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Moscow-Based Security Firm Reveals What May Be The Biggest NSA "Backdoor Exploit" Ever
Since 2001, a group of hackers - dubbed the "Equation Group" by researchers from Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab - have infected computers in at least 42 countries (with Iran, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and Syria most infected) with what Ars Technica calls "superhuman technical feats" indicating "extraordinary skill and unlimited resources."
The exploits - including the 'prized technique' of the creation of a secret storage vault that survives military-grade disk wiping and reformatting - cover every hard-drive manufacturer and have many similar characteristics to the infamous NSA-led Stuxnet virus.
According to Kaspersky, the spies made a technological breakthrough by figuring out how to lodge malicious software in the obscure code called firmware that launches every time a computer is turned on.
Disk drive firmware is viewed by spies and cybersecurity experts as the second-most valuable real estate on a PC for a hacker, second only to the BIOS code invoked automatically as a computer boots up.
"The hardware will be able to infect the computer over and over," lead Kaspersky researcher Costin Raiu said in an interview.
...
Kaspersky's reconstructions of the spying programs show that they could work in disk drives sold by more than a dozen companies, comprising essentially the entire market. They include Western Digital Corp, Seagate Technology Plc, Toshiba Corp, IBM, Micron Technology Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.
The group used a variety of means to spread other spying programs, such as by compromising jihadist websites, infecting USB sticks and CDs, and developing a self-spreading computer worm called Fanny, Kasperky said.
Fanny was like Stuxnet in that it exploited two of the same undisclosed software flaws, known as "zero days," which strongly suggested collaboration by the authors, Raiu said. He added that it was "quite possible" that the Equation group used Fanny to scout out targets for Stuxnet in Iran and spread the virus.
Which, as Reuters reports, strongly suggests the "extraordinary skills and unlimited resources" were funded by the NSA...
The U.S. National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software deep within hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba and other top manufacturers, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the majority of the world's computers, according to cyber researchers and former operatives.
That long-sought and closely guarded ability was part of a cluster of spying programs discovered by Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow-based security software maker that has exposed a series of Western cyberespionage operations.
Kaspersky said it found personal computers in 30 countries infected with one or more of the spying programs, with the most infections seen in Iran, followed by Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Mali, Syria, Yemen and Algeria. The targets included government and military institutions, telecommunication companies, banks, energy companies, nuclear researchers, media, and Islamic activists, Kaspersky said.
The firm declined to publicly name the country behind the spying campaign, but said it was closely linked to Stuxnet, the NSA-led cyberweapon that was used to attack Iran's uranium enrichment facility. The NSA is the agency responsible for gathering electronic intelligence on behalf of the United States.
A former NSA employee told Reuters that Kaspersky's analysis was correct, and that people still in the intelligence agency valued these spying programs as highly as Stuxnet. Another former intelligence operative confirmed that the NSA had developed the prized technique of concealing spyware in hard drives, but said he did not know which spy efforts relied on it.
The global coverage is clearly focused in a particular region (and not in the US)...
As Kasperskey exposes, victims generally fall into the following categories:
• Governments and diplomatic institutions
• Telecommunication
• Aerospace
• Energy
• Nuclear research
• Oil and gas
• Military
• Nanotechnology
• Islamic activists and scholars
• Mass media
• Transportation
• Financial institutions
• Companies developing cryptographic technologies
As an interesting note, some of the “patients zero” of Stuxnet seem to have been infected by the EQUATION group. It is quite possible that the EQUATION group malware was used to deliver the STUXNET payload.
So far, Kaspersky have identi?ed several malware platforms used exclusively by the Equation group. They are:
EQUATIONDRUG – A very complex attack platform used by the group on its victims. It supports a module plugin system, which can be dynamically uploaded and unloaded by the attackers.
DOUBLEFANTASY – A validator-style Trojan, designed to con?rm the target is the intended one. If the target is con?rmed, they get upgraded to a more sophisticated platform such as EQUATIONDRUG or GRAYFISH.
EQUESTRE – Same as EQUATIONDRUG.
TRIPLEFANTASY – Full-featured backdoor sometimes used in tandem with GRAYFISH. Looks like an upgrade of DOUBLEFANTASY, and is possibly a more recent validator-style plugin.
GRAYFISH – The most sophisticated attack platform from the EQUATION group. It resides completely in the registry, relying on a bootkit to gain execution at OS startup.
FANNY – A computer worm created in 2008 and used to gather information about targets in the Middle East and Asia. Some victims appear to have been upgraded ?rst to DoubleFantasy, and then to the EQUATIONDRUG system. Fanny used exploits for two zero-day vulnerabilities which were later discovered with Stuxnet.
EQUATIONLASER – An early implant from the EQUATION group, used around 2001-2004. Compatible with Windows 95/98, and created sometime between DOUBLEFANTASY and EQUATIONDRUG.
Although the implementation of their malware systems is incredibly complex, surpassing even Regin in sophistication, there is one aspect of the EQUATION group’s attack technologies that exceeds anything Kaspersky has ever seen before.
This is the ability to infect the hard drive ?rmware.
The plugin version 4 is more complex and can reprogram 12 drive “categories”
* * *
So to summarize:
1) US sanctions Russia
2) a Russian-based research group (Kaspersky Lab is an international group operating in almost 200 countries and territories worldwide. The company is headquartered in Moscow, Russia, with its holding company registered in the United Kingdom. Kaspersky Lab currently employs over 2,850 qualified specialists) reveals that through Equation group's code, there is NSA presence across the supply chain of the highest margin US products .
3) As Reuters notes, the exposure of these new spying tools could lead to greater backlash against Western technology, particularly in countries such as China, which is already drafting regulations that would require most bank technology suppliers to proffer copies of their software code for inspection.
4) And Peter Swire, one of five members of U.S. President Barack Obama's Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology, said the Kaspersky report showed that it is essential for the country to consider the possible impact on trade and diplomatic relations before deciding to use its knowledge of software flaws for intelligence gathering. "There can be serious negative effects on other U.S. interests," Swire said.
It appears the 'boomerang' is boomerang-ing...
* * *
Full Kaspersky Labs report below:
»
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I am a programmer. You can't trust anything digitally, phones, laptops, desktops, anything that connects or is capable of connecting.
