GostHacked Posted February 17, 2015 Report Posted February 17, 2015 http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/nsa-hid-spying-software-in-hard-drive-firmware-report-says-1.2959252 The U.S. National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software deep within hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba and other top manufacturers, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the majority of the world's computers, according to cyber researchers and former operatives. That long-sought and closely guarded ability was part of a cluster of spying programs discovered by Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow-based security software maker that has exposed a series of Western cyberespionage operations. Kaspersky said it found personal computers in 30 countries infected with one or more of the spying programs, with the most infections seen in Iran, followed by Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Mali, Syria, Yemen and Algeria. The targets included government and military institutions, telecommunication companies, banks, energy companies, nuclear researchers, media, and Islamic activists, Kaspersky said. As one comment stands out for me.. 'How is this not terrorism?' We have no idea the extent of this spyware stuff. Also stupid to think this wont come back and bit you in the ass. TVs that listen to you, smartphones that track you, cars that can be hacked... ect ect Quote
The_Squid Posted February 17, 2015 Report Posted February 17, 2015 ummm... it's not terrorism... it's not murder... it's not rape... it's not assault with a deadly weapon... there are lots of things that it's not! give your head a shake.... just call it what it is... no need for crazy tinfoil-hat hyperbole. Quote
GostHacked Posted February 17, 2015 Author Report Posted February 17, 2015 ummm... it's not terrorism... it's not murder... it's not rape... it's not assault with a deadly weapon... there are lots of things that it's not! give your head a shake.... just call it what it is... no need for crazy tinfoil-hat hyperbole. Espionage then? Quote
eyeball Posted February 17, 2015 Report Posted February 17, 2015 Keeping our children and communities safe? Quote I said now watch what you say they'll be calling you a radical, a liberal, oh fanatical criminal
bush_cheney2004 Posted February 17, 2015 Report Posted February 17, 2015 Gee....who knew that bit torrents and stealing mp3 files was terrorism ? Quote Economics trumps Virtue.
GostHacked Posted February 17, 2015 Author Report Posted February 17, 2015 So I guess this is not terrorism. http://www.extremetech.com/computing/133773-rakshasa-the-hardware-backdoor-that-china-could-embed-in-every-computer It’s the Information Age apocalypse: What if, no matter how hard you tried, every computer on the market — from PCs to smartphones to fridges to cars — came pre-loaded with an irremovable backdoor that allowed the government or other nefarious agents to snoop on your data, behavior, and communications? Believe it or not, we already have the technology to do this. It’s called a hardware backdoor, and it’s a lot like a software virus that grants backdoor access to your computer — but the code resides in the firmware of a computer chip. In short, firmware is software that is stored in non-volatile memory on a computer chip, and is used to initialize a piece of hardware’s functionality. In a PC, the BIOS is the most common example of firmware — but in the case of wireless routers, a whole Linux operating system is stored in firmware. Hardware backdoors are lethal for three reasons: a) They can’t be removed by conventional means (antivirus, formatting); They can circumvent other types of security (passwords, encrypted filesystems); and c) They can be injected at manufacturing time. At the Black Hat security conference last week, assembly master and long-time security consultant Jonathan Brossard demonstrated a proof-of-concept hardware backdoor. Called Rakshasa (which are unrighteous spirits in Hindu and Buddhist mythoi), this backdoor is persistent, very hard to detect, portable, and because it’s built using open-source tools (Coreboot, SeaBIOS, and iPXE) it could be used by governments and still grant them plausible deniability. When large parts of infrastructure fails, keep this thread in mind. Quote
overthere Posted February 17, 2015 Report Posted February 17, 2015 Umm, can you give ne a date and time I should run shrieking into the street? Quote Science too hard for you? Try religion!
Moonlight Graham Posted February 18, 2015 Report Posted February 18, 2015 Espionage, not terrorism. Quote "All generalizations are false, including this one." - Mark Twain Partisanship is a disease of the intellect.
Topaz Posted February 18, 2015 Report Posted February 18, 2015 It's been reported that Smart TV, has a some sort of listening device in them and some sellers of the product are suppose to tell customers as much, I've read. One guy, took his TV back because he didn't want his privacy invade by anyone. Quote
bush_cheney2004 Posted February 18, 2015 Report Posted February 18, 2015 Yes...espionage...that is what I pay the NSA to do. Good job NSA...time for another caper ! Quote Economics trumps Virtue.
On Guard for Thee Posted February 18, 2015 Report Posted February 18, 2015 I pay Ed Snowden to bust em. Hes doing pretty good eh. Quote
overthere Posted February 18, 2015 Report Posted February 18, 2015 It's been reported that Smart TV, has a some sort of listening device in them and some sellers of the product are suppose to tell customers as much, I've read. One guy, took his TV back because he didn't want his privacy invade by anyone. The listening device is called a 'microphone'. If you have voice command in your TV, you'll have a microphone. Quote Science too hard for you? Try religion!
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