Report: NSA Spying On Computers Around World - USAToday

[WillyT]

Report: NSA spying on computers around world
William M. Welch, USA TODAY
9:41 p.m. EST January 14, 2014

<snip>

The National Security Agency has placed software on nearly 100,000 computers around the world that allows it to conduct covert surveillance on the machines, the New York Times reports. The technology gives the agency access to private computer networks yet could also create a virtual highway for cyberattacks, the Times said in a story published on its website Tuesday.

The agency describes its efforts as part of an "active defense" against foreign cyberattacks rather than an offensive tool. But U.S. officials have protested when similar software was discovered to have been placed on computers in this country by Chinese attackers.

"What's new here is the scale and the sophistication of the intelligence agency's ability to get into computers and networks to which no one has ever had access before," James Andrew Lewis, the cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told the Times.

The report said most of the software is inserted into individual computers by gaining access through computer networks. But citing agency documents and computer experts, it said the NSA has also made use of secret technology that allows it to enter or alter data even in computers not connected to the Internet.

The technology, in use since 2008...

<snip>

More: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/01/14/nsa-computer-surveillance/4483433/

[question everything]

1. I don't get it

Does it mean that there is something - USB connector? - on my computer that NSA can access?

"software is inserted" - by who?

[randome]

2. This is like the 4th thread on this today.

The author confuses software with hardware. These are computers based in foreign locations, presumably as the result of legal surveillance activities. If we're going to have a spy agency, why would we not want them to do a good job?
[hr][font color="blue"][center]No squirrels were harmed in the making of this post. Yet.[/center][/font][hr]

[question everything]

3. Sorry, was searching for a thread..

Still, how have these computer been altered, and by whom? The PC store? Intel? Dell?

[randome]

4. I know, it's a very murky article. Who knows?

The important thing is to feel violated because...well, just because.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]If you don't give yourself the same benefit of a doubt you'd give anyone else, you're cheating someone.[/center][/font][hr]