[165431] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: NSA Laughs at PCs, Prefers Hacking Routers and Switches
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Warren Bailey)
Wed Sep 4 17:25:49 2013
From: Warren Bailey <wbailey@satelliteintelligencegroup.com>
To: "surfer@mauigateway.com" <surfer@mauigateway.com>, "nanog@nanog.org"
<nanog@nanog.org>
Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2013 21:25:33 +0000
In-Reply-To: <20130904140504.7B2D3D93@resin03.mta.everyone.net>
Reply-To: Warren Bailey <wbailey@satelliteintelligencegroup.com>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
Spelling requirements for journalists were lifted when blogs came on the sc=
ene.
Sent from my Mobile Device.
-------- Original message --------
From: Scott Weeks <surfer@mauigateway.com>
Date: 09/04/2013 2:06 PM (GMT-08:00)
To: nanog@nanog.org
Subject: Re: NSA Laughs at PCs, Prefers Hacking Routers and Switches
--- eugen@leitl.org wrote:
From: Eugen Leitl <eugen@leitl.org>
=93No one updates their routers,=94 he says. =93If you think people
are bad about patching Windows and Linux (which they are) then
they are =85 horrible about updating their networking gear because
it is too critical, and usually they don=92t have redundancy to be
able to do it properly.=94
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So, they're saying upgrade to every new OS that comes out? Plus,
isn't spelling a requirement for journalists these days???
"...patching Windows and Linux (which they are) then they are..."
------------------------------------------------------
Hijacking routers and switches could allow the NSA to do more than just
eavesdrop on all the communications crossing that equipment. It would also
let them bring down networks or prevent certain communication, such as
military orders, from getting through, though the Post story doesn=92t repo=
rt
any such activities. With control of routers, the NSA could re-route traffi=
c
to a different location, or intelligence agencies could alter it for
disinformation campaigns, such as planting information that would have a
detrimental political effect or altering orders to re-route troops or
supplies in a military operation.
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This is just confused, like much of the rest of the article. Mostly
FUD with a small kernel of fact inside the FUD wrapper.
scott
