Pakistan

NSA spied on Pakistani civil-military leadership

It released a slew of never-before-published documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden

News Desk August 21, 2016

It released a slew of never-before-published documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. PHOTO: AFP

The United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) hacked Pakistan’s National Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) to spy on Pakistani civilian and military leadership, online publication The Intercept reported on Saturday.

It released a slew of never-before-published documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden with the report, including an April 2013 NSA presentation which ‘boasts’ of successful attacks against computer systems in Pakistan.

This Snowden-designed device can alert if your iPhone is being snooped upon

According to the presentation, NSA hackers used SECONDDATE – a tool designed to intercept web requests and redirect browsers on target computers to an NSA web server – to breach targets in NTC’s VIP division. It said the targets contained documents pertaining to “the backbone of Pakistan’s Green Line communications network used by its civilian and military leadership.”

Snowden documents show NSA leak is real: report

Another document, a newsletter for the NSA’s Special Source Operations division, also describes how NSA software other than SECONDDATE was used to repeatedly direct targets in Pakistan to malware web servers, eventually infecting the targets’ computers. The servers, known as FOXACID, were described in in previously released Snowden documents.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2016.

COMMENTS (23)

Hello There | 8 years ago | Reply What was the "world's best intelligence agency" doing?

M.S. | 8 years ago | Reply The point Is not about spying as everyone does it. The point is that why have sour civil and military relationship.

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Babbarsher Khan | 8 years ago | Reply Our Islamic Republic has always been an enigma for the rest of the world; who is in charge of it, popularly elected civilians or unaccountable generals in the uniform? The generals in the uniform always seem to have upperhand always over the civilain leadership in this pius republic where sovereighnty has long been surrendered to a "non existing heavenly power" which is defined by every mullah differently. So little bit of snooping around to unravel the mystery should perfectly be in order!

Khalid Saeed | 8 years ago | Reply Pakistan is very vulnerable interns of cyber attack by hackers. Unfortunately the priorities of Pakistani leaders are different than to take measure to circumvent any foreign intruders within the sensitive areas of Pakistani defense.

Mahakaalchakra | 8 years ago | Reply I bet NSA did not find anything against civilian wing, they do not have courage to write anything against military who wields real power in Pakistan

Bol | 8 years ago | Reply Immoral people preaching others to adopt moral ways. What a joke!

Menon | 8 years ago | Reply NSA spies on friends and foe alike so, what's new? Every country on the planet spies on friends and foe. It is called state craft. Get a grip, instead of foaming at the mouth, when presented with reality.

curious2 | 8 years ago | Reply This shouldn't be "news" - it's likely the only country where NSA is prohibited from monitoring electronic communications is the USA.

quatro | 8 years ago | Reply You got caught hiding OBL, provide sanctuary/assistance to the Haqqani, have a pattern of firing at American troops on the Afghan/Pakistan border, and have a host of domestic radical/terrorist groups - seems logical that the USA would keep tabs on Pakistan.

Usaama | 8 years ago | Reply @Malik Saab: No need to talk about things which you do not know. Engineers in the army have and still occupy the rank of 3 star generals. Not everything the army has is made public due to security reasons. You are merely using the guise of this article to criticise the DHA schemes which are debatable.

nadeem | 8 years ago | Reply This news is just as eye opening as the news that sun rises from the east

Rollin & Trollin | 8 years ago | Reply @Malik Saab: One can guess who will be having pride of place at that so-called "Knowledge Park" Shahbaz Sharif is hooting about.. Better call it the "Inside Knowledge Park" run by generals !

Avtar | 8 years ago | Reply Why is Pakistan surprised? Do not be surprised if your all weather friend is also spying on you? I hope the evidence is better than the CM of Balochistan and DG of ISPR had on a recent tragic bombing in Quetta. The question is: is Pakistan willing to withdraw its Ambassador from the US!

Haji Atiya | 8 years ago | Reply @Malik Saab: And thus the reason we have bungled all major wars and cricket matches in recent years against India. While they deploy engineers, statisticians, mathematicians, computer scientists, etc. to determine carefully crafted strategies and tactics to help achieve success, our approach to gaming is totally unscientific. But the only thing that matters here is getting that Defence plot !

Frank Mossman | 8 years ago | Reply "NSA presentation which ‘boasts’ of successful attacks against computer systems in Pakistan." Easy-peasy to do when the Pakistan Army itself is a bought and paid-for agent of the United States. "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other." Matthew 6:24.

BrainBro | 8 years ago | Reply All major countries spy on each other. I wouldn't be surprised if our deeper than the ocean and sweeter than the honey friend did the same.

Anon | 8 years ago | Reply A-duh!

Malik Saab | 8 years ago | Reply Pakistan is one of the countries of the world where so far no dedicated cyber war unit have been established, Interestingly DHA meanwhile is a part of Pakistan Army ( Priorities). On the other hand India has a dedicated Cyber War Unit working under the umbrella of DIA ( Defense Intelligent unit). Also our top generals who all have majors in Social sciences cannot understand the intricacies of the internet and hacking. The doors for an Educated engineer to reach the top spot are totally closed under a very calculated approach. All engineers in Pakistan Army are never promoted past the rank of brigadier. So it is not a surprise for me at all that are being spied on. The guys with a background on social sciences can run Housing schemes effectively, but running a cyber warfare that requires unique knowledge cannot be understood by our top generals.

Tyggar | 8 years ago | Reply Everyone spies on everyone else. Do you think China is not spying on you?

Haji Atiya | 8 years ago | Reply Spied on what ? Systems which are down 80-90% of the time ?!

Greg | 8 years ago | Reply @ Qazi Rashid Manzoor. Lol. There's nothing friendly or unfriendly about spying. It's a part of statecraft. Grow up!

Haji Atiya | 8 years ago | Reply Wonder how "successful" those attacks were when most computer systems are down in Pakistan 80% of the time ?!? Or are they down as a result being hacked by Big Bro...?

ABCD | 8 years ago | Reply What is new in it? Every country spies other countries to safeguard its national interest. Is Pakistan not spying other countries?

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