NSA hacked nearly 100,000 computers using radio signals: report
The cutting-edge technology straight out of ‘James Bond’ allows the agency to monitor computers protected from cyberattack.
The NSA compromised nearly 100,000 computers using technology that broadcasts radio signals of the data.
The National Security Agency has secretly implanted surveillance software on nearly 100,000 computers outside of the U.S., The New York Times reported.
In addition to planting the software using the Internet, the agency has come to increasingly rely on a new method that uses circuit boards and USB cards clandestinely planted on the computer to transmit data over radio waves, the Times reported, citing documents from Edward Snowden.
The devices allow the NSA to monitor computers that foreign governments or other targets have tried to protect from cyberattacks.
The technology is straight out of a James Bond flick. The Times reported that the radio signals can be broadcast to a “briefcase-size relay station that intelligence agencies can set up miles away from the target.”
The program is codenamed Quantum. The devices can be secretly installed in the computers when they are manufactured.
The Times reported the most frequent target of the surveillance is the Chinese Army, which has been widely reported to have its own units dedicated to cyberattacks.
The NSA said the surveillance technology has never been used in the U.S.
The agency has also compromised computers belonging to the Russian military, Mexican police, Mexican drug cartels and European Union trade groups. Computers in India, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan also broadcast the secret radio signals, The Times reported.
Experts told The Times the sheer scale of the operation, as well as the cutting-edge technology involved distinguished the program from other spying.
The NSA said the technology was not used in the U.S.
“NSA’s activities are focused and specifically deployed against — and only against — valid foreign intelligence targets in response to intelligence requirements,” NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines told the Times.
“We do not use foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of — or give intelligence we collect to — U.S. companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line.”
The new report follows up on NSA documents reported by Der Spiegel that featured an entire catalog of spying technology.
One document boasted that the NSA can gain total access to any targeted iPhone.
The report said that the NSA had to physically install a program to monitor it, but that “a remote installation capability” was in the works.
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