U.S. enables Chinese hacking of Google

DfgDfg Admin
edited June 2011 in Spurious Generalities
We're fucked.
(CNN) -- Google made headlines when it went public with the fact that Chinese hackers had penetrated some of its services, such as Gmail, in a politically motivated attempt at intelligence gathering. The news here isn't that Chinese hackers engage in these activities or that their attempts are technically sophisticated -- we knew that already -- it's that the U.S. government inadvertently aided the hackers.

In order to comply with government search warrants on user data, Google created a backdoor access system into Gmail accounts. This feature is what the Chinese hackers exploited to gain access.

Google's system isn't unique. Democratic governments around the world -- in Sweden, Canada and the UK, for example -- are rushing to pass laws giving their police new powers of Internet surveillance, in many cases requiring communications system providers to redesign products and services they sell.

Many are also passing data retention laws, forcing companies to retain information on their customers. In the U.S., the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act required phone companies to facilitate FBI eavesdropping, and since 2001, the National Security Agency has built substantial eavesdropping systems with the help of those phone companies.

Systems like these invite misuse: criminal appropriation, government abuse and stretching by everyone possible to apply to situations that are applicable only by the most tortuous logic. The FBI illegally wiretapped the phones of Americans, often falsely invoking terrorism emergencies, 3,500 times between 2002 and 2006 without a warrant. Internet surveillance and control will be no different.

Official misuses are bad enough, but it's the unofficial uses that worry me more. Any surveillance and control system must itself be secured. An infrastructure conducive to surveillance and control invites surveillance and control, both by the people you expect and by the people you don't.

China's hackers subverted the access system Google put in place to comply with U.S. intercept orders. Why does anyone think criminals won't be able to use the same system to steal bank account and credit card information, use it to launch other attacks or turn it into a massive spam-sending network? Why does anyone think that only authorized law enforcement can mine collected Internet data or eavesdrop on phone and IM conversations?

These risks are not merely theoretical. After September 11, the NSA built a surveillance infrastructure to eavesdrop on telephone calls and e-mails within the U.S. Although procedural rules stated that only non-Americans and international phone calls were to be listened to, actual practice didn't match those rules. NSA analysts collected more data than they were authorized to and used the system to spy on wives, girlfriends and notables such as President Clinton.

But that's not the most serious misuse of a telecommunications surveillance infrastructure. In Greece, between June 2004 and March 2005, someone wiretapped more than 100 cell phones belonging to members of the Greek government: the prime minister and the ministers of defense, foreign affairs and justice.

Ericsson built this wiretapping capability into Vodafone's products and enabled it only for governments that requested it. Greece wasn't one of those governments, but someone still unknown -- A rival political party? Organized crime? Foreign intelligence? -- figured out how to surreptitiously turn the feature on.

And surveillance infrastructure can be exported, which also aids totalitarianism around the world. Western companies like Siemens and Nokia built Iran's surveillance. U.S. companies helped build China's electronic police state. Just last year, Twitter's anonymity saved the lives of Iranian dissidents, anonymity that many governments want to eliminate.

In the aftermath of Google's announcement, some members of Congress are reviving a bill banning U.S. tech companies from working with governments that digitally spy on their citizens. Presumably, those legislators don't understand that their own government is on the list.

This problem isn't going away. Every year brings more Internet censorship and control, not just in countries like China and Iran but in the U.S., the U.K., Canada and other free countries, egged on by both law enforcement trying to catch terrorists, child pornographers and other criminals and by media companies trying to stop file sharers.

The problem is that such control makes us all less safe. Whether the eavesdroppers are the good guys or the bad guys, these systems put us all at greater risk. Communications systems that have no inherent eavesdropping capabilities are more secure than systems with those capabilities built in. And it's bad civic hygiene to build technologies that could someday be used to facilitate a police state.

Via

Comments

  • DaktologistDaktologist Global Moderator
    edited May 2011
    Google making back doors into gmail for law enforcement is the equivalent of being made to leave the back door of your house unlocked so the cops can come in at any time to make sure you aren't doing anything you shouldn't be.
  • -SpectraL-SpectraL Will Faggert
    edited June 2011
    It's sickening. They've made a mockery of their own privacy laws and their own Constitution. Guess you can't expect anything more than that from hairless monkeys like these anyways. Should be no surprise that corporations sell out their customers just for another quick buck.
  • DfgDfg Admin
    edited June 2011
    Google making back doors into gmail for law enforcement is the equivalent of being made to leave the back door of your house unlocked so the cops can come in at any time to make sure you aren't doing anything you shouldn't be.
    -SpectraL wrote: »
    It's sickening. They've made a mockery of their own privacy laws and their own Constitution. Guess you can't expect anything more than that from hairless monkeys like these anyways. Should be no surprise that corporations sell out their customers just for another quick buck.

