Archive for the ‘NSA’ Category

Did the NSA and the UKs Spy Agency Launch a Joint Cyberattack on Iran?

An NSA document newly published today suggests two interesting facts that havent previously been reported.

The Intercept, which published the document, highlighted that in it the NSA expresses fear that it may be teaching Iran how to hack, but there are two other points in the document that merit attention.

One concerns the spy tool known as Flame; the other refers to concerns the NSA had about partnering with the British spy agency Government Communications Headquarters and Israeli intelligence in surveillance operations.

In the document, prepared in April 2013 for a meeting between the NSA director and GCHQ, the author cites the Flame attack against Iran as an example of a US/GCHQ partnership. Flame was a massive spy platform exposed by Kaspersky Lab and Symantec in 2012. Flame targeted more than 10,000 machines in Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, the Israeli Occupied Territories and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa and was active for at least six years before it was discovered. It used some of the same code that Stuxnet used, leading researchers to conclude that it had been created by the same US/Israel teams that had created Stuxnet. The Washington Post reported in 2012 that the US and Israel were both behind Flame, quoting anonymous US officials. But the new Snowden document hints that GCHQ might have been involved in Flame with the US.

Although the document doesnt say overtly that GCHQ partnered with the US in creating and unleashing Flame, it hints obliquely at cooperation. The document notes that the NSA has successfully worked multiple high-priority surges with GCHQ and cites Flame as an example. But, oddly, it doesnt say they worked together on creating Flame. Instead, it simply cites Irans discovery of Flame in a list of projects on which the GCHQ and the US collaborated.

These jointly worked events include the storming of the British Embassy in Tehran; Irans discovery of computer network exploitation tools on their networks in 2012 and 2013; and support to policymakers during the multiple rounds of P5 plus 1 negotiation on Irans nuclear program, the document reads. The reference to an embassy attack presumably refers to the 2011 attack on the British embassy by protestors in Iran. The reference to the P5 plus 1 relates to negotiations between Iran and Western powers over Irans nuclear program. The network attacks are identified by name as the Flame attacks in another part of the document.

Its unclear what else this might refer to if not the two countries partnering in the creation and unleashing of Flame. Other documents leaked by Edward Snowden have spelled out in more detail how the NSA and GCHQ have partnered over the years in other spy operations, ranging from sharing data siphoned from undersea cables to the hacking of telecom networks, like Belgiums Belgacom, to monitor mobile traffic. The new document suggests that the two countries might also have partnered on Flame in some way, though its unclear to what extent. If this is correct, and the previous Post is correct as well, it would mean the three nations teamed up to spy on Iran, presumably over its nuclear program.

Although there are numerous examples released in the Snowden documents of NSA-GCHQ cooperation as well as NSA-Israeli cooperation, the 2013 document published today expresses concern about a trilateral agreement between the three nations.

It appears in a section discussing a collaboration between the NSA, GCHQ and ISNUa reference to the Israeli SIGINT National Unit, the Israeli counterpart to the NSA. Under the heading Potential Landmines, the document notes that GCHQ has long pushed to work with the NSA and ISNU in a trilateral arrangement to prosecute the Iranian target. And it notes that the NSA and GCHQ have agreed to share information gleaned from their separate partnerships with Israeli intelligence. But with regard to a trilateral partnership, the NSA had reservations. The document notes that the SID policy has been opposed to such a blanket arrangement.

SID refers to the Signals Intelligence Directorate. Under the SID Management Directive 422 (.pdf), the intelligence community is prohibited from delegating a mission to a non-USSS elementthat is, a non-US SIGINT Systemwithout first obtaining a memo of understanding between the NSA and the non-US entity. NSA activities are government by a number of directives, most important among them is USSID 18, which governs what the US can and cannot collect on US persons and how it must handle information collected incidentally on them. Including a foreign spy agency in data collection raises issues about oversight and legality if it involves data pertaining to U.S. persons. This may be in part why the NSA was concerned.

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Did the NSA and the UKs Spy Agency Launch a Joint Cyberattack on Iran?

NSA approves Samsung and Boeing mobile devices for employee use

As part of the NSA's program to certify commercial off-the-shelf technology for use inside the agency, mobile devices from Samsung and Boeing have been cleared for use by NSA employees.

As part of the NSA's program to certify commercial off-the-shelf technology for use inside the agency, mobile devices from Samsung and Boeing have been cleared for use by NSA employees.

This move by the NSA is part of its Commercial Solutions for Classified program (CSfC) to enable government use of the same products that we in the private sector enjoy, rather than specially engineered government-only products that are often feature-poor, slow to market and expensive.

