Glenn Greenwald: how the NSA tampers with US-made internet routers
The NSA has been covertly implanting interception tools in US servers heading overseas – even though the US government has warned against using Chinese technology for the same reasons, says Glenn Greenwald, in an extract from his new book about the Snowden affair, No Place to Hide
For years, the US government loudly warned the world that Chinese routers and other internet devices pose a “threat” because they are built with backdoor surveillance functionality that gives the Chinese government the ability to spy on anyone using them. Yet what the NSA’s documents show is that Americans have been engaged in precisely the activity that the US accused the Chinese of doing…
Who’da thunk it – America not only spying on it’s own people in anyway it can, but on others in exactly the way they’d complained that China was doing…
And all is right with the world.
By: snafu - 13th May 2014 at 18:19
But if their resources enable them to catch real criminals and those of malicious intent of whatever type, good luck to ’em!
More likely to enable other identities for their agents, based on your appearance and the likelyhood of you going to a particular country, or to hide themselves by misappropriating your ISP number (or whatever it’s called), or takie an interest in you because of your job, interests or family.
Still, at least the US is trying to keep up with the Chinese…
By: charliehunt - 13th May 2014 at 15:04
Haha! me too – I’ll go along with most of that Paul. Half the world willingly bares its heart out publicly across a multitude of social media sites and then there’s angst about government agency snooping. But if their resources enable them to catch real criminals and those of malicious intent of whatever type, good luck to ’em!
By: Paul F - 13th May 2014 at 14:41
Always amuses me to think that people are astonished by this sort of news….
Communications of any sort have always been open to, and subject to, “eavesdropping” or covert interception, written letters have been opened and reclosed, phone lines have been tapped, and word-of-mouth discussions “listened to” by third parties since the year dot – on-line surveillance is really only the natural extension of that approach.
Why are people so sensitive to the thought that their e-comms are not “100% secure”?
If “people” are interested in reading my day-to-day texts, emails etc then I always assume they can do so at any time, but if anyone is watching what I do then I suspect they must be bored out of their minds with the minutae of life of a typical (I assume!) British 50-something male…. :p
I am less worried by covert “listening” by the authorities than I am by the risk of cyber criminals finding their way into my finances.
CCTV, on-line surveillance – whatever, get over it people, if you are doing nothing wrong then what’s the problem?
My attitude to those that try and convince people that “Big Brother is Watching You” is soemthign to be worried about is that if you’re worried about others reading what you’ve written, or watching what you’re doing, then you probably shouldn’t be doing it (or writing it) in the first place. Get a life! Or, if you’re really worried, invest in an Enigma machine 😉
Sign In
May 13, 2014 at 1:04 pm