XKeyscore gives ‘widest-reaching’ collection of online data  NSA analysts require no prior authorization for searches  Sweeps up emails, social media activity and browsing history

A top secret National Security Agency program allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals, according to documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The NSA boasts in training materials that the program, called XKeyscore, is its “widest-reaching” system for developing intelligence from the internet.

The latest revelations will add to the intense public and congressional debate around the extent of NSA surveillance programs. They come as senior intelligence officials testify to the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday, releasing classified documents in response to the Guardian’s earlier stories on bulk collection of phone records and Fisa surveillance court oversight.

The files shed light on one of Snowden’s most controversial statements, made in his first video interview published by the Guardian on June 10.

“I, sitting at my desk,” said Snowden, could “wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge or even the president, if I had a personal email”.

US officials vehemently denied this specific claim. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, said of Snowden’s assertion: “He’s lying. It’s impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do.”

But training materials for XKeyscore detail how analysts can use it and other systems to mine enormous agency databases by filling in a simple on-screen form giving only a broad justification for the search. The request is not reviewed by a court or any NSA personnel before it is processed.

 

XKeyScore – the NSA’s secret tool that collects and reveals ‘nearly everything a user does on the internet’

 

XKeyscore, the documents boast, is the NSA’s “widest reaching” system developing intelligence from computer networks – what the agency calls Digital Network Intelligence (DNI). One presentation claims the program covers “nearly everything a typical user does on the internet”, including the content of emails, websites visited and searches, as well as their metadata.

Analysts can also use XKeyscore and other NSA systems to obtain ongoing “real-time” interception of an individual’s internet activity.

Under US law, the NSA is required to obtain an individualized Fisa warrant only if the target of their surveillance is a ‘US person’, though no such warrant is required for intercepting the communications of Americans with foreign targets. But XKeyscore provides the technological capability, if not the legal authority, to target even US persons for extensive electronic surveillance without a warrant provided that some identifying information, such as their email or IP address, is known to the analyst.

One training slide illustrates the digital activity constantly being collected by XKeyscore and the analyst’s ability to query the databases at any time.

The purpose of XKeyscore is to allow analysts to search the metadata as well as the content of emails and other internet activity, such as browser history, even when there is no known email account (a “selector” in NSA parlance) associated with the individual being targeted.

Analysts can also search by name, telephone number, IP address, keywords, the language in which the internet activity was conducted or the type of browser used.

One document notes that this is because “strong selection [search by email address] itself gives us only a very limited capability” because “a large amount of time spent on the web is performing actions that are anonymous.”

The NSA documents assert that by 2008, 300 terrorists had been captured using intelligence from XKeyscore.

Analysts are warned that searching the full database for content will yield too many results to sift through. Instead they are advised to use the metadata also stored in the databases to narrow down what to review.

A slide entitled “plug-ins” in a December 2012 document describes the various fields of information that can be searched. It includes “every email address seen in a session by both username and domain”, “every phone number seen in a session (eg address book entries or signature block)” and user activity – “the webmail and chat activity to include username, buddylist, machine specific cookies etc”.

Email monitoring

In a second Guardian interview in June, Snowden elaborated on his statement about being able to read any individual’s email if he had their email address. He said the claim was based in part on the email search capabilities of XKeyscore, which Snowden says he was authorized to use while working as a Booz Allen contractor for the NSA.

One top-secret document describes how the program “searches within bodies of emails, webpages and documents”, including the “To, From, CC, BCC lines” and the ‘Contact Us’ pages on websites”.

To search for emails, an analyst using XKS enters the individual’s email address into a simple online search form, along with the “justification” for the search and the time period for which the emails are sought.

The analyst then selects which of those returned emails they want to read by opening them in NSA reading software.

The system is similar to the way in which NSA analysts generally can intercept the communications of anyone they select, including, as one NSA document put it, “communications that transit the United States and communications that terminate in the United States”.

One document, a top secret 2010 guide describing the training received by NSA analysts for general surveillance under the Fisa Amendments Act of 2008, explains that analysts can begin surveillance on anyone by clicking a few simple pull-down menus designed to provide both legal and targeting justifications. Once options on the pull-down menus are selected, their target is marked for electronic surveillance and the analyst is able to review the content of their communications:

Chats, browsing history and other internet activity

Beyond emails, the XKeyscore system allows analysts to monitor a virtually unlimited array of other internet activities, including those within social media.

An NSA tool called DNI Presenter, used to read the content of stored emails, also enables an analyst using XKeyscore to read the content of Facebook chats or private messages.

An analyst can monitor such Facebook chats by entering the Facebook user name and a date range into a simple search screen.

Analysts can search for internet browsing activities using a wide range of information, including search terms entered by the user or the websites viewed.

As one slide indicates, the ability to search HTTP activity by keyword permits the analyst access to what the NSA calls “nearly everything a typical user does on the internet”.

The XKeyscore program also allows an analyst to learn the IP addresses of every person who visits any website the analyst specifies.

The quantity of communications accessible through programs such as XKeyscore is staggeringly large. One NSA report from 2007 estimated that there were 850bn “call events” collected and stored in the NSA databases, and close to 150bn internet records. Each day, the document says, 1-2bn records were added.

William Binney, a former NSA mathematician, said last year that the agency had “assembled on the order of 20tn transactions about US citizens with other US citizens”, an estimate, he said, that “only was involving phone calls and emails”. A 2010 Washington Post article reported that “every day, collection systems at the [NSA] intercept and store 1.7bn emails, phone calls and other type of communications.”

The XKeyscore system is continuously collecting so much internet data that it can be stored only for short periods of time. Content remains on the system for only three to five days, while metadata is stored for 30 days. One document explains: “At some sites, the amount of data we receive per day (20+ terabytes) can only be stored for as little as 24 hours.”

To solve this problem, the NSA has created a multi-tiered system that allows analysts to store “interesting” content in other databases, such as one named Pinwale which can store material for up to five years.

It is the databases of XKeyscore, one document shows, that now contain the greatest amount of communications data collected by the NSA.

In 2012, there were at least 41 billion total records collected and stored in XKeyscore for a single 30-day period.

Legal v technical restrictions

While the Fisa Amendments Act of 2008 requires an individualized warrant for the targeting of US persons, NSA analysts are permitted to intercept the communications of such individuals without a warrant if they are in contact with one of the NSA’s foreign targets.

The ACLU’s deputy legal director, Jameel Jaffer, told the Guardian last month that national security officials expressly said that a primary purpose of the new law was to enable them to collect large amounts of Americans’ communications without individualized warrants.

“The government doesn’t need to ‘target’ Americans in order to collect huge volumes of their communications,” said Jaffer. “The government inevitably sweeps up the communications of many Americans” when targeting foreign nationals for surveillance.

An example is provided by one XKeyscore document showing an NSA target in Tehran communicating with people in Frankfurt, Amsterdam and New York.

