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NSA Looking to Exploit Internet of Things, Including Biomedical Devices
- TempleOS 10y agoIn the Bible, God sent horents after the enemy. They did not mess with pacemakers. God said he can send porkworms into the heart at just the right moment (for example). Anything like that. Don't fight God, fucken stoopitest nigger in history!
- niels_olson 10y agoSo now the cardiothoracic surgeons don't just have to worry about device reps, they have to wonder if the device rep is an NSA vector. They're scrubbed in for the procedures, for pete's sake. How do defend against this!? Trust. It's turtles all the way down.
- brobinson 10y agoI am willing to bet a lot of money that we will see the first software-based assassination in the next 5-10 years. Someone will have their pacemaker disabled or their car commandeered and driven off of a bridge remotely.
- mr_overalls 10y agoI'd be extremely surprised if it hasn't happened already, honestly.
- pdkl95 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hastings_%28journalist%29#Death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hastings_%28journalist...
- Zikes 10y agoAssuming it was foul play, it wouldn't qualify as you couldn't accomplish it via purely software hacking. What brobinson is suggesting is that a hypothetical hacker, thousands of miles away in front of a console, could accomplish a murder with no other physical agents involved. i.e. no drones, hitmen, etc. just remotely commandeering existing systems already in everyday use.
- solotronics 10y agoIs there any difference between a pacemaker being disabled and your car driving into a brick wall? Genuinely curious how these things are different.
- Zikes 10y agoIf it were e.g. a Tesla, no there would be no difference. But a Mercedes C250 Coupé? How would you hack that remotely? How would you program it to accelerate uncontrollably? Does it even have computer controlled acceleration? I would have to assume that physical tampering of some sort was involved, possibly even the introduction of a physical device such as one that remotely physically activates the throttle.
- yompers888 10y agoToday you're one of the lucky 10,000! https://blog.kaspersky.com/blackhat-jeep-cherokee-hack-explained/9493/ https://blog.kaspersky.com/blackhat-jeep-cherokee-hack-expla... short version: you hop onto an outward-facing wireless channel (in this case either wifi or cell), and then find the weak point where the industrial control system (ICS) and user network are very close to one another. Once you're on the ICS, systems are often low on verification/authentication, so there's a decent chance that you can do things like accelerating into a brick wall.
- Zikes 10y agoI was already aware of that hack, which was made possible because of two conditions: * Outward-facing wireless channel * Computer controlled acceleration accessible in some way from the same network the outward-facing wireless channel is on If the Mercedes C250 Coupé meets those criteria then there is the possibility that (if it is indeed foul play) the assassination occurred via software hacking.
- engx 10y agoHis family thinks it was an accident. According to his brother, he was extremely stressed and had been smoking a (natural) psychedelic drug. That particular drug is such a powerful experience, that combined with the unusual circumstances of his life and the likely threats, intimidation or paranoia could cause someone to drive erratically.
- dd9990 10y agoSource? The Guardian reports: "Coroner's investigators said the drugs likely did not contribute to the June crash, which they classified as an accident. " "Hastings had been using the hallucinogenic DMT recently, though the drug was not detected in a blood test after the crash." [1] [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/21/michael-hastings-buzzfeed-autopsy-drugs https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/21/michael-hastin...
- pdkl95 10y agoDMT? That only lasts 15-ish minutes. It's also notorious for being so intense that most people have a hard time moving; complex tasks like driving just aren't going to happen. This sounds like a story made up by someone who doesn't know how DMT works.
- jakeogh 10y agoTypical plausible deniability story. Somewhere in my archive is a declassified doc from I believe the CIA about putting a dead man in a car and then (RC) crashing it. Just tried to find it... maybe someone else has the link. Either way, it's painfully obvious that was a hit. He emailed close confidants right before about needing to go off the radar because of a dangerous story.
- archeopterix 10y agohe was extremely stressed had been smoking a psychedelic drug that combined with the unusual circumstances of his life could cause someone to drive erratically And this is what we call willful ignorance, in an effort to avoid further pain. Those words sound hollow, and presumptive. This is the sort of closure a person will errect around circumstances that can only be made worse by thinking about or acting in favor of a deeper investigation. If it feels like social calculus at work, it probably is.
- zkirill 10y agoNobody suspects the fridge.
- Zikes 10y agoThere is a juvenile murder mystery story involving someone hacking the climate controls in a house to alternately make a room hot and cold, inducing a heart attack in a sleeping elderly resident while making it look like natural causes.
