Todd M. Siebert: NSA surveillance backdoor becomes a valuable tool for foreign spies

Tuesday, 2 February 2016

NSA surveillance backdoor becomes a valuable tool for foreign spies

An investigation recently launched by the House Oversight Committee reveals precisely why government demands for encryption backdoors for law enforcement are a bad idea.

According to tech experts, an encryption backdoor the National Security Agency coded into software widely used by the government has likely been exploited by foreign hackers to gain access to government secrets and thousands of Americans’ sensitive information.

“There’s a lot of very sketchy stuff here,” said a cybersecurity expert working to understand how the breach occurred.

The vulnerability involves ScreenOS software from Juniper Networks, a company which provides IT products used by all manner of U.S. government agencies including the Defense Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the State Department and the Office of Personnel Management.

The company reportedly used NSA algorithms in its systems believing the government agency is the standard-bearer on security technology.

But because the NSA coded a backdoor into the Juniper software for its own surveillance purposes, it essentially gave foreign hackers everything they need to maintain an undetectable and “persistent presence” in government networks, according to former assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense Paul Stockton.

“Once adversaries get into a network, they’re often able to move laterally,” he told The Hill.

The vulnerable code has reportedly been on government computer systems since at least 2013, meaning hackers have had years to steal national security secrets and set the stage for future cyberattacks.

Officials believe that a foreign government is behind the bulk of the hacking.

Worse yet, government agencies are either unwilling or unable to find ways to stop the security breaches created by the NSA.

In a recent op-ed for The Wall Street Journal Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), chairman of the Oversight Committee’s subpanel on information technology, said Congress is having a hard time getting information about the true extent of the damage the situation has caused to national security.

“If government systems have yet to be fixed, then adversaries could still be stealing sensitive information crucial to national security,” Hurd wrote. “The Department of Homeland Security is furiously working to determine the extent to which the federal government used ScreenOS. But Congress still doesn’t know the basic details of the breach.”

For opponents of government surveillance backdoors in consumer electronics, the situation serves as a warning of the dangers weakened encryption for law enforcement purposes could pose for all Americans.

Foreign hackers are attacking the U.S. power grid with regularity

Cyberattacks on federal government on the rise

Experts warn of cyberattacks on health industry in the year ahead

Hacking, And The Truth About The Cyberwar

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