Jul 17, 2023

The US and its NATO and Five Eyes allies have created the most powerful spying apparatus in history, with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealing a decade ago last month that in addition to spying on foreign adversaries, US intelligence agencies also spy on foreign allies and ordinary Americans on an industrial scale. 2023-07-17T19:15+0000 https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/105507/07/1055070779_0:156:3089:1894_1920x0_80_0_0_2c1bd1b72c766be2eb3124019d314c54.jpg A trove of 5,600 names and email addresses, including dozens of US and German intelligence service employees, has appeared online after malevolent actors exploited a vulnerability in VirusTotal, a Google-owned website designed to check suspicious files and urls for viruses and malware.According to German media, the trove of names includes employees of the National Security Agency, US Cyber Command, and credentials of individuals working for the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. German intelligence workers also had their personal details compromised, with the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), German military counterintelligence (MAD), the federal police force and the federal criminal police affected. Names of employees of government agencies from the UK, the Netherlands and Taiwan also appeared in the trove.Germany’s Federal Information Security Administration (BSI) confirmed the leak’s authenticity, and advised German government employees not to upload files to VirusTotal.Created by Spanish cybersecurity company Hispasec Sistemas in 2004, VirusTotal was acquired by Google in 2012, and serves as an aggregator of antivirus products and online scan engines used by IT security experts, businesses, government agencies and media. The service has received financial support from US Cyber Command.Germany’s BSI warned back in the spring of 2022 that users of the service essentially give up the confidentiality of files that they’ve uploaded, and said that “due to the large number and diversity of VirusTotal customers with access to the uploaded files, they are de facto made publicly available.” Accordingly, the agency warned government employees and companies not to upload sensitive, personally identifiable data.The leaked files did not provide any information beyond names and email addresses. Nevertheless, it could allow malicious actors and foreign intelligence operatives to pinpoint persons involved with IT security and malware in the affected companies, services and government organizations, potentially opening them up for further targeted phishing attacks. https://sputnikglobe.com/20230717/millions-of-pentagon-emails-sent-to-malian-server-due-to-mil-domain-typo-1111940351.html The US and its NATO and Five Eyes allies have created the most powerful spying apparatus in history, with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealing a decade ago that in addition to spying on foreign adversaries, US intelligence agencies also spy on foreign allies and ordinary Americans on an industrial scale. A trove of 5,600 names and email addresses, including dozens of US and German intelligence service employees, has appeared online after malevolent actors exploited a vulnerability in VirusTotal, a Google-owned website designed to check suspicious files and urls for viruses and malware. According to German media, the trove of names includes employees of the National Security Agency, US Cyber Command, and credentials of individuals working for the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. German intelligence workers also had their personal details compromised, with the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), German military counterintelligence (MAD), the federal police force and the federal criminal police affected. Names of employees of government agencies from the UK, the Netherlands and Taiwan also appeared in the trove. Germany’s Federal Information Security Administration (BSI) confirmed the leak’s authenticity, and advised German government employees not to upload files to VirusTotal.