NSA INTERCEPTING FOREIGN NETWORKS AND DATA CENTRES
The latest document from the Snowden’s desk talks about a program called “physical subversion,” under which the NSA’s undercover operatives were infiltrating foreign networks to acquire sensitive data and access to systems in the global communications industry and possibly even some American firms.
The document describes the details regarding various field activities involving computer network attacks – information which is held among the NSA’s so-called “core secrets” in a system code-named Sentry Eagle. The document is dated 2004, although there's no reason to believe that the NSA has changed its behavior since then.
Previous documents largely focused on U.S. companies providing the agency with vast amounts of customer data, including phone records and email traffic and also revealed the NSA’s operations to hack into other systems or to work with private corporations in an effort to weaken their own encryption systems, but the latest report suggests the agency could be embedding operatives into foreign, as well as domestic, “commercial entities.” But, it’s unclear whether these “commercial entities” are American or foreign or both.
REVELATION OF VARIOUS PROGRAMS
According to the latest document, NSA describes six different programs under its “core secrets,” all of which are categorized under the “Sentry Eagle” and some of which were ongoing as of year 2012. The programs are composed of the following:
Sentry Hawk - involves cooperation between the NSA as well as foreign and domestic companies in order to exploit computer networks.
Sentry Falcon - includes the defense of computer networks.
Sentry Osprey - involves the NSA cooperating with the CIA, FBI and Pentagon to hire human agents that can help give the agency access to networks.
Sentry Raven - describes the NSA’s negotiations with American companies to weaken their encryption in order to give the agency easier access.
Sentry Condor - includes offensive network attacks that can destroy or weaken computer systems.
Sentry Owl - involves the NSA working with foreign companies to make their products susceptible to NSA data gathering.
NSA DECLINED TO COMMENT
For its part, NSA declined to clarify details to The Intercept. A statement is release saying:-
It should come as no surprise that NSA conducts targeted operations to counter increasingly agile adversaries.
At the same time NSA stated
It takes into account the globalization of trade, investment and information flows, and the commitment to an open, interoperable, and secure global Internet.
source: http://thehackernews.com/2014/10/core-secrets-nsa-used-undercover-agents.html
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