Posted on 06/16/2013 8:14:49 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Classified US government data shown to the South China Morning Post by whistle-blower Edward Snowden has provided a rare insight into the effectiveness of Washington's top-secret global cyberspying programme.
New details about the data can be revealed by the Post after further analysis of information Snowden divulged during an exclusive interview on Wednesday in which the former CIA computer analyst exposed extensive hacking by the US in Hong Kong and the mainland.
The FBI said yesterday it had launched a criminal investigation and was taking "all necessary steps" to prosecute Snowden for exposing secret US surveillance programmes.
FBI Director Robert Mueller told the House Judiciary Committee: "These disclosures have caused significant harm to our nation and to our safety. We are taking all necessary steps to hold the person responsible for these disclosures," he said.
Snowden, the man behind explosive leaks of information on the US government's Prism programme that collected phone and web data from its citizens, has pledged to stay in Hong Kong to fight any attempts by his government to have him extradited.
The detailed records - which cannot be independently verified - show specific dates and the IP addresses of computers in Hong Kong and on the mainland hacked by the National Security Agency over a four-year period.
They also include information indicating whether an attack on a computer was ongoing or had been completed, along with an amount of additional operational information.
The small sample data suggests secret and illegal NSA attacks on Hong Kong computers had a success rate of more than 75 per cent, according to the documents. The information only pertains to attacks on civilian computers with no reference to Chinese military operations, Snowden said.
"I don't know what specific information they were looking for on these machines, only that using technical exploits to gain unauthorised access to civilian machines is a violation of law. It's ethically dubious," Snowden said in the interview on Wednesday.
Snowden, who came to Hong Kong on May 20 and has been in hiding since, said the data points to the frequency and nature of how NSA operatives were able to successfully hack into servers and computers, with specific reference to machines in Hong Kong and on the mainland.
According to a New York Times report yesterday, US government lawyers, working with their counterparts in Hong Kong, are understood to have identified several dozen criminal offences with which Snowden could be charged under both Hong Kong and American laws. One of the targets Snowden revealed was Chinese University, home to the Hong Kong Internet Exchange which is a central hub of servers through which all web traffic in the city passes.
A university spokeswoman said yesterday that staff had not detected any attacks to its "backbone network".
Yesterday's revelation that the US was secretly hacking computers in Hong Kong and on the mainland sent shockwaves around the world and came just days after Snowden first exposed the Prism programme to The Guardian newspaper in Britain.
"The primary issue of public importance to Hong Kong and mainland China should be that the NSA is illegally seizing the communications of tens of millions of individuals without any individualised suspicion of wrongdoing," Snowden said. "They simply steal everything so they can search for any topics of interest."
Snowden's most recent job was as an NSA contractor with Booz Allen Hamilton but he was fired shortly after he identified himself on Sunday as the source of one of the most significant leaks in US history.
Formal charges are the first necessary step that would prompt an extradition request to the Hong Kong government.
Snowden could find himself at the centre of a diplomatic storm between Washington and Beijing as he has explicitly chosen to seek refuge in Hong Kong, a move that will test the Sino-US relationship. He said he had chosen Hong Kong because he believed the city's semi-autonomous status and rule of law would protect him from attempts to extradite him to the US.
It is understood that Snowden arrived in Hong Kong after leaving his home in Hawaii, telling his girlfriend that he would be away for a few weeks.
He stayed at the Mira Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui before checking out on Monday and has been in hiding since.
Snowden said he has not spoken to his family since the revelations were made and lives in constant fear for his own safety.
He may have chosen Hong Kong partially because they do have an extradition agreement with the United States that may require a highly publicised trial.
>>Snowden is just making certain the Chinese won’t extradite him.
Exactly right. In my view, Where could he go in the US/ Congress/ to testify. They mostly have been building that monster of a complex in Harry Reid’s state. They knew about this snooping on the US citizens. Orrin Hatch is bragging about this all being done. This entire snooping goes back to Bush though the leaker says in the past few months (beginning OCT 2012), Obama began huge expansions of abusing privacy rights) He’s the 3rd leaker that’s given us a warning about the NSA. They didn’t even know about the Boston terrorists as they went back/forth to their home country and of the fact they meet with questionable people who are connected to a terror group. But they are protecting us with our data/calls and emails.
I don’t think he’ll live to see the inside of an American courtroom.
Even if it takes “terrorists” blowing a fully loaded 747 out of the sky in mid-pacific.
Utah?
>>>They mostly have been building that monster of a complex in Harry Reid’s state.
