- Nov 5, 2011
- 5,855
NSA saves world from plot to “remotely destroy” PCs, claims NSA director : on welivesecurity.com : http://www.welivesecurity.com/2013/...-to-remotely-destroy-pcs-claims-nsa-director/
An international plot which would have turned huge numbers of PCs into “bricks” by remotely triggeriing deeply buried malware was foiled by the National Security Agency, according to an interview given to CBS by NSA director Keith Alexander.
The scale of the attack could have “taken down the U.S. economy”, an NSA official claimed.
The CBS show 60 Minutes named China as the country behind the alleged attack,which would have arrived “disguised as a request for a software update”, and attacked machines at the BIOS level. BIOS is the simple software which turns computers on, ‘starting up’ hardware such as drives before Windows starts.
The virus would have enabled PCs to be “remotely destroyed,” Alexander claimed in the CBS interview.
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NSA speaks out on Snowden, spying : 60 Minutes CBS Show: on cbsnews.com : http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nsa-speaks-out-on-snowden-spying/
Quotes:
'Ledgett runs the NSA task force doing the damage assessment on the Snowden leaks. And until this interview, the NSA has never discussed the specifics of the extent damage they believe Snowden has done and still could do.'
'John Miller: There've been all kinds of figures out there about how much he took, how many documents. We've been told 1.7 million.'
'John Miller: Of all the things he took is there anything in there that worries you or concerns you more than anything else?
Rick Ledgett: It's an exhaustive list of the requirements that have been levied against-- against the National Security Agency. And what that gives is, what topics we're interested in, where our gaps are. But additional information about U.S. capabilities and U.S. gaps is provided as part of that.
John Miller: So, I'm going to assume that there's one in there about China, and there's one in there about Iran, and there's another in there about Russia.'
'John Miller: Could a foreign country tomorrow topple our financial system?
Gen. Keith Alexander: I believe that a foreign nation could impact and destroy major portions of our financial system, yes.
John Miller: How much of it could we stop?
Gen. Keith Alexander: Well, right now it would be difficult to stop it because our ability to see it is limited.
One they did see coming was called the BIOS Plot. It could have been catastrophic for the United States. While the NSA would not name the country behind it, cyber security experts briefed on the operation told us it was China. Debora Plunkett directs cyber defense for the NSA and for the first time, discusses the agency’s role in discovering the plot.
Debora Plunkett: One of our analysts actually saw that the nation state had the intention to develop and to deliver, to actually use this capability-- to destroy computers.
John Miller: To destroy computers.
Debora Plunkett: To destroy computers. So the BIOS is a basic input, output system. It's, like, the foundational component firmware of a computer. You start your computer up. The BIOS kicks in. It activates hardware. It activates the operating system. It turns on the computer.
This is the BIOS system which starts most computers. The attack would have been disguised as a request for a software update. If the user agreed, the virus would’ve infected the computer.'
An international plot which would have turned huge numbers of PCs into “bricks” by remotely triggeriing deeply buried malware was foiled by the National Security Agency, according to an interview given to CBS by NSA director Keith Alexander.
The scale of the attack could have “taken down the U.S. economy”, an NSA official claimed.
The CBS show 60 Minutes named China as the country behind the alleged attack,which would have arrived “disguised as a request for a software update”, and attacked machines at the BIOS level. BIOS is the simple software which turns computers on, ‘starting up’ hardware such as drives before Windows starts.
The virus would have enabled PCs to be “remotely destroyed,” Alexander claimed in the CBS interview.
---------------------
NSA speaks out on Snowden, spying : 60 Minutes CBS Show: on cbsnews.com : http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nsa-speaks-out-on-snowden-spying/
Quotes:
'Ledgett runs the NSA task force doing the damage assessment on the Snowden leaks. And until this interview, the NSA has never discussed the specifics of the extent damage they believe Snowden has done and still could do.'
'John Miller: There've been all kinds of figures out there about how much he took, how many documents. We've been told 1.7 million.'
'John Miller: Of all the things he took is there anything in there that worries you or concerns you more than anything else?
Rick Ledgett: It's an exhaustive list of the requirements that have been levied against-- against the National Security Agency. And what that gives is, what topics we're interested in, where our gaps are. But additional information about U.S. capabilities and U.S. gaps is provided as part of that.
John Miller: So, I'm going to assume that there's one in there about China, and there's one in there about Iran, and there's another in there about Russia.'
'John Miller: Could a foreign country tomorrow topple our financial system?
Gen. Keith Alexander: I believe that a foreign nation could impact and destroy major portions of our financial system, yes.
John Miller: How much of it could we stop?
Gen. Keith Alexander: Well, right now it would be difficult to stop it because our ability to see it is limited.
One they did see coming was called the BIOS Plot. It could have been catastrophic for the United States. While the NSA would not name the country behind it, cyber security experts briefed on the operation told us it was China. Debora Plunkett directs cyber defense for the NSA and for the first time, discusses the agency’s role in discovering the plot.
Debora Plunkett: One of our analysts actually saw that the nation state had the intention to develop and to deliver, to actually use this capability-- to destroy computers.
John Miller: To destroy computers.
Debora Plunkett: To destroy computers. So the BIOS is a basic input, output system. It's, like, the foundational component firmware of a computer. You start your computer up. The BIOS kicks in. It activates hardware. It activates the operating system. It turns on the computer.
This is the BIOS system which starts most computers. The attack would have been disguised as a request for a software update. If the user agreed, the virus would’ve infected the computer.'
