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Crypto Legend Quisquater Targeted - But NSA May Not Be To Blame

Posted by samzenpus on from the it-wasn't-us-this-time dept.

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."

7 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. Damned if they did, more so if they didn't by 3.5+stripes · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

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    He tried to kill me with a forklift!
    1. Re: Damned if they did, more so if they didn't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If you lie often enough I can't believe anything you say anymore. That's the way trust works.

    2. Re: Damned if they did, more so if they didn't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Clapper lied to Congress. No ifs, ands or buts about it. That's enough for me. If he'll lie under oath why on earth should we ever expect him to tell the truth?

    3. Re: Damned if they did, more so if they didn't by Mathinker · · Score: 3

      > My understanding is that during a classified, closed door session
      > with committeee members, the actual truth came out.

      How would you know? The members of the Intelligence Committees are clueless/corrupt, and even less reliable sources of information than the intel brass.

      > Sometimes, you are required by law to lie, even to Congress

      No. Just, no. Clapper has on numerous occasions refused to answer questions in open sessions while providing the information in closed session (to the same Congressmen, not just committee flunkies).

  2. Re:TFA doesn't tell much... by AHuxley · · Score: 3, Informative

    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...

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    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  3. Re:TFA doesn't tell much... by fatphil · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And this shows why "cryptography expert" and "security expert" should not be confused.

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    Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
  4. Re:Crypto Legend? by Fref · · Score: 3, Informative

    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...