Report: NSA Intercepts Computer Deliveries

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You know that computer you ordered for Christmas that ended up with a delayed delivery? This is the real reason why it was late. ;)

Old-fashioned methods get a mention too. Der Spiegel said that if the NSA tracked a target ordering a new computer or other electronic accessories, TAO could tap its allies in the FBI and the CIA, intercept the hardware in transit, and take it to a secret workshop where it could be discretely fitted with espionage software before being sent on its way.
 
Some how I feel that Snowden has just released the tip of the iceberg. It seems like every week there is something else. I truly feel like I am in the matrix.
 
Serious question, what if the NSA was spying on corporate/personal emails and was using that info to:

To sell to other competitors.
To blackmail a CEO to change the way they do business.
To use this for inside trading in the stock market.

I am sure others could come up with more/better ones then I mentioned. This is just off the top of my head.
 
Hijacking is a felony. Computer hacking is also a felony. So much for all the Republican shitheads on the Tee Vee droning on with the NSA talking points about how they have NEVER done anything illegal. :mad::confused:

Note to NSA geniuses, the ENEMY has hackers too, who will notice your hack, piggyback onto it and exploit your exploit. Smart move nimrods. :eek::rolleyes:

First they compromise the random number generators to undermine encryption worldwide. Then they hack US citizen's computers before they even get to the Dell (etc) warehouses. Then they compromise the routers that are supposed to be our first line of defense. :(:confused:

If your computer seems to be running slower than it should, it is probably doing the dirty work for the NSA and 5 or 6 other hacker operations in the background. Sorry. :cool:
 
... oh, and as for roll our own ... HOW DO WE KNOW that the bios's on the motherboards haven't been compromised.

It is time for LINUX to step up, provide the TOTAL 100% COMPLETE source code for everything, libraries, etc EVERY LINE OF CODE so that it can be assessed, and a whole new industry of certified UNCOMPROMISED operating systems/bios can be produced.

Ditto ANDROID.... Google, either release it all including all library contents, every line, or it's we know you are in on it.
 
Wow....lol. I can't distinguish the truly concerned from the paranoid. I guess if Snowden said it, it must be true, he's an honest guy right?
 
Serious question, what if the NSA was spying on corporate/personal emails and was using that info to:

To sell to other competitors.
To blackmail a CEO to change the way they do business.
To use this for inside trading in the stock market.

I am sure others could come up with more/better ones then I mentioned. This is just off the top of my head.

From everything we have learned lately it's not even a question of "what if" anymore.
 
That moment when you realize that the tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists were mostly correct, and that you were actually the crazy one for not believing them, is a strange one in a disconcerting WTF sort of way.
 
It's like asking yourself, "How much deeper does the rabbit hole go?"

I read about this on Reddit this morning, and here's the news article they mention:
http://www.spiegel.de/international...back-doors-for-numerous-devices-a-940994.html

As one commenter on Reddit said, if this is true, imagine the damage done to American tech companies in the next few years when their enterprise & corporate customer's contracts end. They'll probably not go back to US companies anymore if they know the computer hardware they purchased for their own business has been compromised by the NSA. Foreign companies are most likely too paranoid to trust any US tech company anymore.
When the NSA scandal hit the news we could see a flood of customers being enormously sceptical of the solutions and some backed off going to competitors such as SAP in Europe. I think most people don't understand the magnitude of a shit storm this could potentially result in when we calculate the loss of revenue two years from now when contracts run out. As an example Oracle has for years used the fact that they host and take care of the databases for the CIA as an example of their exceptional security. Who in their rightful mind would now want to store any sensitive corporate information on their databases. Not to speak of any foreign government wanting to use their databases to store information about their citizens.
And these are people supposedly working in information security and network security that's commenting about this news.

They also mentioned that the guy who is the head of the Free Software Foundation, Richard Stallman, may have actually been right in his own paranoid and delusional way.

Maybe it's about time we start listening to those nutcases that cry the "Sky is falling!" or "The end is near!" more often.
 
Just another reason to roll your own. :D

"Der Spiegel said TAO had a catalog of high-tech gadgets for particularly hard-to-crack cases, including computer monitor cables specially modified to record what is being typed across the screen, USB sticks secretly fitted with radio transmitters to broadcast stolen data over the airwaves, and fake base stations intended to intercept mobile phone signals on the go."

Good luck trying to defeat an assault like that on your own. You would never, ever think the monitor cable you got from amazon or monoprice or ebay could do that. Not that the NSA has the time to be interested in domestic targets.
 
