Posted on 12/29/2013 12:38:00 PM PST by lowbridge
According to a new report from Der Spiegel based on internal NSA documents, the signals intelligence agency's elite hacking unit (TAO) is able to conduct sophisticated wiretaps in ways that make Hollywood fantasy look more like reality. The report indicates that the NSA, in collaboration with the CIA and FBI, routinely and secretly intercepts shipping deliveries for laptops or other computer accessories in order to implant bugs before they reach their destinations. According to Der Spiegel, the NSA's TAO group is able to divert shipping deliveries to its own "secret workshops" in a method called interdiction, where agents load malware onto the electronics or install malicious hardware that can give US intelligence agencies remote access.
While the report does not indicate the scope of the program, or who the NSA is targeting with such wiretaps, it's a unique look at the agency's collaborative efforts with the broader intelligence community to gain hard access to communications equipment. One of the products the NSA appears to use to compromise target electronics is codenamed COTTONMOUTH, and has been available since 2009; it's a USB "hardware implant" that secretly provides the NSA with remote access to the compromised machine.
This tool, among others, is available to NSA agents through what Der Spiegel describes as a mail-order spy catalog. The report indicates that the catalog offers backdoors into the hardware and software of the most prominent technology makers, including Cisco, Juniper Networks, Dell, Seagate, Western Digital, Maxtor, Samsung, and Huawei. Many of the targets are American companies. The report indicates that the NSA can even exploit error reports from Microsoft's Windows operating system; by intercepting the error reports and determining what's wrong with a target's computer, the NSA can then attack it with Trojans or other malware
(Excerpt) Read more at theverge.com ...
Police states suck.
Alex Jones is calling
The KGB and the Stazi would be envious.
Now, I am paranoid.
People name their WiFi that all the time as a joke.
I hope you’re right—surely we haven’t gone this far, yet.
One never knows, though-—and rumors are often started by people who want you to change your way of thinking.........
I’ve heard that if you’re not paranoid, you don’t know what’s going on........(I think it was meant as a joke—but some days, I’m not sure—LOL!)
Way back, there was a small pc fabricator that had its master production drive compromised with some run-of-the-mill virus.
Great I get screwed both ways, recently got a Seagate external hard drive from Staples(Formatted the drive before I used it) and have a Dell XPS Desktop
You can name a wifi network anything. I was going to do something clever like that as well. Only reason I didn’t; is I was afraid it might encourage some teenager to attempt something bad on my connection!
Buy laptop in Montreal, Tiajuana, Toronto or Vancouver and walk it across.
NSA,CIA, and any other US Gov Agency spying on US Citizens SUCKS!
Call mine Timex 1000
A week ago in St Louis when my wife went to connect her Nook she saw “FBI Surveillance Van” as one of the nearby Wifis. Wasn’t there later.
Anyone else seen similar?
and that is easy to do… this article says that shipments are being diverted… they don’t need to bother with that they have a dozen other ways to get into any system they want
And I mean 'ANYTHING'.
Obviously you answered Alex’s call. Why post a link to a yahoo article which is dateline London and merely a rehash of the Der Spiegel article???
Don’t bother to reply.
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