NSA hidden software in hard drives around the world

[C1]

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-russian-researchers-expose-breakthrough-us-spying-program-2015-2

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Probably something like what this guy did?

http://spritesmods.com/?art=hddhack

 

[mmntech]

Well, I guess the US government can no longer criticize Chinese manufacturers for hiding spyware in routers.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Well, I guess the US government can no longer criticize Chinese manufacturers for hiding spyware in routers.

Hah! Watch them!

 

[mmntech]

The NSA is a perfect example of what happens when you give civil servants unlimited funds and tell them to do whatever they want with no checks and balances.

 

[BeeBoop]

Well holy shit. I fear the day when they will use this information to stop all future crimes from happening.

 

[pontifex]

Seagate spokesman Clive Over said it has "secure measures to prevent tampering or reverse engineering of its firmware and other technologies." Micron spokesmanDaniel Francisco said the company took the security of its products seriously and "we are not aware of any instances of foreign code."


lol, well no shit, it wouldn't be tampering or foreign code if you worked with the NSA to add it....

 

[feralkid]

The NSA is a perfect example of what happens when you give civil servants unlimited funds and tell them to do whatever they want with no checks and balances.

Eh?
This is pretty much what the N.S.A. is supposed to do.

Well, not the leaky Snowdeny parts.

 

[Brian Stirling]

Well holy shit. I fear the day when they will use this information to stop all future crimes from happening.

What the NSA is doing IS THE CRIME!


Brian

 

[ivwshane]

The NSA is a perfect example of what happens when you give civil servants unlimited funds and tell them to do whatever they want with no checks and balances.

Why limit it to civil servants? This is what happens when you give unlimited funds and power to anyone. The NSA doesn't have a monopoly on being shady.


But you know who never gets blamed? The people who are responsible for overseeing the NSA and putting checks on their power...congress.

 

[Harvey]

I wrote a song in 2005 that seems to be on point, "Who's Watching Over Who's Watching Over You?" From the second verse:

And they silence the voices arising,
From those who would show us the light,
With their guys with their spies in the skies watching you and your neighbor.

And who's watching over who's watching over you?
Tell me who's telling who's telling you what to do what to do?

If you're interested, here's a link to all the lyrics.

 

[Matt1970]

Well holy shit. I fear the day when they will use this information to stop all future crimes from happening.

Imagine how many crimes would be solved if we just let police and government search every house in the country. Oh ya, forgot about that whole constitution thing.

 

[manimal]

The fact that their shit infects the firmware of hard drives scares me. How the fack do you clean that if it remains after a wipe?

 

[Harvey]

The fact that their shit infects the firmware of hard drives scares me. How the fack do you clean that if it remains after a wipe?

There's a good article on Ars Technica with a lot more info.

I guess the good news is that it's installed in volitile firmware by an attack after manufacture, which means, in theory, it could be cleaned by re-flashing it back to stock, as well. I'd be more concerned if were in non-volitile firmware installed by the manufacturers. D:

 

[manimal]

There's a good article on Ars Technica with a lot more info.

I guess the good news is that it's in volitile firmwarem which means, in theory, it could be cleaned by re-flashing it back to stock, as well. I'd be more concerned if were in non-volitile firmware installed by the manufacturers. D:

How often have you re-flashed to stock firmware? Not something I have thought about doing lately.

 

[Harvey]

How often have you re-flashed to stock firmware? Not something I have thought about doing lately.

It's not usually that hard to download the current firmware for your drives. How fast would you do it if you thought your drives were infected by the NSA or anyone else?

 

[Jeff7]

The NSA is a perfect example of what happens when you give civil servants unlimited funds and tell them to do whatever they want with no checks and balances.

To the point that there should be laws against that sort of thing.


:hmm:
Oh...right.

Well holy shit. I fear the day when they will use this information to stop all future crimes from happening.

At some point, I'm sure we'll be deciding what level of probability is acceptable to lock someone up.
"Based on this person's Internet search history, there's a 98.6% probability that they will commit a crime in the next 12 months."

So what probability will the public be ok with? 99.8%? 75%? 99.996%? 65%?