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NSA broke into secure network of Al Jazeera and others
[Al Jazeera] The National Security Agency (NSA), a US intelligence agency tasked with collecting data for foreign and counter intelligence operations, broke into the encrypted network of the Al Jazeera Media Network and several others in 2006, according to a report by US media.Since it's a national intelligence resource, that's precisely what I'd expect it to do. US media might do well to consider what "US" means. A document provided to The Intercept by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden shows that the NSA cracked Al Jazeera's Virtual Private Network (VPN), an encrypted tunnel used to secure internet traffic. "Recently, NSA has decrypted a number of interesting targets ... deemed by product lines to have high potential as sources of intelligence," the document states, which is then followed by a list of targets. That list includes Al Jazeera, the Iraqi Ministry of Defence and Interior, the Iraqi state internet provider and four airlines from Russia, Paraguay and Iran. The network that was broken into is a so-called VPN network, a digital tunnel of sorts which all internet traffic gets sent through to protect it from prying eyes. According to the document, the VPNs used by the listed companies and institutions were all decrypted, although details on how exactly this was done are not specified. The data collected after decrypting the internet traffic was "being evaluated for intelligence content." "Hundreds of additional VPN links have also been identified and are being investigated," it added. Posted by: Fred 2018-08-17 |
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