4 ms·

Spy agency uses 'computer network exploitation' to take digital information

61 points by tigerlily 4y ago

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
ackbar03 4y ago
Isn't that their job? It used to / still is referred to as signals intelligence since information was first transmitted over the air in the old days and later over the wire. Since everything is behind SSL encryption now they need to increasingly hack into the devices to get the info instead of just intercepting it.
- defrost 4y ago
  > Isn't that their job? This is specifically New Zealand and this is an article about what is their job. Here it is revealed they are permitted (under warrent) to copy data from NZ citizens networks | home devices. It also indicates they are not permitted to keep that copy "for later on" after it has been examined. There are many facets to SigInt - not the least (and one of the earliest applications) is the simple recording and mapping of messages - not their contents, just the mere fact that a message was broadcast or sent from Location X at Time T. Here, specifically, the discussion is about the intrusion into a network (home LAN, etc) to retrieve data rather than the mere recording of a transmission across a wire or through a public network. > "Our legislation ... allows us to access information infrastructures, which is more than just interception," the Director-General of the Government Communications Security Bureau, Andrew Hampton, said. > It "also allows us to retrieve digital information directly from where it is stored or processed".
- dmix 4y ago
  Don't worry, it's being scrutinized. Move along citizen.
- matheusmoreira 4y ago
  > they need to increasingly hack into the devices to get the info What they need to do is give up. Their surveillance is not justifiable. I hate how normalized their tyrannical behavior is.
  - phonescreen_man 4y ago
    A lot of peedos out there
    - matheusmoreira 4y ago
      Doesn't justify total global surveillance and insecurity of electronic devices.
MichaelCollins 4y ago
In other news, bricklayers lay bricks.
- mdp2021 4y ago
  No, > «The potential hazard of target discovery activity, from a civil liberties and privacy point of view, is intrusion into the lives of people who have done nothing to merit the attention of a national security agency», the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security said [... He] assure[d] the public that the exploitation operations were scrutinised [... But 93% of] policies were overdue for review, and in some cases, including data analytics, were "non-existent" : it is about global assessment and details of appropriate management of investigation.
tux 4y ago
Why does this sound a lot like a hardware backdoor like in motherboard or CPU...
- spookie 4y ago
  I would wager it is
- tgsovlerkhgsel 4y ago
  Which part do you see hinting at it? To me it looked like a regular "we hack things".
  - MonkeyClub 4y ago
    Perhaps closer to “we buy software that hacks things for us”. But yeah, no ref to hardware backdooring.
  - tux 4y ago
    Nothing specific, just the way its written made me think about this.
baxtr 4y ago
This title sounds like it’s part of a Job Description. Your role as a proper spy agent is to use, amongst other means, computer network exploitation to take digital information!
- MonkeyClub 4y ago
  It reminded me of the Private Eye headline, “Woman gives birth to child”. The clickbaity headline in this case would be about a spy agency not using computer network exploitation.
jmkni 4y ago
Bear shits in wood
bitwize 4y ago
The state of NZ right now is such that the government can do whatever and their Mouth of Sauron of a PM will be out there sweetly providing justification for what they want to do in the name of fighting terrorists, COVID deniers, or whatever. They don't have a constitution like the USA (which is a paltry check on government power, but it's something). Any scrutiny they apply is bound to be "we investigated ourselves and found we did nothing wrong" levels of accountability.
dontbenebby 4y ago
j_not_j 4y ago
The extensive use of quotation marks suggests the author (unattributed, huh), editor and presumably their audience is unfamiliar with the concepts. The best line, like all news articles written to a standard style, is the last one: "The report showed he reviewed 63 spying warrants, 49 of them the most serious kind, a Type 1, which lets an agency carry out an otherwise unlawful activity in order to collection information about a New Zealander."
varispeed 4y ago
This should be shocking, but after hearing that bears do it in the woods, nothing is going to surprise me...
kmoser 4y ago
> One of the country's two spy agencies has revealed [...] Anyone who thinks their country only has only two spy agencies is only fooling themselves. (This applies to pretty much any country.)

