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A Look at the NSA's Most Powerful Internet Attack Tool

Posted by samzenpus on from the big-gun dept.

realized writes in with a closer look at the NSA's QUANTUM system. "Today QUANTUM packs a suite of attack tools, including both DNS injection (upgrading the man-on-the-side to a man-in-the-middle, allowing bogus certificates and similar routines to break SSL) and HTTP injection. That reasonable enough. But it also includes gadgets like a plug-in to inject into MySQL connections, allowing the NSA to quietly mess with the contents of a third-party's database. (This also surprisingly suggests that unencrypted MySQL on the internet is common enough to attract NSA attention.) And it allows the NSA to hijack both IRC and HTTP-based criminal botnets, and also includes routines which use packet-injection to create phantom servers, and even attempting (poorly) to use this for defense."

4 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I wonder by tshawkins · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Its the same question that should have been asked of the doctors that assisted with the torture and stress programs, the psychologists that aided and abetted the threats made against detainees families. The aviation engineers that built remote controlled ariel death machines. The lawyers that twisted and bent the law to try to justify all the above. There is a tendancy for professions to remote themselves from the consequences of thier actions, and to adopt both the "obeying orders" and the "if we dont do it, somebody else will" defense. Scumbags the lot of them, there is a very hot place waiting for them all.

  2. Re:I wonder by pcwhalen · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I'm not sure what country you're from, but in America, morals are for suckers and poor people.

    You are wrong.

    I am an American, I am far from poor and I am no man's fool. I live by the moral compass taught to me by my parents, my church and my conscience and I have done very well in my 50 years on Earth.

    The most precious commodity is the ability to sleep at night.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    --
    Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain with all your metadata.
  3. Re:I wonder by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Riiiight, because your faith is magically better then his faith ???

    Grow the fuck up and learn some respect for a different perspective / belief.

  4. Re:wishful thinking by Burz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Clearly they have an interest (or conflict of interest) in letting botnets run amok, as it gives them a cover for their own illegal activities.