If you are a lay person with limited knowledge of these things, the admission by Samsung that there new flat screens can hear and watch you should be enough.
That is worse than having the neighborhood gossip hiding behind your couch while you are doing your thing. :)
Looks like I'll hold onto my 2007 Olevia 'dumb' plasma until it dies.
I always boot my computer from a Linux live CD, I removed the HDD long time ago.
* For a complete list of Linux OS CD's check here.
But until you have an opensource bios it's probably not much of an improvement.
Yes but they cannot do anything if the hdd is gone...
That is not correct. They don't require embedded code in the bios or hdd. There are so many avenues they can exploit. With the likes of FaceBook, Google, Microsoft and Apple in .gov's back pocket, they haven't begun to uncover what is possible in the way of controlling your system to what is being collected today by whom.
Rasberry Pi anyone?
The problem is that unless you review the source and recompile the Linux kernel in a systemj with clean drives and controllers you're still toast......Who has vetted the Rasspberry Pi hardware? and do you trust the one who vetted it?
No, the answer may be a new OS with a firmware controller that is open source that can verify what's going in and out of the box into the network.....while you work inside a Faraday's cage
The US Deep State's friend is complexity - Linux is "safe" because in theory you can review the source code yourself, but in practice it is very complicated and would take a long time to check.
If you want safe, run the original UNIX in a PDP-11 - the original UNIX kernel fit in 10,000 lines of code, which is *nothing* and is easily mastered and checked by a competent CS student.
Unfortuntely, to make it useful you need a TCP/IP stack and then a modern WWW browser, although perhaps if you used something like "lynx" you could be pretty safe...
The advantage of the Raspberry Pi is that it is a developer's toy, its about as simple as you can get these days, and has a vocal user community which may (*may*) be able to sound the alarm.
The fact that it is a different "species" than the typical Microsoft Windows desktop w/ UEFI BIOS and the typical JAVA/Oracle applications is what can protect you.
The NSA is going for the greatest bang for the buck, and an unusual combination of hardware and OS is likely to slip under their radar.
I'm guessing "Fanny" was a backdoor exploit.
lol..... could a called it Reggie too.....
How many people did the cops kill in the USA this past 12 months that didn't needkilling and how many people were killed by terrorist organizations in the USA in the same period?
We know the lack of terrorist murders isn't due to survellance as I don't think the CIA and NSA have really stopped any serious threats.
"All war is based on deception." -- Sun Tzu
oh no you got me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzGKsXPBILw
Du
Du hast
Du hast mich
Du hast mich
Du hast mich Gefragt
Du hast mich gefragt und ich hab nichts gesagt
Willst du bis der Tod euch scheide
Treu ihr sein fur alle Tage
Ah-h-h-h
Nein
Ah-h-h-h
Nein
Du
Du hast
Du hast mich
Du hast mich
Du hast mich gefragt
Du hast mich gefragt und ich hab nichts gesagt
Willst Du bis der Tod euch scheide
Treu ihr sein fur alle Tage
Ah-h-h-h
Nein
Ah-h-h-h
Nein
willst Du bis der Tod der Scheide
Sie lieben auch in schlechten Tagen
Ah-h-h-h
Nein
Ah-h-h-h
Nein
willst Du bis der Tod euch scheide
Treu ihr sein
Ah-h-h-h
Nein
Ah-h-h-h
Nein
Dexter; Hey was this a homage to the Dadaist Movement in France... Just wondered about this song for 15 years now. What the hell does it mean.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada (dadaism)
Dada (/?d??d??/) or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century. Dada in Zurich, Switzerland, began in 1916, [1] The term anti-art, a precursor to Dada, was coined by Marcel Duchamp around 1913 when he created his first readymades.[2] Dada, in addition to being anti-war, had political affinities with the radical left and was also anti-bourgeois.[3]
The roots of Dada lay in pre-war avant-garde. Cubism and the development of collage, combined with Wassily Kandinsky’s theoretical writings and abstraction, detached the movement from the constraints of reality and convention.
Wow - you are going a lot deeper than I did - I just kind of like the music. And, the 'you got me' kind of fit the whole tech spy thing and uncovering of the NSA......in my little mind at least.
I will have to look more in to it though - learning more about a bands roots and style can make them that much more interesting.
Dexter; Oh I see why you posted it now.
Sorry I had the wrong song:
-- Da Da Da (this one seems like better visual & voice)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaMoZw0h2q4 (pretty Weird)
Gotta lov this 1:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TIdTyMyc5PY/VOJ1fEO5J2I/AAAAAAAAG2g/e2kESr6yRG...
A Russian state service in charge of safeguarding Kremlin ... purchase an array of old-fashioned typewriters to prevent leaks from computer hardware, ... Glenn Beck: You all are about 2 years late on this.
Every nation for themselves or all in one?
Only a criminal government need spy and lie.
The banksters need to repay us.
And Israel is right there at number.........hey, wait.......
Exactly!
"declined to publicly name the country behind the spying campaign, but said it was closely linked to Stuxnet, the NSA-led cyberweapon"... I will publicly name them: Oh, you just did, thanks D_M
Israel isn't on the infected list, nor has ISIS attacked them.......http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2015/02/un-reveals-israels-support-...
why, thats not at all suspicious...
I always find it funny when people claim Zion, and Zionism, don't exist.
The banksters need to repay us.
Even the hated "Red-Light" extortion devices, are owned and controlled by Zion.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-07-13/news/0907120396_1_red-ligh...
Anybody who thinks that this is being done to defend the US is a fool. This, like most of what the military/industrial/security/surveillance complex does, is designed only to perpetuate and expand its own power and control.
So the US Corporations off-shore the jobs and then, in-shore cheap labor via H-1B to destroy more American jobs and then, the NSA makes it so that no country wants to buy from American corporations. Sounds like a plan for success to me.
Seems like the Corporate Government has closed loop of sure destruction.
You're onto the plan except for the last step - the NSA makes it so that there is no option other than to buy from corporations infiltrated by NSA/CIA/DARPA. Thus anything you think you can do about the first to insults will be immediately shut down.
Also it's probably time we stop talking about these things like "malware" and "infiltration" and "backdoor". We need to come to accept that the US is a fully fascist state, having integrated corporations and government (well, one sect of gov't the intelligence-control-matrix). Thus, when you buy a hard drive, you are, in fact, buying a government device that links you into the matrix. There maybe was a time where some sort of separation existed between your private affairs and the intelligence control grid, but that shit is nostalgia now. You either have to plug into the matrix or find a deep underground cave to populate.
Faraday cage. Everyone needs a Faraday cage. And an abacus. And maybe a Commodore 64. Old School. Ratchet.
BTW, who the hell would ever trust the Russians for anything?
Faraday cage. Everyone needs a Faraday cage. And an abacus. And maybe a Commodore 64. Old School. Ratchet.
BTW, who the hell would ever trust the Russians for anything?
'
'
'
Short WD and Seagate!
They didn't find a way, they simply asked or told them they were going to install the malware. It's not an exploit it's a backdoor, this Orwellian double speak is insane.
When the NSA's "DROPOUTJEEP" has a "near 100%" success rate for infiltrating ios products, it's a built in backdoor. People should understand the implications of this stuff, it proves that the intelligence industrial complex is fully fascistic, the separating line between private industry and government spying is non-existent.
Told them? Hell the NSA/CIA/DARPA/US Gov't VCs PAID them to develop these products so that they could install the malware.
While we're criticizing double-speak - it's not really "malware" if it is the entire purpose of these products to link into the US Gov't Control Matrix.
Obviously there is a good reason why Embassies use sledge hammers on their drives in Alamo situations.
When I was a shill for HP in a past life the recommended solution for sensitive data on a dead/old HDD was to hammer several nails through the disk platters and be sure to take out a few chips on the circuit board when you do it. This solution seemed to satisfy a few fussy customers.
I heard they use thermite. Heard it back before thermite was a household word.
The number of computers disconnected from the Internet will grow exponentially starting tonight. :p
LOL !! Thats why people relying on TOR, VPNs and other "baits" are a whole bunch of naive idiots!! Any computerized device today is monitored and you can't scape from it. Anyways, if you don't have anything they are after, they will not mess with you. Meanwhile....if they want to see me in the bathroom, in the shower or anywhere else ( even in bed with my wife ) they can help themselves....I don't really care!! : ) )
I abstained of upvoting your comment. Because of last four words. I do care, if they watch me. I am from Eastern EUrope, Slovakia, and I do mind, if state is watching me, though I have done nothing. The best answer to this sustained watching of citizenry is an upheaval, ike in Donbas and killing of the existing system.
well, not ANY... just ANY that communicate. contrare' to some post above, the ultimate backdoor is not hdwe/firmware but comm. "internet Freedom", "internet SAFETY", "your Momma's Bank Account is at risk!" - all this hype pedaled to ignorant people to support the narrative of "making the net safe" = commFascism
if any of you have an ISP, you are paying a spy agency to monitor you.
The 1996 Timeframe matches the timeline of the operational merger of "Project Carnivore" and "Project Echelon" and the massive re-organization of CSS within the NSA. We probably outsourced this to the Haifa based applied mathematics jockies working for Shin Bet.
Correction Darth - those applied mathematics jockies are based near Glilot Junction just north of Tel Aviv on the coast.
I may be wrong, but as I understood it, the Highway 5 folks support internally directed operations and the Haifa team does the outsource work for the Americans. Are they still in those horrible huts in the Army base?
I guess this was what Obama was talking about "sharing information" with other companies/government
for those, who do not prefer scribd
http://securelist.com/files/2015/02/Equation_group_questions_and_answers...
The cost to the US of being labeled an supplier of untrustworthy technology is huge.
Russia doesn't have to boycott US goods. All the Russians have to do is publicize NSA exploits of US products, and the rest of the world does the boycotting for them.
How long has Russia known I wonder? Guess they would take measures to secure themselves before letting on. Didn't I read they were going back to use typewriters for some things..
But yes thats the ultimate back door..basically control the hardware.
So good luck to all these IT hardware/software producers.....shot themselves in the foot.
Well now, there are some fine edumacators and artists here and for that, much gratitude is expressed for all those good hearts that contribute to this world-wide forum of truth on ZH. Many huge loving blessings, and graceful wishes for goodness in quality life to every hand on board. Even you, Barry and the trolls of hell.
Edumacation.: The path to wisdom comes from the seeds of basic common sense knowledge well planted early in the nubile mind and heart, and then carefully naturally propagated through life. We watch and learn from the great teaching nature as they grow.
God is nature. God is Love. Satanic luciferianism is NOT natural. Period!
Now here is some serial edumacation that one bets 88% of the crew do not know. It is time to plant some moar seeds of knowledge.
How many good folks here know about the CLERGY RESPONSE TEAMS?
Here's a tidbit to ponder from the linked stories below.:
“In May 2006, we exposed the existence of a nationwide FEMA program which is training Pastors and other religious representatives to become secret police enforcers who teach their congregations to "obey the government" in preparation for the implementation of martial law, property and firearm seizures, mass vaccination programs and forced relocation.
A whistleblower who was secretly enrolled into the program told us that the feds were clandestinely recruiting religious leaders to help implement Homeland Security directives in anticipation of a potential bio-terrorist attack, any natural disaster or a nationally declared emergency.
The first directive was for Pastors to preach to their congregations Romans 13, the often taken out of context bible passage that was used by Hitler to hoodwink Christians into supporting him, in order to teach them to "obey the government" when martial law is declared.
It was related to the Pastors that quarantines, martial law and forced relocation were a problem for state authorities when enforcing federal mandates due to the "cowboy mentality" of citizens standing up for their property and second amendment rights as well as farmers defending their crops and livestock from seizure.
It was stressed that the Pastors needed to preach subservience to the authorities ahead of time in preparation for the round-ups and to make it clear to the congregation that "this is for their own good."
Pastors were told that they would be backed up by law enforcement in controlling uncooperative individuals and that they would even lead SWAT teams in attempting to quell resistance.
Though some doubted the accuracy of this report at the time due to its fundamentally disturbing implications, the story has now been confirmed by a KSLA 12 news report, in which participating clergy and officials admit to the existence of the program.”
Read the rest of the horrifying story at this link:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2007/160807_quell_dissent.htm
Moar:
http://www.clergyresponseteams.com/
Does anyone see a problem here? It's called, EVIL!
WAKE UP CHRISTIANITY!!! The only salvation this world possibly has for any kind of peaceful future, is in the right minded actions of the entire Christian world, American, Spanish, Italian, South American, and Russian good hearted Christians for the most part (there is NO DIFFERENCE), to all band together as one body of Christ to stop voting for and supporting these luciferian/satanic moneygod warmongering for profit evil political slaves of the zionist bankster owners of the US fed gov that are dividing and killing you all.
Every real non-brainwashed Christian WORLD-WIDE has one thing in common. They Love the Christ and they love each other. Knowing that, how can that majority of the world 's people fall for the evil that has them all fighting each other, so who can profit? Yes, that's right, satan and it's minions.
Luciferians and satanists all come from the same bucket of slop. No difference. All evil. All murderers. These evil central banksters are the free world's common enemies. No amount of govt garbagebag lying propaganda will ever change that fact. Evil is everyone's enemy!
The satan-Iphone tracker thingy has become god to many. They all religiously kow-tow to the Eye of Sauron, instead of the Man from Galilee.
Every hu-man and wo-man is now admonished and heartily encouraged to spread this Word far and wide. Act now to save yourselves, or later after death tell God on the other side why you did not act to stop the insanity of satans war on mankind. What would Jesus do? Every soul on board will answer to that Higher Power some day to be judged. No escape at all.
Only fools will ignore this edumacational saving Light/Knowledge. In truth, we are all one life force in individual packages. Each unique, yet One with all that is. Division is a dis-ease of man, not God. All humans were created as One Family of Man. Stop eating the poison of delusions, and lie pies. Use what God gave you. Use your heart to discern truth. The heart is after all, our greatest truth detector. LISTEN TO IT ALWAYS...one breath at a time. Let Love guide you, eternally.
For the sake of the world, much Love.
Original Serenity Prayer.
"God give us the grace to accept with serenity the things that CANNOT BE CHANGED, the courage to change the things that SHOULD BE CHANGED, and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."
Extra credit:
ATTENTION ALL US MILITARY, PRESENT AND PAST.
How many of you know you have been experimented on by your masters? How many of you know about the evil war profiteers plan to kill you all off in the next contrived false flag caused world war?
Using the experimental POISONOUS cancerous VACCINES, mycoplasims, and depleted radioactive ammunition, the babylonian govt is KILLING YOU ALL according to the evil satanic/luciferic bankster agendas of world domination, and population elimination. Proud families will eventually find out that every lost American soldier that ever went to the false flag started wars died for THEM to profit from. The evil banksters, not America or her people. Deal with it. There is NO deviation from this sad truth. No moar covering it up. They died for the moneygod, nothing else. Even sadder, 99% of most Americans do not even care either.
When there is no American military left healthy, there will be no one to properly defend the American people, or America. The latest example of troop killing was sending 3,000 of America's finest soldiers to go to Africa to be infected by the ebola. Like the military that spread the Spanish flu, they are coming home right now to help spread the ebola in America next. Your loving owners at work killing you all softly.
The good Captain Joyce Riley has cancer, sadly like many vets. They gave it their all, and the babylonian govt kicked them in the arse for it. Talk about horrible. Ask those trying to get medical help from the VA now. Stories on top of horrific never ending stories. Over 400,000 have already died of the radioactive gulf war sickness.
This is a mandatory listen to broadcast today featuring a long David Knight interview of the good hearted, Captain Riley. The elder veterans calling in tell some very heartening stories.:
From the Ron Gibson channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5dUMPeJMtA
***
I downvoted u.
'cause it is too long to read.
...and you rehashed the same shit on a diferent article.
"firmware"
Al CIAduh strikes agin!
The terror nation is asking to be permanently ostracised inside its electronic gulag.
Not even Tarzan was safe!
TCP/IP over Bongo Drums
At Algoma University the mature students in the fast track accelerated second degree program are not quick to accept theory without proof. As a result, Professor George Townsend offered extra credit to anyone in his forth year Computer Networks course who could take up the challenge of implementing internet based protocols over a new form of medium - Bongo Drums.
Eight weeks later, the first public demonstration was given to the class by using a simple ping packet. With a blinding 2bps speed, the class sat patiently as the packet was received in roughly 140 seconds.
Whats the point you may ask? We aren't trying to set any speed records here (actually, we have been developing some ideas for highspeed bongos), but rather we're showing that the lower layers of the OSI model can be replaced with any form of media without affecting the layers above it.
https://web.archive.org/web/20130430142133/http://eagle.auc.ca/~dreid/
Cut the NSA budget problem solve. No more spying on our nation.
It all gear up to cover the banking biggest scam coming.
I glad the Russian have exposed NSA back to all spying, and they still cannot locate ISIS what a joke !!!
This was never about finding ISIS. It was about finding you. Welcome to a "two legs good, four legs bad" world.
At least I know what MOSSAD been up to lately.
Its rediculous just blaming the yanks! Not that I´m trying to protect their retarded behavious, but there is no way that neighter china nor russia have any better intentions, its just that they dont have the capability. Developing the code, sure.. but the hardware is all developed and produced by western companies + korea/japan so implanting it would be a bit trickier.
If people want to use computers developed by western nations and korea, well, then we just have to face the fact that as soon as they are connected to the internet, we lost control over them. However for most people they will never experience the true owners taking control over their computers.
This is very important that EVERYONE knows this. I´m really just waiting for the first freedom fighter or whistleblower to get arrested for having x amount of childporn on his/her PC. With 100 and now even 1000mbit connections it only takes a few seconds to upload enough to nasty stuff to ruin a guys carreer and put him away for a loooong time.
Today, who would believe a guy who´s crying in the court "it wasnt me, it wasnt me, it must have been the NSA that took control over my computer"
hilarious post lmao
If Russia or China would have the same kind of behaviour, like USA/NSA, they would be exposed. Conclusion: you are USG or NSA agent.
http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm
Removes addressing info for many, many add sites.
Next step, will be fore people to start whitelisting their connections. Only trusted people allowed. All else sent off to /dev/null. There are also instructions on the "internets" for configuring a router to react to geographic IP data such that whole countries can be clipped out of the "internets". This is way more work than what ma and pa pc user will do.
I also have a hard time with the concept that the Russians and Chinese don't have the knowledge to do something similar. It's only useful if no one knows about it.
what will this awesome revelation about the corrupt nature of USA's national security network have on the ability of US IT corporations to do business around the world?
This will sound the death knell of people involved in the IT chain from Intel all the way to Oracle.
The whole US IT industrial supply chain is now liable to suffer from the corrosive suspicion of being the "bats out of hell"...
Jumping Jezebel ! Hell hath no fury...
...right up until the printer doesn't work.
Well, here is Potus's reaction to try avoid that threat and its as predictable as Heinz ketchup :
http://uk.businessinsider.com/obama-just-took-a-huge-shot-at-europe-over...
"Our tech companies' power is NON NEGOTIABLE !" -- When Swisher is told to whack-swish Europe on its "protectionist" knee jerks !
"Our FANNY malware is just that : Fun-Fanny (like porn Nanny) ! So enjoy it and don't complain (when rape is inevitable, enjoy it) "
By USA standards this act of cyberwarfare is a declaration of war, by the USA against half of the Globe.
This is the reason, why me, sitting either in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, or Czech rep. (location depends upon a time period in my life) always use Chinese HW, like Cubieboard (ARM + Linux) etc. and never use any HW with chips inside from Intel AMD, Infenion, Motorola etc.
And flashing HDD firmware is as old, as the move from MLB controller to IDA HDD's, means good 25 years already.
& lots of RAM, VM's.
Here we go, GESTAPO practices under the cover of democracy:
GETTING THE SOURCE CODE
Raiu said the authors of the spying programs must have had access to the proprietary source code that directs the actions of the hard drives. That code can serve as a roadmap to vulnerabilities, allowing those who study it to launch attacks much more easily.
"There is zero chance that someone could rewrite the [hard drive] operating system using public information," Raiu said.
Concerns about access to source code flared after a series of high-profile cyberattacks on Google Inc and other U.S. companies in 2009 that were blamed on China. Investigators have said they found evidence that the hackers gained access to source code from several big U.S. tech and defense companies.
It is not clear how the NSA may have obtained the hard drives' source code. Western Digital spokesman Steve Shattuck said the company "has not provided its source code to government agencies." The other hard drive makers would not say if they had shared their source code with the NSA.
Seagate spokesman Clive Over said it has "secure measures to prevent tampering or reverse engineering of its firmware and other technologies." Micron spokesman Daniel Francisco said the company took the security of its products seriously and "we are not aware of any instances of foreign code."
According to former intelligence operatives, the NSA has multiple ways of obtaining source code from tech companies, including asking directly and posing as a software developer. If a company wants to sell products to the Pentagon or another sensitive U.S. agency, the government can request a security audit to make sure the source code is safe.
"They don't admit it, but they do say, 'We're going to do an evaluation, we need the source code,'" said Vincent Liu, a partner at security consulting firm Bishop Fox and former NSA analyst. "It's usually the NSA doing the evaluation, and it's a pretty small leap to say they're going to keep that source code."
dubs: not my fault. I blame Iran. Or China. Or Putin, or Assad...
...anything but the DTs and my own weak will. LOL.
FUD. Pure, unexpurgated FUD. Kaspersky (or someone) just trying to keep PC users on the hop, all the better to hawk them shitty software that is not worth a fucking cracker.
The .gov intel complex - globally - could not find its arse with both hands and an MRI (and of course a hundred billion a yearin tax money).
The 'intelligence' (HA!) community can't attract anyone talented, and if by chance some bright kid gets lured in by watching too much Homeland, they leave within 2 years.
(inb4 some cockhead says "Mossad": the smarter the Red Sea Pedestrian, the less invested they are in the whole "Zi0n[az]ism" schtick: Mossad's coders are as shit-awful as the NSA's).
Honestly: hardware exploits are a pain in the ass, but software-induced hardware exploits are rare as fuck. Such hardware exploits as may exist, are most likely embedded at the design stage.
lmoa. the same old same old.. trivialize that which can't be spun away.
get back to work, troll, and your gov handlers.
P < P + I
It really easy to fix, just switch off, and get out your pen.
firmware can be flashed. modern tech can be run from a SD/MicroSD
cunts being cunts. I am suprise.
Wonder how many NSA spooks are hanging around on ZH this morning? Well just in case they are I have a small message for any and all of them:
I hope you never satisfy your partners sexually. I hope all of your loved ones die unexpectedly and tragically. I hope your lives spent "protecting freedom" come back to haunt you in your later years as a total waste of time and effort. I hope you have an incurably itchy asshole, everyday for decades.
I hope your families and friends see you for what you really are -- a worthless cunt.
I don't see Fujitsu or Hitachi Ultrastar drives mentioned. Is this because they aren't vulnerable, or because they weren't tested?
hard to believe untested. hitachi drives are favored for backroom - at least among the MTBF-informed. How many of the targeted states/orgs were under some sort of sanctions? dunno
There are only three high end HDD companies now, Toshiba, Seagate, and WD.
Samsung HDD was bought up by SEAGATE
Hitachi and Fujitsu were both bought up by TOSHIBA
Pity about Hitachi - those were probably the best, most solid drives ever. The newer Toshibas that replace them, not so much...
One look at the High Infection Rate list tells me all I need to know about who the perps are: US .gov and its army of spooks.
Amateurs.
Back in the day, they could dig a newspaper out of your garbage can, and analyze it based upon how tightly the pages were gripped, composition of sweat, and spittle droplets, and photodegradation/outgassing of ink and paper.
From this they could build a psycological profile, knowing what you read, and how you "felt" about it.
There's a BIG message in this "Story" coming at such a time. Gene Kaspersky is Russian, raised in the system, and unhindered in his appreciation for his country and his many friends in useful positions. They saved his son, if you recall.
There are only a few nations that have remained relatively free of the Western Oligarchy's control. Putin isn't going down without a fight. The Western false-premises attack on Russia [which began a long time ago but briefly vetted in the Romney campaign] has strengthened support and loyalty for Putin - the country is rallying around him, including Kaspersky. "I was playing nice and neutral until you demonized MY HOMELAND".
Kaspersky's wares are literally EVERYWHERE in USA Government backrooms, workstations, secure sites, whether they be civil, legislative, DOD, you name it. Ditto for most every USA State Government [certainly true here in Texas]. Despite all the phony accusations against "those evil Ruskies"; despite the humiliating defeat of Western proxies in Georgia, there has been almost no successful effort to unseat Kaspersky-ware from Government installations. The battleship of USA procurement contracting and standards does not turn easily.
This is a warning shot. What else does Mother Russia have that is being kept in the dry powder room? What feats of their own could Kaspersky-allied dark ops have planted by this point?
Kaspersky has put the message out there: YOU western warmongers have offended us. They are willing to be hit economically for this expose' - they are willing to fight. If they can "waste" a stash of this caliber, what do they have tucked away as leverage?
Excuse me for putting this here. But, another Ukraine "False Flag" operation is underway. American/NATO CIA/NSA Nazi's up the anti in Ukraine, ie, “...Americans were able to bring onto the territory of the Debaltsevo cauldron a ‘suitcase’ nuke...”
Also: "The family of Ukraine president Poroshenko has urgently left the country via a charter flight."
Kiev military typicaly will "...board a city bus and tell women to leave, while all the men who remain on the bus get hoarded into trucks and sent to the front."
"People from Zaporozhie (in central Ukraine, one of the cities that wants to join Novorossia) report that national guard breaks into people’s homes and forcefully hauls off the males into the army."
https://futuristrendcast.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/intel-us-mini-nukes-de...
Sounds like we need to send more COEXIST bumper stickers over to our Ukrainian and Russian (er, I mean non-descript Separatists) friends over in the Ukraine before this gets out of hand. Definitely need to put one on the fancy suitcase.
About 6 months ago, I watched an informational video clip in the website of Intel describing the capabilities for remote administration of the newest i7 CPUs. It described that the chip itself had an autonomus OS on a seperate cpu core and it was remotely accessed by GPRS without the need of internet connectivity! I was absolutely shocked!!! The video clip has long gone and I can't find it nowhere nowdays.
The Intel i7 is designed in Israel. Look it up.
IBM's new Power 8 processor has the same "features"
Ummmmm Samsung? As in smart TV samsung?...
Overheard at NSA. "Dude, I am bored. Lets go see if Taylor Swift is home."
"Cool, Last night I shut off Sylvester Stallones refrigerator. I found it off of the warrenty registration."
"Did you know that James Franco watches TV naked?"
US Products
CHINA Products
THEY ARE ALL CONTAMINATED WITH SPYWARE
I'm going to get my old ZX Spectrum back from storage and use it to connect to the internet
Crap, overflowed the 2K with my first PNG. Where is that damn expansion pack? ;)
I am still LMMFAO at this. Bullet, meet foot.
Guffaw.
HAL 9000 just sneezed...
http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/p/put_genie_back_in_the_bottle.asp
Microsoft Security Essentials? Seriously?
Edited: Sorry, was meant to be a reply to a post lending creditability to this.
But, it's free, so there's that.
Thats Freedom, yo...
UPDATE:
Password cracking experts decipher elusive Equation Group crypto hash Mystery solved after crackers find Arabic word that dogged Kaspersky for weeks.http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/02/password-cracking-experts-deciph...
Unraveling a mystery that eluded the researchers analyzing the highly advanced Equation Group the world learned about Monday, password crackers have deciphered a cryptographic hash buried in one of the hacking crew's exploits. It's Arabic for "unregistered."
Researchers for Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab spent more than two weeks trying to crack the MD5 hash using a computer that tried more than 300 billion plaintext guesses every second. After coming up empty-handed, they enlisted the help of password-cracking experts, both privately and on Twitter, in hopes they would do better. Password crackers Jens Steube and Philipp Schmidt spent only a few hours before figuring out the plaintext behind the hash e6d290a03b70cfa5d4451da444bdea39 was ??? ????, which is Arabic for "unregistered." The hex-encoded string for the same Arabic word is dbedd120e3d3cce1.
"That was a shock when it popped up and said 'cracked,'" Steube told Ars Monday evening. He is the developer behind the free Hashcat password-cracking programs and an expert in password cracking.
"Our idea was, if the first hash means 'unregistered' in English, would it be possible that the second hash means 'unregistered' as well, but in Arabic?" Steube said. "So we tried to download some Arabic expansion packs for [website comment app] vBulletin, which is the forum software that was attacked here."
Shortly afterward, Steube and Schmidt cracked the hash. Blocking attacks against visitors bearing the username unregistered is an indication that attackers didn't want to infect visitors who weren't logged in. Instead, the attackers appear to have had specific users in mind.
Equation Group included six other hashes in different exploits that remain unknown at the moment. They appear to be generated by the SHA1 algorithm. They are:
Kaspersky researchers are still seeking help in cracking those.
===================
"Our idea was, if the first hash means 'unregistered' in English, would it be possible that the second hash means 'unregistered' as well, but in Arabic?" Steube said.".
=============
Now who would do something like this in arabic?
More here:
A Fanny Equation: "I am your father, Stuxnet"
http://securelist.com/blog/research/68787/a-fanny-equation-i-am-your-fat...
The second Stuxnet exploit (MS09-025)
If one piece of malicious software that used an exploit from Stuxnet before Stuxnet is a good catch, a second Stuxnet exploit makes it even more interesting.
The second exploit used to be a zero-day when Fanny was operational. This means that Fanny used two zero-days to replicate, both of which were later used by Stuxnet. The specific vulnerability used for privilege escalation was patched with MS09-025:
"The security update addresses these vulnerabilities by correcting the methods used for validating a change in specific kernel objects, for validating the input passed from user mode to the kernel, and for validating the argument passed to the system call. The security update also addresses a vulnerability by ensuring that the Windows kernel cleans up pointers under error conditions."
The same exploit was later used in an early Stuxnet module from 2009, which was embedded into a large binary built using the Flame platform. That Stuxnet module, also known as "atmpsvcn.ocx" or Resource 207 was the technical link between Stuxnet and Flame. This story has previously been covered in our post.
This is a HUGE story yet total blackout on sites like CNN, BBC... not a single word...
let me draw up a crude org chart:
CIA
|________________________________________________
| | | | | | | | |
CBS NBC ABC FOX BBC CNN CNBC MSNBC etc...
