14 DAY TRIAL // Next time your computer shipment is delayed, take into account the possibility that you might be one of NSA's targets. According to a new report, the agency’s Tailored Access Operations (TAO) team intercepts shipping deliveries and adds security backdoors before sending them back on the road.
Der Spiegel writes that TAO can divert shipments headed for individuals, agencies or companies they’re targeting.
The devices get diverted to TAO’s secret workshops, something they call “interdiction.” There, agents open the packages and load malware onto the electronics or install additional hardware components that can help them get access to the device.
From here on out, the agency’s tech wiz team can spy on their targets from remote computers without too much trouble.
Cited documents indicate that this type of parcel interception is one of the NSA’s most productive operations of the TAO department, which allows hackers to obtain access to networks from all over the world.
The National Security Agency was contacted by the newspaper, but the latter only got a standard answer about the Tailored Access Operations department. The message send by the intelligence agency indicates that TAO is a “unique national asset” placed on the front lines of enabling the NSA to “defend the nation and its allies.” Its work is centered on “computer network exploitation in support of foreign intelligence collection.”
This isn’t the first time TAO is the focus of a report. Back in November, it was revealed that the NSA’s special hacker unit placed malware on about 50,000 computer networks in the entire world.
Then, the file mentioned in the report was a management presentation slide dated in 2012 that showed a world map full of “Computer Network Exploitation” access points.
These types of operations were marked as being particularly important for the intelligence agency since they were quite easy to execute and inexpensive.