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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsUS & UK spies hacked/stole encryption keys used to protect the privacy of cellphone communications
jeremy scahill @jeremyscahillNEW: US & UK spies hacked into the internal computer network of the largest manufacturer of SIM cards in the world: http://interc.pt/1COE51C
AMERICAN AND BRITISH spies hacked into the internal computer network of the largest manufacturer of SIM cards in the world, stealing encryption keys used to protect the privacy of cellphone communications across the globe, according to top-secret documents provided to The Intercept by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The hack was perpetrated by a joint unit consisting of operatives from the NSA and its British counterpart Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ. The breach, detailed in a secret 2010 GCHQ document, gave the surveillance agencies the potential to secretly monitor a large portion of the world’s cellular communications, including both voice and data.
The company targeted by the intelligence agencies, Gemalto, is a multinational firm incorporated in the Netherlands that makes the chips used in mobile phones and next-generation credit cards. Among its clients are AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and some 450 wireless network providers around the world. The company operates in 85 countries and has more than 40 manufacturing facilities. One of its three global headquarters is in Austin, Texas and it has a large factory in Pennsylvania.
In all, Gemalto produces some 2 billion SIM cards a year. Its motto is “Security to be Free.”
With these stolen encryption keys, intelligence agencies can monitor mobile communications without seeking or receiving approval from telecom companies and foreign governments. Possessing the keys also sidesteps the need to get a warrant or a wiretap, while leaving no trace on the wireless provider’s network that the communications were intercepted. Bulk key theft additionally enables the intelligence agencies to unlock any previously encrypted communications they had already intercepted, but did not yet have the ability to decrypt.
read more: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/19/great-sim-heist/
related:
What President Obama is getting wrong about encryption
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026249012
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Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)National Security. Or, said that he was under a lot of stress and was a patriot.
bigtree
(85,998 posts)...because, '9-11'
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)
lpbk2713
(42,757 posts)They will use any shortcuts they can find no matter how specifically those methods are outlawed. Once they decide they have enough on who the bad guy is and what he's done then they try to come up with a plausible way to justify an arrest, like an alleged anonymous tip or a confidential informant. They laugh at the Constitution.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)and heaven help anyone that points out how they are violating the Constitution.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)never to see the light of day again.
bigtree
(85,998 posts)@ggreenwald is right. This is one of the biggest Snowden stories yet. https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/19/great-sim- …
...hard to not view much of the opposition to Snowden here as a deliberate ploy generated to turn folks off from paying attention to these abuses. Typical govt. ops employ this type of political twist to divide the people; keep them from organizing against them. Ridicule, diversion, labeling...all tools of disinformation campaigns. Sad that this isn't getting enough of a debate among all of these internet users on this board. 'I know, bigtree,' talking to myself.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Spot-on post. Can't be stressed often enough:
[font size=4]The relentlessness of the smear machine is directly proportional to the gravity of the crimes against citizens revealed by the whistleblower (and journalists).[/font size]The real reason a very loud few are posting hostility toward Glenn Greenwald (and Edward Snowden) at DU:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025036592
Those who build surveillance machines also build propaganda machines. A great deal of effort and resources are being poured into trying to give the false impression that Americans support our own government's abuses of power against us, and that we have contempt for those who exposed them.
It's no accident that the very small group of the loudest smearers of Greenwald are also overwhelmingly the most reliable attackers of liberals and defenders of every corporate outrage coming out of this administration: the TPP, indefinite detention, secret laws, secret courts, assaults on journalism, handing the internet to corporations, drone wars, drilling, fracking, corporate education, privatization, deregulation, etc., etc., etc.
DU overwhelmingly supports the actions of Greenwald and Snowden, as shown in virtually every poll posted here. This group uses the very same tactics, over and over again, including attacks on the messengers, mocking, swarming, and endless diversion from what is really important here: government abuse of power. It is all very familiar, and the tactics detailed in the links below.
