[cryptome] Re: Scaremongering or true?
- From: Jesse Taylor <jessetaylor84@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: cryptome@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2014 23:52:51 -0800
Lucas --
Yes, it is true that it would not be particularly interesting if this
was just some story about a random cracker installing USB malware or a
keylogger into someone's laptop -- we all know that this is possible ...
but there is an enormous difference in your average crackers doing this
on a small scale, and what we are reading about the NSA doing:
(1) The NSA is intercepting hardware in the mail
<http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/29/5253226/nsa-cia-fbi-laptop-usb-plant-spy>
and installing malware there. This makes physical security much more
difficult than protecting your laptop/phone/hard-drive/etc. from a
person that would have to steal it from you or break into a building to
install malware.
(2) Most crackers don't realistically have the ability or funds to
engineer and produce large quantities of hardware malware and put them
in widespread use (i.e. on thousands of computers). The NSA does.
(3) Most crackers aren't killing, torturing and imprisoning people in
prison based on the intelligence they gather from hardware malware. The
U.S. government is.
That's why I personally feel that this information about the NSA
installing hardware malware on a large scale is newsworthy (especially
in context -- i.e. the fact that this is not happening in isolation),
whereas a story about "having physical access to a system in order to
install a USB key or an internal card allow[ing] it to be compromised"
would not be.
-- Jesse Taylor <http://www.interference.cc>
On 01/15/2014 10:10 AM, Lucas Gonze wrote:
> I don’t see the news value in this particular story. Of course having
> physical access to a system in order to install a USB key or an
> internal card allows it to be compromised. The radio part is a trivial
> afterthought.
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 5:54 AM, <militarywritersassociation@xxxxxxxxx
> <mailto:militarywritersassociation@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>
> FYI: N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers
>
> http://militarywritersassociation.wordpress.com/
>
> Best regards,
> Ed Schroeder
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> -----Original Message----- From: John Young
> Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 7:57 AM
> To: cryptome@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:cryptome@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [cryptome] Re: Scaremongering or true?
>
>
> True. Orginal story at the New York Times based on probable
> Snowden material released by Der Spiegel and Jacob Appelbaum
> on 30 December 2013.
>
> http://cryptome.org/2014/01/nsa-quantum-radio.htm
>
> http://cryptome.org/2013/12/nsa-catalog.zip (16.2MB)
>
> NYTimes is sitting on 58,000 Snowden files, and, like others
> have released very few:
>
> http://cryptome.org/2013/11/snowden-tally.htm
>
> This appears to be the deal adopted by Snowden hoarders,
> for now the Snowden drip has stopped completely. Not
> clear if the outlets have stopped the drip or Snowden has
> done it himself by wihholding crypto keys for gradual access.
>
>
> At 07:45 AM 1/15/2014, you wrote:
>
> Scaremongering or true?
>
> http://www.voanews.com/content/report--us-spy-agency-infiltrates-personal-computers-worldwide/1830406.html
>
>
>
>
>
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