Latest NSA leaks, coming from the same source that revealed tools that NSA used to hack computers around the world earlier this year, confirm that at least four Pakistani ISPs were attacked and hacked by NSA from 2000 to 2004.
It is unclear how deep these hacks had penetrated back then but source confirms that NSA had backdoor access to various computers on these networks.
Hacked ISPs include Multinet, Paknet (which was merged into PTCL in 2007), Micronet (now Nayatel) and PTCL’s gateway exchange in Lahore.
Latest set of leaks indicate various data sets including the configuration setting of the tools that were using to hack servers. Data reveals that majority of hacked servers were running Solaris, an operating system from Sun Microsystems that was widely used back in the days.
IP addresses and other details about the impacted servers is available here and here.
Not to mention, this data is at least 10 years old when NSA wasn’t as aggressive as it is currently. With more people on the internet and NSA getting only stronger with time — since there’s no one to question them — it can be assumed that cent percent Pakistani ISPs are now on their radar and anything you do on internet can be monitored by American agencies.
Even your mobile phones aren’t spared as NSA has confirmed monitoring access to all Pakistani telcos.
Thanks Mohammed Anas Dawoodi for tip.
Via Arstechica
Question is Who Cares????
“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say,” edward snowden
Actually thing is in Pakistan all internet traffic filtering is now done by ISI. This is not new news, it has been like this for maybe two years now and even reported by CEO of Nayatel in letter published in newspapers.
So, while we can be shocked and angry at NSA or GCHQ hacking our core routers or ISP networks, the reality is our own agency (legally) has access to all our data already, and we do not even know if they share it with other organisations.
2000 to 2004; not a coincidence i believe when you imagine which era it was
Very interesting. So which ISP was spared?
wateen,brainnet,nayatel,cybernet,linkdotnet,pakistanonline – security ptcl aur bakion ki waisay hi hai yar…avam ko loot rahay hen
micronet is being mentioned in the listing. Do some research and find out who they are :) It is nayatel.
whats funny is that the era being mentioned, and keeping Pakistan into perspective is when a server in Pakistan was essentially a desktop machine :) furthermore, this was the age of dialup, and this was when Pakistani companies were only getting started. Whilst NSA wasn’t as aggressive as today, as the article suggests, setups by Pakistani ISPs weren’t as aggressive as today either. I would love to hear some news about hacking into systems of today’s day and age :)
I have looked through the file, in this file only sun solaris OS is mentioned and one instance each of HP aix and rhel. Only Pakistani ISP mentioned is Multinet. Most of the compromised IPs are UK,US, Russian or Chinese
there are atleast two others, however, none has carried the brand name till date, apart from Multinet.
please tell me that is way skype is not working properly
No, that is because skype sucks LOL
yes that was why your skype call didn’t worked back in 2004.
Now they’ll know how much gaaliyaan people of Pakistan give to PMLN and PTCL.
It was supposed to happen when you don’t hire tallented staff .
so just talented staff takes away the need for proper infrastructure? I have never seen a so called “talented” staff replacing the need of a firewall :P
They have all the infrastructure in place and millions of dollars are spend on IT and security related issues. What if a firewall is installed and not configured by a professional person? This is reality its happening and no one cares.