In recent years, the NSA has attempted to segregate exclusively domestic US communications in separate databases. But even NSA documents acknowledge that such efforts are imperfect, as even purely domestic communications can travel on foreign systems, and NSA tools are sometimes unable to identify the national origins of communications.

Moreover, all communications between Americans and someone on foreign soil are included in the same databases as foreign-to-foreign communications, making them readily searchable without warrants.

Some searches conducted by NSA analysts are periodically reviewed by their supervisors within the NSA. “It’s very rare to be questioned on our searches,” Snowden told the Guardian in June, “and even when we are, it’s usually along the lines of: ‘let’s bulk up the justification’.”

In a letter this week to senator Ron Wyden, director of national intelligence James Clapper acknowledged that NSA analysts have exceeded even legal limits as interpreted by the NSA in domestic surveillance.

Acknowledging what he called “a number of compliance problems”, Clapper attributed them to “human error” or “highly sophisticated technology issues” rather than “bad faith”.

However, Wyden said on the Senate floor on Tuesday: “These violations are more serious than those stated by the intelligence community, and are troubling.”

In a statement to the Guardian, the NSA said: “NSA’s activities are focused and specifically deployed against – and only against – legitimate foreign intelligence targets in response to requirements that our leaders need for information necessary to protect our nation and its interests.

“XKeyscore is used as a part of NSA’s lawful foreign signals intelligence collection system.

“Allegations of widespread, unchecked analyst access to NSA collection data are simply not true. Access to XKeyscore, as well as all of NSA’s analytic tools, is limited to only those personnel who require access for their assigned tasks … In addition, there are multiple technical, manual and supervisory checks and balances within the system to prevent deliberate misuse from occurring.”

“Every search by an NSA analyst is fully auditable, to ensure that they are proper and within the law.

“These types of programs allow us to collect the information that enables us to perform our missions successfully – to defend the nation and to protect US and allied troops abroad.”

X-Keyscore:
Allows the NSA and Allies to Monitor Emails,
Web Browsing, Internet Searches and Social Media

XKeyscore 

XKeyscore (XKEYSCORE or XKS) is a secret computer system used by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) for searching and analyzing global Internet data, which it collects in real time. The NSA has shared XKeyscore with other intelligence agencies, including the Australian Signals Directorate, Canada’s Communications Security Establishment, New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau, Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters, Japan’s Defense Intelligence Headquarters, and Germany’s Bundesnachrichtendienst.^[1]

In July 2013, Edward Snowden publicly revealed the program’s purpose and use by the NSA in The Sydney Morning Herald and O Globo newspapers. The code name was already public knowledge because it was mentioned in earlier articles, and, like many other code names, it appears in job postings and online résumés of employees.^[2][3]

On July 3, 2014, German public broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk, a member of ARD, published excerpts of XKeyscore’s source code.^[4] A team of experts analyzed the source code.^[5] cited

XKEYSCORE

NSA’s Google for the World’s Private Communications

Morgan Marquis-Boire, Glenn Greenwald, Micah Lee cited theintercept.com

ONE OF THE National Security Agency’s most powerful tools of mass surveillance makes tracking someone’s Internet usage as easy as entering an email address, and provides no built-in technology to prevent abuse. Today, The Intercept is publishing 48 top-secret and other classified documents about XKEYSCORE dated up to 2013, which shed new light on the breadth, depth and functionality of this critical spy system — one of the largest releases yet of documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The NSA’s XKEYSCORE program, first revealed by The Guardian, sweeps up countless people’s Internet searches, emails, documents, usernames and passwords, and other private communications. XKEYSCORE is fed a constant flow of Internet traffic from fiber optic cables that make up the backbone of the world’s communication network, among other sources, for processing. As of 2008, the surveillance system boasted approximately 150 field sites in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, United Kingdom, Spain, Russia, Nigeria, Somalia, Pakistan, Japan, Australia, as well as many other countries, consisting of over 700 servers.

These servers store “full-take data” at the collection sites — meaning that they captured all of the traffic collected — and, as of 2009, stored content for 3 to 5 days and metadata for 30 to 45 days. NSA documents indicate that tens of billions of records are stored in its database. “It is a fully distributed processing and query system that runs on machines around the world,” an NSA briefing on XKEYSCORE says. “At field sites, XKEYSCORE can run on multiple computers that gives it the ability to scale in both processing power and storage.”

XKEYSCORE also collects and processes Internet traffic from Americans, though NSA analysts are taught to avoid querying the system in ways that might result in spying on U.S. data. Experts and privacy activists, however, have long doubted that such exclusions are effective in preventing large amounts of American data from being swept up. One document The Intercept is publishing today suggests that FISA warrants have authorized “full-take” collection of traffic from at least some U.S. web forums.

The system is not limited to collecting web traffic. The 2013 document, “VoIP Configuration and Forwarding Read Me,” details how to forward VoIP data from XKEYSCORE into NUCLEON, NSA’s repository for voice intercepts, facsimile, video and “pre-released transcription.” At the time, it supported more than 8,000 users globally and was made up of 75 servers absorbing 700,000 voice, fax, video and tag files per day.

The reach and potency of XKEYSCORE as a surveillance instrument is astonishing. The Guardian report noted that NSA itself refers to the program as its “widest reaching” system. In February of this year, The Intercept reported that NSA and GCHQ hacked into the internal network of Gemalto, the world’s largest provider of cell phone SIM cards, in order to steal millions of encryption keys used to protect the privacy of cell phone communication. XKEYSCORE played a vital role in the spies’ hacking by providing government hackers access to the email accounts of Gemalto employees.

Numerous key NSA partners, including Canada, New Zealand and the U.K., have access to the mass surveillance databases of XKEYSCORE. In March, the New Zealand Herald, in partnership with The Intercept, revealed that the New Zealand government used XKEYSCORE to spy on candidates for the position of World Trade Organization director general and also members of the Solomon Islands government.

These newly published documents demonstrate that collected communications not only include emails, chats and web-browsing traffic, but also pictures, documents, voice calls, webcam photos, web searches, advertising analytics traffic, social media traffic, botnet traffic, logged keystrokes, computer network exploitation (CNE) targeting, intercepted username and password pairs, file uploads to online services, Skype sessions and more.

Bulk collection and population surveillance

XKEYSCORE allows for incredibly broad surveillance of people based on perceived patterns of suspicious behavior. It is possible, for instance, to query the system to show the activities of people based on their location, nationality and websites visited. For instance, one slide displays the search “germansinpakistn,” showing an analyst querying XKEYSCORE for all individuals in Pakistan visiting specific German language message boards.

As sites like Twitter and Facebook become increasingly significant in the world’s day-to-day communications (a Pew study shows that 71 percent of online adults in the U.S. use Facebook), they become a critical source of surveillance data. Traffic from popular social media sites is described as “a great starting point” for tracking individuals, according to an XKEYSCORE presentation titled “Tracking Targets on Online Social Networks.”

When intelligence agencies collect massive amounts of Internet traffic all over the world, they face the challenge of making sense of that data. The vast quantities collected make it difficult to connect the stored traffic to specific individuals.

