GCHQ hacked GRX and OPEC employees via Quantum inserts, Snowden papers show
A new analysis of the Snowden papers by German magazine Der Spiegel shows GCHQ–the English counterpart to the US’s NSA–served false copies of LinkedIn and Slashdot pages to install malware on a few target individuals’ computers. This latest revelation is not a mass spying program, but a server-heavy, speed-dependent initiative to spy on key individuals deemed to be assets by the GCHQ. Targets included employees of GRX providers Comfon, Mach (now owned by Syniverse), and nine members of OPEC, the global oil cartel.
The so-called “Quantum insert” was also used on Belgian GRX provider BICS as reported a few weeks ago. The technique is an aspect of a larger strategy used by the GCHQ as well as the NSA to place a system of “secret servers, codenamed Quantum, at key places on the Internet backbone,” according to cryptographer and security expert Bruce Schneier. Ars Technica highlights an excerpt from a post on Schneier’s blog from last month:
