Wanderthread Redux (Part 1)

Wanderfound · December 30, 2019, 10:35pm

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Wanderfound · December 31, 2019, 5:02am

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Wanderfound · December 31, 2019, 2:19pm

From the comments on the Graham post:

“Independence”.

Wanderfound · December 31, 2019, 3:16pm

CleverEmi · December 31, 2019, 4:53pm

You might not be an American, but you do seem to have a clear view of what’s happening over here.

Wanderfound · December 31, 2019, 11:07pm

Twitter trends over the last few days:

Wanderfound · December 31, 2019, 11:30pm

#Meritocracy

Wanderfound · December 31, 2019, 11:45pm

The Snowden documents reviewed so far discuss, in often vague and uncertain terms, what U.S. intelligence believes its adversaries like China and Russia are capable of. But these documents and others also discuss in much more specific terms what the U.S. and its allies are capable of, including descriptions of specific, successful supply chain operations. They also describe in broad strokes the capabilities of various NSA programs and units against supply chains.

The Intellipedia page on threats to air-gapped networks disclosed that as of 2005, Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the BND, “has established a few commercial front companies that it would use to gain supply chain access to unidentified computer components.” The page attributes this knowledge to “information obtained during an official liaison exchange.” The page did not mention who BND’s target was or what sorts of activities the front companies were engaged in.

BND has been “setting up front companies for both HUMINT and SIGINT operations since the 1950s,” said Erich Schmidt-Eenboom, German author and BND expert, using the jargon terms for intelligence gathered both by human spies and through electronic eavesdropping, respectively. “As a rule, a full-time BND employee will found a small GmbH [company], which is responsible for a single operation. In the SIGINT area, this GmbH also maintains contacts with industrial partners.”

BND did not respond to a request for comment.

The Intellipedia page also stated that, beginning in 2002, France’s intelligence agency, DGSE, “delivered computers and fax equipment to Senegal’s security services and by 2004 could access all the information processed by these systems, according to a cooperative source with indirect access.” Senegal is a former French colony. Representatives of the Senegalese government did not respond to a request for comment. DGSE declined to comment.

Much of what’s been reported about the U.S.’s supply chain attack capabilities came from a June 2010 NSA document that The Intercept’s co-founder Glenn Greenwald published with his 2014 book “No Place to Hide.” The document, an article from an internal NSA news site called SIDtoday, was published again in 2015 in Der Spiegel with fewer redactions (but without any new analysis).

SIDtoday concisely explained one NSA approach to supply chain attacks (formatting is from the original article):

Shipments of computer network devices (servers, routers, etc.) being delivered to our targets throughout the world are intercepted . Next, they are redirected to a secret location where Tailored Access Operations/Access Operations (AO – S326) employees, with the support of the Remote Operations Center (S321), enable the installation of beacon implants directly into our targets’ electronic devices. These devices are then re-packaged and placed back into transit to the original destination.

Wanderfound · January 1, 2020, 2:48am

Everything shitty that happens in America echoes in Australia after a short delay; the same scum control the media in both countries, and our right-wing bastards like to take lessons (and funding…) from across the pond. Interpreting American politics is a fundamental Australian survival skill; it lets us know what to prepare for.

If the USA collapses, Oz is likely to follow. Worse than that, if the USA continues on its current trajectory but doesn’t collapse, Australia will be complicit in the consequences.

Wanderfound · January 1, 2020, 3:33am

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Wanderfound · January 1, 2020, 10:19am

Australia’s version of the mass shooting debate: