NSA Laughs at PCs, Prefers Hacking Routers and Switches

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/09/nsa-router-hacking/

By Kim Zetter
Threat Level
Wired.com
09.04.13

The NSA runs a massive, full-time hacking operation targeting foreign systems, 
the latest leaks from Edward Snowden show. But unlike conventional 
cybercriminals, the agency is less interested in hacking PCs and Macs. Instead, 
America’s spooks have their eyes on the internet routers and switches that form 
the basic infrastructure of the net, and are largely overlooked as security 
vulnerabilities.

Under a $652-million program codenamed “Genie,” U.S. intel agencies have hacked 
into foreign computers and networks to monitor communications crossing them and 
to establish control over them, according to a secret black budget document 
leaked to the Washington Post. U.S. intelligence agencies conducted 231 
offensive cyber operations in 2011 to penetrate the computer networks of 
targets abroad.

This included not only installing covert “implants” in foreign desktop 
computers but also on routers and firewalls — tens of thousands of machines 
every year in all. According to the Post, the government planned to expand the 
program to cover millions of additional foreign machines in the future and 
preferred hacking routers to individual PCs because it gave agencies access to 
data from entire networks of computers instead of just individual machines.

Most of the hacks targeted the systems and communications of top adversaries 
like China, Russia, Iran and North Korea and included activities around nuclear 
proliferation.

[...]

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