Back in 2013, Der Spiegel reported that the NSA intercepts and collects Windows bug reports: One example of the sheer creativity with which the TAO spies approach their work can be seen in a hacking method they use that exploits the error-proneness of Microsoft’s Windows. Every user of the operating system is familiar with the … Read More “NSA Collects MS Windows Error Information” »
Category: espionage
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Last year, I wrote about the potential for doxers to alter documents before they leaked them. It was a theoretical threat when I wrote it, but now Citizen Lab has documented this technique in the wild: This report describes an extensive Russia-linked phishing and disinformation campaign. It provides evidence of how documents stolen from a … Read More “Tainted Leaks” »
There’s a new report of a nation-state attack, presumed to be from China, on a series of managed ISPs. From the executive summary: Since late 2016, PwC UK and BAE Systems have been assisting victims of a new cyber espionage campaign conducted by a China-based threat actor. We assess this threat actor to almost certainly … Read More “APT10 and Cloud Hopper” »
The Intercept has a long article on the relationship between Palantir Technologies and the NSA, based on the Snowden documents. Powered by WPeMatico
This is interesting: The My Friend Cayla doll, which is manufactured by the US company Genesis Toys and distributed in Europe by Guildford-based Vivid Toy Group, allows children to access the internet via speech recognition software, and to control the toy via an app. But Germany’s Federal Network Agency announced this week that it classified … Read More “German Government Classifies Doll as Illegal Spyware” »
Here’s a nice profile of Citizen Lab and its director, Ron Diebert. Citizen Lab is a jewel. There should be more of them. Powered by WPeMatico
Le Monde and the Intercept are reporting about NSA spying in Africa, and NSA spying on in-flight mobile phone calls — both from the Snowden documents. Powered by WPeMatico
Another story from the Snowden documents: According to the documents, the LEVITATION program can monitor downloads in several countries across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and North America. It is led by the Communications Security Establishment, or CSE, Canada’s equivalent of the NSA. (The Canadian agency was formerly known as “CSEC” until a recent … Read More “Canada Spies on Internet Downloads” »
Regin is another military–grade surveillance malware (tech details from Symantec and Kaspersky). It seems to have been in operation between 2008 and 2011. The Intercept has linked it to NSA/GCHQ operations, although I am still skeptical of the NSA/GCHQ hacking Belgian cryptographer Jean-Jacques Quisquater. Powered by WPeMatico