Internet companies have also encountered this problem and have solved it by tracking their users with identifiers that are unique to each individual, often in the form of browser cookies. Cookies are small pieces of data that websites store in visitors’ browsers. They are used for a variety of purposes, including authenticating users (cookies make it possible to log in to websites), storing preferences, and uniquely tracking individuals even if they’re using the same IP address as many other people. Websites also embed code used by third-party services to collect analytics or host ads, which also use cookies to track users. According to one slide, “Almost all websites have cookies enabled.”

The NSA’s ability to piggyback off of private companies’ tracking of their own users is a vital instrument that allows the agency to trace the data it collects to individual users. It makes no difference if visitors switch to public Wi-Fi networks or connect to VPNs to change their IP addresses: the tracking cookie will follow them around as long as they are using the same web browser and fail to clear their cookies.

Apps that run on tablets and smartphones also use analytics services that uniquely track users. Almost every time a user sees an advertisement (in an app or in a web browser), the ad network is tracking users in the same way. A secret GCHQ and CSE program called BADASS, which is similar to XKEYSCORE but with a much narrower scope, mines as much valuable information from leaky smartphone apps as possible, including unique tracking identifiers that app developers use to track their own users. In May of this year, CBC, in partnership with The Intercept, revealed that XKEYSCORE was used to track smartphone connections to the app marketplaces run by Samsung and Google. Surveillance agency analysts also use other types of traffic data that gets scooped into XKEYSCORE to track people, such as Windows crash reports.

In a statement to The Intercept, the NSA reiterated its position that such sweeping surveillance capabilities are needed to fight the War on Terror:

“The U.S. Government calls on its intelligence agencies to protect the United States, its citizens, and its allies from a wide array of serious threats. These threats include terrorist plots from al-Qaeda, ISIL, and others; the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; foreign aggression against the United States and our allies; and international criminal organizations.”

Indeed, one of the specific examples of XKEYSCORE applications given in the documents is spying on Shaykh Atiyatallah, an al Qaeda senior leader and Osama bin Laden confidant. A few years before his death, Atiyatallah did what many people have often done: He googled himself. He searched his various aliases, an associate and the name of his book. As he did so, all of that information was captured by XKEYSCORE.

XKEYSCORE has, however, also been used to spy on non-terrorist targets. The April 18, 2013 issue of the internal NSA publication Special Source Operations Weekly boasts that analysts were successful in using XKEYSCORE to obtain U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s talking points prior to a meeting with President Obama.

XKEYSCORE for hacking: Easily collecting user names, passwords and much more

XKEYSCORE plays a central role in how the U.S. government and its surveillance allies hack computer networks around the world. One top-secret 2009 NSA document describes how the system is used by the NSA to gather information for the Office of Tailored Access Operations, an NSA division responsible for Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) — i.e., targeted hacking.

Particularly in 2009, the hacking tactics enabled by XKEYSCORE would have yielded significant returns as use of encryption was less widespread than today. Jonathan Brossard, a security researcher and the CEO of Toucan Systems, told The Intercept: “Anyone could be trained to do this in less than one day: they simply enter the name of the server they want to hack into XKEYSCORE, type enter, and are presented login and password pairs to connect to this machine. Done. Finito.” Previous reporting by The Intercept revealed that systems administrators are a popular target of the NSA. “Who better to target than the person that already has the ‘keys to the kingdom?’” read a 2012 post on an internal NSA discussion board.

This system enables analysts to access web mail servers with remarkable ease.

The same methods are used to steal the credentials — user names and passwords — of individual users of message boards.

Hacker forums are also monitored for people selling or using exploits and other hacking tools. While the NSA is clearly monitoring to understand the capabilities developed by its adversaries, it is also monitoring locations where such capabilities can be purchased.

Other information gained via XKEYSCORE facilitates the remote exploitation of target computers. By extracting browser fingerprint and operating system versions from Internet traffic, the system allows analysts to quickly assess the exploitability of a target. Brossard, the security researcher, said that “NSA has built an impressively complete set of automated hacking tools for their analysts to use.”

Given the breadth of information collected by XKEYSCORE, accessing and exploiting a target’s online activity is a matter of a few mouse clicks. Brossard explains: “The amount of work an analyst has to perform to actually break into remote computers over the Internet seems ridiculously reduced — we are talking minutes, if not seconds. Simple. As easy as typing a few words in Google.”

These facts bolster one of Snowden’s most controversial statements, made in his first video interview published by The Guardian on June 9, 2013. “I, sitting at my desk,” said Snowden, could “wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant, to a federal judge to even the president, if I had a personal email.”

Indeed, training documents for XKEYSCORE repeatedly highlight how user-friendly the program is: with just a few clicks, any analyst with access to it can conduct sweeping searches simply by entering a person’s email address, telephone number, name or other identifying data. There is no indication in the documents reviewed that prior approval is needed for specific searches.

In addition to login credentials and other target intelligence, XKEYSCORE collects router configuration information, which it shares with Tailored Access Operations. The office is able to exploit routers and then feed the traffic traveling through those routers into their collection infrastructure. This allows the NSA to spy on traffic from otherwise out-of-reach networks. XKEYSCORE documents reference router configurations, and a document previously published by Der Spiegel shows that “active implants” can be used to “cop[y] traffic and direc[t]” it past a passive collector.

XKEYSCORE for counterintelligence

Beyond enabling the collection, categorization, and querying of metadata and content, XKEYSCORE has also been used to monitor the surveillance and hacking actions of foreign nation states and to gather the fruits of their hacking. The Intercept previously reported that NSA and its allies spy on hackers in order to collect what they collect.

Once the hacking tools and techniques of a foreign entity (for instance, South Korea) are identified, analysts can then extract the country’s espionage targets from XKEYSCORE, and gather information that the foreign power has managed to steal.

Monitoring of foreign state hackers could allow the NSA to gather techniques and tools used by foreign actors, including knowledge of zero-day exploits—software bugs that allow attackers to hack into systems, and that not even the software vendor knows about—and implants. Additionally, by monitoring vulnerability reports sent to vendors such as Kaspersky, the agency could learn when exploits they were actively using need to be retired because they’ve been discovered by a third party.

Seizure v. searching: Oversight, audit trail and the Fourth Amendment

By the nature of how it sweeps up information, XKEYSCORE gathers communications of Americans, despite the Fourth Amendment protection against “unreasonable search and seizure” — including searching data without a warrant. The NSA says it does not target U.S. citizens’ communications without a warrant, but acknowledges that it “incidentally” collects and reads some of it without one, minimizing the information that is retained or shared.

But that interpretation of the law is dubious at best.

XKEYSCORE training documents say that the “burden is on user/auditor to comply with USSID-18 or other rules,” apparently including the British Human Rights Act (HRA), which protects the rights of U.K. citizens. U.S. Signals Intelligence Directive 18 (USSID 18) is the American directive that governs “U.S. person minimization.”