+RELATED: How the NSA is improving security for everyone +

Samsung's products include the Galaxy S4/S5, Galaxy S5 with KNOX, Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition, Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition with KNOX 2, Galaxy Note Edge with KNOX 2, Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and 10.5 LTE with KNOX 2, and the Galaxy Alpha with KNOX 2. For Samsung, Knox provides the added security features key to making the grade in the CSfC program.

Boeing's offering, which is not commercially available, is the Boeing Black smartphone. Sold only to government agencies and contractors working with government agencies, the Black smartphone is a sealed, tamper proof device.

The heightened level of security built into both product lines comes at a time when the world has seen a significant rise in cyberattacks upon the Android OS. For example, a recent FireEye Mobility Security Team study of the top 1,000 most downloaded free Android Apps found 68 percent susceptible to Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks and contained one or more SSL vulnerabilities.

John Morrison, senior director, Samsung Research America says "the CSfC Program really stretches the boundaries of high security on mobility." He adds that "the innovation driven by the U.S. government results in more secure products in private sector hands."

In order for these products to be certified, the vendors must satisfy stringent security requirements. For example, the devices must generate asymmetric cryptographic keys used for key Establishment and Authentication; perform encryption/decryption in accordance with a specified cryptographic algorithm; perform cryptographic hashing in accordance with a specified cryptographic algorithm and message digest size; and they must restrict the ability to configure policies for passwords, session locking, device enabling/disabling, application installation, VPN protection or specify wireless networks.

A key example of the security issues surrounding BYOD smartphones and tablets is the camera that most have. Morrison says, "The issue for various government and commercial entities is that they have unique missions and therefore require customization or a different configuration for the devices they want to use. For example, while many commercial work sites that permit cameras to be available for use, there are many sites, both government and commercial, where the CAMERA MUST ALWAYS BE OFF."

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NSA approves Samsung and Boeing mobile devices for employee use

NSA wins key ruling in years-old phone and Internet spying lawsuit

The EFF's "Team Jewel."

The case, known as Jewel v. NSA, was originally brought by the EFF on behalf of Carolyn Jewel, a romance novelist who lives in Petaluma, California, north of San Francisco. For years, the case stalled in the court system, but it gained new life after the Edward Snowden disclosures in 2013.

Despite the NSA's victory in its partial summary judgment, there are a number of issues left to be adjudicated in Jewel.

The judge's ruling only concerned Upstream Internet surveillance, not the telephone records collection nor other mass surveillance that are also at issue in Jewel, Kurt Opsahl, an EFF attorney, told Ars, referring to the governments program to capture data directly off of fiber optic cables.

We will continue to fight to end NSA mass surveillance, he added.

US District Judge Jeffrey White, in his 10-page order, found that the lead plaintiff lacked standinge.g., she was unable to show that she specifically was surveilled. Beyond the question of standing, the court found it was not able to evaluate her claims without violating national security.

As Judge White wrote:

Based on the public record, the Court finds that the Plaintiffs have failed to establish a sufficient factual basis to find they have standing to sue under the Fourth Amendment regarding the possible interception of their Internet communications. Further, having reviewed the Government Defendants classified submissions, the Court finds that the Claim must be dismissed because even if Plaintiffs could establish standing, a potential Fourth Amendment Claim would have to be dismissed on the basis that any possible defenses would require impermissible disclosure of state secret information.

The standing issue here is similar to a 2013 Supreme Court decision known as Clapper v. Amnesty International. That case found that the plaintiffs (such as Guantanamo Bay lawyers) who had strong evidence to believe that they were being spied upon but could not demonstrate it to the Supreme Courts standard, could not bring their case.

During a December 2014 hearing in federal court in Oakland, California, Judge White heard arguments from both sides in his attempt to wrestle with the plaintiffs July 2014 motion for partial summary judgment.

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NSA wins key ruling in years-old phone and Internet spying lawsuit

Life of a NSA Cadet – Video


Life of a NSA Cadet
We were assigned to create a video in COMP1, so our section decided to make a video regarding our daily routines here in UCLM as a NSA cadet. All shots are t...

By: jamescondaa

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Life of a NSA Cadet - Video

NSA MCW 2015 Cultural Explosion performance – Video


NSA MCW 2015 Cultural Explosion performance
NSA decided it was time to educate the York U community on the recent happenings in Nigeria the dance team did not come out to play this year! Here #39;s our thought-provoking performance that...

By: NSA York U

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NSA MCW 2015 Cultural Explosion performance - Video