Belgium Investigates Suspected Cyber Spying By Foreign State 158
First time accepted submitter julf writes "The Belgian newspaper De Standaard reports that in an internal investigation, Belgacom, the mostly state-owned telecoms operator in Belgium, discovered evidence that the NSA has been listening in (Dutch) on the Belgacom network since 2011. From the Reuters article: 'Belgium said on Monday it was investigating suspected foreign state espionage against its main telecoms company, which is the top carrier of voice traffic in Africa and the Middle East, and a newspaper pointed the finger at the United States. Federal prosecutors said in a statement that the former state telecoms monopoly Belgacom had filed a complaint in July about the hacking of several servers and computers. "The inquiry has shown that the hacking was only possible by an intruder with significant financial and logistic means," they said.'"
Re:Country spies on other country (Score:4, Insightful)
Unlike the other recent revelations, this is actually the NSA's job.
Re:Country spies on other country (Score:2, Insightful)
Government of one nation spies on telecom operations of a friendly power, without notice. Not yawn. Diplomatic incident.
Re:In other news... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, major drug cartels and especially Iceland have massive data centers that rival what the US has. Right. That must be why so many of the job postings for those with related skills are in Columbia and Iceland.
Look, we know that the NSA hires shills to mock all of us who are concerned with this stuff. You're probably not one of them. You probably just do it for free.
USA = TERRORISTS (Score:4, Insightful)
We should shut down every relations with such hostile and aggressive country.
Re:Surely they mean 2001 (Score:4, Insightful)
While your post is a bit trollish, there is a ring of truth.
Obama was supposedly going to be this guy who would mend relations with foreign entities (frankly I felt embarrassed for America when he does those stupid bows to foreign leaders) and really the only thing he has done to improve America's image is just get elected in the first place due entirely to the fact that most people just assume he's going to do something good for them. Hence he gets the first "Nobel Peace Prize for Absolutely Nothing At All"(tm).
Other than doing nothing more than simply winning the election, he's actually rather made things worse.
Re:USA = LIBERATOR (Score:4, Insightful)
Who will come to your aid the next time you're occupied? You're going to have a real problem in 30-50 years.
Learn history. The USA have liberated the pacific islands from the Japanese forces. The US did not liberate Europe. That was accomplished at over 80% by the soviets. The US played a very little part in the liberation of Europe and went on to gain a lot in the aftermath of the war (same as the soviets by the way).
If you think the US "participated" in the european theater out of the kindness of their hearts to aid their european bretheren I have the Brooklyn bridge to sell you along with the state of New York. Great deal !
Re:Will Europe contain the USA? (Score:5, Insightful)
Europe has plenty enough military capability for its needs. France and the UK spend a disproportionate amount of money on their militaries. I really doubt military protection even crosses the minds of politicians in Europe.
Politicians roll over for a variety of reasons. One is that some of them have the same worldview as the most hawkish members of Congress. Look at how Cameron and some other senior Tory MP's were salivating over the idea of bombing the shit out of Syria. The disappointment at the no vote was obviously not faked, they genuinely felt like that. It's an age thing - politicians skew old and older people tend to have more aggressive foreign policy views than younger people do (at the moment).
Another reason is that they understand the political situation in the USA all too well. The USA does not have friends, or allies. The "special relationship" crap the UK government is fond of trotting out fools nobody, which is confirmed by polling. In the Congressional mindset there exists only two worlds, domestic and foreign. That means the USA won't even hesitate to apply the same brutal economic strategies it applies to Iran to other countries, if those countries were to step out of line. As FATCA rolls out parliaments around the world are learning this one the hard way and are being forced to change their own laws to avoid Iran's fate. The USA has announced to the world that you're either with them or against them, and if you're against them, you'll be treated no differently to any other "rogue state". If the sanctioned and destroyed institutions are systematically important European banks - no problem.
Understandably, European politicians do not want to go in front of their own people and say "We cannot implement this policy because the USA will impose crippling punishments on us automatically if we do", because that makes them seem weak and useless (which indeed they are). And they believe that even if a popular vote were to bring in such a policy, if it resulted in serious recession and job losses then they'd be punished for it. Whether they're right or not is hard to say. Much better to just ignore the elephant in the room, especially if they actually like the idea of seeming tough and strong and being the next Churchill.
The risk is that growing anti-Americanism (which as you observe, is in reality closer to anti-Washington-ism) will continue to be a blind spot for major political parties until it turns into a boiling over pot, just as concerns about immigration did. That leads to the possibility of parties with extremely radical policies starting to gain power, which history tells us is rarely a positive thing.
Re:In other news... (Score:2, Insightful)
Meanwhile, the French, British, Iranians, North Koreans, Chinese, Russians, several major drug cartels, Iceland, New Zealand, Germans, Australians... their taps on the same wires were left alone and unnoticed.
You're free to believe whatever crap you want, but there's no evidence these countries were spying in this case.
Re:Country spies on other country (Score:5, Insightful)
As an american citizen, I do not want them doing this.
What is the point of even acting like we have diplomacy if we subvert the very principals of the diplomatic process in the first place?
Re:Country spies on other country (Score:4, Insightful)
Historically such things have benefited a fairly small number of people, usually a few well connected corporations and political parties. On the other hand it tends to increase ill will between countries and that usually gets taken out on travelers and small business interactions.
Re:Country spies on other country (Score:1, Insightful)
As an american citizen, I do not want them doing this.
What is the point of even acting like we have diplomacy if we subvert the very principals of the diplomatic process in the first place?
Because they are doing it right back at us. If you truly believe that the USA is the only one spying you really need to wake up. Every country spies and when you get caught they make it out like it's a huge deal. While at the same time they feed this info to their operatives saying "Why didn't we think of this already!!"
Re:Country spies on other country (Score:3, Insightful)
Unlike the other recent revelations, this is actually the NSA's job.
What is?
Performing actions that US govt sees as 'acts of war', against other, *allied*, country?
Great job.
They will be extradited, right? (Score:5, Insightful)
I also presume US government will extradite these criminals who were breaking all kinds of international (and domestic) laws, and were waging cyber warfare against another sovereign country.
After all, this is what US expects from others, so it would only be nice that they start following what they preach, eh?
United States of Corruption. That's what USA has became. Any 'moral high ground' that US had, on pretty much *any* issue, is simply gone.
It is beyond sad, a country we all looked up to some 20 years ago. Turned into complete shit :(
Re:Country spies on other country (Score:3, Insightful)
Because they are doing it right back at us.
So continue the cycle of pointless spying and warmongering! I thought the USA was supposed to be exceptional, not some loser country that just continues doing 'evil' because everyone else is doing it...
If you truly believe that the USA is the only one spying you really need to wake up.
No one ever said that.