With reverse-engineering [1] (reverse engineering) based on Snowden's leaks, they created its eavesdropping devices NSA
[1] reverse-engineering: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering
RADIO hackers, using reverse engineering, have built some of the wireless spying devices used by the US National Security Agency (NSA). They relied on documents leaked by Edward Snowden and researchers have created simple but effective tools that can be attached to parts of a computer to collect personal information in a number of intrusive ways.
The NSA's "Advanced Technology Network" [1] was only a part of the avalanche of classified documents leaked from Snowden, the former assistant employee in service. The list contains a number of devices and photos that agents can use to spy on a computer or a target phone, so NSA calls a person who "stands out" for tracking from the data they collect with mass monitoring). These technologies include fake base stations for tapping and tracking mobile phones and wireless devices on USB sticks that transmit the contents of a computer.
[1] https://www.eff.org/document/20131230-appelbaum-nsa-ant-catalog
see below. also: "NSA ANT catalog" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_ANT_catalog
But this list also lists a series of mysterious implantable devices on a computer, called "retro reflectors", and they feature a range of different masked skills, including even recording the sounds generated by the keyboard keys during typing and harvest images that appear on the screen.
Because no one outside the NSA and its partners knows how these reflectors work, the engineers better safetyς δεν μπορούν να αμυνθούν ενάντια στη χρήση τους (επειδή ο τρόπος λειτουργίας τους είναι άγνωστος, δεν μπορούν να φτιάξουν αντίμετρα ή ασπίδες προστασίας για αυτούς). Τώρα, μια team security researchers led by Michael Ossmann[2] of Great Scott Gadgets[3] in Evergreen, Colorado, have not only figured out how these devices work, but have also succeeded in recreating them.
[2] https://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-22/dc-22-speakers.html#Ossmann
[3] https://greatscottgadgets.com/
Ossmann specializes in software-defined radio (SDR) software [4], an emerging field of technology in which wireless devices are created with software and not by manufacturing them from traditional materials such as modulators and oscillators. Instead of these circuits, an SDR uses a digital signal processing chip to allow a programmer to determine the waveform of a radio signal, the frequency used, and its power level. It works like a sound card on a computer, but instead of playing sounds or processing incoming sound, it creates and receives radio signals. An SDR can be switched to any radio band immediately, AM, FM, GSM and Bluetooth.
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software-defined_radio
"The SDR allows us to build a radio system of any type we want too quickly so we can investigate the safety of a wireless network in any form of radio waves and if it works," says Ossmann.
A SDR designed and built by Ossmann and called HackRF [5] was the core part of the NSA reflector-replication-construction project. Such systems come in two parts - a plantable "reflector" bug and a remote SDR-based receiver.
[5] https://greatscottgadgets.com/hackrf/
One such reflector, which the NSA calls the Ragemaster, can be attached to a computer monitor cable to intercept the pictures displayed on the screen. Another, Surlyspawn, clips onto the keyboard cable and collects keystrokes. After much trial and error, Ossmann found that these bug-devices can be extremely simple devices—little more than a tiny transistor and a 2-centimeter wire that acts as an antenna.
Receiving information from devices is the scope of the SDR. Ossmann found that the use of radio waves to emit a high-power radio signal causes a reflector to make it start transmitting data wirelessly from keypads to a remote intruder. The whole setup can be likened to a large-scale RFID-chip system [6]. Since the signals coming back from the reflectors are noisy and often scattered across different bands, the flexibility of the SDR is easy to use, says Robin Heydon of Cambridge Silicon Radio in the United Kingdom. "SDRs are flexible, programmable and can co-ordinate everything," he says.
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-frequency_identification
Ο Ossmann θα παρουσιάσει το έργο του τον Αύγουστο στο συνέδριο Defcon hacking[7] στο Λας Βέγκας. Και άλλες ομάδες θα είναι εκεί, για να αποκαλύψουν τους τρόπους για τον σφετερισμό της τεχνολογίας κατασκοπείας της NSA. Ο Joshua Datko της Cryptotronix[8] στο Φορτ Κόλινς του Κολοράντο, θα αποκαλύψει την εκδοχή μιας συσκευής της NSA, την οποία έχει αναπτύξει, με κακόβουλο λογισμικό που μπορεί να επανεγκατασταθεί, ακόμη και μετά από την “ανακάλυψη” του από το λογισμικό προστασίας για ιούς. Λειτουργεί με προσάρτηση ενός bug σε ένα εκτεθειμένο τμήμα του συστήματος καλωδίωσης ενός υπολογιστή -ονομάζεται I2C bus- στο πίσω μέρος της μηχανής. “Αυτό σημαίνει ότι μπορείτε να επιτεθείτε στον υπολογιστή κάποιου, χωρίς καν να χρειαστεί να ανοίξετε το κουτί του”, λέει ο Ossmann.
[7] https://www.defcon.org/
[8] http://cryptotronix.com/
Having understood how NSA bugs work, Ossmann says hackers can now turn their attention to our defense against them - and have launched a website to gather this knowledge, called NSAPlayset.org [9] . "By showing how these devices take advantage of the weaknesses of our systems, it means we can make our systems safer in the future," he says.
[9] http://www.nsaplayset.org/
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From: NewScientist, “Hackers reverse-engineer NSA's leaked bugging devices”, 18 June 2014 by Paul Marks”
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22229744.000-hackers-reverseengineer-nsas-leaked-bugging-devices.html#.U6KAYJR_uHs
