Report Claims U.S. Embedded Spyware Overseas -- Security Today

Report Claims U.S. Embedded Spyware Overseas

The United States may have permanently embedded surveillance and sabotage tools in a variety of networks

By Matt Holden
Feb 18, 2015

According to a report, the United States has found a way to permanently embed surveillance and sabotage tools in computers and networks in countries such as Iran, Russia, Pakistan, China and Afghanistan.

Kaspersky Lab, a Russian cybersecurity firm, presented findings at a conference in Mexico where it said implants had been placed by a group called the “Equation Group,” otherwise known as the National Security Agency (NSA) and the United States Cyber Command (USCC).

The effectiveness of these implants is due to their ability to infect the firmware in computers, allowing viruses to stay in systems even when operating systems are wiped and replaced. This allows American intelligence agencies to take encryption keys off of a machine and unlock scrambled contents.

Kaspersky stated that this group “surpasses anything known in terms of complexity and sophistication of techniques, and that has been active for almost two decades.”

About the Author

Matt Holden is an Associate Content Editor for 1105 Media, Inc. He received his MFA and BA in journalism from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He currently writes and edits for Occupational Health & Safety magazine, and Security Today.

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