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from the We-have-always-been-at-war-with-Eurasia dept.
For a moment, it seemed the hackers had slipped up and exposed their identities. It was the summer of 2013, and European investigators were looking into an unprecedented breach of Belgium's telecommunications infrastructure. They believed they were on the trail of the people responsible. But it would soon become clear that they were chasing ghosts – fake names that had been invented by British spies.
[...] The covert operation was the first documented example of a European Union member state hacking the critical infrastructure of another. The malware infection triggered a massive cleanup operation within Belgacom, which has since renamed itself Proximus. The company – of which the Belgian government is the majority owner – was forced to replace thousands of its computers at a cost of several million Euros. Elio di Rupo, Belgium's then-prime minister, was furious, calling the hack a "violation." Meanwhile, one of the country's top federal prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into the intrusion.
The criminal investigation has remained open for more than four years, but no details about its activities have been made public. Now, following interviews with five sources close to the case, The Intercept – in collaboration with Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant – has gained insight into the probe and uncovered new information about the scope of the hack.
Interesting both from the technical and the political viewpoints, this episode could have unexpected results for the future. Despite the egregious misuse of "hack" and related words.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jelizondo on Tuesday February 20 2018, @01:44AM (2 children)
Oh dear. It would seem that next time GCHQ tries they might get a different treatment with the U.K. (at least England) out of the European Union.
However, it does show that the big dogs can get away with anything. Imagine if Belgium had hacked a U.K. or U.S. telecom, there would have been indictments and jail time.
Speaking of indictments, if amongst friends such shit is allowed to go on, what allegedly the Russians did was a really minor offense against the U.S., not even a poke in the eye!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday February 20 2018, @06:01AM
And you think it actually was something else, maybe quite a big deal?
That's just noise to distract the populace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 20 2018, @07:33PM
U.K. out means U.K. out, not just the English.
Do not believe any crap you might see or hear about the Scots, the Welsh or the Northern Irish getting any different treatment.
The fucking idiot Scots had their chance of Devolution, and were told the English were going to pull this trick one they got back into power in the U.K, yet voted like good little sheeple to stay in the Union (U.K. one)..there's something disquieting about watching the Scottish 'Nationalists' who've allegedly been fighting to free the country from English control so desperately wanting to suck German schwanz..
The Welsh don't matter, neither do the Northern Irish.