This article feels like NSA bait to me. It's like NYT is trying to make NSA look good.
N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers
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Re: N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers
#82Transmit as far as "EIGHT Miles". Does anyone know what type of power this would take? I imagine if they used a less noisy frequency combined with sensitive receiving equipment, it would not take much. I used to play with CB radios which has a cap at 4W, with a good antenna, one could transmit 7+ miles in good situations.
If you have one of those briefcase-sized boosters, 8 miles could be pretty reliable.
If you have a huge antenna, a fraction of a watt in the shortwave band will easily get you across the country.
But presuming not shortwave and no particularly special antenna, a watt or two might do it.
For reference, cellphone radio signals are on the order of a watt or two, and they have no trouble reaching cell towers a mile or two away; maybe more.
This comes from my ham radio background and some of my individual experimenting.
Re: N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers
#83I do understand that it is now the status quo to disavow everything the NSA is, but foreign intelligence gathering is their mission and releasing these details simply doesn't help the cause of fixing the NSA's less savoury incursions. While arguably any foreign intelligence agency of note isn't going to be caught off guard by these leaks, leaking these details does offer political ammunition to the very people who st…
As upset as I am about the NSA, I agree that reports like these may be hard to justify as whistleblowing. This seems to be less about accountability and more about gawking at the NSA's toys. I suppose the NYT could argue that this article only reiterates what was previously reported on the ANT program, and the technology disclosed in that report is over 5 years old. Still, this article may get more attention because…
There's classified data coming from Washington or whatever government agencies to newspapers all the time through "sources". Do you really think everything that is given passes the highest standards for what should or not be leaked?
At the end of the day it's the newspapers who decide what gets published.
Re: N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers
#84I do understand that it is now the status quo to disavow everything the NSA is, but foreign intelligence gathering is their mission and releasing these details simply doesn't help the cause of fixing the NSA's less savoury incursions. While arguably any foreign intelligence agency of note isn't going to be caught off guard by these leaks, leaking these details does offer political ammunition to the very people who st…
I generally agree with this. I'm not sure what exactly this adds to the overall conversation. Does anyone have thoughts on why the NYT would choose to publish it, perhaps beyond pageviews?
I tend to think that leaks like this one may weaken the overall view towards the Snowden leaks. As far as I can tell from reading the article it's a tool that's used in specific cases, and likely has value in that capacity.
Re: N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Today it is just a well publicly known feature of modern Intel CPU (officially it is stated to be disabled on some CPUs :) http://www.realvnc.com/products/viewerplus/ "Computers with particular Intel® Core™ vPro™ processors enjoy the benefit of a VNC-compatible Server embedded directly onto the chip, enabling permanent remote access and control. A RealVNC collaboration with Intel's ground-breaking hardware has produc…
well publicly known feature I sure didn't know about it, and wish I did. I'd love to be able to use it! Is there any easy way to make this work (and to check if your computer supports it)?
This has some more info, no idea how much it applies to current tech.
http://blog.michael.kuron-germany.de/2011/10/using-intel-amt...
EDIT: and some more current stats
http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2012/04/23/intelr-vpro...
Re: N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers
#86The only thing that's more disappointing than the NSA spying is the NYT sitting on this scoop for more than a year, and letting Der Spiegel break it. Only slightly less amazing is that Der Spiegel and Jacob Applebaum were talking about this more than two weeks ago, and the NYT diddled until now. Incredible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vILAlhwUgIU
I'm more disappointed that very few on HN seemes to have been paying attention.
Re: N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can we get a Politics tab on the HN bar so we can filter the endless political debates? This should make everyone happy?
news.ycombinator.com/y/politics news.ycombinator.com/y/programming news.ycombinator.com/y/startups Subcombinators :-)
I feel like y/politics would quickly turn into something not worth reading.
Re: N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers
#88I do understand that it is now the status quo to disavow everything the NSA is, but foreign intelligence gathering is their mission and releasing these details simply doesn't help the cause of fixing the NSA's less savoury incursions. While arguably any foreign intelligence agency of note isn't going to be caught off guard by these leaks, leaking these details does offer political ammunition to the very people who st…
As the Snowden leaks get further away from "they're spying on Americans" and more into "they're doing their job" I'm getting less and less sympathetic. This is just a way to exfiltrate data, if that way was on steroids and a bigger budget, but still very much within the scope of the legally declared mission of the agency. Why is anyone upset that a technical spy agency is spying using technical means?
Re: N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you go into political discussion boards (meaning political news here), when you don't like them? Just wondering.
I came looking for a discussion of the mechanism by which such an attack might be possible.
It's not an attack. It's just a backdoor that avoids transmission over the network. This allows airgapped computers and those with close network traffic monitoring to still be monitored without giving it away, "the radio frequency hardware must be physically inserted by a spy, a manufacturer or an unwitting user." It's just another antenna that the target would be unlikely to look for a transmission from.... until now I guess.
Re: N.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who's to say that American intelligence gathering is on the right 'side'? Why should members of 'foreign' countries be held to a different standard?
Can we get a Politics tab on the HN bar so we can filter the endless political debates? This should make everyone happy?
This doesn't strike me as a political question. Strong intelligence on foreign activities is the "right" side from an American perspective. It would be in the best interest of the nation and would be within the mandate of the NSA. It's right from a strategic sense and I wouldn't expect it to be partisan.
Other NSA activities, especially where they have exceeded their mandate would be debatable, and possibly partisan. Much of the leaked activity could be argued to be not in the best interest of the nation.
(I'm Canadian, so while I couldn't claim to be neutral, I have a bit of an outsiders perspective. Not to mention, spying on me with such a device would be within the mandate of the NSA.)