\tLa derni\u00e8re livraison du fonds Snowden, le 29 d\u00e9cembre 2013<\/a> dans le Spiegel<\/em>, devrait laisser des traces par son importance politique, encore plus que par ses aspects techniques ou son \u00e9cho m\u00e9diatique. Il s’agit de l’exposition en d\u00e9tails d’une unit\u00e9 sp\u00e9ciale de la NSA, d\u00e9sign\u00e9e Office of Tailored Access Operations<\/em>, ou TAO, et agissant comme des plombiers appel\u00e9s \u00e0 intervenir ponctuellement dans des actes de cyberguerre. (Le terme plombiers est effectivement employ\u00e9, et il constitue une r\u00e9f\u00e9rence aux plombiers du Watergate, l’\u00e9quipe sp\u00e9ciale mise sur pied par le pr\u00e9sident Nixon et d\u00e9pendant directement de son cabinet pour effectuer diverses op\u00e9rations sp\u00e9ciales, dont le cambriolage dans l’immeuble du Watergate qui aboutit directement \u00e0 la crise du m\u00eame nom.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tCette unit\u00e9 des TAO repr\u00e9sente un bras op\u00e9rationnel d’exception, une sorte de commandos de cyberguerre, qui a \u00e0 son actif nombre d’activit\u00e9s mises \u00e0 jour dans de pr\u00e9c\u00e9dentes livraisons, et qui ont soulev\u00e9 beaucoup de remous. Par exemple, il semble bien les TAO aient la responsabilit\u00e9 op\u00e9rationnelle de l’\u00e9coute et de la surveillance de dirigeants politiques de pays \u00e9trangers, y compris les amis (\u00abIndeed, TAO specialists have directly accessed the protected networks of democratically elected leaders of countries<\/em>\u00bb). Cela devrait sonner d\u00e9sagr\u00e9ablement aux oreilles d’une Merkel ou d’une Rousseff.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tL’\u00e9quipe de journalistes qui s’est charg\u00e9e de r\u00e9diger le texte apr\u00e8s examen minutieux du fonds Snowden m\u00eale des gens du Spiegel<\/em> et des personnalit\u00e9s du r\u00e9seau Snowden-Greenwald (Jacob Appelbaum et Laura Poitras). Le fait confirme la place d\u00e9sormais pr\u00e9\u00e9minente prise par le Spiegel<\/em>, dans un contexte qu’on conna\u00eet, o\u00f9 l’Allemagne a pris une position en fl\u00e8che de contestatrice de la NSA. (Par contraste, on observera que le Guardian<\/em> place l’information en cinqui\u00e8me ou sixi\u00e8me position dans la hi\u00e9rarchie de ses nouvelles, que ni The Independent<\/em> ni The Daily Telegraph<\/em> par exemple n’en signale rien sur leurs pages d’accueil, tout cela confirmant la courbe rentrante, jusqu’\u00e0 la n\u00e9gation m\u00eame de cette sorte de nouvelles, de la presse britannique.) Nous donnons ici un extrait du texte publi\u00e9 par le Spiegel<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00abOne of the two main buildings at the former plant has since housed a sophisticated NSA unit, one that has benefited the most from this expansion and has grown the fastest in recent years the Office of Tailored Access Operations, or TAO. This is the NSA’s top operative unit something like a squad of plumbers that can be called in when normal access to a target is blocked.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbAccording to internal NSA documents viewed by Spiegel, these on-call digital plumbers are involved in many sensitive operations conducted by American intelligence agencies. TAO’s area of operations ranges from counterterrorism to cyber attacks to traditional espionage. The documents reveal just how diversified the tools at TAO’s disposal have become and also how it exploits the technical weaknesses of the IT industry, from Microsoft to Cisco and Huawei, to carry out its discreet and efficient attacks.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbThe unit is akin to the wunderkind of the US intelligence community, says Matthew Aid, a historian who specializes in the history of the NSA. Getting the ungettable is the NSA’s own description of its duties. It is not about the quantity produced but the quality of intelligence that is important, one former TAO chief wrote, describing her work in a document. The paper seen by Spiegel quotes the former unit head stating that TAO has contributed some of the most significant intelligence our country has ever seen. The unit, it goes on, has access to our very hardest targets.<\/em>\u00bb […]<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbDefining the future of her unit at the time, she wrote that TAO needs to continue to grow and must lay the foundation for integrated Computer Network Operations, and that it must support Computer Network Attacks as an integrated part of military operations. To succeed in this, she wrote, TAO would have to acquire pervasive, persistent access on the global network. An internal description of TAO’s responsibilities makes clear that aggressive attacks are an explicit part of the unit’s tasks. In other words, the NSA’s hackers have been given a government mandate for their work. During the middle part of the last decade, the special unit succeeded in gaining access to 258 targets in 89 countries nearly everywhere in the world. In 2010, it conducted 279 operations worldwide.