More Snowden Leaks, NSA to world: "GET REKT"

[Omon_Ra]

Der Spiegel has just released a report on new documents from Edward Snowden, detailing even more of the NSA's antics. It's kind of a long read, but the TL;DR version is much the same as the rest of the Snowden leaks: the NSA likes haxxoring, finding every way to collect all the datas and ideally leaving no trace. None of this comes as a huge surprise, which in itself is a sad and scary prospect, but there are some new details that I imagine will ruffle the feathers of the international community; especially some of the US's closest allies. On to some of my thoughts in the article:

 

They have tapped into other countries' intelligence networks to collect that countries' data. The NSA went with the 'I Drink Your Milkshake' reference; I propose, 'SIGINT-CEPTION'

 

"NSA is able to tap into Chinese SIGINT collection," a report on the success in 2011 stated. SIGINT is short for signals intelligence, The practice of letting other intelligence services do the dirty work and then tapping their results is so successful that the NSA even has a name for it: "Fourth Party Collection." And all countries that aren't part of the Five Eye alliance are considered potential targets for use of this "non-traditional" technique -- even Germany.

 

 

 

They're working hard to hide any trace of responsibility and dodge any potential legal actions:

 

Intelligence agencies have adopted "plausible deniability" as their guiding principle for Internet operations. To ensure their ability to do so, they seek to make it impossible to trace the author of the attack.

 

It's a stunning approach with which the digital spies deliberately undermine the very foundations of the rule of law around the globe. This approach threatens to transform the Internet into a lawless zone in which superpowers and their secret services operate according to their own whims with very few ways to hold them accountable for their actions.

 

 

 

Then there's this, 'Yo dawg, I heard you like spying!' and the shuffling of data to mask the origin/destination.

 

It's absurd: As they are busy spying, the spies are spied on by other spies. In response, they routinely seek to cover their tracks or to lay fake ones instead. In technical terms, the ROC lays false tracks as follows: After third-party computers are infiltrated, the process of exfiltration can begin -- the act of exporting the data that has been gleaned. But the loot isn't delivered directly to ROC's IP address. Rather, it is routed to a so-called Scapegoat Target. That means that stolen information could end up on someone else's servers, making it look as though they were the perpetrators.

 

Before the data ends up at the Scapegoat Target, of course, the NSA intercepts and copies it using its mass surveillance infrastructure and sends it on to the ROC. But such cover-up tactics increase the risk of a controlled or uncontrolled escalation between the agencies involved.

 

 

One of the many issues I have with all of this, is that the NSA would be hugely naive to think that whatever tools, patches, hacks, software, etc they are using, will remain only in the hands of the NSA. If Stuxnet has taught us anything, it will get out, and people will find ways to use it.

 

Then there's the recent Obama announcement about going after hackers with harsher penalties. Nearly everything that would be considered 'hacking' by a civilian, is being done ten-fold (at the least) by the government itself.

 

There was a point in time where this kind of government spying, hacking and surveillance was in the realm of tin-foil hat conspiracy theorists and dystopian science-fiction. Keep in mind a lot of these documents are several years old, which begs the question: what are they using now?

 

 

Full article with links to PDF's of the Snowden documents:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/new-snowden-docs-indicate-scope-of-nsa-preparations-for-cyber-battle-a-1013409.html

[Tech_Dreamer]

cool post..thanks mate

[Omon_Ra]

cool post..thanks mate

 

All of this I find extremely fascinating and oddly really cool, but at the same time it's mindbendingly terrifying.

 

Forgot to add this gem explaining how the NSA is able to repurpose botnets for their own purposes.

 

The NSA is also able to transform its defenses into an attack of its own. The method is described as "reverse engineer, repurpose software" and involves botnets, sometimes comprising millions of computers belonging to normal users onto which software has been covertly installed. They can thus be controlled remotely as part of a "zombie army" to paralyze companies or to extort them. If the infected hosts appear to be within the United States, the relevant information will be forwarded to the FBI Office of Victim Assistance. However, a host infected with an exploitable bot could be hijacked through a Quantumbot attack and redirected to the NSA. This program is identified in NSA documents as Defiantwarrior and it is said to provide advantages such as "pervasive network analysis vantage points" and "throw-away non-attributable CNA (eds: computer network attack) nodes". This system leaves people's computers vulnerable and covertly uses them for network operations that might be traced back to an innocent victim. Instead of providing protection to private Internet users, Quantumbot uses them as human shields in order to disguise its own attacks.

[shujin]

was a great read thanks op

[techswede]

Good ol' Snowden. I hope he got paid at least a little for this info 

[Omon_Ra]

Good ol' Snowden. I hope he got paid at least a little for this info 

 

The PBS interview he did was a great read as well. I feel bad for the guy, tries to do the right thing, now is labeled a traitor and can't return home. But hey, George Washington and the rest of the colonists were considered traitors at one point too...

[techswede]

The PBS interview he did was a great read as well. I feel bad for the guy, tries to do the right thing, now is labeled a traitor and can't return home. But hey, George Washington and the rest of the colonists were considered traitors at one point too...

I might've missed that interview. But he seems like an allround good guy.. I hope he can return home (if he wants to) soon. (And safely)

 

Also +1 for using history in your post

As an aspiring historian all i can say is

[Albatross]

Great post! Where is the link to the interview you guys are referring to?

 

The PBS interview he did was a great read as well. I feel bad for the guy, tries to do the right thing, now is labeled a traitor and can't return home. But hey, George Washington and the rest of the colonists were considered traitors at one point too...

