NSA reportedly Intercepting Laptops purchased Online to install spy malware

By T.C. Sottek on December 29, 2013


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.

In response to Der Spiegel's report, Cisco senior vice president John Stewart wrote that "we are deeply concerned with anything that may impact the integrity of our products or our customers' networks," and that the company does "not work with any government to weaken our products for exploitation."

Other US companies have fired back against reports of NSA tampering in recent months, including Microsoft, which labeled the agency an "advanced persistent threat" over its efforts to secretly collect private user data within the internal networks of Google and Yahoo.

Sometimes the NSA hops on an FBI jet for high-tech raids

The Der Spiegel report, which gives a broad look at TAO operations, also highlights the NSA's cooperation with other intelligence agencies to conduct Hollywood-style raids. Unlike most of the NSA's operations which allow for remote access to targets, Der Spiegel notes that the TAO's programs often require physical access to targets. To gain physical access, the NSA reportedly works with the CIA and FBI on sensitive missions that sometimes include flying NSA agents on FBI jets to plant wiretaps. "This gets them to their destination at the right time and can help them to disappear again undetected after even as little as a half hour's work," the report notes.

The NSA currently faces pressure from the public, Congress, federal courts, and privacy advocates over its expansive spying programs. Those programs, which include bulk telephone surveillance of American citizens, are said by critics to violate constitutional protections against unreasonable searches, and were uncovered earlier this year by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

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WTH?! I mean, seriously...!



Slowly, most of everything we communicate or do is converted to, or governed by electronic means.
Is the world full of fed-up people even capable of revolting against these increasing intrusions? The NSA can just intercept it. Feeling of hopelessness..

To see the back story of how they do it...
http://www.spiegel.de/international...ort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969-3.html

And related story... Catalog Advertises NSA Toolbox

 

If you aren't on the national security radar, you need not be worried.

The NSA doesn't have the staffing or resources to hack every single laptop or PC in the country.

This is just a tactic the NSA uses for targeted suspects.

I bet the FBI and CIA have techniques they use to gather info about suspects that's equally offensive and shocking.

Congress needs to do their jobs better and have REAL oversight over our security and intelligence agencies, instead of rubber-stamping everything and trusting the Directors of these agencies to do the right thing.

Moral of the story, don't buy brand new laptops online.:smt020

 

Have I mentioned how now is a great time to install linux,,.....

 

I saw a report recently that said they can turn on your cam without you knowing (without the little light coming on).

Also read an article long ago that says plain-ol' everyday hackers can do the same, and pervs sometimes do

Which is why I keep tape over my cam

People are upset over privacy issues, but I think it's a lil LATE. I mean, it's the internet - it was born from murky spy shit, a way of communicating from secret shelters in case of a nuclear strike - stuff like that. You can't be surprised to find out what the nsa (and lord knows who else) are doing with it now

I remember long ago (maybe back in the '90s), I saw an editorial cartoon titled "the internet". It showed a guy buck naked, gleefully picking up this document and that document from the ground with one of those sticks you use to spear litter. Surrounding him are spies and scientists in overcoats and shades jotting down every move the guy makes. :mrgreen:

Opinions like that were rare, and I've always wondered why. I mean, intrusiveness is simply built into the internet

The "net", the "web"... is intrusion "hiding in plain sight"...

heck, ppl voluntarily put their whole lives up on shit like facebook. Even just your regular workaday sociopath can wreak havoc with all that info, let alone the gubmint

..but I said all that to say this: this kinda spying is only half the story. I think the scientific insights into the ways of the masses are going to also be a giant source of power for governments who can mine the data. At both macro and micro levels, there's insights into social and political trends, psychology, sociology, sexuality, etc., and that could enable govts to manage (and "micromanage") society, particularly in conjunction with mass media

Though not such a great production, the documentary below touches on the fact that we're all on the lookout for "1984" but we're much more likely to get "Brave New World", a world in which we're content to be slaves because the powers that be are just that good at manipulating and distracting us. That's within reach when the insights offered by the web is teamed up with mass media

[YOUTUBE]5pAeOUDsDO8[/YOUTUBE]

(Why do you think Google's slogan is "don't be evil"? Because smart people realize the immense capacity for evil google has at its fingertips if it felt like it :mrgreen