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbIndeed, TAO specialists have directly accessed the protected networks of democratically elected leaders of countries. They infiltrated networks of European telecommunications companies and gained access to and read mails sent over Blackberry’s BES email servers, which until then were believed to be securely encrypted. Achieving this last goal required a sustained TAO operation, one document states.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbThis TAO unit is born of the Internet created in 1997, a time when not even 2 percent of the world’s population had Internet access and no one had yet thought of Facebook, YouTube or Twitter. From the time the first TAO employees moved into offices at NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, the unit was housed in a separate wing, set apart from the rest of the agency. Their task was clear from the beginning to work around the clock to find ways to hack into global communications traffic.<\/em> […]<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbTo do this, the NSA needed a new kind of employee. The TAO workers authorized to access the special, secure floor on which the unit is located are for the most part considerably younger than the average NSA staff. Their job is breaking into, manipulating and exploiting computer networks, making them hackers and civil servants in one. Many resemble geeks and act the part too.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbIndeed, it is from these very circles that the NSA recruits new hires for its Tailored Access Operations unit. In recent years, NSA Director Keith Alexander has made several appearances at major hacker conferences in the United States. Sometimes, Alexander wears his military uniform, but at others, he even dons jeans and a t-shirt in his effort to court trust and a new generation of employees. The recruitment strategy seems to have borne fruit. Certainly, few if any other divisions within the agency are growing as quickly as TAO. There are now TAO units in Wahiawa, Hawaii; Fort Gordon, Georgia; at the NSA’s outpost at Buckley Air Force Base, near Denver, Colorado; at its headquarters in Fort Meade; and, of course, in San Antonio.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbOne trail also leads to Germany. According to a document dating from 2010 that lists the Lead TAO Liaisons domestically and abroad as well as names, email addresses and the number for their Secure Phone, a liaison office is located near Frankfurt the European Security Operations Center (ESOC) at the so-called Dagger Complex at a US military compound in the Griesheim suburb of Darmstadt.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbBut it is the growth of the unit’s Texas branch that has been uniquely impressive, the top secret documents reviewed by Spiegel show. These documents reveal that in 2008, the Texas Cryptologic Center employed fewer than 60 TAO specialists. By 2015, the number is projected to grow to 270 employees. In addition, there are another 85 specialists in the Requirements & Targeting division (up from 13 specialists in 2008). The number of software developers is expected to increase from the 2008 level of three to 38 in 2015. The San Antonio office handles attacks against targets in the Middle East, Cuba, Venezuela and Colombia, not to mention Mexico, just 200 kilometers (124 miles) away, where the government has fallen into the NSA’s crosshairs.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tBien entendu, ces diff\u00e9rentes r\u00e9v\u00e9lations doivent conduire au constat, une fois de plus, de la puissance de la NSA, et de la puissance du Syst\u00e8me par cons\u00e9quent, et d’une puissance suppos\u00e9e toujours en expansion. Cela n’a rien de nouveau pour nous, puisque nous parlons de fa\u00e7on encore plus g\u00e9n\u00e9reuse de la surpuissance du Syst\u00e8me, et d’ailleurs sans cacher que c’est justement cette surpuissance qui conduit paradoxalement \u00e0 son impuissance grandissante. Pour le cas pr\u00e9sent, il y a des remarques beaucoup plus int\u00e9ressantes \u00e0 faire que de s’exclamer sur la puissance de la NSA, notamment sur le point du constat que ces r\u00e9v\u00e9lations sur la puissance de la NSA contribuent effectivement \u00e0 accentuer divers facteurs contribuant \u00e0 cette impuissance grandissante du Syst\u00e8me dont nous parlons, en r\u00e9unissant des \u00e9l\u00e9ments pour des effets potentiels extr\u00eamement n\u00e9gatifs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t La premi\u00e8re remarque concerne l’Allemagne. Le Spiegel<\/em> est allemand et ses r\u00e9v\u00e9lations du fonds Snowden affectent directement l’opinion publique comme la direction politique du pays. On sait qu’\u00e0 cet \u00e9gard, l’Allemagne est le pays qui a r\u00e9agi le plus vivement aux r\u00e9v\u00e9lations-Snowden, jusqu’\u00e0 un point tr\u00e8s critique de ses relations avec les USA (voir le 12 d\u00e9cembre 2013<\/a> et le 20 d\u00e9cembre 2013<\/a>). Le point op\u00e9rationnel essentiel de ces r\u00e9v\u00e9lations sur les TAO est que cette unit\u00e9 a des postes \u00e0 l’\u00e9tranger, et que l’un des principaux d’entre eux se trouve en Allemagne…<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00abOne trail also leads to Germany. According to a document dating from 2010 that lists the Lead TAO Liaisons domestically and abroad as well as names, email addresses and the number for their Secure Phone, a liaison office is located near Frankfurt the European Security Operations Center (ESOC) at the so-called Dagger Complex at a US military compound in the Griesheim suburb of Darmstadt.