 

+42

 

I can't believe Americans and our government find this man a traitor. He was working for us, the people, which is what the government is supposed to be doing. If anything he's arguably more American than anyone else!

[Omon_Ra]

It is interesting he is in Russia, of all places. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend,' I suppose. Anything that makes the Americans look worse is good for Russia's position. I just hope he isn't used as leverage to get the US to ease some of its sanctions on Russia due to the whole Ukraine debacle.

 

 

Great post! Where is the link to the interview you guys are referring to?

 

 

+42

 

I can't believe Americans and our government find this man a traitor. He was working for us, the people, which is what the government is supposed to be doing. If anything he's arguably more American than anyone else!

 

Yup, and he was also upholding the Constitution.

 

I might've missed that interview. But he seems like an allround good guy.. I hope he can return home (if he wants to) soon. (And safely)

 

Also +1 for using history in your post

As an aspiring historian all i can say is

-snip-

 

Here's the interview: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/military/snowden-transcript/

 

History is awesome. I majored in anthropology

[Beskamir]

I really like that .gif !

[imperialplanet]

I love the gif. 

[E-Ro]

God Snowden is such a scumbag. I cannot wait for relations with Russia to stabilize so they can ship that fucker right back to us, and he can stand trial.  I mean wow, this champion of the people really ran to the greatest bastion of free speech and human rights, the great Russian federation. 

 

 

Oh and yeah the United States is totally the only country that spies. 

 

 

No mass surveillance In Russia! The genius Snowden asked, and Putin answered, with complete honesty of course. 

[Omon_Ra]

I really like that .gif !

 

 

I love the gif. 

 

Wish I could take credit for making that, but I honestly have no idea where I got it. It's been sitting in a folder with other random memes and such for a while now.

[Lazmarr]

Then there's the recent Obama announcement about going after hackers with harsher penalties. Nearly everything that would be considered 'hacking' by a civilian, is being done ten-fold (at the least) by the government itself.

Nah, they go after hackers and claim they got harsher penalties...buut in reality they just recruited them for the NSA/GCHQ/whatever else, where they get payed waay more than a normal salary

[Omon_Ra]

Nah, they go after hackers and claim they got harsher penalties...buut in reality they just recruited them for the NSA/GCHQ/whatever else, where they get payed waay more than a normal salary

 

They don't even need to pay them! The first bit of the article talks about postings for internships at the NSA.

 

An intern's tasks might also include remotely destroying the functionality of hard drives. Ultimately, the goal of the internship program was "developing an attacker's mindset."

[Silent_Xaxal]

And this is going to just be more fuel for the firs and pops to the corn for popcorn.

[Albatross]

God Snowden is such a scumbag. I cannot wait for relations with Russia to stabilize so they can ship that fucker right back to us, and he can stand trial.  I mean wow, this champion of the people really ran to the greatest bastion of free speech and human rights, the great Russian federation. 

 

 

Oh and yeah the United States is totally the only country that spies. 

 

 

No mass surveillance In Russia! The genius Snowden asked, and Putin answered, with complete honesty of course. 

 

God I hope I am misunderstanding your post somehow.

 

How is Snowden a scumbag? Because he dared to share the truth and tell us, the Americans, what we were suppose to know and that the government was overreaching? Or because he took refuge (I believe in one of the only paces he could go) in Russia?

[Hulk]

I can't help but feel that America by itself is perpetuating other countries into a World War like state, where it's building it's own arsenals for defense but who really know why. This is like the setting of World War One all over again

[RASQ]

Great post! Where is the link to the interview you guys are referring to?

 

 

+42

 

I can't believe Americans and our government find this man a traitor. He was working for us, the people, which is what the government is supposed to be doing. If anything he's arguably more American than anyone else!

I 'liked' your post despite knowing that doing so means my name will be put on a list somewhere. I hope the FBI don't send an informant to coerce me into joining a terrorist plot so they can send me to Gitmo.

 

(An article I saw on Reddit earlier: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/16/latest-fbi-boast-disrupting-terror-u-s-plot-deserves-scrutiny-skepticism/)

 

What the fuck happened to this country?

[Humbug]

The PBS interview he did was a great read as well. I feel bad for the guy, tries to do the right thing, now is labeled a traitor and can't return home. But hey, George Washington and the rest of the colonists were considered traitors at one point too...

Snowden deserves a nobel prize.

He's a whistleblower which his country has labelled a traitor.

[Guest]

I mean wow, this champion of the people really ran to the greatest bastion of free speech and human rights, the great Russian federation.

He didn't want to go to Russia.

He wanted to disappear in South America. USA revoking his passport and grounding diplomatic planes that might have taken him on-board made him unable to leave Moscow airport until Russians gave him a permit to enter their country.

[Master Disaster]

@powderbanks

You do realise what stuxnet is, right? It was released intentionally and was even coded to ignore machines other than its intended targets. It was always intended to be released into the wild.

Interesting post though, thanks.

[Omon_Ra]

@powderbanks

You do realise what stuxnet is, right? It was released intentionally and was even coded to ignore machines other than its intended targets. It was always intended to be released into the wild.

Interesting post though, thanks.

Yes, a sophisticated worm designed to shut down the Natanz centrifuges. What I was getting at is that it is more or less 'open source' now. I imagine was never intended.

[Trik'Stari]

What's that? Large government can't be trusted with anything?

 

"Who'd a thunk it?"

[APrettyCoolWalrus]