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Crypto Legend Quisquater Targeted - But NSA May Not Be To Blame
judgecorp writes "Reports that the NSA and/or Britain's GCHQ deliberately targeted Belgian cryptography professor Jea-Jacques Quisquater may be jumping to conclusions, the professor has said. Investigation of an apparent NSA/GCHQ hack of Belgian ISP Belgacom uncovered evidence that Quisquater's PC had been infected with malware and had data extracted. However the two incidents might be coincidence: similar malware is used by Asian attackers, he said."
Now the NSA has shown its willingness to do such things, and then deny even having the ability, they're going to get the finger of blame pointed at them a lot more, regardless of whether they deserve it, and now in a much more credible way.
He tried to kill me with a forklift!
How about this? Edward Snowden Reveals 'Quantum Insert': NSA And GCHQ Used Fake LinkedIn And Slashdot Pages To Install Spyware?!?!
German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that documents leaked by Snowden show that the GCHQ used a method called “quantum insert” to redirect employees of Belgacom, Belgium’s largest telecommunications company, to fake websites that contained spyware. The program targeted higher-level employees that had “good access” to Belgacom’s infrastructure.
The NSA is responsible for the hacking of Jean-Jacques Quisquater whether or not they actually did it.
They're the ones who created this ugly labyrinth of snoops and upskirters who obsessively have to possess every atom of extant human dignity by owning their information, they're very meaning.
God, I hope Edward Snowden is only the beginning. I hope that dozens, hundreds, thousands of Edward Snowdens reveal every single detail of every single stinking perverted notion of what a government and corporation is to do until we know exactly what kind of chlamydia medicine the wife of the head of the NSA takes and how often he spits in the shower.
These NSA revelations have left me absolutely disgusted and incensed. They've changed my politics, they've changed my behavior, they've changed my view of my innocent corner of the world.
And worse, for the corporations who thought this was going to bring some great future of control over the metrics of our lives, it's changed my consumption habits. Now, I've become leery of every request for my zip code. My willingness to use a real email address anywhere is just about gone and I'll pay cash just because fuck them.
I don't think the backlash has even started over this Surveillance State. Or rather, I hope it hasn't because if there's not an effective backlash then our only hope is a solar flare that wipes everything with an EMP, and that would mess up my saved games.
Damn you to hell, NSA! and the corporate trojan horse you rode in on.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Some more at http://www.infosecurity-magazi... is6
"He received a fake LinkedIn invite from a non-existent person in the European patent office (Quisquater holds 17 patents).
This dropped a variant of the MiniDuke malware which covertly opens a backdoor onto the infected computer."
and http://www.infosecurity-magazi...
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
You can be pretty much certain that the NSA is trying to get its hands on the private data of anybody relevant to their interests and work: cryptographers, big data scientists, other related fields of computer science. This is simply so that they can make sure that they are ahead of what's out there in the public domain and academia.
And in addition, you can also be certain that any administration is going to be using the NSA and other spy agencies to keep track of potential dissidents, critics, and leakers: economists, social scientists, political opponents, political activists, members of the military, etc. And they are going to use that data to warn the administration of political attacks and silence opponents through leaks of unflattering personal information, as well as selective prosecution of actual wrongdoing.
That's not a question of whether this or any other administration is particularly bad or dishonest, it's simply what happens when you give any organization and any government the kind of power that the NSA has given to recent administrations.
Taking parent's post for granted, MiniDuke appears to only target Windows:
http://www.symantec.com/securi...
And this shows why "cryptography expert" and "security expert" should not be confused.
Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
The french page is more thorough http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/J... I was a student of his, and he is indeed well known in the field of cryptography. This might give you a glimpse of his relevance: http://scholar.google.com/cita...
The prof is simply not jumping to conclusions. Doesn't mean anyone in particular is or is not involved.
Presumably the researchers he contacted know enough to say if this did not look like the NSA job. The quantum insert looks like they don't need hosting in Asia, where these attacks were hosted.
NSA ate not the only people who have heard of LinkedIn, and it is the obvious attack vector for people who use it. It could be fricken anyone, and pointing to one party in particular is just click bait given the facts. If you have more info beyond that link, let us know how it lines up with the info linked elsewhere in these comments and you will actually deserve a +5.
I'm familiar with his name, but wouldn't say "legend" was appropriate.
Google for ``"Quisquater attack"'', and you should find some of the cryprographic attacks he's known for.
Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863