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tCette r\u00e9v\u00e9lation en est-elle une pour les SR allemands ? Plusieurs r\u00e9ponses sont possibles (oui, c’est une r\u00e9v\u00e9lation, non ils savaient en gros mais ignoraient les d\u00e9tails-TAO, oui ils savaient mais n’ont rien dit au pouvoir politique, oui ils savaient et Merkel aussi)… Quoi qu’il en soit, l’important est la publicit\u00e9 de cette r\u00e9v\u00e9lation, qui pourrait placer l’Allemagne et Merkel face \u00e0 un choix bien difficile. Apr\u00e8s la fureur d\u00e9nonciatrice des activit\u00e9s de la NSA, voil\u00e0 le gouvernement allemand plac\u00e9 devant le cas qui semblerait celui de la pr\u00e9sence d’une antenne hyperactive de la NSA sur le sol allemand lui-m\u00eame, coordonnant sans doute les \u00e9coutes les plus intrusives (\u00e0 l’encontre de Merkel). L’Allemagne, truff\u00e9e de bases US au nom des contraintes structurelles de l’OTAN h\u00e9rit\u00e9es de la p\u00e9riode de l’occupation, va-t-elle suivre sa logique de r\u00e9affirmation souverainiste et exiger, au moins, le d\u00e9part de la station de la NSA du Dagger Complex<\/em> ? Se contentera-t-elle de garanties verbales ou exigera-t-elle des preuves concr\u00e8tes, voir plus ? On commence \u00e0 fr\u00f4ler le cas int\u00e9ressant des structures militaires h\u00e9g\u00e9moniques du Syst\u00e8me qui pourraient devenir l’enjeu d’un affrontement \u00e0 l’int\u00e9rieur du Syst\u00e8me. L’OTAN tremblerait sur ses bases. C’est une opportunit\u00e9 int\u00e9ressante, \u00e0 suivre avec attention…<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t La description de l’unit\u00e9 TAO est du plus grand int\u00e9r\u00eat, notamment avec les d\u00e9tails du recrutement de hackers<\/em> civils, sans doute souvent jeunes, sans doute souvent avec un fond anarcho-contestataire qu’on met de c\u00f4t\u00e9 puisque la NSA paye bien. Nous avons m\u00eame le d\u00e9tail go\u00fbteux d’un Alexander s\u00e9millant, enfilant blue jeans<\/em> et t-shirt<\/em>, pour s\u00e9duire les jeunes gens chevelus, barbus et \u00e9ventuellement boutonneux, un d\u00e9tail qui touche simplement au sublime du grotesque (\u00abIn recent years, NSA Director Keith Alexander has made several appearances at major hacker conferences in the United States. Sometimes, Alexander wears his military uniform, but at others, he even dons jeans and a t-shirt in his effort to court trust and a new generation of employees<\/em>\u00bb)… Le probl\u00e8me \u00e9tant de savoir si, aujourd’hui, le pseudo-n\u00e9o-beatnik<\/em> Alexander recevrait le m\u00eame accueil qu’il semblerait avoir re\u00e7u ces derni\u00e8res ann\u00e9es. Par exemple, on se rappelle ce compte-rendu de Russia Today<\/em> le 1er ao\u00fbt 2013<\/a>, sur la conf\u00e9rence Black Hat<\/em> de Las Vegas, dans le Nevada, o\u00f9 Alexander, hors-jeans<\/em> et hors-t-shirt<\/em>, se fit s\u00e9v\u00e8rement chahuter par divers interrupteurs soutenus par les applaudissements de l’auditoire. (Depuis, Alexander-jeans<\/em> ne s’est plus aventur\u00e9 dans un de ces congr\u00e8s de jeunes hackers<\/em> dont les TAO ont tant besoin.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tLe probl\u00e8me du fonds Snowden, c’est qu’il nous donne une image de la puissance de la NSA avant la d\u00e9fection, avant l’\u00e8re-Snowden<\/strong>, et que cette d\u00e9fection bouleverse tout. Aujourd’hui, on peut entendre un Michael Hayden, g\u00e9n\u00e9ral de l’USAF \u00e0 la retraite, ex-directeur de la NSA et de la CIA, d\u00e9clarer (voir Antiwar.com<\/em> le 29 d\u00e9cembre 2013<\/a>) :<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00ab[Snowden leakings<\/em>] is the most serious hemorrhaging of American secrets in the history of American espionage. Hayden went on to claim that the NSA was infinitely weaker now that everyone knows about what it is doing, insisting it would take decades for the NSA to return to the pre-Snowden era of unchecked power.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \tMis en ligne le 30 d\u00e9cembre 2013 \u00e0 11H28<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Les plombiers de la NSA post\u00e9s en Allemagne La derni\u00e8re livraison du fonds Snowden, le 29 d\u00e9cembre 2013 dans le Spiegel, devrait laisser des traces par son importance politique, encore plus que par ses aspects techniques ou son \u00e9cho m\u00e9diatique. Il s’agit de l’exposition en d\u00e9tails d’une unit\u00e9 sp\u00e9ciale de la NSA, d\u00e9sign\u00e9e Office of… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2857,2748,15498,10915,15497,4633,12224,15496],"class_list":["post-73609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bloc-notes","tag-alexander","tag-allemagne","tag-francfort","tag-hackers","tag-jeans","tag-merkel","tag-snowden","tag-tao"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}