Hijacking is a felony. Computer hacking is also a felony. So much for all the Republican shitheads on the Tee Vee droning on with the NSA talking points about how they have NEVER done anything illegal. :mad::confused:

Note to NSA geniuses, the ENEMY has hackers too, who will notice your hack, piggyback onto it and exploit your exploit. Smart move nimrods. :eek::rolleyes:

First they compromise the random number generators to undermine encryption worldwide. Then they hack US citizen's computers before they even get to the Dell (etc) warehouses. Then they compromise the routers that are supposed to be our first line of defense. :(:confused:

If your computer seems to be running slower than it should, it is probably doing the dirty work for the NSA and 5 or 6 other hacker operations in the background. Sorry. :cool:

You talk like the US isn't under attack. Let me ask you: where are these Dell computers manufactured? Can you buy or build a PC with every part made in the US? And let's not even talk about where your router came from.

You are far, far more likely to be hacked and monitored by China than by the NSA. The entire NSA has around 40,000 employees, and probably less than 1 in 100 of those actually do what you would call hacking. I'd be willing to bet that the Chinese government has more hackers than the US has soldiers.
 
As one commenter on Reddit said, if this is true, imagine the damage done to American tech companies in the next few years when their enterprise & corporate customer's contracts end. They'll probably not go back to US companies anymore if they know the computer hardware they purchased for their own business has been compromised by the NSA. Foreign companies are most likely too paranoid to trust any US tech company anymore.

The only problem is, it isn't just the american tech companies that have been compromised by the NSA. Huawei is listed as another company that the NSA has gained access to their equipment. It is very likely that all major vendors have been compromised, in which case, what option do companies really have?
 
This is what we get when paranoid nuts are given everything they want.
 
The only problem is, it isn't just the american tech companies that have been compromised by the NSA. Huawei is listed as another company that the NSA has gained access to their equipment. It is very likely that all major vendors have been compromised, in which case, what option do companies really have?

Clearly China is a safer bet :rolleyes:
 
The only problem is, it isn't just the american tech companies that have been compromised by the NSA. Huawei is listed as another company that the NSA has gained access to their equipment. It is very likely that all major vendors have been compromised, in which case, what option do companies really have?
It reminds me of a story a few weeks ago in regards to Brazil about the purchase of new fighter jets. Instead of going with Boeing's F-18s, they went with Saab's JAS-39.

A lot of sites reports it was Brazil's anger towards NSA spying on their country's leader.

Now, that's the defense industry. You have Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Saab, and other companies. The computer industry? Not so much, especially those in the US.

You are right that there isn't a whole lot of companies out there making things like network components such as routers, switches, and so on. And, a lot of computer components are being made in Taiwan and China such as our graphics cards, motherboards, and hard drives.

May as well start from scratch and rebuild everything including the internet if the NSA has infiltrated as much of this technology as the leaked reports from Snowden claim them to be.
 
Obama is a Democrat. Obama renewed the Patriot Act. Obama is in charge of the NSA.

Obama isnt in charge of anything, he is a front line image to try and conceal what is going on behind closed curtains

and there is no choice, Demo or Republic - they all have the same goals in the end , you really have 0 choice when it comes down to it.
 
Hijacking is a felony. Computer hacking is also a felony. So much for all the Republican shitheads on the Tee Vee droning on with the NSA talking points about how they have NEVER done anything illegal. :mad::confused:

Yeah, Barack Obama is a real Republican shithead.
 
Serious question, what if the NSA was spying on corporate/personal emails and was using that info to:

To sell to other competitors.
To blackmail a CEO to change the way they do business.
To use this for inside trading in the stock market.

I am sure others could come up with more/better ones then I mentioned. This is just off the top of my head.

You sir know how to think outside of the box, I choose C all of the above. I personally think we could never imagine all the NSA/CIA/FBI does
 
Let's repeat the [H] justification for all this spying during the last administration: "You don't have anything to worry about if you've done nothing wrong."

:p
 
Obama is a Democrat. Obama renewed the Patriot Act. Obama is in charge of the NSA.

And Obama has expanded the scope of the NSA to several times more than even the most hard core neocons ever dreamed of. (and don't confuse the neocons with the core of the Republican party who don't want this.)
 
Time to build our own PC's,and when I say build I mean build ;)
(and usb drives, cables, etc...)
 
