Confirmation Needed: American(s) hack into Euro systems ...

[Ernest Hua <hua@chromatic.com>]

Anyone knows the details behind this?

Ern

------- Forwarded Message

			    CDA96-L Digest 48

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Who's infringing whose privacy?
	by MichaelP <papadop@peak.org>

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Topic No. 1

Date: Sun, 4 Aug 1996 01:31:45 -0700 (PDT)
From: MichaelP <papadop@peak.org>
Subject: Who's infringing whose privacy?
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.960804010241.24125B-100000@kira>

London Sunday Times August 4 1996 

American spies hack into Euro computers to steal trade secrets

AMERICAN intelligence agents have hacked into the computers of the
European parliament and European commission as part of an
international espionage campaign aimed at stealing economic and
political secrets, according to investigators.

The European parliament has called in British communications experts
to improve its security and to block further attempts by American
govern ment agents to spy on its workings.

Security officials at the parliament's Luxembourg offices say they
have discovered several recent instances in which its communications
system was compromised by American hacking. They have also found
evidence that the Americans used information obtained from hacking to
help them in negotiations last year on the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

Lord Plumb, leader of the British Tory MEPs in the European
parliament, said he was shocked by the disclosure. "I will be taking
this up directly with the American ambassador [to the European
Union]," he said.

The CIA has already been accused by the Japanese and French
governments of hacking into their communications networks in an
attempt to obtain confidential trade secrets.

The European parliament's computer network links more than 5,000 MEPs,
officials, researchers and other staff to each other, and to the
European commission headquarters in Brussels and the council of
ministers.

Traffic across the network by telephone and computers includes details
of the private medical and financial records of many MEPs and
officials, and discussion documents on confidential issues, including
trade, tariff and quota agreements. The records of closed committees
of inquiry into BSE and fraud are also stored on the system.

European parliament sources say the Americans accessed the network by
compromising the information exchanges that link the parliament's
internal networks with the Internet and external users.

The devices, called "routers", filter entry to the European
parliament's network. It is understood the Americans were able to
obtain access to what is called the simple network management protocol
(SNMP), the language that enables the networks to talk to each other.
They were able to exploit the fact that parts of the system were
manufactured by two American firms.

The breach came to light when officials believed that American
negotiators had been given advance warning of confidential European
Union positions in last year's trade negotiations. "It was established
that the system had been penetrated just days before the talks," an EU
source said. "Our principal concern is not to establish what has
already been copied but to ensure that it does not happen again. This
is an on-going problem."

A spokeswoman for Antonio Cavaco, director of data processing at the
commission, confirmed that allegations of hacking had been
investigated. However, she said she was unable to provide any details.

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End of CDA96-L Digest 48
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