Kurt Opsahl, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s general counsel, describes USSID 18 as “an attempt by the intelligence community to comply with the Fourth Amendment. But it doesn’t come from a court, it comes from the executive.”

If, for instance, an analyst searched XKEYSCORE for all iPhone users, this query would violate USSID 18 due to the inevitable American iPhone users that would be grabbed without a warrant, as the NSA’s own training materials make clear.

Opsahl believes that analysts are not prevented by technical means from making queries that violate USSID 18. “The document discusses whether auditors will be happy or unhappy. This indicates that compliance will be achieved by after-the-fact auditing, not by preventing the search.”

Screenshots of the XKEYSCORE web-based user interface included in slides show that analysts see a prominent warning message: “This system is audited for USSID 18 and Human Rights Act compliance.” When analysts log in to the system, they see a more detailed message warning that “an audit trail has been established and will be searched” in response to HRA complaints, and as part of the USSID 18 and USSID 9 audit process.

Because the XKEYSCORE system does not appear to prevent analysts from making queries that would be in violation of these rules, Opsahl concludes that “there’s a tremendous amount of power being placed in the hands of analysts.” And while those analysts may be subject to audits, “at least in the short term they can still obtain information that they shouldn’t have.”

During a symposium in January 2015 hosted at Harvard University, Edward Snowden, who spoke via video call, said that NSA analysts are “completely free from any meaningful oversight.” Speaking about the people who audit NSA systems like XKEYSCORE for USSID 18 compliance, he said, “The majority of the people who are doing the auditing are the friends of the analysts. They work in the same office. They’re not full-time auditors, they’re guys who have other duties assigned. There are a few traveling auditors who go around and look at the things that are out there, but really it’s not robust.”

In a statement to The Intercept, the NSA said:

“The National Security Agency’s foreign intelligence operations are 1) authorized by law; 2) subject to multiple layers of stringent internal and external oversight; and 3) conducted in a manner that is designed to protect privacy and civil liberties. As provided for by Presidential Policy Directive 28 (PPD-28), all persons, regardless of their nationality, have legitimate privacy interests in the handling of their personal information. NSA goes to great lengths to narrowly tailor and focus its signals intelligence operations on the collection of communications that are most likely to contain foreign intelligence or counterintelligence information.”

XKeyscore: NSA tool collects ‘nearly everything a user does on the internet’

• XKeyscore gives ‘widest-reaching’ collection of online data
• NSA analysts require no prior authorization for searches
• Sweeps up emails, social media activity and browsing history

• NSA-backdoored equipment info found OFF this website
• U.S. Government Catalogue of Cellphone Surveillance Devices
• Backdoors on Wikipedia
• National Security Agency
• Central Intelligence Agency
• NSA EXTRACTED INFO
• CRYPTO MUSEUM
• Edward Snowden
• Stingray
• Pegasus Spyware
• X-Keyscore

Check out our article on the NSA SPYING SOFTWARE for CELL PHONES called Pegasus – Pegasus spyware: FBI vows not to use after grilling from Capitol Hill

Advanced Network Technologies (ANT) is a department of the US National Security Agency (NSA), that provides tools for the NSA‘s Tailored Access Operations (TAO) ¹ unit and other internal and external clients. With the tools it is possible to eavesdrop on conversations (room bugging), personal computers, networks, video displays, and a lot more, using covertly installed hard- and software implants (covert ware). Most of it is built from commercial off-the-shelf parts (COTS).

Some of these products are listed in the ANT Product Catalogue, an internal NSA document that was intended for the US intelligence and law-enforcement community, and that was disclosed to the press on 29 December 2013 by an unknown source. It is believed that this source is not NSA whistleblower Edward Swowden, which means there is at least one other whistleblower [3][5].

➤ Browse the NSA ANT catalog Here

LOUDAUTO is the codename or cryptonym of a covert listening device (bug), developed around 2007 by the US National Security Agency (NSA) as part of their ANT product portfolio. The device is an audio-based RF retro reflector that should be activited (illuminated) by a strong continuous wave (CW) 1 GHz ¹ radio frequency (RF) signal, beamed at it from a nearby listening post (LP).

Although the device is activated by an external illumination signal, it should also be powered by local 3V DC source – typically provided by two button cells – from which it draws just 15µA. In this respect, it is a semi-passive element (SPE).

Room audio is picked up and amplified by a Knowles miniature microphone, that modulates the re-radiated illumination signal by means of Pulse Position Modulation (PPM). The re-emitted signal is received at the listening post – typically by a CTX-4000 or PHOTOANGLO system – and further processed by means of COTS equipment.

LOUDAUTO is part of the ANGRYNEIGHBOR family of radar retro-reflectors. In this context, the term radar refers to the continuous wave activation beam from the listening post, that operates in the 1-2 GHz frequency band. The processing and demodulation of the returned signal is typically done by means of a commercial spectrum analyser, such as the Rohde & Schwarz FSH-series, that has been enhanced with FM demodulating capabilities. In many respects, LOUDAUTO can be seen as a further development of the CIA‘s EASY CHAIR passive elements, combined with later active bugging devices, like the SRT-52 and SRT-56, which also used Pulse Position Modulation (PPM).

Information about LOUDAUTO was first published in an internal Top Secret (TS) NSA document on 1 August 2007, that was available to the so-called five eyes countries (FVEY) ² only. Although it was scheduled for declassification on 1 August 2032 (25 years after its inception), it was revealed to the public on 29 December 2013 by the German magazine Der Spiegel. The source of this leak is still unknown. ³ According to a product datasheet of 7 April 2009, the price of a single LOUDAUTO device was just US$ 30. According to that document, the end processing — presumably the demodulation — was still under development in 2009 [1].

FiREWALK

FIREWALK is the codename or cryptonym of a covert implant, developed around 2007 by or on behalf of the US National Security Agency (NSA) as part of their ANT product portfolio. The device is implanted into the RJ45 socket of the Ethernet interface of a PC or a network peripheral, and can intercept bidirectional gigabit ethernet traffic and inject data packets into the target network.

The implant is housed inside a regular stacked RJ45/twin-USB socket, such as the one shown in the image on the right. At the top are two LEDs and inside are the ethernet transformer and in some cases even an Ethernet Phy (eg. Broadcom).

NSA was able to manipulate this standard off-the-shelf computer part – probably somewhere in the supply chain or directly at the factory where the product was assembled – and replace the internal electronics by a miniature ARM9 / FPGA computer platform, named TRINITY [2].

Also implanted inside the socket, is a miniature wideband radio frequency (RF) tranceiver, named HOWLERMONKEY. It allows the implant to bypass an existing firewall or air gap protection [3].

The implant is suitable for 10/100/1000 Mb (gigabit) networks and intercepts all network traffic, with is then sent through a VPN tunnel, using the HOWLERMONKEY RF module. If the distance between the target network and the node to the Remote Operations Center (ROC) is too large, other implants in the same building may be used to relay the signal. The implant can also be used to insert data packets into the target network. The diagram below shows the construction.