Yes... if you enter "Russian researchers expose breakthrough U.S. spying program" into Google you get Reuters who reported this story and Daily Mail, nothing from the other mean stream outlets... only the tech sites actually reported this, e.g. the Verge, it was hidden away on Engadget...
wired dot com has an article...dated 2-16
if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear
A compromised firmwire still can't as far as I know decrypt and encrypt partition. It needs a partner who can. Now you know the most likely reason Truecrypt was "strong armed" into stopping development in favor of Microsoft's bitlocker EFS system.
Why would Grayfish need access to Microsoft OS's registry in the first place if it is harddrive exploit? The name greyfish should tell you the nature of the exploit in context of the community that created it. Grey (hat) / fish(phish).
The next question is LUKS (Linux Universal Key System) compromised or not? They should be checking to see how these exploits interact with encrypted drive volumes...
http://istruecryptauditedyet.com/
This project really needs to be fasttracked to find out if it was compromised or not?
Bad firmware or not an encrypted volume will provide some protection against this sort of exploit/.
Maybe/Maybe not. But it sure as hell can capture your password and store it which is all that's needed to decrypt the harddrive.
Not when the "password" is biometric in nature like a classified network that requires an optical or fingerprint scan for access. Keys are the issue not passwords here. You could easily have encrypted drives not needing password access to access them from a terminal that only will decrypt at that terminal and no other machine.
Look at it this way, it keylogs a key. Just because it can log said key it still needs to decrypt it to read the contents of said drive. You need to be able to do it in real time since you may not be able to get back in later on. In/out before anyone knew you were there. Bitlocker keeps the decryption keys in the registry, you see where I am going here, password or not. Having and being able to decrypt the key afterwards doesn't guarantee access after the fact.
To finish my thoughts on Bitlocker, if this exploit can come in and take access of the registry to decrypt bitlocker encrypted volumes what is to say it can't get access to username and passwords stored (encrypted) in the registry also.
If I was auditing this exploit I'd be looking at how it interacts with LUKS encrypted drive volumes and this.
https://code.google.com/p/cryptsetup/
LUKS was designed according to TKS1, a template design developed in TKS1 for secure key setup. LUKS closely reassembles the structure recommended in the TKS1 paper, but also adds meta data for cipher setup management and LUKS also supports for multiple keys/passphrases.
The Sun of Rome is set. Our day is gone.
Clouds, dews and dangers come; our deeds are done.
Shakespeare, Julius Caesar.
I have smart TVs, computers and phones in every room of my house. My devices are on 24/7. So from now on I'm walking naked around the house just to give the NSA a hard time : ) ) !!
I find the timing of all of these revelations more than coincidental. For anyone to believe that Microsoft et al did not provide the backdoor keys is beyond naive to how Bill Gates psyche, ideology or motives operate. Expolits & Zero Days are daunting tasks & seem as an inherant part of the purpose & design as the code is created ? it seems like such a dystpoic dyfunctional labrynth of deception, dis / mis information designed to create a matrix & paradigm of such uncertainty & infinite constant modifications to protocols does it have a end point or point of finality ?. While there is a clear direction for some at the Top, does it seem that the World is truly ready for this model ? From my vantage point having traveling a pretty goood amount in my years Internationally I can't see the planet embracing this in unison or w/ open arms exactly. I'm not clear on how you foster or cultivate trust when other Nation State actors know your spying or extrapolating data / technology from them as a Omnipotent Panarchy ? Seems like it's a fairly protracted overhaul of the planet. Killing the NET doesn't seem viable on a World scale either until a new complete one is validated. We know there is a another Quantum net & possibly other's as well. Doesn't seem pragmatic on reality scale. Seems more viable to operate on that strata to protect State Secrets.
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/514581/government-lab-reveals-quant...
http://www.idquantique.com/
Apparently nothing digital is secure. Too many smart people trying to get in, from NSA to Korean teenagers.
Bye the bye: The government does not announce when and how it has been "hacked." Does that mean its not happening?
" The government does not announce when and how it has been "hacked." "
Nor do the banks and many other organisations. Standard policy.
When I was the victim of ID fraud last year, one of my banks was fooled into handing over a large five-figure sum of my money. Even though the bank reimbursed me, at no time did they ever admit the fraud or that their security was inadequate.
Check out the "TOP" tech news on these sites:
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology/ - Sony takes orders for smart glasses
http://www.cnn.com/tech - 'Why I want to die on Mars'
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/technology - Apple's Jony Ive digested: 23 things we've learned
Obviusly damage control mode is underway. But the truth shall not be hidden from the people - this is just too big to hide... cannot even imagine how many hard drives (99% of them are thus proven to be compromised!) there are around the world... this is EPIC! This actually explains the very active "consolidation" of the hard-drive manufacturers. Remember how many makers there were say 10 years ago? How many of them are in the business today? The consolidation has been MASSIVE, leaving couple of players (WD, Seagate, Toshiba) with 90% market share. Much easier to "work with"...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_hard_disk_manufacturers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_hard_disk_manufacturers#med...
If these "hacking" groups were all that, why didn't they go in and fix my credit score? How about adding a few zeros to the balance in my checking account?
Well I guess the Ukraine must have been easy to steal from, I don't think anybody got "hacked'. Sorry.
I was watching The Net with that girl from the bus
Leave it to the New World Order to wipe out all US corporations and billionaires. Somebody should start funding the resistance don't ya think.
Consider Q99x2 a virus for the singularity. Google sucks it up like no tomorrow. like no tomorrow bitchez.
Here is Kaspersky's full report on this.
http://cryptome.org/2015/02/nsa-equation-group.pdf
...
2.Why do you call them the “Equation” group?
We call this threat actor the Equation group because of their love for encryption algorithms and obfuscation strategies and the sophisticated methods used throughout their operations. In general, the Equation group uses a specific implementation of the RC5 encryption algorithm throughout their malware. Some of the most recent modules use RC6, RC4 and AES too, in addition to other cryptographic functions and hashes. One technique in particular caught our attention and reminded us of another complex malware, Gauss. The GrayFish loader uses SHA-256 one thousand times over the unique NTFS object ID of the victim’s Windows folder to decrypt the next stage from the registry. This uniquely ties the infection to the specific machine, and means the payload cannot be decrypted without knowing the NTFS object ID.
...
Page 10 in the report is also of interest show grayfish's architecture.
Some other fun little tidbits in the report worth highlighting.
