LXer: NSA reportedly intercepting laptops purchased online to install spy malware
 

Published at LXer:

According to a new report from Der Spiegel based on internal NSA documents, the signals intelligence agency's elite hacking unit (TAO) is able to conduct sophisticated wiretaps in ways that make Hollywood fantasy look more like reality. The report indicates that the NSA, in collaboration with the CIA and FBI, routinely and secretly intercepts shipping deliveries for laptops or other computer accessories in order to implant bugs before they reach their destinations. According to Der Spiegel, the NSA's TAO group is able to divert shipping deliveries to its own "secret workshops" in a method called interdiction, where agents load malware onto the electronics or install malicious hardware that can give US intelligence agencies remote access.

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This is truly the scariest, most paranoid article I have ever read.

My question is, can they re-seal the components using official-looking plastic wrap and tamper-proof stickers ?

I'm not buying any laptops anymore, but I did buy desktop components recently for building my new desktop and I noticed that they were all factory (or NSA) sealed and many had tamper-proof stickers on bags.

I doubt it would be difficult for a spy or law enforcement agency of the US government to duplicate any kind of tamper-evident shipping and packaging material.