Exposed! NSA Program for Hacking Any Cell Phone Network, No Matter Where It Is!
http://www.undergroundworldnews.com The National Security Agency has spied on hundreds of companies and groups around the world, including in countries allied with the US government, as part...
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Exposed! NSA Program for Hacking Any Cell Phone Network, No Matter Where It Is! - Video
JC Torres
When your job involves spying on other people's conversations, it is in your best interest that such lines of communications remain open to your snooping. That is pretty much the principle used in one of NSA's operations, codenamed AURORAGOLD, that virtually aimed to weaken the world's networks so that it will always have a backdoor to use, no matter the country. This is just one of the latest revelations unearthed from the documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden regarding the NSA's almost godlike power and reach.
By now, many of the NSA's activities and methods have been brought to light, but this more recent analysis has an even bigger and potentially more dangerous side effect. The NSA has been revealed to not only have spied on communications, both abroad and in the country, but it also specifically targeted communications between companies and organizations that are charged with actually securing phone networks against such activities.
The principle is simple really. Spy on networks and their employees in order to remain abreast of the latest developments in security and encryption. If possible, covertly work to actually introduce vulnerabilities or at least keep vulnerabilities from being patched up. This way, the NSA will always be in the loop and won't be caught unaware of the latest developments and technologies that would curtail its powers. AURORAGOLD is carried out by still undisclosed NSA units, like the Target Technology Trends Center, whose motto is ominously "Predict, Plan, Prevent".
According to leaked materials, one of the prime targets of AURORAGOLD is the GSM Association, a UK-based global trade group made up of more than 800 companies spread out in 220 countries, including the US. The GSMA takes it upon itself to develop technologies and policies to protect consumers, as well as businesses, and is therefore ripe for AURORAGOLD's purposes. The organization has yet to make a formal statement or any legal action, pending analysis of the leaked documents.
Thanks to AURORAGOLD, the NSA, as well as other members of the "Five Eyes" surveillance alliance (UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), have been able to break the most commonly used cellphone encryption algorithm, the A5/1. The more recent and stronger version, the A5/3, is now the target of their efforts. But no matter how the NSA claims its purpose is to actually protect the country and its allies, AURORAGOLD actually exposes the country to danger even more. Any backdoor that the NSA creates or keeps open is practically available for terrorists or other governments to use.
Without openly admitting the existence of AURORAGOLD, President Obama directed the NSA not to take action, or inaction, that would weaken software and to even disclose such vulnerabilities to companies. Of course, there's a "but", when clear national security is involved, one that could probably be used and abused as a loophole in the future. The NSA naturally remains silent on the existence or continued existence of operation AURORAGOLD.
SOURCE: The Intercept
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Yet another top-secret National Security Agency (NSA) program has been unearthed by Glenn Greenwalds publication the Intercept. The report details a program called Auroragold, which according to the official documents leaked by Edward Snowden, specialized in spying on the email correspondence between carriers security experts to break into cellular networks and expose vulnerabilities. The unit would then exploit the flaws in the security system to listen in on the conversations and text messages carried by those cellular networks.
The program is described as the NSAs method of staying one step ahead of carriers encryption, so as to ensure that the agency has access to communications held over most cellular networks. If vulnerabilities did not already exist in the security systems, the NSA would create them, the report states. The Auroragold program has been active since 2012 and regularly monitors 1,200 email accounts that are associated with major cellular networks and carriers around the world.
The Intercept revealed that the NSA has already obtained the technical security information of 70 percent of the worlds networks.
Related: Brazil lays its own fiber optic cables to avoid the NSA
The NSA devoted special attention to monitoring communications among members of the U.K.-based GSM Association, which includes high-profile tech companies and carriers, such as AT&T, Cisco, Microsoft, Samsung, Vodafone, Facebook,Verizon, Sprint, Intel, Oracle, Sony, Nokia, and Ericsson. It is unclear how many of these high-profile companies security structures the NSA infiltrated.
The Intercept revealed that the NSA has already obtained the technical security information of 70 percent of the worlds networks. Although penetration into the U.S. carriers networks is surprisingly low, the NSA has access to nearly all the communications in North Africa, the Middle East, and China.
