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NSA Reportedly Intercepts And Alters Routers And Servers Exported From U.S.

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Re: NSA Reportedly Intercepts And Alters Routers And Servers Exported From U.S.

#3
Translation of the NSA statement:

We don't deny altering hardware. In fact, if we (likely) install backdoors into hardware used by foreign intelligence targets; but don't worry, we're not interested in the casual user. As the US Government relies on commercial hardware, we make sure that only the US Government can access the backdoors. We're angry that this was made public, and we can't prove that it jeopardizes human lives.

Re: NSA Reportedly Intercepts And Alters Routers And Servers Exported From U.S.

#7
post #3

Translation of the NSA statement: We don't deny altering hardware. In fact, if we (likely) install backdoors into hardware used by foreign intelligence targets; but don't worry, we're not interested in the casual user. As the US Government relies on commercial hardware, we make sure that only the US Government can access the backdoors. We're angry that this was made public, and we can't prove that it jeopardizes huma…

It also sheds some new light on the "China-hardware is bad for you" media campaign that was run right before Snowden happened. It seems that not buying American means keeping the American intelligence community out of ones network.

But I guess you _actually_ can't trust the Chinese either. That doesn't leave many hardware vendors for heavy-duty network equipment to choose from.

Re: NSA Reportedly Intercepts And Alters Routers And Servers Exported From U.S.

#8
post #6

So is it safe to assume every Intel or AMD CPU also likely has hidden capabilities waiting to be exploited by the NSA?

Rumors about this have been around for a long time but as far as I know, nobody has proven anything.

The safest guess right now is that if an American intelligence agency wants to infiltrate your corporate network, they'll take the IPMI route. With that they probably wouldn't even have to rely on a backdoor but could use the existing security holes.

Re: NSA Reportedly Intercepts And Alters Routers And Servers Exported From U.S.

#10
post #6

So is it safe to assume every Intel or AMD CPU also likely has hidden capabilities waiting to be exploited by the NSA?

What are the hidden router capabilities being exploited here? What piece of COTS hardware couldn't be exploited by an attacker with unlimited physical access to it prior to delivery?
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