At the left are the RJ45 and twin-USB sockets, with two LED indicators at the top. Immediately behind the sockets is a PCB with the power circuitry. At the back is the actual NSA FIREWALK implant, which is built around a TRINITY multi-chip module, consisting of an 180 MHz ARM9 microcontroller, an FPGA with 1 million gates, 96 MB SDRAM and 4 MB Flash memory. The latter contains the firmware, which can be tailored for a specific application or operation. In practice, the firmware would filter the network packets and relay the desired ones to the NSA’s ROC, using a nearby RF node (outside the building) and the internet to transport the intercepted data [1].

The above information was taken from original NSA datasheets from January 2007, that were disclosed to the press in 2013 by former CIA / NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The items were developed by, or on behalf of, the cyber-warfare intelligence-gathering unit of the NSA, known as The Office of Tailored Access Operations (TAO), since renamed Computer Network Operations [4].

Cryptonyms

All products in the ANT catalogue are identified by a codeword or cryptonym, which is sometimes abbreviated. At present, the following ANT cryptonyms are known:

NSA Spy Gear

• ANGRYNEIGHBOR
• CANDYGRAM
• CROSSBEAM
• CTX4000
• CYCLONE Hx9
• DEITYBOUNCE
• DROPOUTJEEP
• EBSR
• ENTOURAGE
• FEEDTROUGH
• GENESIS
• GINSU
• GODSURGE
• GOPHERSET
• COTTONMOUTH-I
• COTTONMOUTH-II
• COTTONMOUTH-III

• FIREWALK
• GOURMETTROUGH
• HALLUXWATER
• HEADWATER
• HOWLERMONKEY
• IRATEMONK
• IRONCHEF
• JETPLOW
• JUNIORMINT
• LOUDAUTO
• MAESTRO-II
• MONKEYCALENDAR
• NEBULA
• NIGHTSTAND
• NIGHTWATCH
• PHOTOANGLO
• PICASSO

• RAGEMASTER
• SCHOOLMONTANA
• SIERRAMONTANA
• SOMBERKNAVE
• SOUFFLETROUGH
• SPARROW II
• STUCCOMONTANA
• SURLYSPAWN
• SWAP
• TOTECHASER
• TOTEGHOSTLY
• TAWDRYYARD
• TRINITY
• TYPHON HX
• WATERWITCH
• WISTFULTOLL

Room surveillance

• CTX-4000
• LOUDAUTO
• NIGHTWATCH
• PHOTOANGLO
• TAWDRYYARD

Documentation

1. NSA, ANT Product catalog
   8 January 2007. Obtained from [2].

References

1. IC off the Record, The NSA Toolbox: ANT Product Catalog
   29-30 December 2013.
2. Jacob Appelbaum, Judith Horchert, Christian Stöcker, Catalogue Advertises NSA Toolbox
   Spiegel Online. 29 December 2013.
3. Wikipedia, NSA ANT catalog
   Retrieved November 2020.
4. Wikipedia, Tailored Access Operations
   Retrieved November 2020.
5. James Bamford, Commentary: Evidence points to another Snowden at the NSA
   Reuters, 22 August 2016.

Further information

• About the NSA
• About the CIA
• Other bugs

source

Backdoors – Exploitable weaknesses in a cipher system

Deliberate weakening of a cipher system, commonly known as a backdoor, is a technique that is used by, or on behalf of, intelligence agencies like the US National Security Agency (NSA) – and others – to make it easier for them to break the cipher and access the data. It is often thought that intelligence services have a Master Key that gives them instant access to the data, but in reality it is often much more complicated, and requires the use of sophisticated computing skills.

In the past, intelligence services like the NSA weakened the ciphers just enough to allow it to be barely broken with the computing power that was available to them (e.g. by using their vast array of Cray super computers), assuming that other parties did not have that capability. Implementing a backdoor is difficult and dangerous, as it might be discovered by the user — after which it can no longer be used — or by another party, in which case it can be exploited by an adversary.

Below is a non-exhaustive overview of known backdoor constructions and examples:

• Weakening of the encryption algorithm
• Weakening the KEY
• Hiding the KEY in the cipher text
• Manipulation of user instructions (manual)
• Key generator with predictive output
• Implementation of a hidden ‘unlock’ key (master key)
• Key escrow
• Side channel attack (TEMPEST)
• Unintended backdoors
• Covertly installed hard- and/or software (spyware)

Weakening of the algorithm

One of the most widely used types of backdoor, is weakening of the algorithm. This was done with mechanical cipher machines – such as the CX-52 – electronic ones – such as the H-460 – and software-based encryption. NSA often weakened the algorithm just enough to break it with the help from a super computer (e.g. Cray), assuming that adversaries did not have that capacity.

This solution is universal. It can be applied to mechanical, electronic and computer-based encryption systems. One of the first known examples is the weakening of the Hagelin CX-52 by Peter Jenks of the NSA, in the early 1960s [1].

The Hagelin CX-52 had the problem that it was theoretically safe when used correctly. It was possible however to configure the device in such a way that it produced a short cycle, as a result of which it became easy to break. Jenks modified the CX-52 in such a way that it always produced a long cycle, albeit one that he could predict.

The modified product was designated CX-52M and was marketed by Crypto AG as a new version with improved security, which customers immediately started ordering in quantities. He repeated the exercise in the mid-1960s, when Crypto AG moved from mechanical to electronic designs.

The first electronic cipher machines were built around (non)linear feedback shift registers – LFSR or NLFSR – built with the (then) newest generation of integrated circuits (ICs). This part is commonly known as the crypto heart or the cryptologic. Jenks manipulated the shift registers in such as way that it seemed robust from the outside. Nevertheless NSA could break it, as they knew the exact nature of the built-in weakness.

Manipulating the cryptologic, or actually the cryptographic algorithm, requires quite some mathematical ingenuity, and is not trivial at all.

During the 1970s, the weaknesses were discovered by several (unwitting) Crypto AG employees and even by customers. Crypto AG usually fended them off with the excuse that the algorithm had been developed a long time ago, and that an improved version would be released soon. It should be no surprise that hiding the weaknesses became increasingly difficult over the years.

The same principle can be applied to software-implementations of cryptographic algorithms as well, but it has become extremely difficult to do that in such a way that it passes existing tests, such as NIST entropy-tests, and can with­stand the peer review of the academic community.

Another popular method for weakening a cipher system, is by shortening the effective length of the crypto KEY. The length is typically specified in bits, and in the 1980s, the keys of military cipher systems were typically 128 bits long, which was about twice the length that was needed.

The DES encryption algorithm – that was used for bank transactions – had a key length of 56 bits. It had been developed by Horst Feistel at IBM as Lucifer and had been improved by NSA.

In 1983, the small Dutch company Text Lite, introduced the small PX-1000 pocket terminal shown in the image on the right. It had a built-in text editor and an acoustic modem, by which texts could be uploaded in seconds. The device used DES encryption for the protection of the text messages, which was thought to be useful for journalists and business men on the move.

