This just in from the Edward Snowden vault of government secrets

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This just in from the Edward Snowden vault of government secrets: The National Security Agency is breaking into "potentially millions of computers worldwide" and infecting them with malware "implants" as part of an effort that is increasingly relying on automated systems and not human oversight, according to a by First Look Media report published Wednesday.

And the NSA is pretending to be Facebook to get the job done.

"In some cases the NSA has masqueraded as a fake Facebook server, using the social-media site as a launching pad to infect a target's computer and exfiltrate files from a hard drive," First Look reported on Glenn Greenwald's Intercept channel, citing a classified slide presentation from 2009. "In others, it has sent out spam emails laced with the malware, which can be tailored to covertly record audio from a computer's microphone and take snapshots with its webcam. The hacking systems have also enabled the NSA to launch cyberattacks by corrupting and disrupting file downloads or denying access to websites."

As part of the "industrial-scale exploitation," the agency is leveraging Facebook's global appeal to trick targets into logging in to a doppelganger version of the site, a technique dubbed "Quantumhand." "If this report is accurate, the NSA is acting like a spambot," said Harley Geiger, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology. "The use of malware implants should be targeted against specific threats in tightly controlled situations, but this kind of mass automated surveillance would put countless Internet users at risk."

First Look's report details how the NSA was able to trick target computers by transmitting "malicious data packets" that disguise it as the real Facebook, a process illustrated in this top-secret animation:

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Reply to
Ray Keller
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And the kooks here said I was crazy when I posted that you should black list the dot gov sites with your firewall.....

I don't use Face Book either or Google.....

I avoid all the Liberal Fascist networks and blacklist them.

Reply to
BeamMeUpScotty

And I make sure that I have no webcam nor any mics hooked up to the puter.

Reply to
Gunner Asch

"Its okay, we can listen in via your mobile phone anytime we wish."

Reply to
news13

I'd like to see that . I live down in The Holler , and there just ain't a signal down here . Besides , it's turned off most of the time , and it's the cheapest by-the-month phone Walmart sells . Doubtful there's a gps or anything , hell it ain't even got a camera !

Reply to
Terry Coombs

But you turning it off doesn't keep someone from listening in. The battery must be removed to defeat the eavesdropping. Even on your cheap-ass wal-mart phone. By the way, why do you shop at wal-mart? Don't you care that your tax dollars subsidise the largest retailer in the world? Eric

Reply to
etpm

I do because:

A - they're the closest store to my house.

B - they have good pricing, although Fred Meyer (next closest store) can beat some of the prices all of the time.

C - The Superstore carries a really wide variety of stock.

D - it really pisses off the liberals. ;)

'Splain, please.

BTW, Wally is the largest employer in the USA, next to the gov't, who employs half a million more (2.2mil v. 2.721mil.)

Reply to
Larry Jaques

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