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NSA

NSA Zero Day Tools Likely Left Behind By Careless Operative

posted onSeptember 26, 2016
by l33tdawg

More information is surfacing on the source of the NSA's hacking tools discovered and published by the Shadow Brokers. Just as Ed Snowden pointed out shortly after the tools first appeared online, the problem with sticking a stash of hacking tools on equipment you don't own is that others can access the tools, too… especially if an operative doesn't follow through on the more mundane aspects of good opsec.

The NSA Playset: Espionage tools for the rest of us

posted onAugust 12, 2015
by l33tdawg
Credit:

When Der Spiegel and Jacob Appelbaum published leaked pages of the National Security Agency's ANT Catalog—the collection of tools and software created for NSA's Tailored Access Operations (TAO) division—it triggered shock, awe, and a range of other emotions around the world. Among some hardware hackers and security researchers, it triggered something else, too—a desire to replicate the capabilities of TAO's toolbox to conduct research on how the same approaches might be used by other adversaries.

How the NSA Spied on Antivirus Companies to Make Undetectable Malware

posted onJune 23, 2015
by l33tdawg
Credit:

Russian antivirus company Kaspersky revealed recently that it was the target of hackers behind the Stuxnet and Duqu worms last year. The hackers have been attacking the company’s network for months, collecting data on its operations and software. But it turns out that intelligence agencies including the NSA and GCHQ have spied on antivirus companies for years, looking for exploitable vulnerabilities.

The new report comes from newly leaked documentation from NSA-whistleblower Edward Snowden, who made them available to The Intercept.

Senate impasse: NSA spy tactics - including phone records collection - expire

posted onJune 1, 2015
by l33tdawg

The Senate failed to pass legislation late Sunday to extend three Patriot Act surveillance measures ahead of their midnight expiration. The National Security Agency's bulk telephone metadata collection program—first exposed by Edward Snowden in 2013—is the most high profile of the three spy tools whose legal authorization expired.

Yahoo exec goes mano a mano with NSA director over crypto backdoors

posted onFebruary 24, 2015
by l33tdawg

Echoing the concerns of many US-based technology companies have about US-led surveillance programs, Yahoo Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos asked the director of the National Security Agency some pointed questions concerning proposed or existing backdoors placed in encryption technologies. The responses from NSA director Adm. Mike Rogers only underscored the growing divide.

Any regrets, Edward Snowden? "I'd have come forward sooner"

posted onFebruary 24, 2015
by l33tdawg

 Edward Snowden has just one regret.

It's not that he threw Obama's second term in office under the bus by disclosing the vast surveillance by the National Security Agency. Nor did he regret that he condemned himself to the bowels of Russia. (He rightfully pointed out the weather in Moscow has been "warmer than the east coast" this past week, where temperatures have been close to zero.)

How the NSA’s Firmware Hacking Works and Why It’s So Unsettling

posted onFebruary 23, 2015
by l33tdawg

One of the most shocking parts of the recently discovered spying network Equation Group is its mysterious module designed to reprogram or reflash a computer’s firmware with malicious code. The Kaspersky researchers who uncovered this said its ability to subvert hard drive firmware—the guts of any computer—“surpasses anything else” they had ever seen.