --
      Be seeing you...
    3. Re:Act of war. by NoKaOi · · Score: 5, Informative

      Wasn't this exactly what the USA declared to be considered an act of war, that would justify retaliation with conventional weapons?

      And the people with political power are the ones who stand to get even richer if it does start another war (digital or conventional). They don't care who else dies or if the economy as a whole goes down the shitter as long as they make money. The US's defense budget is HUGE, how much of that goes to private contracts? In 2011, $374 billion went to private contracts, 15 times greater than any other US federal agency.

    4. Re:Act of war. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Wasn't this exactly what the USA declared to be considered an act of war, that would justify retaliation with conventional weapons?

      Exactly, all members of the NSA are guilty of high treason. Think about it, over the last several decades they have worked quietly behind the scenes to deliberately weaken all encryption algorithms and computer/electronic security.

      Every time a hospital or the electrical grid gets hacked and taken out of service, every time a rival hacks in and steals classified information from a government computer or trade secrets from a corporate one, every time someone's identity gets stolen, every time someone's computer gets infected by a virus, the NSA directly contributed to the ease by which this was done. That is IMHO directly supplying aid and comfort to enemies of the people.

    5. Re:Act of war. by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 3, Informative

      There's that annoying word "adhering"... You need to show allegiance to a specific, declared enemy in time of war to prove treason.

      Criminal, yes. Betrayal, yes. Treason, no.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  3. Business is business by couchslug · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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."
    1. Re:Business is business by khasim · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's reasonable to expect every intelligence agency to spy on anyone they can.

      Why is that "reasonable"? Shouldn't they be focusing their resources of groups/nations that present some threat to us?

      Business IS business, and trusting anyone, even "allies" (whatever that means) can be childish especially if they are penetrated by enemy operatives.

      Except that this hurts US businesses because now there will be more incentive for other nations (even friendly nations) to use something other than our products.

      Not to mention that "penetrated by enemy operatives" sounds more like a movie synopsis rather than a rational approach to international diplomacy.

    2. Re:Business is business by Nyder · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.

      Nothing the NSA has been doing is reasonable.

      --
      Be seeing you...
    3. Re:Business is business by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's reasonable to expect every intelligence agency to spy on anyone they can.

      Why is that "reasonable"? Shouldn't they be focusing their resources of groups/nations that present some threat to us?

      The idea there is that (for example) Israel *does* present a nuclear armed threat to America because they have a set of conventional and nuclear capabilities that *could* threaten American interests. For this reason paranoid (professional intelligence) people in the US want to know all the details of what and where those capabilities are, and how they may or may not be used. The same goes for France, Belgium, Canada, etc.
      Of course it would be totally wrong and reprehensible for any of those allies to spy on America to try and gain the same kind of information--that would threaten American security and autonomy!

      The doublethink these fuckers won't even pause at is really quite something. (Captcha: Exceeds.)

    4. Re:Business is business by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Any breach of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act will be dealt with swiftly and harshly. I'm sure the FBI is driving over there right now to investigate.

  4. NSA's relationship to AV companies by Qrypto · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Did the NSA force AV companies to not track the NSA virus, then keep it "legally" secret?

    1. Re:NSA's relationship to AV companies by muphin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Long answer, no
      no all AV companies are US companies, IE Kaspersky...
      and even if they were some people involved would have leaked the info

      --
      It's not a typo if you understood the meaning!
    2. Re:NSA's relationship to AV companies by AHuxley · · Score: 4, Informative

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Lantern_(software) was the hint at that within the USA.
      If in doubt change brands and try Kaspersky.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  5. These are the spasms before the end of empire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    .

    1. Re:These are the spasms before the end of empire by Thor+Ablestar · · Score: 5, Insightful

      As a Russian citizen I doubt. You know, the strength of US Dollar is based on the fact that it's the only currency exchangeable to petroleum, and every country that uses any other currency for this purpose becomes democratic. (Saddam sold oil for Euros, and his country became democratic, Lybia sold oil for Euros and became democratic too, Iran sold oil for gold and will surely become democratic immediately after Syria).

      And I fear that China will become democratic too.

  6. Year Zero by Moppusan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.
  7. Re:Reality check by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Laws are what civilized people follow.

  8. Re:Illegal? by Angeret · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If it's good enough for the RIAA & MPAA to use the term, then it's good enough for the rest of the world.

  9. don't be grandiose by rewindustry · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  10. Tell that to Gary McKinnon by Alain+Williams · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Tell that to Gary McKinnon by gweihir · · Score: 3, Informative

      His guilt depends. A few years back, a Swiss court decided with regard to somebody breaking into computers at the WEF, that a default password was equivalent to no password and a software secured by a default password was the same as unsecured software and hence no breaking in had happened, but rather access to a public resource. Accordingly, the person responsible walked. I find that quite a sensible verdict.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  11. The U.S. government is EXTREMELY corrupt. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The U.S. government is EXTREMELY corrupt, and the response of U.S. citizens is to make foolish jokes.

    1. Re:The U.S. government is EXTREMELY corrupt. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The U.S. government is EXTREMELY corrupt, and the response of U.S. citizens is to make foolish jokes.

      Well, the 2% who give a shit enough to crack jokes are cracking jokes, for they likely know it's far too late to do fuck-all about it.

      You're not hearing from the other 98% who don't give a shit, and helped create this mess, one obedient sheep at a time.

    2. Re:The U.S. government is EXTREMELY corrupt. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The response of SOME U.S. citizens is to make foolish jokes.
      --there, fixed for you
      Regrettably, I cannot fix your bigotry.

      A large percentage of U.S. citizens are glad that the Guardian published the information that Snowden took. While he broke the rules, the news media has a responsibility to publish these documents to highlight any improprieties and illegalities going on in the U.S. Federal Government. That's what the news media did with "Watergate" and the Ellsburg Paper. It resulted in the resignation of POTUS Richard M. Nixon. There is no reason for these documents to be withheld now. Regrettably, the U.S. news media did not take the lead in this particular story or other stories during the current regime.

    3. Re:The U.S. government is EXTREMELY corrupt. by jjp9999 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I enjoyed the response of Europeans a lot more when they learned their governments were doing the exact same thing. Americans care about this stuff. When people in other countries learn their governments do the exact same things, they try to excuse it then turn the conversation back to America.

    4. Re:The U.S. government is EXTREMELY corrupt. by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 5, Interesting

      That's what the news media did with "Watergate" and the Ellsburg Paper. It resulted in the resignation of POTUS Richard M. Nixon.

      I've thought about that a lot lately. I remember how the country was at a standstill during that time. I wonder if Watergate would even merit being published currently, let alone force a resignation.

  12. Re:SELinux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    about 5 years ago, I was working on my PhD in computer security. We had a paper about some issues in SE Linux. We hadn't found any backdoors but there were a couple things that concerned us. It was accepted by a journal and then pulled at the last minute. No reason given but my advisor told us to drop it. "Bad career move" were the words he used.

  13. Re:Act of War by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, The "Do as I say, not as I do" standard.

    "American Exceptionalism" in NewSpeak. Double-plus FTFY.

  14. Re:Roadmap needed by sumdumass · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Dude, you focus on anti terrorism but it has been happening long before that.

    Some people claim the constitution is an archaic piece of paper which has long outlived its usefulness and should be reinterpreted as much as possible to get around it's limitations. We call these people the "living document" people who think reinterpreting definitions allows portions of it to change meanings as the needs of society changes. This is despite the fact that there is an amendment process and if anything actually did need changed, it could be using the amendment process. But the outcome is the second amendment being nothing but the military having the right to have guns and you and I can hunt, free speech zones (which was originally instituted by the democrats) equaling first amendment rights, removal of all religious displays from public view as the first amendment free exercise of religion, cops dressed like military assault teams having the right to kick in the wrong door and kill the occupants as being the forth amendment's right to be secure in your person, papers and effects. There are a lot more that has happened when we get away from strict interpretations of the US constitution.

    You may have only noticed this crap with the war on terror. But it has been around for a while before it. Your rights have been subject to interpretations for quite a while now and terrorism is only the latest if the move.

  15. Re:SELinux? by sumdumass · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And yet he still doesn't disclose what was weird or concerning to them even in an anonymous posting talking about finding something weird or concerning. It's like those whisper campaigns that don't really say anything bad but say something in a way that people interpret it badly then as momentum builds, things are simply added by people who think they heard more then what was said. Before you know it, an attorney general running for governor wants to take birth control away from women when the courts have said long ago that the state couldn't do that and nothing he done as the lead attorney for the state indicates that he ever wanted to do or try to do such things.

    I mean even if he was scared/worried that something could come back on him, all he would need to do is find someone who doesn't care like at a defcon and tell them where to look anonymously.