Utah?
That is wrong. My bad. I just thought of Reid defending the complex. Thanks for pointing that out.
Well it’s not surprising that he did this, almost expected really if you think about it. He obviously had two goals when he did this, the first was to expose the illegal spying on US citizens (even if Congress says its legal it still is illegal according to the constitution) the second was to stay alive and out of US custody after doing the first. The only way to achieve the second goal is by having something that another country wants bad enough to tell the US to take a hike. It becomes very difficult for Hong Kong to turn this guy over now that they’ve lost face like this, the anger at the US is growing over seas more so then here in the US because of this.
And for those that have not been following this here is a little taste of how this works:
The NSA has been working with all the major software developers for over a decade to put back doors into their software, chief among those is Microsoft but more than likely every anti-virus or security related program has built into it a means for the government to walk right in and take what they want from your computer.
The NSA has also been working with the major hardware developers to do this exact same thing, Intel, AMD, Broadcomm, you name it they probably have added little goodies so that all your computers, phones, tablets etc have some way for the government to access your systems (anyone remember the clipper chip? that didn’t go away). This also includes all the routers being built by Juniper and Cisco.
All the service providers (ISP, wireless and phone companies) have a room where they’ve placed what amounts to a tap on all your communications (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-06/nsa-att-and-secrets-room-641a). They’ve also compromised the public keying certificate authorities (Verisign, etc).
All the social sights like tweeter and facebook along with the search engines like google and yahoo are also sucking up and passing data back to the NSA.
What does all this mean? Well it means that even your secure (e.i., encrypted) communications with you bank or any other communications you thought was private is completely open to the NSA. They don’t even have to break a sweat or any crypto key to see what you’re doing on line. Even the internet anonymity services like Tor are totally useless as the NSA is right in the middle of the secure link listening in.
The problem for most countries is that all these US based products are so totally compromised that they have no way of assuring that any of their communications is not being listened to by the NSA (and most likely is). I predict that there will be a concerted effort now to move away from US based products world wide. The hit to our economy from this will be enormous, about as large as the hit we as US citizens have taken in the violation of our constitutional rights.
Perhaps some day you can return the favor?
Yes, and I would venture that any electronics made in China also has Chinese back doors installed.
He may have chosen Hong Kong partially because they do have an extradition agreement with the United States that may require a highly publicised trial.
“Yes, and I would venture that any electronics made in China also has Chinese back doors installed.”
Oh that goes without saying, there is a huge problem with counterfeit routers (Cisco, Juniper you name it) that are very good clones of the real thing but may have extra little goodies that the Chinese have put into them. Also things like mother boards, ethernet cards, USB drives are compromised to one extent or another.
But that’s really besides the point, the point is that the US government has become Big Brother and can use all this data collected to identify and destroy anyone that happens to make them mad. There is a reason that no one in the FBI is investigating the IRS abuses. We are all now sheep waiting our turn to be sheared and all you’re words typed into the internet will come back to haunt you.
We can hope... but if that is the case... lets hope he has set up some system that will release the info upon his untimely demise. He will no doubt suffer the same fate as Chicago Choir Director Donald Young, or Andrew Breitbart. We have already heard he has some health problems.
Don’t forget Lieutenant Quarls.
And most likely an untold number of others. That it is why it is so natural for him to be personally deciding who gets taken out by our drone program. He is a power hungery megalomaniac who gets off on deciding who lives and dies. If he thinks that they can control this thing by killing Snowden... he may already be dead. And we will have a whole crowd of people defending Obama.
I'd be willing to listen to him *up until* the point you defect to China,NK,etc.At *that* point you lose your right to draw breath.Sorry if you disagree.
Nice. So if an enemy government says you told them something I can kill you on the spot?
No need for a trial when vigilante justice is sooooo, sooooo seductive.
If you ever seek "political asylum" in China for *any* reason I'll shoot ya.More than once.I've done a fair amount of reading about China.I've studied Tienanmen Square.I've been to China,more than once.I've dealt with Chinese officialdom.The only reason I'd ever choose asylum in China over life in Levenworth is because I've turned into a completely filthy loathsome creature.And that goes for any other Westerner who makes the same choice.
Yup,in the same circumstances we're talking about with this guy I'd shoot ya!
Those aren't Freepers, they are NSA operatives. They're everywhere these days.
So... it would be like a mercy killing ?
Assuming either of us hasn't been 'disappeared' by then, of course.
Remember Huế?
More like a very late term abortion, so China wouldn’t be punished with an American...
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