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Documents Reveal Top NSA Hacking Unit (2013)

97 points by ghosh 9y ago

andreasley 9y ago
Title should contain [2013]
chrisbro 9y ago
Link goes to part 2 of a 3-part series for some reason.
jngreenlee 9y ago
This actual first page of the series is even more pointed for US Citizens [0]: "In January 2010, numerous homeowners in San Antonio, Texas, stood baffled in front of their closed garage doors. They wanted to drive to work or head off to do their grocery shopping, but their garage door openers had gone dead, leaving them stranded. No matter how many times they pressed the buttons, the doors didn't budge. The problem primarily affected residents in the western part of the city, around Military Drive and the interstate highway known as Loop 410. In the United States, a country of cars and commuters, the mysterious garage door problem quickly became an issue for local politicians. Ultimately, the municipal government solved the riddle. Fault for the error lay with the United States' foreign intelligence service, the National Security Agency, which has offices in San Antonio. Officials at the agency were forced to admit that one of the NSA's radio antennas was broadcasting at the same frequency as the garage door openers. Embarrassed officials at the intelligence agency promised to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and soon the doors began opening again." [0] http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969.html http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-power...
- samstave 9y ago
  99% of home garage doors have a manual cable release which detaches the pulley from the chain drive and allows you to manually open the door... I'm surprised people wouldn't know this especially in Texas
  - jngreenlee 9y ago
    and 99% of garage door owners probably don't realize there's a counter-balancing spring "right there!" making it easy
  - klondike_ 9y ago
    The release is inside of the garage, so unless you have the key (not as common as you'd think) you're out of luck. Also I'm sure it'd get annoying to manually open the garage all the time, especially since this article seems to imply that the phenomenon lasted for a while
    - samstave 9y ago
      If you have a garage door opener button that is not working, you likely have a key to get into the house enter the garage and manually open the door.
      - w458cmau 9y ago
        I do not think that we are to take from the article that these home owners left their cars inside their garages until the NSA changed their frequencies. I understood that for a while they were interrupted in what they were planning to do.

97 points by ghosh 9y ago

andreasley 9y ago

Title should contain [2013]

chrisbro 9y ago

Link goes to part 2 of a 3-part series for some reason.

jngreenlee 9y ago

This actual first page of the series is even more pointed for US Citizens [0]: "In January 2010, numerous homeowners in San Antonio, Texas, stood baffled in front of their closed garage doors. They wanted to drive to work or head off to do their grocery shopping, but their garage door openers had gone dead, leaving them stranded. No matter how many times they pressed the buttons, the doors didn't budge. The problem primarily affected residents in the western part of the city, around Military Drive and the interstate highway known as Loop 410. In the United States, a country of cars and commuters, the mysterious garage door problem quickly became an issue for local politicians. Ultimately, the municipal government solved the riddle. Fault for the error lay with the United States' foreign intelligence service, the National Security Agency, which has offices in San Antonio. Officials at the agency were forced to admit that one of the NSA's radio antennas was broadcasting at the same frequency as the garage door openers. Embarrassed officials at the intelligence agency promised to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and soon the doors began opening again." [0] http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969.html http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-power...

samstave 9y ago
99% of home garage doors have a manual cable release which detaches the pulley from the chain drive and allows you to manually open the door... I'm surprised people wouldn't know this especially in Texas
- jngreenlee 9y ago
  and 99% of garage door owners probably don't realize there's a counter-balancing spring "right there!" making it easy
- klondike_ 9y ago
  The release is inside of the garage, so unless you have the key (not as common as you'd think) you're out of luck. Also I'm sure it'd get annoying to manually open the garage all the time, especially since this article seems to imply that the phenomenon lasted for a while
  - samstave 9y ago
    If you have a garage door opener button that is not working, you likely have a key to get into the house enter the garage and manually open the door.
    - w458cmau 9y ago
      I do not think that we are to take from the article that these home owners left their cars inside their garages until the NSA changed their frequencies. I understood that for a while they were interrupted in what they were planning to do.