from the we-also-post-articles-on-news-websites dept.
The Intercept reports that GCHQ have developed covert tools to seed the internet with false information, including the ability to manipulate the results of online polls, artificially inflate pageview counts on web sites, "amplify" sanctioned messages on YouTube, and censor video content judged to be "extremist."
Included in those capabilities is an old standby for pre-adolescent prank callers everywhere: A way to connect two unsuspecting phone users together in a call. [ Submitter's note: This item is especially troubling because it allows the GCHQ to "force" a connection between two individuals, manufacturing an association and the scrutiny with which it comes ]
A partial list of the insidious capabilities is given here:
- "Change outcomes of online polls" (UNDERPASS)
- Mass delivery of email messaging to support an Information Operations campaign (BADGER) and mass delivery of SMS messages to support an Information Operations campaign (WARPARTH)
- Disruption of video-based websites hosting extremist content through concerted target discovery and content removal. (SILVERLORD)
- Targeting Skype users/conversations in real time
- Finding private photographs of targets on Facebook
- A tool that will permanently disable a target's account on their computer (ANGRY PIRATE)
- Ability to artificially increase traffic to a website (GATEWAY) and ability to inflate page views on websites (SLIPSTREAM)
- Targeted Denial Of Service against Web Servers (PREDATORS FACE) and Distributed denial of service using P2P. (ROLLING THUNDER)
All this as the UK seeks to strengthen their surveillance powers, citing the usual reasons such as "terrorism" and "national security."
Related Stories
Britain's top counter-terrorism official has been forced to reveal a secret government policy justifying the mass surveillance of every Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google user in the UK.
A witness statement from Charles Farr, the director general of Security and Counter Terrorism, explained how intercepting tweets, Google and YouTube searches and Facebook posts was permitted by law due to their classification as 'external communications'.
The report, made public as part of a legal challenge by numerous civil liberties organisations against the government, classifies external communications as those sent and received outside "British Islands", regardless of whether it passes through the British Islands during transit. Google and other web services' largest data centres are generally found within the US and elsewhere in Europe, meaning a search made by an internet user in the UK is likely to involve a communication to an overseas web server.
Mr Farr defended the sharing of communications data from foreign intelligence partners, and from US agencies in particular, as having led directly to the prevention of terrorist attacks and serious crime, and the saving of lives.
Privacy International and other rights groups filed a legal complaint against GCHQ last month over its alleged use of hacking tools to infect computers and smartphones with malicious software, to remotely hijack users' cameras and microphones without their consent.
It seems to me that any connection to a website outside the UK is covered by that definition - in other words, they are monitoring everything that they can on the internet.
The BBC reports that ISPs from the US, UK, Netherlands and South Korea have joined forced with campaigners Privacy International to take the agency to task over alleged attacks on network infrastructure. It is the first time that GCHQ, the British intelligence unit, has faced such action. The move follows allegations about government snooping made by US whistleblower Edward Snowden. The ISPs claim that alleged network attacks, outlined in a series of articles in Der Spiegel and the Intercept, were illegal and "undermine the goodwill the organisations rely on". The allegations that the legal actions are based on include:
- Claims that employees of Belgian telecommunications company Belgacom were targeted by GCHQ and infected with malware to gain access to network infrastructure
- GCHQ and the US National Security Agency, where Mr Snowden worked, had a range of network exploitation and intrusion capabilities, including a "man-on-the-side" technique that covertly injects data into existing data streams to create connections that will enable the targeted infection of users
- The intelligence agencies used an automated system, codenamed Turbine, that allowed them to scale up network implants
- German internet exchange points were targeted, allowing agencies to spy on all internet traffic coming through those nodes
An update, provided by cafebabe, states that the ISPs taking a stand are:
- GreenNet (UK)
- GreenHost (Netherlands)
- The Chaos Computer Club (Germany)
- Riseup (USA)
- May First/People Link (USA)
- Jinbonet (South Korea)
- Mango (Zimbabwe)
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 15 2014, @06:27AM
I am now officially not going to send GCHQ a Christmas card this year.
(Score: 5, Funny) by frojack on Tuesday July 15 2014, @06:55AM
They know that already.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by davester666 on Tuesday July 15 2014, @08:02AM
Evidently, it will be logged that you sent them the heartiest greeting via email and facebook this coming Christmas.
(Score: 0, Troll) by isostatic on Tuesday July 15 2014, @06:54AM
We get it, there are certain government organisations in the western world that exist to spy on their citizens. The population will do nothing about it, and the media is tired of the ongoing revelations.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by frojack on Tuesday July 15 2014, @07:03AM
You might have noticed that what was mentioned was significantly beyond "spying".
These are "attack" mechanisms. The government has built a tool chest aimed at attacking their citizens.
Also, at least lip service is being paid in the US Congress at reigning in some of these excesses.
