NSA May Have Undercover Operatives in Foreign Companies

[unhappycamper]

http://www.wired.com/2014/10/nsa-may-undercover-operatives-foreign-companies-new-documents-show/



An aerial view showing the ‘Dagger Complex’ in Griesheim near Darmstadt, Germany, 07 July 2014. The area on the edge of a former airfield is considered one of the most important branches of the US secret NSA.

NSA May Have Undercover Operatives in Foreign Companies
By Kim Zetter
10.10.14 | 7:17 pm

As a much-anticipated documentary about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden premiers in New York this evening, new revelations are being published simultaneously that expose more information about the NSA’s work to compromise computer networks and devices.

Newly-brought-to-light documents leaked by Snowden discuss operations by the NSA working inside China, Germany and South Korea to help physically subvert and compromise foreign networks and equipment, according to a report published by The Intercept. They also suggest the NSA may have undercover agents planted inside companies to provide assistance in gaining access to systems in the global communications industry. And they bolster previous reports that the NSA works with U.S. and foreign companies to weaken their encryption systems.

The new report is written by Peter Maass and Laura Poitras. Poitras is the celebrated documentary filmmaker who Snowden contacted in 2013 to provide her with a trove of NSA documents and who has interviewed him in Hong Kong and Moscow for her film CitizenFour.

Among the new documents, which are seen in the film, is a 13-page brief dating from 2004 about Sentry Eagle, a term the NSA used to describe a collection of closely held programs whose details were so tightly controlled that, according to the document, they could be disclosed only to a limited number of people approved by senior intelligence officials.