German journalists uncover world-wide Jason Bourne-style spy-program of US

[DetlefK]

Source: Spiegel Online

nt (article in german)

Read more: http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/bnd-skandal-netbotz-baut-offenbar-hintertueren-in-seine-kameras-a-1114252.html

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Summary:

The US-based company NetBotz is selling security-cameras. These cameras are being used in high-security-areas all over the world, from Korea and Thailand to Germany, in government-installations as well in corporate installations.

NetBotz is aggressively selling its cameras at an unusually low price.

These cameras also have a built-in backdoor that sends everything they see to servers of the US-Military.

In 2007, NetBotz tried be bought out by a german company to hide the fact that the cameras are manufactured in the US. They were eventually successful and were bought out by the French corporation "Schneider Electric". Both companies deny that they ever knew of this backdoor.

Here's the kicker:
The german intelligence-service BND already knew of this in 2004. They actively decided against reporting it to their superiors because they "feared the political implications".
In 2005, the BND noticed that NetBotz is aggressively selling its cameras extremely cheap to government-departments, to corporations operating with high-tech and military hardware. And they still didn't tell anybody.
It took investigations by german attorney-generals for the german counter-espionage unit BfV to find out what the BND should have reported to them in an official manner. This was 2015.
It wasn't until 2016 that journalists of the german TV-show "Fakt" got their hands on documents of the BfV who mentioned this massive espionage and this massive fuck-up.




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When you watch Jason Bourne-movies and the CIA-guys have the ability to hack into every security-camera?

There is no need to hack. They simply use the built-in backdoor.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

1. Wait until it's discovered Windows 10 does the same thing.

[DetlefK]

3. It would destroy the US economically and label them an international pariah-state.

Just imagine: All government-departments and all corporations putting everything on hold until this is sorted out.

Major geopolitical diplomatic fallout for the US or the destruction of Microsoft would be the smallest problem. Even if nobody goes to war over this:
* All the big banks would put their departments on hold and overhaul everything to prevent any further espionage.
* All the big corporations would put their departments on hold and overhaul everything to prevent any further espionage.
* None of them would continue doing business as usual, leading to further delay.
* The US-companies will be BURIED under an avalanche of lawsuits for corporate espionage. No idea, no patent, no company-secret were safe under Windows 10. There are already so many patent-trolls around: Just imagine them armed with the argument that the US actually spied on them.
* The taint of US-imperialism would lead to a world-wide boycott of US-products and -services. The US already has a trading-deficit. Imagine what happens when nobody trusts US-products anymore.

And all the conspiracy-theorists and propagandists who ever poo-pooed the US will have been vindicated. The US will for about a century no longer have any moral authority whatsoever and anybody who ever opposed the US will be viewed as morally correct by virtue of being against the US.

[Fast Walker 52]

5. from Windows 10? Nah.

The US has done enough similar things already-- look at the freaking NSA.
most countries are already in on the scam anyway

[DetlefK]

6. Well, how would you as a foreign consumer and voter react?

If you know that the US is spying on your most private data, will you buy electronic products from the US? Which US-company can be considered trustworthy if even an entity as neutral as Microsoft turns out to be compromised?
"We have self-driving cars and the Internet of Things! Come and connect your electronics and your accounts to our electronics!"
The fuck I'm gonna.

If you know that the US is spying on your most private data, what kinds of politicians and politics will you vote for? Those friendly/deferential to the US or those hostile/critical to the US?

[jtuck004]

12. I was reading that when Brazilians found that we were sneaking around montioring

their communications, they would give them extra helpings of what they wanted.

AT the opening of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Dilma Rousseff, the president of my country, Brazil, delivered a scolding speech in response to reports that the National Security Agency has monitored electronic communications of Brazilian citizens, members of government and private corporations. Like a displeased school principal, Ms. Rousseff seemed to speak directly to President Obama, who was waiting in the wings to deliver his own speech.

She called the surveillance program “a breach of international law” and “a situation of grave violation of human rights and of civil liberties; of invasion and capture of confidential information concerning corporate activities; and especially of disrespect to national sovereignty.” She seemed personally offended when she demanded “explanations, apologies and guarantees that such procedures will never be repeated.” Last week, she called off a planned visit to the United States, after she learned that the N.S.A. had gained access to her own e-mails, telephone calls and text messages.
...
Other people have gone so far as to send nonsensical e-mails just to confuse N.S.A. agents. For example: first use some key words to attract their surveillance filters, like “chemical brothers,” “chocolate bombs” or “stop holding my heart hostage, my emotions are like a blasting of fundamentalist explosion” (one of my personal favorites, inspired by an online sentence-generator designed to confound the N.S.A.).
...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/opinion/have-a-nice-day-nsa.html

[Spitfire of ATJ]

7. The funny thing would be listening to CNBC telling everyone to put their faith in Wall Street.

[DFW]

2. If high tech state of the art is being offed at basement prices.....

......and no one thinks to ask why, alarm bells should be going off somewhere. If they aren't, then it's probably because people knew in advance not to sound them.

Übrigens, man sagt bei uns: "attorneys-general" und nicht umgekehrt. Das sind Anwälte und keine Generäle.

[Fast Walker 52]

4. probably every cell phone has some similar backdoor, certainly they can all be tracked by GPS

[PersonNumber503602]

8. This sort of stuff is why I assume everything I own has been compromised in one way or another

If not by the NSA/CIA then by these Chinese or Russian spy agencies. If not by any of them, then it by some shady hacker group or perhaps even the manufacturer themselves.

[melm00se]

9. "Fact" magazine

has anyone found the original source material (from "Fact" magazine)?

I'd be interesting in reading that rather than Der Spiegle's summary of the article.

[DetlefK]

10. It's a TV-show. But you can download the transcript.

http://www.mdr.de/fakt/ueberwachung-104.html

"Jetzt herunterladen" means "download now".

It's 35kB pdf-file, in german.

[DetlefK]

11. Dammit. I overlooked that you can also watch the video online.

http://www.mdr.de/fakt/fakt-usa-geheimdienst-spionage-100.html

[Nitram]

13. Jason Bourne isn't supposed to be a camera.

Cheap click bait.

[DetlefK]

14. But the CIA/NSA can hack into every camera, just like in the movies.

Yeah, I admit it. It's clickbait.