    The problem is, that Google isn't the only one doing it. I am not worried about some hacker coming in and raping the fuck out me, I am more worried about some Government using the backdoor and monitoring everything about me. This is the part that freaks me out more.

    If these systems are already implemented on different services throughout the Internet then we're in big fucking mess.
  • edited June 2011
    To be fair, these companies probably wouldn't be installing these backdoors if the government hadn't made them with legislation.
  • edited June 2011
    Wow. This is... I'm speechless to be honest. Just goes to show that you can't really trust ANYTHING anymore - even services which are supposed to be secure and safe. Fucking backdoors, seriously? :facepalm:
  • -SpectraL-SpectraL Will Faggert
    edited June 2011
    The corporations like Google just folded and rolled over right away, because their only purpose on the Internet is to make a buck, and you don't make a buck by resisting the police. The feds and cops asked for a backdoor, and they got one right away without question. In fact, every single corporate entity on the Internet which deals with the private information and communications of citizens has already been fully accessible to the feds from almost the very beginning. Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Twitter, MSN, right down to your fucking X-Box... they all rolled over years ago and sold us all out. This is nothing new. The feds and cops have been able to read all your e-mails, see your IP, know where you're logging in from, know who all your family and friends are, know all your secrets for years.

    Yup. They've been using the backdoors provided to them by these literal sell-outs for years. You see, there has never been any laws designed specifically for the Internet, although common sense would dictate that current privacy laws and statutes would fully cover Internet use as well, these criminals in Washington "need" everything defined specifically for them before they can "do the right thing". For example, there is a law that says I can't rob a merchant of his money. But if there isn't specifically a law that says I am also prohibited from robbing a non-profit representative of his money, then as far as the law can be interpreted there is no law against robbing the non-profit representative, because he's not a merchant! The law was put in place to prevent the act of robbery... period... and anybody with any common sense at all would interpret it as such.. BUT... not these clowns like the feds, narcs and cops. They need a law specifically for every little variation before they can comply with the base meaning of any laws. You have to spell it right out for them and drag them down by the neck kicking and screaming to the river to drink and then force their head under the water until they'll drink, and even then they'll just choke on it. As long as there are no specific laws governing the behavior of these clowns when the Internet privacy of citizens are concerned, they will continue to rape and rob you of every private piece of information they can get from you.
  • edited June 2011
    trx100 wrote: »
    Wow. This is... I'm speechless to be honest. Just goes to show that you can't really trust ANYTHING anymore - even services which are supposed to be secure and safe. Fucking backdoors, seriously? :facepalm:

    Remember _NSAkey?
    This isn't new.
  • -SpectraL-SpectraL Will Faggert
    edited June 2011
    See, little faggits like Sony never learn their lesson. In the new PS3 update they install illegal code on product you already bought and own which allows them forever after to use your purchased item any way they wish, providing them the ability to install further spyware at their complete whim without the need of any further updates and completely without your permission or approval. They've also made it so any other criminal can also use the backdoor on your purchased equipment just as easily. This is not the first time either. >> http://www.cnet.com/4520-6033_1-6376177-1.html
  • bornkillerbornkiller Administrator In your girlfriends snatch
    edited June 2011
    FUCK! the government....assholes.
    The US government seems to be setting the trend for all government. Cocks!
  • DaGuruDaGuru Mite
    edited June 2011
    Thank you for the contribution OP. In the future please refer to these guidelines for posts in this section.

    http://www.totse.info/bbs/showthread.php?t=2452

    12345char :facepalm:
  • MooseKnuckleMooseKnuckle Regular
    edited June 2011
    DaGuru wrote: »
    12345char :facepalm:

    stop being a cunt :mad:
  • bornkillerbornkiller Administrator In your girlfriends snatch
    edited June 2011
    I heard on cnn news totday the US government are putting all the blame on China and could be classifying it as an act of war. lololol
    Right! It's alright for them to do it but not anyone else.....FUCK THEM! :angry:
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