I read about this on Reddit this morning, and here's the news article they mention:
http://www.spiegel.de/international...back-doors-for-numerous-devices-a-940994.html

As one commenter on Reddit said, if this is true, imagine the damage done to American tech companies in the next few years when their enterprise & corporate customer's contracts end. They'll probably not go back to US companies anymore if they know the computer hardware they purchased for their own business has been compromised by the NSA. Foreign companies are most likely too paranoid to trust any US tech company anymore.

And these are people supposedly working in information security and network security that's commenting about this news.

They also mentioned that the guy who is the head of the Free Software Foundation, Richard Stallman, may have actually been right in his own paranoid and delusional way.

Maybe it's about time we start listening to those nutcases that cry the "Sky is falling!" or "The end is near!" more often.

you mean the jobs lost if tech contracts with US corporations are not renewed? that's not a big deal for the elite. most americans have so much debt, it would wipe out the entire middle class. usually, those are the folks with decent education and income and a potential threat to overthrow a government in case shit hits the fan. crush them under the boots of the banks et voilà, there you have total control (if not, those 1.6 bn rounds of ammunition, thousands of armored vehicles and a couple of drones ordered by the DHS will ensure that). i'm not a communist, but banks, while being necessary to a free market, have become the cancer of society. just look at europe where over a trillion euros of tax money has been pledged in case banks fuck up again.

It reminds me of a story a few weeks ago in regards to Brazil about the purchase of new fighter jets. Instead of going with Boeing's F-18s, they went with Saab's JAS-39.

A lot of sites reports it was Brazil's anger towards NSA spying on their country's leader.

Brazil or any other nation including "allies" would be incredibly stupid to rely on US tech at this point. the moment they'd piss off the USA, those things would just drop from the sky or miraculously malfunction when the fighter jets are put to use. you can now expect to have backdoors in absolutely anything that has microchips in it so if you can't build it yourself you pick the lesser evil.
 
Obama is a Democrat. Obama renewed the Patriot Act. Obama is in charge of the NSA.
The Patriot act was last reauthorized in 2006 -- by Congress, and FISA provisions were set to expire at the end of 2009. Those were reauthorized by Congress twice, the first by one year and the second by four years, and both were signed by Obama after passing the House by 2:1 in favor or more. Note that the FISA extensions are not what these "do anything we want to" breaches of privacy are about... this is still damage from the PATRIOT Act itself.

Just to get the details right. ;)
 
Jokes on them.. I build/load my own.

As for work, I always re-image or reload the systems from scratch, usually including bios upgrades, so unless they have compromised the bios' on the manufactures site, should be ok.
 
New flash: We are already there.

Yeah, ummm, I see where you are coming from, but, no. For one, a lot of previous 'police states' have been very hard to leave and I'm pretty sure I was just in Mexico twice in the last week without even showing a passport.

We're barely half way there right now. Give it time. ;)
 
Yeah, ummm, I see where you are coming from, but, no. For one, a lot of previous 'police states' have been very hard to leave and I'm pretty sure I was just in Mexico twice in the last week without even showing a passport.

We're barely half way there right now. Give it time. ;)

What. I drove to Vancouver this past summer and had to do a little minute long or so interview while sitting in the car with the border guard looking over my and my mother's passports. Interestingly enough, going to Canada was more or less, "Nothing to declare? Have a good time, eh?" I genuinely felt more nervous coming back into my own country than I did going into another.
 
What. I drove to Vancouver this past summer and had to do a little minute long or so interview while sitting in the car with the border guard looking over my and my mother's passports. Interestingly enough, going to Canada was more or less, "Nothing to declare? Have a good time, eh?" I genuinely felt more nervous coming back into my own country than I did going into another.


I just showed them my license and was on my way.
 
Well nothing surprising here, wonder how the oversight committee's gonna tackle this :)
 
What. I drove to Vancouver this past summer and had to do a little minute long or so interview while sitting in the car with the border guard looking over my and my mother's passports. Interestingly enough, going to Canada was more or less, "Nothing to declare? Have a good time, eh?" I genuinely felt more nervous coming back into my own country than I did going into another.

What would you smuggle into Canada? They don't even want our beer.

I wonder if that will change when the state of Washington finishes legalizing marijuana later this year. It's been all about preventing smuggling of pot from Canada into the US at the WA border, but I wonder if this rule change might even reverse the flow...

Okay, I'm way off topic now. Move along, nothing to see here.
 
All this stuff is scary. What makes us think they arn't actually adding spy tech right into the processors? Even if we are running Linux and only open source how do we know we are not still at risk?

Is it time to start literally building our own computers... from scratch?
 
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