- bitL 10y agoWelcome to the world of Watch_Dogs!
- pnathan 10y agoWell, I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you. No one could ever believe that the SIGINT org of the United States government would stoop to hacking biomedical devices for their aims.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- nickysielicki 10y agoAnyone remember this, from last year? https://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2015-3459 https://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2015-34... For some reason, I feel like the NSA is going to succeed.
- raldu 10y agoIt is ridiculously amazing they can go to such an extent to literally say that it is their job to "penetrate other people's networks", and it feels so "good". (Actual quotes of the spokesperson) Some parts from the text reads like a prank article from The Onion. They openly say that they are invading (sorry, "penetrating") the privacy of everyone in the world, and still manage to get away with it. How? Misuse and abuse of the concept of "terror". It is high time for American public to realize that this "terror" rhetoric is just an abusive device to legitimatize the violation of very fundamental human rights. The NSA can just do whatever they want, because it is "terrors that made them do it", right? Violating the privacy rights of potentially everyone in the world? No problem, just drop "terrors", "terrorists" here and there, then everyone will shut up and not care. We do not need to be political scientists or experts in discourse analysis to spot the difference: just subtract the b.s. about "terror" and see the actual picture.
- ams6110 10y agoThe charter of the NSA is international signals intelligence. It is exactly their job to penetrate/eavesdrop on other people's networks. Every other first world country has a similar agency/bureau. Perhaps not as capable.
- raldu 10y agoObviously the point is not about questioning whether it is the job of a spy agency to spy on other people. Following the same reasoning, it would similarly be exactly military's job to kill people, with every other world country having a similar military with various capabilities... This is just semantics. It is about questioning the very legitimacy of the exact jobs of those institutions, along with their very existence. What makes their activities so normal that we even respond, "it is their job, everybody knows that", based on definitions? So my answer to this question of legitimacy was that, "they just legitimize it themselves, with their rhetoric on 'terrors'".
- jonnybgood 10y ago> So my answer to this question of legitimacy was that, "they just legitimize it themselves, with their rhetoric on 'terrors'". That answer would work if NSA was created after 9/11 or as part of the PATRIOT act or whatever. What was the NSA doing before? And don't you think NSA would still be doing that? My point is that NSA doesn't need terrorism to legitimize their operations. The reasons NSA came in to existence in the first place is still relevant and enough to legitimize itself.
- cloudjacker 10y agoThis is the plot of Homeland
- raddad 10y agoHomeland is a good read IMO. So is Little Brother.
- arca_vorago 10y agoIf we just make all of the devices closed source and proprietary with drm it wont be an issue because of hackers, and what have you got to worry about if youve done nothing wrong? /s
- yompers888 10y agoI recognize both your tone and your sarcasm tag, but having more closed source and proprietary technology actually would reduce the risk of government snooping, at least once there's enough of it. Paying smart, educated people to do this stuff is only feasible because it scales, and it only scales because there's so much standardization. It's the same concept as "Macs don't get viruses" (at least back in the early 2000s when their market share was much smaller.)
- jakeogh 10y ago2030: NSA: we need access to your brain chip and pacemaker. Don't worry, it's for the children. If you do worry, we will fix that.
- dantiberian 10y agoI couldn't find any reports saying that NSA employees aren't allowed cellphones. Does anyone have a link for more information on that?
- FrightHorse 10y agoWhen I worked there (2012-2014), we were certainly allowed cellphones, and friends that are still in the IC all still have such devices, so I don't think that's changed. We just (obviously) couldn't bring any electronic devices into the SCIF without specific approval. Anything with an antenna would pretty much never be approved, but if you wanted to bring, say, a Discman or somesuch, you could check it in, it would be torn apart and checked for anything foreign in the device, and then would be tagged for use in the SCIF. Typically, if something goes in, it's never allowed to leave the building except shredded, mulched, and burned.
- nul_byte 10y agoThey are not allowed at GCHQ. I once visited CESG , and was told to leave laptop and phone in the car or at the desk. I spoke to one of the guys working there about 'how did he find it without having a mobile', and he replied that it was actually quite nice as they did not get disturbed too much. They do have pagers that allow them to be reached, to then find a desk phone and call back.
- FrightHorse 10y agoAh, sorry, that's what I meant to imply. NSA has the same policy. I took the poster's meaning to be no phones at all. I always left any electronic devices at home.
- yompers888 10y agoConfirming what the other poster said with definitely-current info, NSA employees and other IC are certainly allowed cell phones, but they don't go very far into the buildings, if at all.