Claire Cranton, a spokeswoman for the GSM Association, said that the organization cannot respond to any of the details revealed by the Intercepts report until its lawyers have seen the documents. If there is something there that is illegal then they will take it up with the police, Cranton told the publication.
Related:NSA report shows innocent users caught in its web
The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), a U.S. government agency that recommends cybersecurity measures, stated that it is unaware of any NSA surveillance of the GSM Association. However, NIST previously warned users of NSA interference with encryption standards.
In April, White House officials stated that Obama ordered the NSA alert the federal government of any security gaps it finds in cellular networks and other technology companies security systems. There is, however, a major loophole in the order, which allows the NSA to keep vulnerabilities to itself if it plans to use them for a clear national security or law enforcement purpose.
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NSAs Auroragold program spies on carriers to break into cell networks
The allegations by the Intercept website are based on documents contained in material provided by Edward Snowden, above. Photograph: Pontus Lundahl/AFP/Getty Images
The National Security Agency has reportedly intercepted emails sent by employees of mobile operators in an attempt to find security weaknesses in their networks that it could exploit for surveillance purposes.
The US government body has spied on hundreds of companies and organisations, including those in allies such as Britain and Australia, as well as in nations America regards as hostile. It plans to insert flaws into communications systems so that they can be accessed by their operatives.
The allegations, reported by the Intercept, are based on documents provided to the website and contained in material provided to them by Edward Snowden, the whistleblower and former NSA subcontractor who is now living in Russia.
A covert operation called AURORAGOLD that started in 2010, if not earlier, has monitored the content of messages to and from 1,200 email accounts associated with mobile operators to intercept relevant documents, the article states.
By May 2012, the NSA had collected technical data on about 700 of the almost 1,000 mobile networks worldwide.
According to the article, the information collected has been shared with other US intelligence agencies as well as those in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Very few companies that have been targeted have been identified in the documents, but a map found in one indicated that the NSA had some degree of network coverage in countries on every continent, including Germany and France.
Another of the operations targets has been the GSM Association, the London-based trade body that sets standards for mobile networks around the world.
Its members represent the interests of 800 major mobile, software and internet companies from more than 200 countries and include the likes of Verizon, AT&T, Facebook, Intel, Samsung and Vodafone.
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NSA accused of intercepting emails sent by mobile phone firm employees
House lawmakers are attempting to revive a popular bill that would limit the National Security Agency's ability to spy on Americans' communications data, a day after the measure was left out from ongoing government funding negotiations.
The measure, dubbed the Secure Data Act and spearheaded by Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, would block the NSA and other intelligence agencies from compelling tech companies to create so-called backdoor vulnerabilities into their devices or software. Sen. Ron Wyden, also a Democrat, introduced a similar version of the bill earlier Thursday.
A Lofgren aide said the bill is expected to be introduced later Thursday with Republican cosponsors.
A broader form of the legislation overwhelmingly passed the House in June with bipartisan support on a 293-123 vote, in the form of an amendment tacked on to a defense appropriations bill. That previous bill additionally would have prevented intelligence agencies from engaging in content surveillance of Americans' communications data without a warrant.
But the language was left out of ongoing negotiations between both chambers over a spending package that would fund most government agencies into next year. The House has additionally barred amendments to that omnibus measure, a common practice.
On Thursday, 30 civil-liberties groups of both liberal and conservative leanings wrote to House leadership to urge it to retain the proposal as part of its funding package.
"Failing to include this amendment in the forthcoming FY15 omnibus will send a clear message to Americans that Congress does not care if the NSA searches their stored communications or if the government pressures American technology companies to build vulnerabilities into their products that assist in NSA surveillance," read the letter, whose signatories include the Electronic Frontier Foundation and TechFreedom.
Despite the sudden push and the margin with which the bill passed this summer, it remains unlikely the bill will move forward in lame-duck session, given the closed amendment process on the funding proposals. Aides to both Lofgren and Wyden conceded the reintroduction was largely to set goalposts for negotiations next year.
Broader NSA reform efforts crumbled in the Senate last month, as the USA Freedom Act came up two votes short of advancing. The lack of NSA reform this year has many privacy advocates worried that their cause faces an uphill battle in 2015, as Republicans retake the Senate.
