How “omnipotent” hackers tied to NSA hid for 14 years—and were found at last

[Chiefcrowe]

http://arstechnica.com/security/201...e-nsa-hid-for-14-years-and-were-found-at-last

 

[jjmIII]

NSA is on your HDD

 

[VirtualLarry]

What's really interesting is, after WikiPedia started giving me SSL TLS errors after installing Win7 updates, I was listening to internet radio, and reading those two articles, and I heard an "alert tone" over the air, but it WAS NOT followed by storm info or emergency warnings, nor did it say anything about a test of the emergency broadcast system.

Coincidence? Or coded message, for my machines?

Edit: Oh yes, a quad-core ARM-based Android 4.4 Tablet that I own, mysteriously had something installed, that seems to have nearly-full privileges in Android, and cannot be removed. I've tried factory restores, they don't get rid of it. I know for a fact that I didn't install it.

I did install an .APK from somewhere other than the Google Play Store, and this software did not immediately appear alongside the software I installed. So either, the APK was booby-trapped, and loaded this malware later on over Wifi, when I left the tablet in standby, or it came in through a system update somehow, when it was in standby over wifi.

(Do Android tablets suddenly initiate updates when connected to Wifi?)

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Wow.. pretty crazy.

VirtualLarry - it seems like you've been compromised, you may have to replace your stuff!!

NSA is on your HDD

 

[WT]

Fascinating reading through Kasperky's report on all of this:

http://bit.ly/17bPUUe

Link is to a PDF. Yea, I know, I hate bitly links too, but I can't find it in HTML format.

Larry, I call dibs on your infected HDDs !! Also looking for a Radeon 290/290x if you happen to have one of those - they are infected too, so I'll only give ya $200 tops for one.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Thanks for posting the report, looking forward to reading through it. Amazing what people are capable of these days. I wonder if there is a good way to make sure you have a clean drive?

haha @ your dibs comment!

 

[ussfletcher]

Edit: Oh yes, a quad-core ARM-based Android 4.4 Tablet that I own, mysteriously had something installed, that seems to have nearly-full privileges in Android, and cannot be removed. I've tried factory restores, they don't get rid of it. I know for a fact that I didn't install it.

I did install an .APK from somewhere other than the Google Play Store, and this software did not immediately appear alongside the software I installed. So either, the APK was booby-trapped, and loaded this malware later on over Wifi, when I left the tablet in standby, or it came in through a system update somehow, when it was in standby over wifi.

(Do Android tablets suddenly initiate updates when connected to Wifi?)

Manufacturers can include apps in their stock image. Don't install apks that aren't from the app store. Yes.

 

[VirtualLarry]

(Do Android tablets suddenly initiate updates when connected to Wifi?)

I forgot to include: Do they do updates of the base firmware without prompting the user / owner? They just suddenly spontaneously re-write their base firmware image, at any time, when connected to wifi?

 

[Chiefcrowe]

http://www.wired.com/2015/02/nsa-firmware-hacking

 

[midwestfisherman]

The Patriot Act created this slippery slope that we've gone down in a hurry! I don't know what the answer is to all of this but, I do know it's going to be damned near impossible to put this genie back in the bottle.

Hopefully someone can come up with a solution.