DES was considered secure at the time. Although it might have been breakable by NSA, doing so would cost a lot of resources (i.e. computing power). With DES available in a consumer product for an affordable price, NSA faced a serious problem, and turned to Philips Usfa

for assistence.Philips bought the entire stock of

DES-enabled devices and shipped it to the US. The product was then re-released under the Philips brand, with an algorithm that was supplied by NSA.

The new algorithm was a stream cipher with a key-length of no less than 64 bits. This is more than the 56 bits of DES, and suggested that it was a least a strong as DES, and probably even stronger. By reverse engineering the algorithm, Crypto Museum has meanwhile concluded that of the 64 key bits, only 32 are significant. This means that the key has effectively been halved.

Does this mean that it takes only half the time to break the key? No, as each key-bit doubles the number of combinations, removing 32 bits means that it has become 4,294,967,296 times easier to break the key (2³²). For example: if we assume that it takes one full year to break a 64-bit key, breaking a 32-bit key would take just 0.007 seconds. A piece of cake for NSA‘s super computers.

Hide the KEY in the ciphertext

It is sometimes suggested that the cryptographic key might be hidden in the output stream (i.e. in the cipher text). Not in a readable form, of course, but when you known where to look, the key will reveal itself. Although this method is prone to discovery it has in fact been used in the past.

A good example of this technique is the Hagelin CSE-280 voice encryptor, that was introduced by Crypto AG in the early 1970s. The product had been developed in cooperation with the German cipher authority ZfCh (part of the BND), and used forward synchro­nisation, to allow late entry sync.

The key was hidden in the preample that was inserted at the beginning of each transmission. If one knew where to look, the entire key could be reconstructed. A few years after the device had been introduced, Crypto AG‘s chief developer Peter Frutiger suddenly realised how it was done.

It was only a matter of time before customers would discover it too. In 1976, the Syrians became aware of the (badly hidden) key in the preamble, and notified Crypto AG, where Frutiger provided them with a fix that made it instantly unbreakable. NSA was furious and Frutiger got fired for this.

The exploit was based on redundancy in the enciphered message preamble. It caused a bias which was an unnecessary shortcoming by design. It involved solving a set of binary equasions, an exponentially large number of times, for which the special purpose device was developed.More bout Aroflex
Rigging the manualIn some cases, the cipher can be weakened by manipulating the manual. This was done for example with the manuals of the Hagelin CX-52 machine. Although the CX-52 was in theory a virtually unbreakable machine, it could be set up accidentally in such a way, that it produced a short cycle (period), which was easy to break.By manipulating the manual, guidelines were given for ‘proper’ use of the machine, but in reality the user was instructed to configure the machine in such a way that it generated a short cycle, which was easy to break by the NSA.

Another example of hiding hints in the output stream, is the T-1000/CA, internally known as Beroflex, that was the civil version of the NATO-approved Aroflex, a joint development of Philips and Siemens. It was based on a T-1000 telex.

Whilst the Aroflex was highly secure, Beroflex (T-1000/CA) was not. With the right means and the right knowledge, it could be broken. This was not a trivial task however, and required the use of a special purpose device – a super chip – that had been co-developed by experts at the codebreaking division of the Royal Dutch Navy.

Key generator with predictive outputMany encryption systems, old and new alike, make use of KEY-generators – commonly pseudo random number generators, or PRNGs – for example for the generation of unique message keys, for generating private and public keys, and for generating the key stream in a stream cipher.By manipulating the key generator, it is theoretically possible to generate predictable keys, weak keys or predicatable cycles. Examples are the mechanical key generator of the Hagelin CX-52M, but also the software-based random number generators (RNGs) in modern software algorithms.Creating this kind of weaknesses is neither simple nor trivial, as the weakened key generator has to withstand a variety of existing entropy tests, including the ones published by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Nevertheless, various (potential) backdoors based on weakened PRNGs have been reported in the press, some of which are attributed to the NSA.In December 2013, Reuters reported that documents released by Edward Snowden indicated that NSA had payed RSA Security US$ 10 million to make Dual Elliptic Curve Deterministic Random Bit Generator (Dual_EC_DRBG) the default in their encryption software. It had already been proven in 2007, that constants could be constructed in such a way as to create a kleptographic backdoor in the NIST-recommended Dual_EC_DRBG [3]. It had been deliberately inserted by NSA as part of its BULLRUN decryption program. NIST promptly withdrew Dual_EC_DRBG from its draft guidance [4].➤ Wikipedia: Random number generator attack
➤ Wikipedia: Dual_EC_DRBG
It is often thought by the general public, that intelligence agencies have something like a magic password, or master key, that gives them instant access to secure communications of a subject. Although in most cases the backdoor mechanism is far more complex, it is technically possible.An example of a possible master key, is the so-called_NSAKEY that was found in a Microsoft operating system in 1999. The variable contained a 1024-bit public key, that was similar to the cryptographic keys that are used for encryption and authentication. Although Microsoft firmly denied it, it was widely speculated that the key was there to give the NSA access to the system.There are however a few other possible explanations for the presence of this key — including a backup key, a key for installing NSA proprietary crypto suites, and incompetence on the part of Microsoft, NSA or both — all of which seem plausible. In addition, Dr. Nicko van Someren found a third – far more obscure – key in Windows 2000, which he doubted had a legitimate purpose [5].➤ Wikipedia: _NSAKEY
A good example of KEY ESCROW is the so-called Clipper Chip, that was introduced by the NSA in the early 1990s, in an attempt to control the use of strong encryption by the general public.It was the intention to use this chip in all civil encryption products, such as computers, secure telephones, etc., so that everyone would be able to use strong encryption. By forcing people to surrender their keys to the (US) government, law enforcement agencies had the ability to decrypt the communication, should that prove to be necessary during the course of an investigation.

Encryption systems are often attacked by adversaries, by exploiting information that is hidden in the so-called side channels. This is known as a side channel attack. In most cases, side channels are unintended, but they may have been inserted deliberately to give an eavesdropper a way in.Side channels are often unwanted emanations – such as radio frequency (RF) signals that are emitted by the equipment, or sound generated by a printer or a keyboard – but may also take the form of variations in power consumption (current) that occur when the device is in use (power analysis). In military jargon, unwanted emanations are commonly known as TEMPEST.An early example of a cryptographic device that exhibited exploitable TEMPEST problems, is the Philips Ecolex IV mixer shown in the image on the right, which was approved for use by NATO.As it was based on the One-Time Tape (OTT) principle, it was theoretically safe. However, in the mid-1960s, the Dutch national physics laboratory TNO, proved that minute glitches in the electric signals on the teleprinter data line, could be exploited to reconstruct the original plaintext. The problem was eventually soved by adding filters between the device and the teleprinter line.➤ Wikipedia: Side-channel attack <Unintended weaknessesBackdoors can also be based on unintentional weaknesses in the design of an encryption device. For example, the Enigma machine – used during WWII by the German Army – can not encode a This and other weaknesses greatly helped the codebreakers at Bletchley Park, and allowed the cipher to be broken throughout World War II.Unintended weaknesses were also present in the early mechanical cipher machines of Crypto AG (Hagelin), such as the C-36, M-209, C-446 and CX-52. Although they were theoretically strong, they could accidentally be setup in such a way that they produced a short cycle, which could be broken much more easily. Similar properties can be found in the first generations of electronic crypto devices that are based on shift-registers.