Key portions of the post-9/11 Patriot Act are due to expire in June of next year, however, including Section 215, which grants the government much of its bulk spying authority. Congress will have to reauthorize the provisions in some fashion or risk losing even greater surveillance authority.
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While many upcoming technologies promise to grant privacy and keep sensitive information safe in a world that is becoming increasingly more connected, the National Security Agency (NSA) has ways of bypassing even the most protected systems in order to have constant access to the inner workings of countries, organizations and even peoples lives.
Dubbed Operation Auroragold, the NSA has developed methods of accessing phone records, emails and texts by hacking into cellphone networks the Intercept learned exclusively from whistleblower Edward Snowden. The operation may have been established as early as 2010, but there are no indications that it has slowed down. Documents provided by Snowden show that through Operation Auroragold the NSA intended to poke holes into cellular communication systems so they can be hacked at will to access information.
The organization has already spied on hundreds of companies and organizations around the world in order to learn about any security vulnerabilities within their communication systems that can be used to collect intelligence. The NSA has reportedly acquired correspondence from over 1,200 email accounts through Operation Auroragold, while countries targeted through the program include Libya and organizations include the GSM Association.
The NSA supposedly gained internal access to 4G data connections in 2010, years before the technology would become global standard of communication. The NSA has stated that it does not target ordinary people, but observers have said the program could create problems for everyday citizens. Channels opened by the NSA could be accessed by hackers.
If there are vulnerabilities on those systems known to the NSA that are not being patched on purpose, its quite likely they are being misused by completely other kinds of attackers, Mikko Hypponen, a security expert at Finland-based firm F-Secure told the Intercept. When they start to introduce new vulnerabilities, it affects everybody who uses that technology; it makes all of us less secure.
Many security bugs were discovered in 2014, including the Heartbleed security flaw, which was discovered in April, and affected a considerable amount of business and commercial accounts. The NSA may have known about Heartbleed for at least two years before it was discovered, Bloomberg has previously reported, and may have used the vulnerability to collect intelligence from 66 percent of websites globally.
Though the White House denied the NSAs involvement in Heartbleed, President Obama also announced in April that the agency would have to report to the government any security flaws that it discovers. In December 2013, an NSA review, which included the president, determined that the NSA didnt have the right to create vulnerabilities in commercial technologies for the purpose of collecting surveillance.
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President Obama has a Friday deadline to decide whether to halt his NSA phone-snooping program or to keep it going, and after Congress failed to stop it last month some lawmakers now say the White House should pull the plug on its own.
The Senate had a chance to kill the program outright last month, but Republican senators filibustered, giving the snooping a renewed lease on life.
Still, the administration must seek approval every 90 days from the secret court that oversees intelligence activities, and the current 90-day period expires on Friday, creating a decision for Mr. Obama.
The president can end the NSAs dragnet collection of Americans phone records once and for all by not seeking reauthorization of this program by the FISA Court, and once again, I urge him to do just that, said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Mr. Leahy was the chief sponsor of the bill that would have nixed the intelligence communitys bulk collection abilities under the Patriot Act, which is the authority the administration cites for the National Security Agency phone-snooping. Under that program, the NSA stores five years worth of records of Americans phone calls, including the numbers involved and the time and duration.
The data is supposed to only be checked when officials believe a number is associated with terrorism.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence didnt immediately respond to a message seeking comment Fridaymorning on the administrations plans.
Mr. Obama has called for the phone-snooping program to be curtailed, and has taken steps to limit it, including lowering the number of hops, or connections, investigators can go from the initial number they are investigating. The president also asked that the Justice Department try to ask the secret court for permission before querying the data.
The White House wants phone companies to store the data, which would keep it out of government hands but still make it available when investigators needed to poke through it.
A bill to curb bulk collection passed the House earlier this year, but GOP senators filibustered last month to block a similar bill. Most of them argued that the ability to snoop through phone records was too vital at a time when the U.S. is facing the rise of the Islamic State and lone-wolf terror attacks.
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By: cybersec101
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The sign outside the National Security Agency campus in Fort Meade, Md. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
For many years, the National Security Agency (NSA) was seen as the most secretive of agencies, beyond impenetrable. The joke was that NSA stood for No Such Agency.
