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NSA Prepares For Future Techno-Battles By Plotting Network Takedowns

Advocatus Diaboli (1627651) writes According to top secret documents from the archive of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden seen exclusively by SPIEGEL, they are planning for wars of the future in which the Internet will play a critical role, with the aim of being able to use the net to paralyze computer networks and, by doing so, potentially all the infrastructure they control, including power and water supplies, factories, airports or the flow of money. Also check out — New Snowden documents show that the NSA and its allies are laughing at the rest of the world.

5 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Schneier on Security by auric_dude · · Score: 5, Informative

    As usual has something to say on the New NSA Documents on Offensive Cyberoperations https://www.schneier.com/blog/... with links to additional sources.

  2. Put everything important on the Internet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Connect everything to the Internet, even crucial things. All hail the Internet of Things! What could possibly go wrong?

  3. Somehow I hoped by goarilla · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I hoped this privacy-invading mass surveillance shit would stop instead it is escalating in a new arms race.

  4. Network Security 101 by ogdenk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Don't want your infrastructure paralyzed? Don't connect it to a global public network.

    Afraid the NSA has compromised the infrastructure of your nation? Pull the plug to the rest of the world, isolate your network, reload everything including firmware and have that firmware analyzed byte by byte for potential vulnerabilities. Or buy silent typewriters and use them in soundproof roofs that have been swept for bugs.

    These guys have compromised the planet all the way down to the equipment manufacturers. They have themselves endangered national security by injecting such vulnerabilities for the black hat community to discover and enjoy. This has become less about national security and more about manipulation/control of the populace/world. They have overstepped their bounds greatly to the point of being dangerous to the liberty of every man, woman and child on the face of this Earth potentially and very little is being done to put a leash on them.

    Seriously, what hasn't the NSA illegally pwned yet? They are conducting organized crime basically and our government has told us to shove it. I'd laugh too. Hell, I might even die laughing. I don't think I'd be able to stop.

  5. Re:You've just crossed over into the Twilight Zone by Slashjones · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The intruders are 100% to blame.

    False dichotomy, moron. There can be multiple people at fault for different things. The intruders for an obvious reason, and the company for not using reasonable levels of security.

    If someone smashes a window and burglarizes your home is it your fault because you didn't put bars over your windows?

    There is such a thing as negligence, and in this context, it occurs when even multi-million (or billion!) dollar companies fail to use even a minimal level of security. You seriously can't tell the difference between a reasonable level of security and absolutely perfect security? Yes, I'm going to put forth the *outrageous* idea that companies should protect data with a reasonable level of security, and that they shouldn't ignore reality and put everyone's data at risk with absolutely laughable security practices. Wow, the poor babies!

     

    And Snowden must enjoy living in Russia because he is digging his own hole everytime he release information on the US counter intelligence services that have nothing to do with the average US citizen.

    As a US citizen, I care very much about things like ethics and justice; those are things which the US is supposed to aspire to, but doesn't, and no thanks to ignorant fools like yourself. Someone isn't subhuman just because they're born outside the US, and they deserve protections from indiscriminate surveillance as well. An organization like the NSA which has committed so many wrongs does not deserve any sympathy from anyone.

    and obscuring the fact that the US is by no means the only country on the planet with espionage and counterintelligence operations across the globe.

    "Everybody else is doing it, so it must be okay!" If we're such an excellent country, then maybe we should set an example for other countries by not doing evil things. Seriously, you people spew forth this nonsensical justification almost every time it comes out, and it gets tiring pointing out the fallacy.