Report: NSA broke into UN video teleconferencing system

The U.S. National Security Agency reportedly cracked the encryption used by the video teleconferencing system at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

In June 2012 the NSA department responsible for collecting intelligence about the U.N. gained "new access to internal United Nations communication," German magazine Der Spiegel reported Monday based on information from secret NSA documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

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The NSA technicians were able to crack the encryption used by the U.N.'s internal video teleconferencing (VTC) system allowing VTC traffic to be decrypted. "This traffic is getting us internal UN VTCs (yay!)," one of the internal NSA documents said, according to Der Spiegel.

In less than three weeks, the number of U.N. communications that the NSA managed to intercept and decrypt rose from 12 to over 450.

According to another NSA internal report from 2011, the agency caught the Chinese spying on the U.N. and managed to tap into their signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection to gain insight into high interest and high profile events at the time.

Media reports in June based on documents leaked by Snowden claimed that the European Union mission to the U.N. in New York and its delegation in Washington, D.C. have also been bugged by the NSA, prompting E.U. officials to demand answers from the U.S. government.

The NSA was able to maintain persistent access to computer networks at E.U. delegations in New York and Washington by taking advantage of the Virtual Private Network (VPN) linking them, Der Spiegel also reported Monday.

"If we lose access to one site, we can immediately regain it by riding the VPN to the other side and punching a whole [sic] out," an internal NSA presentation said, according to the German magazine. "We have done this several times when we got locked out of Magothy."

"Magothy" is the internal code name used by the NSA for the E.U. delegation in Washington, D.C. The code name used for the E.U. mission in New York is "Apalachee."

New security systems were installed to protect the restricted area hosting the server room at the offices of the E.U. delegation to the U.N. in New York a few weeks ago, following the June reports about the NSA targeting the E.U.'s diplomatic missions in the U.S., Der Spiegel said. An investigation was launched and technicians have searched for bugs and checked the computer network.

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Report: NSA broke into UN video teleconferencing system

The U.S. National Security Agency reportedly cracked the encryption used by the video teleconferencing system at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.

In June 2012 the NSA department responsible for collecting intelligence about the U.N. gained "new access to internal United Nations communication," German magazine Der Spiegel reported Monday based on information from secret NSA documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The NSA technicians were able to crack the encryption used by the U.N.'s internal video teleconferencing (VTC) system allowing VTC traffic to be decrypted. "This traffic is getting us internal UN VTCs (yay!)," one of the internal NSA documents said, according to Der Spiegel.

In less than three weeks, the number of U.N. communications that the NSA managed to intercept and decrypt rose from 12 to over 450.

According to another NSA internal report from 2011, the agency caught the Chinese spying on the U.N. and managed to tap into their signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection to gain insight into high interest and high profile events at the time.

Media reports in June based on documents leaked by Snowden claimed that the European Union mission to the U.N. in New York and its delegation in Washington, D.C. have also been bugged by the NSA, prompting E.U. officials to demand answers from the U.S. government.

The NSA was able to maintain persistent access to computer networks at E.U. delegations in New York and Washington by taking advantage of the Virtual Private Network (VPN) linking them, Der Spiegel also reported Monday.

"If we lose access to one site, we can immediately regain it by riding the VPN to the other side and punching a whole [sic] out," an internal NSA presentation said, according to the German magazine. "We have done this several times when we got locked out of Magothy."

"Magothy" is the internal code name used by the NSA for the E.U. delegation in Washington, D.C. The code name used for the E.U. mission in New York is "Apalachee."

New security systems were installed to protect the restricted area hosting the server room at the offices of the E.U. delegation to the U.N. in New York a few weeks ago, following the June reports about the NSA targeting the E.U.'s diplomatic missions in the U.S., Der Spiegel said. An investigation was launched and technicians have searched for bugs and checked the computer network.

View the original article here

Tesla aced its government safety test so hard it broke the testing machine

If vehicle safety has you so concerned you’re actually looking into what kind of permits it takes to make a tank street legal, maybe it’s time to consider picking up your very own Tesla. The electric vehicle start-up produced some mind-bending results during safety testing for the 2013 Tesla model S.

Earlier in August, the Tesla S earned a five-star rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in all the categories it tests for including head-on collisions, side impacts, and roll overs.

But the NHTSA’s rating tells only half the story.

Tesla recently announced some of the details of its first major round of safety testing. Only about one percent of all cars tested by the NHTSA earn an across-the-board five-star rating like the Tesla S, according to the company. Tesla also claims its car sets a “new record for the lowest likelihood of injury to occupants.”

Whether or not that is just company bravado, the results of the Tesla S are pretty impressive. For starters, the company’s roof crush protection was so good it broke the testing machine at an independent commercial facility. The machine was applying a force of 4 g’s at the time.

That means, according to Tesla, you could stack four fully loaded Tesla S vehicles on top of a fifth Tesla and the bottom car’s roof wouldn’t collapse— Tesla says it can’t be sure if that’s the maximum pressure the car can take, seeing as how it broke the testing equipment.

Related to the roof’s rigidity, the car also has a low center of gravity thanks to the battery pan in the Model S. As a result, the Tesla S resisted all conventional attempts to induce the car to roll over.

Other highlights for the Tesla S’s NHTSA performance included driver-side protection that was able to preserve 63.5 percent of the driver’s residual space after impact. Tesla says to protect against side impacts, the Tesla S features multiple deep aluminum extrusions in the car’s side rail that help absorb energy from an impact.

Tesla also scored top marks for its rear crash testing and for high-speed impacts. Tesla credits the latter to not having a large gasoline engine block, meaning it can have a larger crumple zone to reduce the force of the impact.

But enough talk! Here's a Tesla getting slammed and living to tell the tale.

Ian is an independent writer based in Tel Aviv, Israel. His current focus is on all things tech including mobile devices, desktop and laptop computers, software, social networks, Web apps, tech-related legislation and corporate tech news.
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