Butlongbefore Edward Snowden blew the cover off the joint, the agency had been lightening up. Like other intelligence agencies, the State Department and the White House, NSA has for many decades hada protocol office to handle official events, visitors and such.
We came across a recent agency help-wanted ad for an NSA protocol officer, whose job would be to explain and apply codes and procedures of social behavior, etiquette and ceremony. Yes, you can bean events planner and virtual latter-day Emily Post.
Youll coordinate, plan and organize. . . visits, ceremonies, dinners and conferences. . . And when big-wigs come to the Fort Meade, youll make sure they can get into the building and have security, transportation and special diet.
You have to have the ability to plan/organize/coordinate and do multitasking, thead says, plus,be able to view computer screen continuously for two hours or more and be able to stand, walk, or kneel for long periods. (Kneel?)
If you can meet all those criteria, then pass a drug test, security background investigation and a polygraph,NSA will pay you between $42,631 and $67,787 a year.(Not much for someone with skills like those.)
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In the Loop: The NSA wants you to help them party with panache
Published every weekday, the Switchboard is your morning helping of hand-picked stories from the Switch team.
Comcast and AT&T deal decisions may come in March, FCC says. Bloomberg reports: "The Comcast review has 95 days remaining while the AT&T review has 110 days left, based on clocks that agency uses to set an informal 180-day deadline for considering mergers."
Sprints crazy Cut Your Bill in Half promo actually saves customers 20 percent. "Sprint is cutting in half the service portion of the bill the part that pays for calling, texting and data," writes Re/code. "However, to get that savings, customers have to either lease a new phone or pay installments on the full cost of a new phone."
Google brings better, faster TV and internet hardware to Austin for Fiber launch. "The Network+ Box is the centerpiece of Google Fiber in the home, offering four gigabit ethernet ports and full support for 802.11ac Wi-Fi," according to the Verge. "It also includes 2TB of storage for your DVR recordings."
How the NSA hacks cell phone networks worldwide. "The NSA has spied on hundreds of companies and organizations internationally," the Intercept reports, "including in countries closely allied to the United States, in an effort to find security weaknesses in cellphone technology that it can exploit for surveillance."
Verizon starts killing off 3G networks to make room for LTE. "About 80 percent of Verizons mobile data traffic now rides over LTE, but some 40 million (41 percent) of the total devices on Verizons networks only have 2G and 3G radios," according to Gigaom. "That means for the foreseeable future, Verizon will have to keep a modicum of EV-DO capacity online at every cell site to support those devices."
Brian Fung covers technology for The Washington Post, focusing on telecom, broadband and digital politics. Before joining the Post, he was the technology correspondent for National Journal and an associate editor at the Atlantic.
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The Switchboard: NSA hackers spied on international cell phone networks
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I was astonished and appalled to read in a recent article (Utah lawmaker questions city water going to NSA, Nov. 19) that Rep. Marc Roberts had actually proposed a bill and discussed at a legislative committee hearing to cut off water service to the National Security Agency storage facility south of Salt Lake City because he didnt like what the NSA was doing.
When I voted for my state representative and state senator, I did not give them permission to perform such mischief in my name.
Pete Ashdown of the Internet provider XMission says the NSA center is a stain upon the state. If the water is cut off and delays the NSAs work, causing it to miss important information needed to protect us, what kind of stain would it be then?
Civil disobedience should be taken seriously. In my opinion, such an act as proposed might go beyond civil disobedience it smacks of sabotage.
Myrna Borg
Murray
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Deadmau5 - The life of a Cryptologist from the NSA by Matthew Gorveatte
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"NADIA IJAPU, ES UNA MENTIROSA" DIJO LA TIA - LA KCHORRA SE DEFIENDE EN NSA
"NADIA IJAPU, ES UNA MENTIROSA" DIJO LA TIA - LA KCHORRA SE DEFIENDE EN NSA.
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Utah looks to shut down NSA spying center
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Pakistan was product of Aligarh Muslim University - NSA Shri Ajit Doval Sir
NSA Shri Ajit Doval Sir during his speech said, "Pakistan was product of Aligarh Muslim University created by British to counter Indian Nationalism". Watch the full video here : https://www.youtu...
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Pakistan was product of Aligarh Muslim University - NSA Shri Ajit Doval Sir - Video