Let's repost some reminders of what we are really dealing with here:Obama taps "cognitive infiltrator" Cass Sunstein for Committee to create "trust" in NSA:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023512796
Salon: Obama confidant’s spine-chilling proposal: Cass Sunstein wants the government to "cognitively infiltrate" anti-government groups
http://www.salon.com/2010/01/15/sunstein_2/
The US government's online campaigns of disinformation, manipulation, and smear.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024560097
Snowden: ‘Training Guide’ for GCHQ, NSA Agents Infiltrating and Disrupting Alternative Media Online
http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/02/25/snowden-training-guide-for-gchq-nsa-agents-infiltrating-and-disrupting-alternative-media-online/
The influx of corporate propaganda-spouting posters is blatant and unnatural.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3189367
U.S. Repeals Propaganda Ban, Spreads Government-Made News To Americans
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023262111
The goal of the propaganda assaults across the internet is not to convince anyone of anything.*
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023359801
The government figured out sockpuppet management but not "persona management."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023358242
The Gentleman's Guide To Forum Spies (spooks, feds, etc.)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4159454
Seventeen techniques for truth suppression.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4249741
Just do some Googling on astroturfing - big organizations have some sophisticated tools.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1208351
bigtree
(85,998 posts)
Snowden: ‘Training Guide’ for GCHQ, NSA Agents Infiltrating and Disrupting Alternative Media Online
http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/02/25/snowden-training-guide-for-gchq-nsa-agents-infiltrating-and-disrupting-alternative-media-online/
Ramses
(721 posts)Funny we NEVER hear of these stories or information from any news network or newspaper here in America. Strange how that works
Aerows
(39,961 posts)I'd like to see cries of legality, now.
lovuian
(19,362 posts)Big Brother is listening and watching
and we are not paranoid
We have people right in this thread justifying theft, which by definition is illegal.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)
Aerows
(39,961 posts)and WillyT, you are also tireless in trying to drag these stories to the fore so that folks can let the scales fall from their eyes.
Thanks for all you do, and stay warm, my friend!
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Intercept/analyze foreign communications and break/steal encryptions?
At least we're not losing ground to China, who did the same thing to Apple phones/software (of course that's a story you won't see The Intercept cover anytime soon)
...
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)(b) National Security Agency, whose responsibilities shall include:
(1) Establishment and operation of an effective unified organization for signals intelligence activities, except for the delegation of operational control over certain operations that are conducted through other elements of the Intelligence Community. No other department or agency may engage in signals intelligence activities except pursuant to a delegation by the Secretary of Defense;
(2) Control of signals intelligence collection and processing activities, including assignment of resources to an appropriate agent for such periods and tasks as required for the direct support of military commanders;
(3) Collection of signals intelligence information for national foreign intelligence purposes in accordance with guidance from the Director of Central Intelligence;
(4) Processing of signals intelligence data for national foreign intelligence purposes in accordance with guidance from the Director of Central Intelligence;
(5) Dissemination of signals intelligence information for national foreign intelligence purposes to authorized elements of the Government, including the military services, in accordance with guidance from the Director of Central Intelligence;
(6) Collection, processing and dissemination of signals intelligence information for counterintelligence purposes;
(7) Provision of signals intelligence support for the conduct of military operations in accordance with tasking, priorities, and standards of timeliness assigned by the Secretary of Defense. If provision of such support requires use of national collection systems, these systems will be tasked within existing guidance from the Director of Central Intelligence;
(8) Executing the responsibilities of the Secretary of Defense as executive agent for the communications security of the United States Government;
(9) Conduct of research and development to meet the needs of the United States for signals intelligence and communications security;
(10) Protection of the security of its installations, activities, property, information, and employees by appropriate means, including such investigations of applicants, employees, contractors, and other persons with similar associations with the NSA as are necessary;
(11) Prescribing, within its field of authorized operations, security regulations covering operating practices, including the transmission, handling and distribution of signals intelligence and communications security material within and among the elements under control of the Director of the NSA, and exercising the necessary supervisory control to ensure compliance with the regulations;
(12) Conduct of foreign cryptologic liaison relationships, with liaison for intelligence purposes conducted in accordance with policies formulated by the Director of Central Intelligence; and
(13) Conduct of such administrative and technical support activities within and outside the United States as are necessary to perform the functions described in sections (1) through (12) above, including procurement.
