NSA used hacked computers for its snooping activities
15 March 2014 4:36 AM IST
The NSA has ‘co-opted’ more than 140,000 computers since August 2007 for the purpose of injecting them with spying software, according to a slide leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and published by The Intercept news website on Wednesday.
Botnets are typically used by criminals to steal financial information from infected machines, to relay spam messages, and to conduct ‘denial-of-service’ attacks against websites by having all the computers try to connect simultaneously, thereby overwhelming them.
In November, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey told the Senate that botnets had ‘emerged as a global cyber security threat’ and that the agency had developed a ‘comprehensive public-private approach to eliminate the most significant botnet activity and increase the practical consequences for those who use botnets for intellectual property theft or other criminal activities.’
According to the NSA slide published by The Intercept, one technique the intelligence agency used was called QUANTUMBOT, which ‘finds computers belonging to botnets, and hijacks the command and control channel.’ The program was described as ‘highly successful.’
It was reported in May that US agencies had tapped botnets to harvest data from the machines’ owners or to maintain the ability to issue the infected computers new commands.
The slide leaked by Snowden is the first confirmation of the practice, and underscores the complications for the NSA of balancing its major mission of providing eavesdropping capability with the less well-funded missions of protecting critical national assets and assisting law enforcement.
Botnets are typically used by criminals to steal financial information from infected machines, to relay spam messages, and to conduct ‘denial-of-service’ attacks against websites by having all the computers try to connect simultaneously, thereby overwhelming them.
In November, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey told the Senate that botnets had ‘emerged as a global cyber security threat’ and that the agency had developed a ‘comprehensive public-private approach to eliminate the most significant botnet activity and increase the practical consequences for those who use botnets for intellectual property theft or other criminal activities.’
According to the NSA slide published by The Intercept, one technique the intelligence agency used was called QUANTUMBOT, which ‘finds computers belonging to botnets, and hijacks the command and control channel.’ The program was described as ‘highly successful.’
It was reported in May that US agencies had tapped botnets to harvest data from the machines’ owners or to maintain the ability to issue the infected computers new commands.
The slide leaked by Snowden is the first confirmation of the practice, and underscores the complications for the NSA of balancing its major mission of providing eavesdropping capability with the less well-funded missions of protecting critical national assets and assisting law enforcement.
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