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NSA inserting spyware into PCs
Effort to gain access to 100k computers globally is 'active defence': US agency
WASHINGTON - The National Security Agency has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world that allows the United States to conduct surveillance on those machines and create a digital highway for launching cyber attacks.
While most of the software is inserted by gaining access to computer networks, the NSA has increasingly made use of secret technology that enables it to enter and alter data in computers even if they are not connected to the Internet, according to NSA documents, computer experts and US officials.
The technology, which the agency has used since at least 2008, relies on a covert channel of radio waves that can be transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted surreptitiously into the computers. In some cases, they are sent to a briefcase-size relay station that intelligence agencies can set up miles away from the target.
The radio frequency technology has helped solve one of the biggest problems facing US intelligence agencies for years: getting into computers that adversaries, and some US partners, have tried to make impervious to spying or cyber attacks. In most cases, the radio frequency hardware must be physically inserted by a spy, manufacturer or an unwitting user.
The NSA calls its efforts more an act of "active defence" against foreign cyber attacks than a tool to go on the offensive. But when Chinese attackers place similar software on the computer systems of US companies or government agencies, US officials have protested, often at the presidential level.
Yesterday, Chinese tech giant Huawei, which has long been dogged by security suspicious abroad, denied a report that its telecommunications network equipment had been compromised by US spies. Huawei chief financial officer Cathy Meng was asked specifically about a report late last month in the German magazine Der Spiegel that technology companies including Huawei had their products penetrated by the NSA.
Among the most frequent targets of the NSA and its Pentagon partner, US Cyber Command, have been units of the Chinese army, which US has accused of launching regular digital probes and attacks on US industrial and military targets, usually to steal secrets or intellectual property.
But the programme, code-named Quantum, has also been successful in inserting software into Russian military networks and system used by the Mexican police and drug cartels, trade institutions inside the European Union, and anti-terrorism partners like Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan.
Mr James Andrew Lewis, the cyber security expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said: "What's new here is the scale and the sophistication of the intelligence agency's ability to get into computers and networks to which no one has ever had access before."
There is no evidence that the NSA has implanted its software or used its radio frequency technology inside the US. While refusing to comment on the scope of the Quantum programme, the NSA said its actions were not comparable to China's.
Agency spokesman Vanee Vines, in a statement, said: "NSA's activities are focused and specifically deployed against - and only against valid foreign intelligence targets in response to intelligence requirements. We do not use foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of - or give intelligence we collect to - US companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line."
US President Barack Obama is scheduled to announce tomorrow what recommendations he is accepting from an advisory panel on changing NSA practices. The panel agreed with Silicon Valley executives that some of the techniques developed by the agency to find flaws in computer systems undermine global confidence in a range of US-made information products like laptop computers and cloud services.
NEW YORK TIMES, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Effort to gain access to 100k computers globally is 'active defence': US agency
WASHINGTON - The National Security Agency has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world that allows the United States to conduct surveillance on those machines and create a digital highway for launching cyber attacks.
While most of the software is inserted by gaining access to computer networks, the NSA has increasingly made use of secret technology that enables it to enter and alter data in computers even if they are not connected to the Internet, according to NSA documents, computer experts and US officials.
The technology, which the agency has used since at least 2008, relies on a covert channel of radio waves that can be transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted surreptitiously into the computers. In some cases, they are sent to a briefcase-size relay station that intelligence agencies can set up miles away from the target.
The radio frequency technology has helped solve one of the biggest problems facing US intelligence agencies for years: getting into computers that adversaries, and some US partners, have tried to make impervious to spying or cyber attacks. In most cases, the radio frequency hardware must be physically inserted by a spy, manufacturer or an unwitting user.
The NSA calls its efforts more an act of "active defence" against foreign cyber attacks than a tool to go on the offensive. But when Chinese attackers place similar software on the computer systems of US companies or government agencies, US officials have protested, often at the presidential level.
Yesterday, Chinese tech giant Huawei, which has long been dogged by security suspicious abroad, denied a report that its telecommunications network equipment had been compromised by US spies. Huawei chief financial officer Cathy Meng was asked specifically about a report late last month in the German magazine Der Spiegel that technology companies including Huawei had their products penetrated by the NSA.
Among the most frequent targets of the NSA and its Pentagon partner, US Cyber Command, have been units of the Chinese army, which US has accused of launching regular digital probes and attacks on US industrial and military targets, usually to steal secrets or intellectual property.
But the programme, code-named Quantum, has also been successful in inserting software into Russian military networks and system used by the Mexican police and drug cartels, trade institutions inside the European Union, and anti-terrorism partners like Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan.
Mr James Andrew Lewis, the cyber security expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said: "What's new here is the scale and the sophistication of the intelligence agency's ability to get into computers and networks to which no one has ever had access before."
There is no evidence that the NSA has implanted its software or used its radio frequency technology inside the US. While refusing to comment on the scope of the Quantum programme, the NSA said its actions were not comparable to China's.
Agency spokesman Vanee Vines, in a statement, said: "NSA's activities are focused and specifically deployed against - and only against valid foreign intelligence targets in response to intelligence requirements. We do not use foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of - or give intelligence we collect to - US companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line."
US President Barack Obama is scheduled to announce tomorrow what recommendations he is accepting from an advisory panel on changing NSA practices. The panel agreed with Silicon Valley executives that some of the techniques developed by the agency to find flaws in computer systems undermine global confidence in a range of US-made information products like laptop computers and cloud services.
NEW YORK TIMES, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