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/12333.html
bigtree
(85,998 posts)...the use of the encryption keys allows the government to avoid the accountability of seeking a warrant; employing the dubious claim of concern for national security in rifling through user data.
"An internal top-secret GCHQ wiki on the program from May 2011 indicated that GCHQ was in the process of “targeting” more than a dozen Gemalto facilities across the globe, including in Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Italy, Russia, Sweden, Spain, Japan and Singapore."
...do you see any U.S. allies on that list?
On January 17, 2014, President Barack Obama gave a major address on the NSA spying scandal. “The bottom line is that people around the world, regardless of their nationality, should know that the United States is not spying on ordinary people who don’t threaten our national security and that we take their privacy concerns into account in our policies and procedures,” he said.
The monitoring of the lawful communications of employees of major international corporations shows that such statements by Obama, other U.S. officials and British leaders — that they only intercept and monitor the communications of known or suspected criminals or terrorists — were untrue. “The NSA and GCHQ view the private communications of people who work for these companies as fair game,” says the ACLU’s Soghoian. “These people were specifically hunted and targeted by intelligence agencies, not because they did anything wrong, but because they could be used as a means to an end.”
Aerows
(39,961 posts)if it's for the right team, even if you are stealing from your own team members.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)as long as some nebulous alphabet soup agency is the one doing it?
Wait, aren't you one of the FISA court champions that now that there is a blanket warrant that covers millions it is legal?
So ... as long as "the good guys" are committing theft, it is Constitutional and legal?
Am I reading this right?
quadrature
(2,049 posts)bigtree
(85,998 posts)...who here at DU, thinks a cellphone should be secure and/or private?
quadrature
(2,049 posts)everybody needs to know that
Aerows
(39,961 posts)The cellphone company can't target you for a drone strike based upon your SIM ident, nor can the cellphone company put you in jail or extraordinarily rendition you.
P.S. I think everybody already knew that, but thanks for playing.
quadrature
(2,049 posts)there is no privacy on a cell phone
on top of that,
i don't want the IRS deciding these issues
NO gov't backdoor
They hand over information to the IRS, the DEA and even state and local LEOs. They aren't doing it to catch terrorists, because they seem to be pretty bad at it - they are doing it to seize assets and probably even more nefarious purposes such as blackmail.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Aerows
(39,961 posts)this one to sink!
Aerows
(39,961 posts)with the topic I posted earlier.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026250938
Every single thing listed in that post is going to be used to downplay, attempt to divert, discredit or just plain disappear discussion about this.
Ever notice that the cheerleaders for war are the cheerleaders for the security state, too?
Ramses
(721 posts)They will also aggressively shut down any attempt to discuss it and smear folks who bring up important information like this. They serve the 1% and the police state. They serve violent US military adventures. Truly evil souls among us.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)You never see one support one without supporting the other and VOCALLY.
See the comment above (But, but the phone company can hear your calls). Like no one knew that. The phone company doesn't regularly send people to GITMO or drone strike people.
Ramses
(721 posts)that the US Constitution is just a "goddamn piece of paper". And they have infested our party and our government. And if we speak up about it we are told to shut up and clap harder.
FUCK THAT NOISE
Aerows
(39,961 posts)"YOU AREN'T CLAPPING HARD ENOUGH - YOU SUPPORT THE TERRORISTS/JEB BUSH/REPUBLICANS or my favorite, YOU WEAR A TIN FOIL HAT!!!"
