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You are here: Home / Spy vs Spy

Spy vs Spy

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After reading the news that the US and the UK spied on other attendees at the G20 summit in London, my main reaction was that Blackberry has some explaining to do:

• Setting up internet cafes where they used an email interception programme and key-logging software to spy on delegates’ use of computers;

• Penetrating the security on delegates’ BlackBerrys to monitor their email messages and phone calls;

• Supplying 45 analysts with a live round-the-clock summary of who was phoning who at the summit;

• Targeting the Turkish finance minister and possibly 15 others in his party;

• Receiving reports from an NSA attempt to eavesdrop on the Russian leader, Dmitry Medvedev, as his phone calls passed through satellite links to Moscow.

Either Blackberry is insecure or they handed over encryption keys to the US or UK spy services. Since they’ve given encryption keys to other governments, my guess is the latter.

This is all from the Snowden documents, so my guess is that we’ve seen about all that Snowden has leaked, because countries spying on other countries when they’re in town for a conference is dog-bites-man territory.

In other news, the NSA has claimed in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee that they have stopped terrorist plots in the US and 20 other countries, but have not released any details on which plots.

Reader Interactions

34Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    I wasn’t surprised that Snowden had access to PowerPoint slides about PRISM. I am surprised he had access to government files about specific spying operations on other foreign officials.

  2. 2.

    mrmcd

    “This is all from the Snowden documents, so my guess is that we’ve seen about all that Snowden has leaked, because countries spying on other countries when they’re in town for a conference is dog-bites-man territory.”

    I assumed timing of this was more to make the G8 which is starting in Norther Ireland today (part of the UK) as awkward as possible. Maybe you’re right though. For what it’s worth, I thought the “Obama has a cyber hit list” was less interesting than this one.

  3. 3.

    Southern Beale

    You guys, sorry to post Off Topic but we’ve just had the most horrible experience with CostCo’s Kirkland brand of flea & tick treatment and I wanted to make sure all of the pet lovers over here knew about it and knew not to use this stuff under any circumstances!

    Read about it here.

  5. 5.

    Todd

    Regardless of anything else in this story, Blackberry sucks, and everybody at RIM deserves to DIAF. Worst equipment, worst software, worst service, worst, worst, worst.

    Did I say it was the worst? I see the occasional person still holding a square puck, and I have to resist the urge to snatch and smash it so that they can go out and buy something actually functional.

  6. 6.

    cvstoner

    One of the primary (and remaining) selling points of Blackberry is its supposed security. If this article is true, then it doesn’t bode well for Blackberry.

  7. 7.

    Todd

    @cvstoner:

    One of the primary (and remaining) selling points of Blackberry is its supposed security.

    I guess that the fact that a Blackberry will rarely do what you ask it to do efficiently might make it more secure. Most of the time, I resignedly pocketed the thing as it didn’t do what I wanted, or rebooted on its own. I had three of the things, and each was a misery.

    It was the ultimate in secure devices.

  8. 8.

    ericblair

    @Baud:

    I wasn’t surprised that Snowden had access to PowerPoint slides about PRISM. I am surprised he had access to government files about specific spying operations on other foreign officials.

    I’m assuming it depends on how the intelligence is collected, since that’s how the big compartments are organized. If it was an electronic intercept he possibly could have gotten the information; if it was human intelligence, no, unless he was cleared for that compartment, too. The intelligence community is deliberately trying to share information more widely internally to get rid of a lot of political or organizational roadblocks. I’m guessing that initiative is going to get some pushback right about now.

    It must be nuts in the NSA since this shit went down. Would have been a good time for a nice overseas vacation. Oh wait.

  9. 9.

    Politically Lost

    @Southern Beale:

    Thanks for posting that. My wife and I are Costco regulars and buy a flea meds there for our dogs. If we had seen it as a cheaper alternative I’m positive that we would have purchased because we trust that store.

    I would have gone ballistic on there as for that.

  10. 10.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Todd: Some of us don’t have a choice. Blackberry is what I was issued by my employer. We all hate it, but it’s not our call.

  11. 11.

    rdldot

    @Southern Beale: Take it back to the store for a refund. Ask to speak to the manager and make whatever formal complaint you can make. Also, email the upper management about it. If that many people are having problems, they should take it out of the store. Mention in your email about the Amazon reviews. Ask the company to look at those. And, thanks for your post and comment.

  12. 12.

    Todd

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Some of us don’t have a choice. Blackberry is what I was issued by my employer. We all hate it, but it’s not our call.

    One wonders if there is anybody, anywhere who actually likes a Blackberry. I keep imagining that the corporate procurement people groan even as they’re making the order.

    Perhaps they get Blackberries for everybody else, and iphones for their department…

  13. 13.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @rdldot: Apparently, CostCo has been telling people for at least a year that it’s being pulled from the shelves. The mutterings about a class-action suit are getting louder.

  14. 14.

    mk3872

    What has happened to BJ? You’ve all gone Paul-ite mad with your horrible attempts at covering spying,

    You actually just quoted the same “Indian Times” rag that claimed 2 years ago that Obama was spending BILLIONS of tax dollars on his overseas travels, which was later picked-up by Michelle Bachmann.

    Just like Anne & John this weekend not researching the tin-foil look @ CNET, please RESEARCH before losing your lunch over spying: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/02/rim_keys_india/.

    RIM calls the Indian government a liar, BTW, in that story.

  15. 15.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    After reading the news that the US and the UK spied on other attendees at the G20 summit in London, my main reaction was that Blackberry has some explaining to do

    Access is worth money and Blackberry is selling that. That’s all the explanation you poors are entitled to.

  16. 16.

    Cassidy

    I’m not sure I understand why people are shocked and surprised to find out that intelligence agencies spy on people.

  17. 17.

    daveNYC

    Setting up internet cafes where they used an email interception programme and key-logging software to spy on delegates’ use of computers;

    I love this one. Roughly about the same as Wile E. Coyote putting out the dish of free birdseed. Anyone who fell for that needs some serious firing.

  18. 18.

    Comrade Dread

    Yeah… everyone tries to spy on everybody else. Everybody just pretends not to do it out of politeness.

    Snowden seems less like a noble whisteblower exposing a system gone amok and more an activist trying to deliberately embarrass the government.

  21. 21.

    different-church-lady

    @Todd:

    It was the ultimate in secure devices.

    Nonsense: the NSA has a record of every failure you ever experienced with it.

    Or so I’m told…

  22. 22.

    different-church-lady

    @mk3872: Welcome to our little picnic blanket on the internet. Don’t get grass clippings in the potato salad, please.

    Tell me more about “this CNET garbage by a Libertarian gasbag who doesn’t believe in climate change, claims Al Gore said he invented the Internet and is a serial Paulbot”. Your links over at the GOS appear to have been goofed up. Are you describing the writer of the CNet article or someone else?

  24. 24.

    Thlayli

    The sex appeal of the Snowden thing was the “YOU — YES, YOU!! — ARE UNDER SURVEILLANCE RIGHT NOW!!eleven!” angle. If stuff like this is all he has, people are going to tune him out.

  31. 31.

    Ted & Hellen

    It’s fun to watch Bots attempt to Botsplain specific comments with vague, universal insults.

  32. 32.

    Ted & Hellen

    And then watch them chat amongst themselves with forced joviality about why their insults were lame and unfocused…

  33. 33.

    different-church-lady

    @daveNYC: SWEEDEN: “Hey, France, I’m in the cafe. Wanna get espresso and a croissant?”

    GREAT BRITTAN: “Attention Yanks — our surveillance indicates THE CONTINENT HAS COFFEE TECHNOLOGY!!

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