61 points by tigerlily 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Isn't that their job? It used to / still is referred to as signals intelligence since information was first transmitted over the air in the old days and later over the wire. Since everything is behind SSL encryption now they need to increasingly hack into the devices to get the info instead of just intercepting it.

defrost 4y ago
> Isn't that their job? This is specifically New Zealand and this is an article about what is their job. Here it is revealed they are permitted (under warrent) to copy data from NZ citizens networks | home devices. It also indicates they are not permitted to keep that copy "for later on" after it has been examined. There are many facets to SigInt - not the least (and one of the earliest applications) is the simple recording and mapping of messages - not their contents, just the mere fact that a message was broadcast or sent from Location X at Time T. Here, specifically, the discussion is about the intrusion into a network (home LAN, etc) to retrieve data rather than the mere recording of a transmission across a wire or through a public network. > "Our legislation ... allows us to access information infrastructures, which is more than just interception," the Director-General of the Government Communications Security Bureau, Andrew Hampton, said. > It "also allows us to retrieve digital information directly from where it is stored or processed".
dmix 4y ago
Don't worry, it's being scrutinized. Move along citizen.
matheusmoreira 4y ago
> they need to increasingly hack into the devices to get the info What they need to do is give up. Their surveillance is not justifiable. I hate how normalized their tyrannical behavior is.
- phonescreen_man 4y ago
  A lot of peedos out there
  - matheusmoreira 4y ago
    Doesn't justify total global surveillance and insecurity of electronic devices.

MichaelCollins 4y ago

In other news, bricklayers lay bricks.

mdp2021 4y ago
No, > «The potential hazard of target discovery activity, from a civil liberties and privacy point of view, is intrusion into the lives of people who have done nothing to merit the attention of a national security agency», the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security said [... He] assure[d] the public that the exploitation operations were scrutinised [... But 93% of] policies were overdue for review, and in some cases, including data analytics, were "non-existent" : it is about global assessment and details of appropriate management of investigation.

tux 4y ago

Why does this sound a lot like a hardware backdoor like in motherboard or CPU...

spookie 4y ago
I would wager it is
tgsovlerkhgsel 4y ago
Which part do you see hinting at it? To me it looked like a regular "we hack things".
- MonkeyClub 4y ago
  Perhaps closer to “we buy software that hacks things for us”. But yeah, no ref to hardware backdooring.
- tux 4y ago
  Nothing specific, just the way its written made me think about this.

baxtr 4y ago

This title sounds like it’s part of a Job Description. Your role as a proper spy agent is to use, amongst other means, computer network exploitation to take digital information!

MonkeyClub 4y ago
It reminded me of the Private Eye headline, “Woman gives birth to child”. The clickbaity headline in this case would be about a spy agency not using computer network exploitation.

jmkni 4y ago

Bear shits in wood

bitwize 4y ago

The state of NZ right now is such that the government can do whatever and their Mouth of Sauron of a PM will be out there sweetly providing justification for what they want to do in the name of fighting terrorists, COVID deniers, or whatever. They don't have a constitution like the USA (which is a paltry check on government power, but it's something). Any scrutiny they apply is bound to be "we investigated ourselves and found we did nothing wrong" levels of accountability.

dontbenebby 4y ago

j_not_j 4y ago

The extensive use of quotation marks suggests the author (unattributed, huh), editor and presumably their audience is unfamiliar with the concepts. The best line, like all news articles written to a standard style, is the last one: "The report showed he reviewed 63 spying warrants, 49 of them the most serious kind, a Type 1, which lets an agency carry out an otherwise unlawful activity in order to collection information about a New Zealander."

varispeed 4y ago

This should be shocking, but after hearing that bears do it in the woods, nothing is going to surprise me...

kmoser 4y ago

> One of the country's two spy agencies has revealed [...] Anyone who thinks their country only has only two spy agencies is only fooling themselves. (This applies to pretty much any country.)