NSA Disables Garage Door Openers "Accidentally"

[JGeropoulas]

In January 2010, numerous homeowners in San Antonio, Texas, stood baffled in front of their closed garage doors. They wanted to drive to work or head off to do their grocery shopping, but their garage door openers had gone dead, leaving them stranded. No matter how many times they pressed the buttons, the doors didn't budge. The problem primarily affected residents in the western part of the city, around Military Drive and the interstate highway known as Loop 410.

The mysterious garage door problem quickly became an issue for local politicians. Ultimately, the municipal government solved the riddle. Fault for the error lay with the United States' foreign intelligence service, the National Security Agency, which has offices in San Antonio. Officials at the agency were forced to admit that one of the NSA's radio antennas was broadcasting at the same frequency as the garage door openers. Embarrassed officials at the intelligence agency promised to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and soon the doors began opening again.

It was thanks to the garage door opener episode that Texans learned just how far the NSA's work had encroached upon their daily lives. The Spiegel article linked below, describes some of the techniques used by the elite NSA hackers working for the TAO (Tailored Access Operations). Here are some highlights:

One example of the sheer creativity with which these hackers approach their work exploits the error-proneness of Microsoft's Windows. Every user of the operating system is familiar with the annoying window that occasionally pops up on screen when an internal problem is detected, an automatic message that prompts the user to report the bug to the manufacturer and to restart the program. These crash reports offer these NSA hackers a welcome opportunity to spy on computers.

When they select a computer somewhere in the world as a target and enters its unique identifiers (an IP address, for example) into the corresponding database, intelligence agents are then automatically notified any time the operating system of that computer crashes and its user receives the prompt to report the problem to Microsoft. An internal presentation suggests it is NSA's powerful XKeyscore spying tool that is used to fish these crash reports out of the massive sea of Internet traffic.

The automated crash reports are a "neat way" to gain "passive access" to a machine, the presentation continues. Passive access means that, initially, only data the computer sends out into the Internet is captured and saved, but the computer itself is not yet manipulated. Still, even this passive access to error messages provides valuable insights into problems with a targeted person's computer and, thus, information on security holes that might be exploitable for planting malware or spyware on the unwitting victim's computer.

According to details in Washington's current budget plan for the US intelligence services, around 85,000 computers worldwide are projected to be infiltrated by the NSA specialists by the end of this year. By far the majority of these "implants" are conducted by TAO teams via the Internet.

Increasing Sophistication

Nevertheless, TAO has dramatically improved the tools at its disposal. It maintains a sophisticated toolbox known internally by the name "QUANTUMTHEORY." "Certain QUANTUM missions have a success rate of as high as 80%, where spam is less than 1%," one internal NSA presentation states.

A comprehensive internal presentation titled "QUANTUM CAPABILITIES," which SPIEGEL has viewed, lists virtually every popular Internet service provider as a target, including Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter and YouTube. "NSA QUANTUM has the greatest success against Yahoo, Facebook and static IP addresses," it states. The presentation also notes that the NSA has been unable to employ this method to target users of Google services. Apparently, that can only be done by Britain's GCHQ intelligence service, which has acquired QUANTUM tools from the NSA.
The insert method and other variants of QUANTUM are closely linked to a shadow network operated by the NSA alongside the Internet, with its own, well-hidden infrastructure comprised of "covert" routers and servers. It appears the NSA also incorporates routers and servers from non-NSA networks into its covert network by infecting these networks with "implants" that then allow the government hackers to control the computers remotely.

Once TAO teams have gathered sufficient data on their targets' habits, they can shift into attack mode, programming the QUANTUM systems to perform this work in a largely automated way. If a data packet featuring the email address or cookie of a target passes through a cable or router monitored by the NSA, the system sounds the alarm. It determines what website the target person is trying to access and then activates one of the intelligence service's covert servers, known by the codename FOXACID.

This NSA server coerces the user into connecting to NSA covert systems rather than the intended sites. In the case of Belgacom engineers, instead of reaching the LinkedIn page they were actually trying to visit, they were also directed to FOXACID servers housed on NSA networks. Undetected by the user, the manipulated page transferred malware already custom tailored to match security holes on the target person's computer.

_http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969.html

 

[l apprenti de forgeron]

Thanks for sharing, JGeropoulas. Good note. It is perceived that the whole issue of espionage is far greater than what the media said earlier. And still much remains out for public knowledge. According to the press, the NSA also can "like in the old times", and working with the FBI and the CIA, intercept the hardware in transit and take it to a secret workshop where he could be discreetly installed spying software before being sent on their way. Very troublesome parasites.

 

[gdpetti]

Hmmm, so essentially, companies like MS and Apple purposely throw out their new OS's in order to better service their largest customer, the govt spy agencies, in their eternal quest to know every tidbit of trivia created by mankind, in thought, word and deed. It would explain the constant need for updates and fixes for glitches that seem to plague their systems. Sort of reminds me how some critters will cause you to swat at them, killing them, but infecting you with their poisons simultaneously. Perhaps another example of the minions working for these groups on both ends of 'they know not what they do'?

 

[JGeropoulas]

Hmmm, so essentially, companies like MS and Apple purposely throw out their new OS's in order to better service their largest customer, the govt spy agencies, in their eternal quest to know every tidbit of trivia created by mankind, in thought, word and deed. It would explain the constant need for updates and fixes for glitches that seem to plague their systems. Sort of reminds me how some critters will cause you to swat at them, killing them, but infecting you with their poisons simultaneously. Perhaps another example of the minions working for these groups on both ends of 'they know not what they do'?

I am continually amazed at how energetic and creative the forces of entropy and destruction are -- not only a-mazing, but also quite ironic. Future book any of us could easily write: "Evil Is Gooood!"