Posted on 01/14/2014 6:00:33 PM PST by John W
WASHINGTON The National Security Agency has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world that allows the United States to conduct surveillance on those machines and can also create a digital highway for launching cyberattacks.
While most of the software is inserted by gaining access to computer networks, the N.S.A. has increasingly made use of a secret technology that enables it to enter and alter data in computers even if they are not connected to the Internet, according to N.S.A. documents, computer experts and American officials.
The technology, which has been used by the agency since at least 2008, relies on a covert channel of radio waves that can be transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted surreptitiously into the computers.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
There was a time when our most dangerous enemy wasn’t our own government.
Maybe we'll be going back to building our own computers from component parts, but then you would have to know enough to ensure there wasn't something embedded in the components..
Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!
To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...
We used to see these groups as defenders. People who safe-guarded the nation...
Leakage of information via electronic noise is not a new field of study. I used to work in a company that produced some of its products to Tempest standards for various government and military customers.
Being able to beam information back INTO a computer? We’re talking serious sci-fi here, IMHO. Not that there couldn’t be possible back doors like WiFi drivers. (WiFi sci-fi?) But computers have a myriad of diverse designs. It’s not as easy as foisting a virus on Windows.
And ill go you one further. I can see many more instances of our intelligence agencies working against our interests. That old melodramatic saw of how they save America every day, but its so secret we can never know the details has been worn very thin.
But anyway, do you deny that American people and their private communications are targeted by the NSA?
Or do you deny that Homeland Security has named constitution admirers, former soldiers, Christians, gun owners, TEA members and Ron Paul supporters as terror threats?
Or maybe you deny that Obama has not equated TEA thinking as a domestic threat. Maybe you deny that the Military in numerous documented instances has cast Christian and TEA as terror threats in training while downplaying Jihadi threats. Maybe you deny that the standard military enemy in exercises of “Orange republic” or “blue nation” has been replaced with a TEA insurgency that the US military must suppress.
My comment was solid. And before such thinking permeated our government, that is when conservatives supported our intelligence agencies. Doing so now is not really very patriotic. At least not in the Founders/Bill of Rights/Independence Hall/1776 sense.
I’ll say it again.
That catalog of spy tech is a bunch of crap!
There is NO way that the state of the art in surveillance is reflected by that cheesy catalog...and no, it was cheap crap in 2008 when the catalog was supposedly produced.
That stuff would almost be believable if the catalog was dated in the late 80’s.
There’s just no way that the NSA sends a team to plant a circuit board in a PC.
The NSA runs it’s own state of the art chip FAB. Why would they buy retro stuff from contractors?
It’s now been possible for years to place a full rf transceiver inside an IC. They are even for sale to the general public now as cool new Internet-of-Things parts.
They would have ready made motherboards with modified ICs on them..ditto for HD controller boards, thumb drives..etc.
Stuffing a little extra board into a PC...it’s laughable.
I do believe that they grab computer gear in transit to a target and replace the boards inside....but they definitely don’t wedge in a small board that someone might notice.
The stuff described in that catalog is junk a bright 18yr old geek would put together at their workbench. If they actually are using crap like that then a lot of Engineers and technicians at NRO and NSA need to be fired.
The very idea that a group of spooks would hang out near a target with a briefcase radio unit is laughable. Why did NRO put up several large satellite systems in geosynchronous orbit? It cost a pretty penny to put up those sats with their monstrous dish antennas.
Now if I was told the FBI was still using such crummy gear, that I would believe. They still use GPS trackers on targeted cars that use huge battery packs..lol A guy found one on his car and put up photos on Hack-A-Day.
The only thing that makes sense to me is that catalog is a plant to fool the rubes.
“There was a time when conservatives cared about the release of sources and methods. Apparently that time has passed.”
There was a time when government employees cared about the Constitution. Apparently that time has passed.
Conservatives still care about the Constitution.
I hope so too. When my government acts like a thuggish police state, I'd expect the press to inform me of it.
It's simple and clever, because one normally blocks existing pathways from their computer to the outside world. You can turn off wi-fi, blue-tooth, shut ports to your ethernet connections, etc. But an innocuous electronic device you're not aware of, that is connected to your data bus and transmitting on a separate radio band is genius. No hacking of software to bypass firewalls or routers. People often run virus-scans, disconnect physically from outside connections, but I bet they don't figure on a hidden radio signal in their computer. I dislike what the NSA is doing when it comes to spying on ordinary Americans, but I can still admire cleverness.
Your questions:
But anyway, do you deny that American people and their private communications are targeted by the NSA?
Targeted? No. Targeting random American people would be fruitless and wasteful of valuable time and money. I don't believe that the NSA is wasting time and money watching people that don't need watching.
Or do you deny that Homeland Security has named constitution admirers, former soldiers, Christians, gun owners, TEA members and Ron Paul supporters as terror threats?
Yeah, they have. It's stupid.
Or maybe you deny that Obama has not equated TEA thinking as a domestic threat. Maybe you deny that the Military in numerous documented instances has cast Christian and TEA as terror threats in training while downplaying Jihadi threats. Maybe you deny that the standard military enemy in exercises of Orange republic or blue nation has been replaced with a TEA insurgency that the US military must suppress.
I'm quite sure that Obama equates the TEA party with any number of domestic threats. I don't really care what he thinks. But I do not believe that the U.S. Military will fire on American civilians even when ordered. They are us, and we are them.
Yet again, the NYT publishes information beneficial to our enemies.
A Cloudy PING.
Seriously... That they would snag a new computer ordered by a high-value target and intercept the delivery, plant a chip on board to capture whatever stuff and transmit out... That’s pretty cool.
Am I the only one that thinks this is -exactly- the sort of thing we pay our intelligence agencies to do?
” - - - the agency since at least 2008, relies on a covert channel of radio waves that can be transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted surreptitiously into the computers. - - - “
2008 means GWB started what Obama is using to enslave us.
N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers
In case anyone missed this:
The NSA has been intercepting machines (shipped by mail, FedEx, UPS) and moding them before they are delivered to the customer
That was back when we and the government agreed on who the enemy was. Now these technologies have been re-purposed by our government to attain more power over the American people.
Interesting
What is it?
These transmitters could also be baked into your lab-fabricated crown after you got your root canal.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.