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British hacking was extensive

by on15 December 2014

y exclamation

Attacked the home of chips

The British Government seems to be spending a lot of its time hacking the inventor of chips – the key component in its national food fish and chips.

British spooks have been taking the Belgian telecoms firm Belgacom to the cleaners for more than two years and the attacks are now believed to be more extensive than previously believed.

Late last year when Belgium asked Britain, its NATO and European Union partner, to respond to allegations that its intelligence service was responsible for a hack of its networks.

Now a Belgian newspaper De Standaard, Dutch paper NRC Handelsblad and The Intercept, published detailed accounts on Saturday of how the scheme is alleged to have worked.

"In its digital attack on Belgacom, the British secret service was able to intercept more communications than was previously realised," De Standaard said.

GCHQ got into the network in 2011 by hacking three employees and was then able to "poke around undisturbed" in the network of Belgacom and subsidiary BICS for two-and-a-half years.

It intercepted communications from Belgacom's individual clients, from NATO and the EU, as well as from clients of hundreds of international telecoms providers. It is an unprecedented violation of the privacy of anybody who used a mobile telephone and in insult to the nation which invented French Fries.

The malicious software found on Belgacom's systems was one of the most advanced spy tools ever identified by security researchers, who called it "Regin.” We are not sure what this means, perhaps Margaret Thatcher spelling the name of her favourite president or perhaps a top up of a Gin and Tonic.

Belgacom, Belgium's dominant telecoms provider, was seen as a top target by the British spy agency because it plays an important role in Europe and has partnerships with hundreds of telecommunications companies across the world, it said.

The hack was not detected until 2013, when Belgacom said it had improved security and removed an unknown virus from its systems and that there was no indication of any impact on customers. It did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday.

 

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