Ramses
(721 posts)And no one in either party is speaking up about this blatant unconstitutional activity. We truly live in a fascist police state. Sooner rather than later people will get sick of it.
is never legal.
because this has repercussions. Also, because I defy anyone to say this is in any way, shape or form "legal" "Constitutional" or "something we already knew".
riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)Aerows
(39,961 posts)how there has been little activity on this thread, isn't it?
bigtree
(85,998 posts)MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)In other news, water is wet.
bigtree
(85,998 posts)...in other news, water is wet.
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)It does, however, indicate that Snowden has given aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States which, in the constitution, is the definition of treason.
bigtree
(85,998 posts)...apparently you believe it's proper and legal for the U.S. to spy on our allies and hack and steal propriety information from people committing no crime at all, just to accomplish a dubious task of stealing data and other private information in bulk from a vast majority of individuals who have likely not committed any crimes at all.
Or, maybe you didn't read the article...
"An internal top-secret GCHQ wiki on the program from May 2011 indicated that GCHQ was in the process of “targeting” more than a dozen Gemalto facilities across the globe, including in Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Italy, Russia, Sweden, Spain, Japan and Singapore."
...do you see any U.S. allies on that list?
On January 17, 2014, President Barack Obama gave a major address on the NSA spying scandal. “The bottom line is that people around the world, regardless of their nationality, should know that the United States is not spying on ordinary people who don’t threaten our national security and that we take their privacy concerns into account in our policies and procedures,” he said.
The monitoring of the lawful communications of employees of major international corporations shows that such statements by Obama, other U.S. officials and British leaders — that they only intercept and monitor the communications of known or suspected criminals or terrorists — were untrue. “The NSA and GCHQ view the private communications of people who work for these companies as fair game,” says the ACLU’s Soghoian. “These people were specifically hunted and targeted by intelligence agencies, not because they did anything wrong, but because they could be used as a means to an end.”
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)EVERY nation spies on EVERY OTHER NATION.
That's how foreign relations works.
If we didn't do it, we'd be fucking fools.
Anybody who thinks we shouldn't do it, well, there you go...
bigtree
(85,998 posts)...and the downplaying.
Typical.
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)Every one of our allies spy on us. If you don't think they do, well, there you go...
bigtree
(85,998 posts)...at face value.
On January 17, 2014, President Barack Obama gave a major address on the NSA spying scandal. “The bottom line is that people around the world, regardless of their nationality, should know that the United States is not spying on ordinary people who don’t threaten our national security and that we take their privacy concerns into account in our policies and procedures,” he said.
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)Get used to it because it has happened for millenia.
bigtree
(85,998 posts)“...is that people around the world, regardless of their nationality, should know that the United States is not spying on ordinary people who don’t threaten our national security and that we take their privacy concerns into account in our policies and procedures,” said President Obama.
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)There isn't a single indication in the released documents from the Traitor, Edward Snowden, to the contrary.
bigtree
(85,998 posts)"...shows that such statements by Obama, other U.S. officials and British leaders — that they only intercept and monitor the communications of known or suspected criminals or terrorists — were untrue. “The NSA and GCHQ view the private communications of people who work for these companies as fair game,” says the ACLU’s Soghoian. “These people were specifically hunted and targeted by intelligence agencies, not because they did anything wrong, but because they could be used as a means to an end.”
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)Jesus. This is how the world works.
Our allies do PRECISELY the same thing.
Learn how the world works.
bigtree
(85,998 posts)"It is unlikely that GCHQ’s pronouncement about the legality of its operations will be universally embraced in Europe. “It is governments massively engaging in illegal activities,” says Sophie in’t Veld, a Dutch member of the European Parliament. “If you are not a government and you are a student doing this, you will end up in jail for 30 years.” Veld, who chaired the European Parliament’s recent inquiry into mass surveillance exposed by Snowden, told The Intercept: “The secret services are just behaving like cowboys. Governments are behaving like cowboys and nobody is holding them to account.”
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)Mom! All the _other_ kids are getting tats, why can't I, huh?
Vattel
(9,289 posts)From the article:
"As part of the covert operations against Gemalto, spies from GCHQ — with support from the NSA — mined the private communications of unwitting engineers and other company employees in multiple countries."