It had to be assumed that the (US) government could be trusted under all circumstances, and that sufficient mechanisms were in place to avoid unwarranted tapping and other abuse, which was heavily disputed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and other privacy organisations.

The device – which used the Skipjack algorithm – was not embraced by the public. In addition, it contained a serious flaw. In 1994, shortly after its introduction, (then) AT&T researcher Matt Blaze discovered the possibility to tamper the device in such a way that it offered strong encryption whilst disabling the escrow capability. And that was not what the US Government had in mind.

Cryptographic Key Escrow

The Clipper Chip was a cryptographic chipset developed and promoted by the US Government. It was intended for implementation in secure voice equipment, such as crypto phones, and required its users to surrender their cryptographic keys in escrow to the government. This would allow law enforcement agencies (CIA, FBI), to decrypt any traffic for surveillance and intelligence  purposes. The controversial Clipper Chip was announced in 1993 and was already defunct by 1996 [1].

The physical chip was designed by Mykotronx (USA) and manufactured by VLSI Technology Inc. (USA). The initial cost for an unprogrammed chip was $16 and a programmed one costed $26.

The image on the right shows the Mykotronx MYK78T chip as it is present inside the AT&T’s TSD-3600-E telephone encryptor. The chip is soldered directly to the board (i.e. not socketed) and was thought to be tamper-proof (see below). The AT&T TSD-3600 telephone encryptor was the first and only product that featured the ill-fated Clipper Chip before it was withdrawn.

in order to provide a level of protection against misuse of the key by law enforcement agencies, it was agreed that the Unit Key of each device with a clipper chip, would be held in escrow jointly by two federal agencies. This means that the actual Unit Key was split in two parts, each of which was given to one of the agencies. In order to reconstruct the actual Unit Key, the database of both agencies had to be accessed and the two half-Unit Keys had to be combined by bitwise XOR [3].

Skipjack Algorithm
The Clipper Chip used the Skipjack encryption algorithm for the transmission of information, and the Diffie-Hellman key exchange algorithm for the distribution of the cryptographic session keys between peers. Both algorithms are believed to provide good security.

The Skipjack algorithm was developed by the NSA and was classed an NSA Type 2 encryption product. The algorithm was initially classified as SECRET, so that it could not be examined in the usual manner by the encryption research community. After much debate, the Skipjack algorithm was finally declassified and published by the NSA on 24 June 1998 [2]. It uses an 80-bit key and a symmetric cipher algorithm, similar to DES.

Key Escrow
The heart of the concept was Key Escrow. Any device with a Clipper Chip inside (e.g. a crypto phone) would be assigned a cryptographic key, which would be given to the government in escrow. The user would then assume the government to be the so-called trusted third party. If government agencies “established their authority” to intercept a particular communication, the key would be given to that agency, so that all data transmitted by the subject could be decrypted.

The concept of Key Escrow raised much debate and became heavily disputed. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), established in 1990, preferred the term Key Surrender to stress what, according to them, was actually happening. Together with other public interest organizations, such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the EFF challenged the Clipper Chip proposal, saying that it would be illegal and also ineffective, as criminals wouldn’t use it anyway.

In response to the Clipper Chip initiative by the US Government, a number of very strong public encryption packages were released, such as Nautilus, PGP and PGPfone. It was thought that, if strong cryptography was widely available to the public, the government would be unable to stop its use. This approach appeared to be effective, causing the premature ‘death’ of the Clipper Chip, and with it the death of Key Escrow in general.

In 1993, AT&T Bell produced the first and only telephone encryptor based on the Clipper Chip: the TSD-3600. A year later, in 1994, Matt Blaze, a researcher at AT&T, published a major design flaw in the Escrowed Encryption System (EES). A malicious party could tamper the software and use the Clipper Chip as an encryption device, whilst disabling the key escrow capability.

When establishing a connection, the Clipper Chip transmits a 128-bit Law Enforcement Access Field (LEAF). The above diagram shows how the LEAF was established. The LEAF contained information needed by the intercepting agency to establish the encryption key.

To prevent the software from tampering with the LEAF, a 16-bit hash code was included. If the hash didn’t match, the Clipper Chip would not decrypt any messages. The 16-bit hash however, was too short to be safe, and a brute force attack would easily produce the same hash for a fake session key, thus not revealing the actual keys [3] . If a malicious user would tamper the device’s software in this way, law enforcement agencies would not be able to reproduce the actual session key. As a result, they would not be able to decrypt the traffic.

Interior

Since the Clipper-project has failed, we think it is safe to show you the contents of the chip. Although this is something we would not normally do, this one is too good to be missed. Below, Travis Goodspeed shows us how easy it is to open the package and reverse-engineer a chip [4]. Luckily, according to Kerckhoff’s principle, the secret is in the key and not in the device [5].

The black dots along the four edges are the connection pads of the chip. The image was publised on Travis’ photostream on Flickr and is reproduced here with his kind permission. Click the image for a hi-res version. Note that this is a large file (18MB) which may take some time to download.

In some cases, the safety doctrine that is intended to make the device more secure, actually makes the cipher weaker. For example: during WWII, the German cipher authority dictated that a particular cipher wheel should not be used in the same position on two successive days. Whilst this may seem like a good idea, it effectively reduces the maximum number of possible settings.

By far the most common of the unintended weaknesses is operator error, such as choosing a simple or easy to guess password, sending multiple messages on the same key, sending the same message on two different keys, etc. Here are some examples of unintended weaknesses

With a special key combination, the key logger can be turned in a USB memory stick, from which the logged data can be recovered by a malicious party. A more sophisticated example of covert hardware, is the addition of a (miniature) chip on the printed circuit board of an existing device. As many companies today have outsourced the production of their electronics, there is always a possibility that it might be maliciously modified by a foreign party. This is particularly the case with critical infrastructure like routers, switches and telecommunications backbone equipment. This problem is enhanced by the increasing complexity of modern computers, as a result of which virtually no one knows exactly how it works. A good example is the tiny computer that is hidden inside Intel’s AMT processors, and that has been actively exploited as a spying tool [6].

• Crypto Museum, Operation RUBICON
  February 2020.
• Wikipedia, Backdoor (computing)
  Retrieved February 2020
• Wikipedia, Random number generator attack
  Retrieved February 2020
• Wikipedia, Dual_EC_DRBG
  Retrieved February 2020
• Wikipedia, _NSAKEY
  Retrieved February 2020
• Wikipedia, Intel_Active Management Technology
  Retrieved November 2020.
• Adding a small chip to the board (can only be done during production process)
• Adding a regular component with a built-in chip ➤ e.g. NSA’s FIREWALK
• Tiny computer inside a regular processor ➤ e.g. Intel AMT
• External key logger (USB or PS2)
• Key logger (spy) software
• Computer viruses
• Supply chain attack
• Weak keys
• A letter can not encode into itself (Enigma)
• False security measures
• Operator mistakes
• Software bugs

Another way of getting surreptitious access to a computer system, such as a personal computer, is by covertly installing additional hardware or software that gives an adversary direct or indirect access to the system and its data. Spyware can be visible, but can also be completely invisible.

