

Operation Socialist: The Inside Story of How British Spies Hacked Belgacom - jim_dnaley
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/12/13/belgacom-hack-gchq-inside-story/

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jim_dnaley
Damage is worse than was previously announced:

"Publicly, Belgacom has played down the extent of the compromise, insisting
that only its internal systems were breached and that customers’ data was
never found to have been at risk. But secret GCHQ documents show the agency
gained access far beyond Belgacom’s internal employee computers and was able
to grab encrypted and unencrypted streams of private communications handled by
the company.

The spy agency was able to obtain data that was being sent between Belgacom
and other operators through encrypted tunnels known as “virtual private
networks.” GCHQ boasted that its work to conduct “exploitation” against these
private networks had been highly productive, noting “the huge extent of
opportunity that this work has identified.” Another document, dated from late
2011, added: “Network Analysis on BELGACOM hugely successful enabling
exploitation.”

GCHQ had accomplished its objective. The agency had severely compromised
Belgacom’s systems and could intercept encrypted and unencrypted private data
passing through its networks. The hack would remain undetected for two years,
until the spring of 2013."