11. Have you observed any artifacts indicating who is behind the EQUATION group? With threat actor groups as skilled as the Equation team, mistakes are rare. Nevertheless, they do happen. Some of the keywords forgotten in the modules
that we analyzed include:
...
GROK – standalonegrok_2.1.1.1
...
Note:
The codename GROK appears in several documents published by Der Spiegel, where “a keylogger” is mentioned. Our analysis indicates EQUATIONGROUP’s GROK plugin is indeed a keylogger on steroids that can perform many other functions.
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/374987,nsa-spreads-malware-on-an-industria...
...
13. Have you seen any non-Windows malware from the Equation group?
All the malware we have collected so far is designed to work on Microsoft’s Windows operating system. However, there are signs that non-Windows malware does exist. For instance, one of the sinkholed C&C domains is currently receiving connections from a large pool of victims in China that appear to be Mac OS X computers (based on the user-agent). The malware callbacks are consistent with the DOUBLEFANTASY schema, which normally injects into the system browser (for instance, Internet Explorer on Windows). The callbacks for the suspected Mac OS X versions have the following user agents:
•Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_8_2) AppleWebKit/536.26.17 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.2 Safari/536.26.17
•Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.8; rv:21.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/21.0
•Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_8_3) AppleWebKit/536.28.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.3 Safari/536.28.10
This leads us to believe that a Mac OS X version of DOUBLEFANTASY also exists.
Additionally, we observed that one of the malicious forum injections, in the form of a PHP script, takes special precautions to show a different type of HTML code to Apple iPhone visitors. Unlike other cases, such as visitors from Jordan, which does not get targeted, iPhone visitors are redirected to the exploit server, suggesting the ability to infect iPhones as well.
While social unrest is brewing in the rear
(Der Spiegel - Excerpt) Ukraine 57 minutes ago | 736 5
The BND thinks these guys can't pull it off
This is an excerpt from an article that originally appeared in Der Spiegel
Putin, the Kremlin insider says, believes he is in a strong position. "The later the Western states and the Ukraine are prepared to agree to a really stable compromise, the weaker their negotiating position will be," the insider says.
That analysis might not be far off. Ukraine government troops could indeed collapse if the fighting continues. Morale within the army is not nearly as strong as it is among the separatists.
The Ukrainian army was unprepared for the war in the east. Whereas Russia completely modernized its military recently, Ukraine scrapped or sold off much of the equipment it had inherited when the Soviet Union collapsed and radically reduced the size of its military, dismissing two-thirds of its soldiers. The weapons now being used by Ukrainian troops fighting in the east are far inferior to those possessed by the separatists.
At the beginning of the war, the Ukrainian army had some 130,000 troops according to the most optimistic estimates, with half of them fulfilling their compulsory military service.
Now, many young men are doing their best to avoid conscription altogether by heading overseas. The National Guard has a further 35,000 men in uniform. They mostly man checkpoints and guard infrastructure.
President Poroshenko is thus dependent on the help of militias, those voluntary units that fight in the service of oligarchs or out of their own interests. But they often don't follow orders from Kiev, making them difficult to control and unfit for use in strategic operations.
According to a report delivered recently to the Chancellery in Berlin by Germany's foreign intelligence service, the BND, the Ukrainian army is slowly disintegrating, demoralized by the separatist advances and short on personnel.
Even arms deliveries from the West, the BND believes, would be more likely to overwhelm the Ukrainian army than it would to make it a more effective fighting force.
Increasingly Unsettled
Furthermore, the grim state of the country's economy threatens to destabilize Poroshenko's government. The Ukrainian currency, the hryvnia, fell to a new historic low on Wednesday. Just a few weeks ago, the rate was 18 hryvnia to the euro, now it is 30. The country is increasingly unsettled.
The chief public prosecutor has already fallen. He proved unable to recover the billions of dollars that former President Viktor Yanukovych smuggled out of the country to Switzerland, Luxembourg and the US. Furthermore, reform programs for the judiciary and public administration are making little progress.
Frustration among the public at large is growing with some in Kiev even talking about a "new Maidan," a reference to the protests that drove Yanukovych out of office (and out of the country) one year ago.
"If nothing changes in Ukraine, then everything will explode in four to six months," says Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of Georgia and supporter of the new Kiev leadership.
Aid from the International Monetary Fund and other donors is aimed at preventing such an explosion from taking place. In the next four years, Ukraine is to receive around €40 billion euros -- but the program includes "extremely strict conditions," say senior Berlin officials with concern. Among them is an increase in gas prices for private consumers as well as an unpopular pension reform aimed at cutting government spending.
Berlin is worried that support for the government could rapidly disappear should too much be demanded too quickly. Chancellor Merkel has thus charged her economic policy advisor Lars-Hendrik Röller with encouraging the IMF to exercise political caution. "The aid program cannot be allowed to destabilize Ukraine domestically," said one government official in Berlin.
sweet caroline|s|w|e|e|t| |c|a|r|o|l|i|n|e|<new line>
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|01110011|01110111|01100101|01100101|01110100|00100000|01100011|01100001|01110010|01101111|01101100|01101001|01101110|01100101|00001101
defund NSA|d|e|f|u|n|d| |N|S|A|<new line>
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Sort of off topic but phun phirmware hacking of Apple OSX systems. They ain't as secure as one would like to think.
http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/01/worlds-first-known-bootkit-for-o...
Securing Macs against stealthy malware infections could get more complicated thanks to a new proof-of-concept exploit that allows attackers with brief physical access to covertly replace the firmware of most machines built since 2011.
Once installed, the bootkit—that is, malware that replaces the firmware that is normally used to boot Macs—can control the system from the very first instruction. That allows the malware to bypass firmware passwords, passwords users enter to decrypt hard drives and to preinstall backdoors in the operating system before it starts running. Because it's independent of the operating system and hard drive, it will survive both reformatting and OS reinstallation. And since it replaces the digital signature Apple uses to ensure only authorized firmware runs on Macs, there are few viable ways to disinfect infected boot systems....
....
While there are no known instances of bootkits for OS X in the wild, there is currently no way to detect them, either.
....
Please let me know when you can embed a virus/Tojan in PM.
Thank you.
I found this report very interesting in that the country-identifying diagram not only was presence in the US light (Israel ally), but there was none at all in Israel, and heavy emphasis on Iran, and most other Moslem countries. Remember NSA shares nearly all with Israel.