The NSA, in collaboration with the CIA and FBI, routinely and secretly intercept shipping deliveries for laptops and PCs purchased online in order to install spy malware and bugs before they reach their owners. According to a new report from Der Spiegel based on internal NSA documents, the intelligence agency’s elite hacking unit (TAO) is able to divert online shipping deliveries to its own “secret workshops” in a method they call interdiction. Agents then install malware and spy bugs onto the laptops and PCs, giving US intelligence agencies remote access to the electronic devices, before re-sending the shipping delivery to its owner. The Verge reports: One of the products the NSA appears to use to compromise target electronics is codenamed COTTONMOUTH, and has been available since 2009; it’s a USB “hardware implant” that secretly provides the NSA with remote access to the compromised machine. This tool, among others, is available to NSA agents through what Der Spiegel describes as a mail-order spy catalog. The report indicates that the catalog offers backdoors into the hardware and software of the most prominent technology makers, including Cisco, Juniper Networks, Dell, Seagate, Western Digital, Maxtor, Samsung, and Huawei. Many of the targets are American companies. The report [...]
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