February 17, 2015

There were 2 posts published on February 17, 2015 (this is page 1 of 1).

New Snowden Docs Indicate Scope of NSA Preparations for Cyber Battle – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Germany’s Der Spiegel published Snowden documents last month that describe an NSA project to modify hard drive firmware for spying purposes. This pretty much fingers the NSA as the “Equation Group” Kaspersky mentioned in its report.

Normally, internship applicants need to have polished resumes, with volunteer work on social projects considered a plus. But at Politerain, the job posting calls for candidates with significantly different skill sets. We are, the ad says, "looking for interns who want to break things."

Politerain is not a project associated with a conventional company. It is run by a US government intelligence organization, the National Security Agency (NSA). More precisely, it’s operated by the NSA’s digital snipers with Tailored Access Operations (TAO), the department responsible for breaking into computers.

via New Snowden Docs Indicate Scope of NSA Preparations for Cyber Battle – SPIEGEL ONLINE.

Equation Group: NSA-linked spying team have software to hack into any computer – News – Gadgets and Tech – The Independent

Astonishing. The apparent creators of Stuxnet have learned how to alter the firmware in hard drives to hide spying software in hidden sectors.

The US security services have developed software that has enabled it to spy on home computers almost anywhere in the world.Russian researchers at Kaspersky Lab have claimed that the software gave those behind it, thought to be the US National Security Agency, the power to listen in on the majority of the world’s computers.

It could be installed on practically any of the world’s most common hard drives and spy on the computer while going undetected.

It was used to break in to government and other important institutions in 30 countries across the world, they claim.

via Equation Group: NSA-linked spying team have software to hack into any computer – News – Gadgets and Tech – The Independent.

Update 10:20 PM: Read Kaspersky’s blog post on the Equation Group and it’s Equation Group Q&A [PDF].