An example of a hidden-in-plain-sight device is a so-called key logger that can be installed between keyboard and computer. The image on the right shows two variants: one for USB (left) and one for the old PS-2 keyboard interface.

Items like these can easily be installed in an office – for example by the cleaning lady – and are hardly noticed in the tangle of wires below your desk. It registers every key stroke, complete with time/date stamp, including your passwords. If the cleaning lady removes it a few days later, you will never find out that it was ever installed.

Manipulated hardware can be used to eavesdrop on your data, but can also be used as part of a Distributed Denial of Service attack (DDoS), or to disrupt the critical infrastructure of a company or even an entire country. In many cases, such attacks are carried out by (foreign) state actors. Manipulation of hardware is also possible by adding a secret chip to a regular inconspicuous component. A good example is the FIREWALK implant of the US National Security Agency (NSA) that is hidden inside a regular RJ45 Ethernet socket of a computer. It is used by the NSA to spy behind firewalls and was disclosed by former CIA / NSA-contractor Edward Snowden in 2013.

This device is particularly dangerous as it can not be found with a visual inspection. Further­more, it transmits the intercepted data via radio waves and effectively bypasses all security.

Is this problem restricted to high-end (computing) devices? Certainly not. Most modern domestic appliances, such as smart thermomenters, smart meters, domotica and in particular devices for the Internet of Things (IoT), are badly built, contain badly written software and are rarely properly protected, as a result of which they are extremely vulnerable to manipulation (hacking).

source

• NSA-backdoored equipment info found OFF this website
• U.S. Government Catalogue of Cellphone Surveillance Devices
• Backdoors on Wikipedia
• National Security Agency
• Central Intelligence Agency
• NSA EXTRACTED INFO
• CRYPTO MUSEUM
• Edward Snowden
• Stingray
• Pegasus Spyware
• X-Keyscore

Mao urged the US and China to proceed ‘calmly and carefully’ amid the suspected spy balloon investigation

China has announced its government is looking into reports that a suspected Chinese spy balloon was discovered flying in U.S. airspace over Montana.

“China is a responsible country and has always strictly abided by international laws, and China has no intention to violate the territory and airspace of any sovereign countries,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning during a daily briefing on Friday.

She also urged U.S. officials and Chinese authorities to proceed “calmly and carefully” amid the investigation.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 1, 2022.  (Ju Huanzong/Xinhua via Getty Images)

The foreign minister said judgment should be withheld “before we have a clear understanding of the facts.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduled to visit China on Friday, becoming the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the country since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A high altitude balloon floats over Billings, Mont., on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023.  (Larry Mayer/The Billings Gazette via AP)

His visit comes amid months of tense relations between Beijing and Washington over trade, Taiwan, human rights issues and China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.

“What I want to emphasize is that before we have a clear understanding of the facts, speculation and sensationalizing will be unhelpful to the proper handling of the issue. As for Blinken’s visit to China, I have no information,” Mao said.

“The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now,” said Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a briefing on Thursday afternoon.

Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023.  (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

He added: “The U.S. government, including NORAD, continues to track and monitor it closely. The balloon is currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground. Instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years. Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information.”

The U.S. government is “confident” the surveillance balloon belongs to the People’s Republic of China, a defense official told Fox News. It is also considering bringing it down using military assets.

It is not immediately clear how long the balloon has been in U.S. airspace. The senior defense official said the government has been tracking it for “some time” and that it entered U.S. airspace a “couple of days ago.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. By Lawrence Richard | Fox News

US government monitoring suspected Chinese spy balloon over northern states

Senior U.S. defense official said government closely monitoring suspected Chinese spy balloon

The U.S. government is monitoring a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been moving over northern states over the past several days.

Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a briefing on Thursday afternoon that the U.S. government has detected a high-altitude surveillance balloon over the continental U.S.

“The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now. The U.S. government to include Norad, continues to track and monitor it closely. The balloon is currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground. Instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years. Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” Ryder said.

Red flags flutter in front of the Great Hall of the People before the annual two sessions in Beijing on March 4, 2022. (VCG / VCG via Getty Images)

A senior defense official said that the U.S. government is “confident” that the surveillance balloon belongs to the People’s Republic of China.

The defense official said that the balloon was recently over Montana and that officials were considering bringing it down with military assets, but they decided against doing so because of the risks associated, adding that President Joe Biden was briefed on the situation and asked for military options.

“You did see reports yesterday of a ground stop at Billings Airport and the mobilization of a number of assets, including F-22. The context for that was that we put some things on station in the event that a decision was made to bring this down while it was over Montana. So, we wanted to make sure we were coordinating with civil authorities to empty out the airspace around that potential area. But even with those protective measures taken, it was the judgment of our military commanders that we didn’t drive the risk down low enough. So, we didn’t take the shot,” the official said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, center, walks past military guards during his arrival at the Department of National Defense in Camp Aguinaldo military camp in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, on Thursday. (Rolex Dela Pena / Pool Photo via AP)

A well-placed senior U.S. official told Fox News that the government is still considering a variety of options with how to deal with the Chinese spy balloon, saying that the options presented to Biden and his national security team included concerns that if the military did shoot down the balloon, there could be civilian casualties the ground.

The White House hasn’t ruled out shooting the balloon down if it were deemed safe to do so, according to the source.

According to the source, there’s more than just a balloon, and heavy equipment would come crashing to the ground if it were to be shot down, creating a large debris field.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin convened a meeting with senior Department of Defense leadership Wednesday to discuss the balloon, and it was decided not to take military action due to “the risk to safety and security of people on the ground from the possible debris field,” the official said. At the time, Austin was visiting Camp Navarro in the Philippines, which is around 2,000 miles from China.

The balloon’s discovery also comes as the U.S. and Philippines agreed to increase its military presence within the islands amid escalating tensions between China and Taiwan.

Flags of Taiwan and U.S. are placed for a meeting in Taipei, Taiwan, on March 27, 2018. (Reuters / Tyrone Siu)

The senior defense official said that the government has been tracking the balloon for “some time” and said it entered U.S. airspace a “couple of days ago.”

While maintaining that the balloon doesn’t present a military threat to the U.S., the official said that it likely isn’t gathering any information of significant value to the People’s Republic of China.

“They’re trying to fly this balloon over sensitive sites, one of which was just mentioned to collect information,” the official said, adding that it’s not the first time that a balloon “of this nature” has been over the U.S.

By Adam Sabes , Liz Friden , Jennifer Griffin | Fox News

updated 2/3/2023 below with videos

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