That is spying on "ordinary people who do not threaten our national security."
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)They were breaking encryption. They have every right to spy on those who create the encryption.
Fair game for a spy.
Vattel
(9,289 posts)because the engineers who were spied upon are not "ordinary people who have done nothing wrong." But how can you defend that claim? The engineers obviously didn't do anything wrong. Wait, I've got it! You can say that they are not ordinary people because we had a national security interest in spying on them. Of course, if that is the view, then Obama was basically claiming that people should take comfort in the fact that we will not spy on them unless we have a national security interest in doing so. That would make Obama's words a farce though not strictly false, but maybe no one will notice. So go with that!
Egnever
(21,506 posts)The article makes up a whole story based on a small paragraph of text.
networks
- CINE access to core mobile networks
Billing sewers to suppress SMS billing
Authentication sewers to obtain K's, Ki's and UTA keys
Sales staff machines for customer information and network
engineers machines for network maps
successfully implanted several machines and
believe we have their entire network TDSD are working the
data
Pretty hard to see where they got the sentence you quoted.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)Everybody does it....so it must be OK.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Aerows
(39,961 posts)Or they are avoiding this story like the plague. Wonder why?
bigtree
(85,998 posts)...a suspension of criticism of the government out of a belief that the means justifies the ends; the perverse logic that 'national security' demands our government disregard our own rule of law to defend against the disregard of our rule of law.
*President Bush's reaction to the terrorist attacks on 9-11 was a mix of defiance and rhetoric in his defense of the 'freedom' that he said the attackers wanted to 'destroy'.
"They hate our freedoms - our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other" he declared in an address to a joint session of Congress. "With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends," he said. "They stand against us, because we stand in their way."
In his statement at the signing of the "antiterrorism," Patriot Act, in October 2001, six weeks after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, President Bush claimed that the measure would counter the threat of enemies that "recognize no barrier of morality and have no conscience." He sought to assure that the measure "upheld and respected the civil liberties guaranteed by our Constitution." He ends his statement with a pledge to enforce the law with "all of the urgency of a nation at war."
However, the President neglected to tell us which war he was referring to. The antiterrorism measure was cobbled together in a few short months to take political advantage of the urge in Congress for a legislative response to the terrorist attacks. Despite the president's claim that the bill was "carefully drafted and considered," it is a direct assault on the liberty, privacy, and free expression of all Americans. We should have realized how far reaching this new authority was when the president Bush referred to the bill as a "balanced piece of legislation," and, in the next breath complained that, ". . . investigations are often slowed by limit on the reach of federal search warrants."
Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, at the president's direction, presented a plan;
The Patriot Act of 2001, Public Law 107-56, to monitor the activities of ordinary Americans, which would rival the Reichstag Fire Decree...
(*'Power of Mischief' 2004 -Ron Fullwood)
.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)when I get a hard sell on anything. A car, an insurance policy, a house, and a political or current affairs opinion that doesn't make sense.
If I'm pressed to accept something at face value, particularly when I feel that I don't have enough information to see the big picture, I ask questions.
Reluctance to accept the prima fascia when I see problems doesn't make me a stupid proletariat that is being "divisive" "difficult" or "delusional", it means I am not going to be sold a barrel of piss that is gussy-ed up and public relation-ed to high heaven as "fine Scotch".
We've already been down that road as a nation with the fine whiskey of patriotism, WMD, Patriot Act, mission creep, etc., only to find out that piss is all that is in that barrel.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)Aerows
(39,961 posts)sinks.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Vattel
(9,289 posts)Do they go with the "Hey all nations spy" which concedes that O'bama lied once again about NSA spying, or do they make up some bullshit reason to claim that the engineers who were spied on are not "ordinary people who have done nothing wrong"? Of course they might also just ignore the information to minimize the damage.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)about how the Pentagon and others use social media to manipulate opinion or suppress discussion. It's coming.