As soon as we elect a president with a spine, perhaps it will all come crashing down.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Tuesday July 15 2014, @10:44AM
But the problem is that the public at large no longer care, and the ones who were outraged already are still outraged.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by keplr on Tuesday July 15 2014, @03:14PM
I'm noticing the opposite. It's getting more and more widespread and well known. Normal people are getting more and more concerned. Snowden has had a massive effect.
I don't respond to ACs.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Tuesday July 15 2014, @07:56AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday July 15 2014, @03:47PM
The Snowden revelations are massive. The implications are staggering. Realizing them fills everyone with horror. It takes time to absorb and process that emotionally. So don't mistake the lack of an instant response with indifference. What I am reading is growing fury on both sides of the aisle. Even mainstream media outlets are publishing articles talking about imminent revolution. Sober men and women are speaking about it openly.
And look at the actions of the American government. Agencies and departments like the Bureau of Land Management that have no connection to law enforcement or military force are buying weapons and ammunition. The Department of Homeland Security (that name itself ought to send shudders down anyone's spine) has formed VIPR teams that are stopping people on our highways and in our mass transit systems; I have seen them myself in the Atlantic/Pacific station in Brooklyn, NY. Attorney General Holder has said he is afraid of violence from returning veterans. Why would they be saying and doing those things if they weren't reading a certain growing sentiment in the public chatter?
But don't expect the storm to start with the Situations or Snookis of the world. 99 times out of 100 it begins with people like us who are skilled enough, educated enough, informed enough, disenfranchised enough, confident enough, and angry enough to act.
Two years ago I would have bet the trigger would be the implosion of the Student Loan Debt industry. Last year I would have said Snowden's revelations. Two weeks ago I would have suspected perhaps Ebola jumping from the latest outbreak to JFK International. And any of those things still could be. But for all the dozens of sources I can and have thought of, now I'm opining that nearly anything could. There are too many massive social and technological trends converging at once. There's too much piling up everywhere. Systems of control have become so brittle, they're ready to break at any moment.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by keplr on Tuesday July 15 2014, @07:07AM
A tool that will permanently disable a target's account on their computer (ANGRY PIRATE)
Now that's interesting. I assume, given the name, that this is targeting unlicensed (pirated) copies of MS Windows, which has likely included an NSA backdoor since at least Windows NT 4 (released 1996) [wikipedia.org]. I assume the pirate would be rather angry when he finds his unlicensed copy of Windows remotely wiped.
I doubt they're able to do much against Linux or BSD unless they can trick someone into installing a malicious package. But it's easy to deduce that they have teams working to find bugs in the kernels to be exploited. And you can be sure those selfish NSA goons aren't filing bug reports. I'd also like to point out that Red Hat (the Microsoft of the Linux world) has as one of its largest customer the US Department of Defense. And now we have a massive push to get a Red Hat funded project, immense in scope and complexity [wikipedia.org] and thus a ripe target for deliberately introduced bugs, into all the other distros by virally spreading to as many projects as possible. Can't use Gnome without it even.
I don't respond to ACs.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Tuesday July 15 2014, @08:04AM
I seriously doubt there are enough eyeballs in the world to police all the changes to the packages in your typical linux distro, (to say nothing about the various desktop environments, hardware drivers, and binary blobs). I suspect these spooks have ways of sneaking innocuous looking changes into code that even the original author wouldn't understand.
I really only trust OpenBSD any more, but that is scan't protection in this day and age.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 15 2014, @08:19AM
Even if you are running FreeBSD (or, in the extreme, an operating system which you developed yourself and never shared with anyone in the world), there's still the BIOS. Especially something like wiping the computer could be easily done from there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 15 2014, @02:55PM
The police are eyeballing our packages!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 15 2014, @10:10AM
One wonders if it is this kind of government betrayal of the populous
that has made so called "high cultures" of the past disappear into nothing
with only some rocky ruins as a leftover "reminder".
I'm pretty sure it doesn't really need a "internet" to happen.
Nobody likes to remember. Now we know why.
Take comfort in the fact that these evil people will be purged from history's memory : )
(Score: 3) by present_arms on Tuesday July 15 2014, @03:00PM
It is because of stories like this is why my sig says what it says. The quicker we get some intelligent people in government the better. Educated idiots, every single one of them.
http://trinity.mypclinuxos.com/
(Score: 2) by prospectacle on Wednesday July 16 2014, @06:06AM
What we need is some kind of fair and effective system for deciding who gets into government and who doesn't, so we can filter out the idiots. Any suggestions?
If a plan isn't flexible it isn't realistic
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday July 15 2014, @03:50PM
I think this was previously revealed when they brought the JTRIG program to light. GCHQ (and presumably the NSA does as well) actively attack people through social media. The previous revelation said they actively try to subvert entire social media platforms and control the public discourse.
It's Orwellian in the extreme. It's reality. And it sits in every one of our seats of power. The enemy conquered our lands without firing a shot.
The question now is what shall we do about it? I know how I vote.
Washington DC delenda est.