Snowdon is a dummy

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/08/nsagchqcesc_inf.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

NSA/GCHQ/CSEC Infecting Innocent Computers Worldwide
There's a new story on the c't magazin website about a 5-Eyes program to infect computers around the world for use as launching pads for attacks. These are not target computers; these are innocent third parties.

The article actually talks about several government programs. HACIENDA is a GCHQ program to port-scan entire countries, looking for vulnerable computers to attack. According to the GCHQ slide from 2009, they've completed port scans of 27 different countries and are prepared to do more.

The point of this is to create ORBs, or Operational Relay Boxes. Basically, these are computers that sit between the attacker and the target, and are designed to obscure the true origins of an attack. Slides from the Canadian CSEC talk about how this process is being automated: "2-3 times/year, 1 day focused effort to acquire as many new ORBs as possible in as many non 5-Eyes countries as possible." They've automated this process into something codenamed LANDMARK, and together with a knowledge engine codenamed OLYMPIA, 24 people were able to identify "a list of 3000+ potential ORBs" in 5-8 hours. The presentation does not go on to say whether all of those computers were actually infected.

Slides from the UK's GCHQ also talk about ORB detection, as part of a program called MUGSHOT. It, too, is happy with the automatic process: "Initial ten fold increase in Orb identification rate over manual process." There are also NSA slides that talk about the hacking process, but there's not much new in them.

The slides never say how many of the "potential ORBs" CESG discovers or the computers that register positive in GCHQ's "Orb identification" are actually infected, but they're all stored in a database for future use. The Canadian slides talk about how some of that information was shared with the NSA.

Increasingly, innocent computers and networks are becoming collateral damage, as countries use the Internet to conduct espionage and attacks against each other. This is an example of that. Not only to these intelligence services want an insecure Internet so they can attack each other, they want an insecure Internet so they can use innocent third-parties to help facilitate their attacks.

The story contains formerly TOP SECRET documents from the US, UK, and Canada. Note that Snowden is not mentioned at all in this story. Usually, if the documents the story is based on come from Snowden, the reporters say that. In this case, the reporters have said nothing about where the documents come from. I don't know if this is an omission -- these documents sure look like the sorts of things that come from the Snowden archive -- or if there is yet another leaker.

Tags: GCHQ, malware, NSA, scanners, UK

no matter if I might disagree.

Quote:

no matter if I might disagree.

And just what choice does one have with a royal decision no one can contradict? If the Legislature tried to overturn it as I understand it the SC can just find the legislatures new law not constitutional.

I get a charge out of all you people quoting the Constitution. Show me where it defines corporations as people. But that paragon of virtue the Supreme Court somehow interperted some wording in that document to mean that they were living breathing people. Like the bible it seems one can make it say whatever is politically useful.

It's never a case of us liking or disliking a decision made by the supreme court.
It's about following the Constitutional rules of our country.

Not too many blacks are Republicans and those who are usually would discard their race as well as throw their mother under the bus for a pat on the back from the white power elite. These ambitions blacks are puppets for the Republican Party and do a disservice to their race.

Moment-in-Time wrote:
Not too many blacks are Republicans and those who are usually would discard their race as well as throw their mother under the bus for a pat on the back from the white power elite. These ambitions blacks are puppets for the Republican Party and do a disservice to their race.

The goofy presumption that "any African American who disagrees with Liberal extremism is a traitor to their race" is the only thing here that is doing a disservice to African Americans.

Quote:

Moment-in-Time wrote:
Not too many blacks are Republicans and those who are usually would discard their race as well as throw their mother under the bus for a pat on the back from the white power elite. These ambitions blacks are puppets for the Republican Party and do a disservice to their race.

The goofy presumption that "any African American who disagrees with Liberal extremism is a traitor to their race" is the only thing here that is doing a disservice to African Americans.

Oralloy is right.

You're right, frank. That portion of what Oralloy said is also ridiculous if one reads it as you do.

It may not make sense to me or you where an african american chooses to align himself or herself with the GOP but our concerns and values and perceptions ought not to be considered true for everyone. And we certainly ought not to presume a moral corruption is in place.

Nonsense...Oralloy is NOT right.