Meet Telecomix, The Hackers Bent On Exposing Those Who Censor And Surveil The Internet

Meet Telecomix, The Hackers Bent On Exposing Those Who Censor And Surveil The Internet

www.f orbes.com

Telecomix, a loose-knit team of international hacktivists, had been scanning the Syrian Internet in a massive sweep, dividing 700,000 target connections among its members in Germany, France and the U.S., probing for hackable devices

(visit the link for the full news article)

As the globally-distributed hackers combed Syria’s networks and posted their findings in a crowd-sourced document, one American member of the group, who uses the handle Punkbob, spotted a Windows FTP server filled with data he recognized: logs from a Proxy SG 9000 appliance built by the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company Blue Coat Systems. In Punkbob’s day job at a Pentagon contractor, he says, the same equipment had been used to intercept traffic to filter and track staff behavior. The Syrian machine’s logs showed the Internet activity of thousands of users, connecting the sites they attempted to visit and every word of their communications with the IP addresses that pointed directly to their homes. In short, he had discovered American technology being used to help a brutal dictatorship spy on its citizens.

Since Telecomix published 54 gigabytes of those logs, the resulting attention has forced Blue Coat to admit that its gear had been used by Syria, a potential violation of international sanctions against that country. The company didn’t respond to Forbes’ request for an interview, citing an ongoing internal review and a related Commerce Department probe.

Not that this approach or use of technology is new, but a revealing story on two fronts.

First the hacker group Telecomix, who contrary to the tactics used by Anonymous et al., appears to be even more politically driven. Their methods are more about exposure versus outright general Internet mayhem (ie. Ddos). Many on ATS have whined incessantly about Anonymous and its impact on the average joe, Telecomix appears somewhat different.

Secondly the exposure of global technology firms who in many cases are in violation of established US embargos. Here's a brief list:

HP
NetApp
Cisco
BlueCoat Systems
Fortinet

When confronted the companies have either not responded publically due to internal investigations or made pathetic attempts to diffuse the situation by claiming Middle Eastern resellers were to blame. That argument was quickly countered by the fact that many of these products rely on registration and updates via a master service usually housed in the US. I can confirm this last bit because I work with a lot of this equipment and those statements are true.

brill

www.f orbes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

International sanctions have never stopped US companies from dealing with 'terrorist' states in the past, even when those sanctions were imposed by the US itself. It's more of a "do as we say, not as we do" thing.

Of course one can only imagine the level of surveillance active in the US or UK, with data-collection centers built by the NSA piggy-backing on the telecoms and datacenters. Kudos to Telecomix for exposing this, but it's not going to cause so much as a stir here in the US. This is just business as usual.

There are some BRILLIANT members of the Telecomix community. If you want to see a group that could pose a serious threat to plans of shutting off the net, it's them.. not Anonymous, though they share many of the same ideals as far as internet anonymity is concerned.

Much more focused and much more experienced. And you are correct OP, much more politically motivated than Anonymous.. well politically isn't really the word.. they are centered around human rights, not really political ideology. The majority are through and through anarchist, and I mean nothing negative by that.

And another thing.. THESE are the people that gave Egypt the means to communicate with the outside world when their government tried to shut those means down. I know people like to give Anonymous a lot of credit for that, but they are wrong. The reason most don't know this is because they aren't in it for fame or praise. They are the true free spirits of the digital world.

Proof read your OP You're doubling paragraphs in there.

Good post!

Seems like hacking is the new NBA. Funny, back when I used to watch all those movies with "hackers" in them, I never honestly thought they might make a diffrence in the end, for real.

Glad to have them on "our" side. I would like to see more activity like this, but restrained enough as to not cause serious damage where it should not be caused. A smart, knowledgeable hacker is a very, very, VERY dangerous hacker. They can take down more than just software... They can also cause the loss of life in some cases, if they have the ability to get into power plants, dams and aircraft controls, or anything that might be unsafe should it fall into a wayward hackers hands. That kinda scares me. Just takes one know how to start a nuke war. I dont think that will happen, but I do feel it is possible.


But as they are now, against banks, government, greedy businesses... pretty much the same things the masses want to go after but are too afraid to speak up.. I'm all for them!

Here is a quick video that points out how telecomix is different from Anonymous as well as giving a general insight into their ideals and mechanical workings.

reply to post by brill


Hmm, the very fact they are scanning syrian networks sends up a red flag for me. Why would they target Syria, the same as the NWO army (NATO) want to attack Syria?

Originally posted by TheMindWar
reply to post by brill

 

Hmm, the very fact they are scanning syrian networks sends up a red flag for me. Why would they target Syria, the same as the NWO army (NATO) want to attack Syria?

They are not focused on destroying. They scan Syrian networks to find hole that can be used to restore internet back to the Syrian people when and if their lines of communication are pulled. This isn't just the internet either.. it's all forms of electronic communication, including the phone network grids.

Originally posted by Blackmarketeer
International sanctions have never stopped US companies from dealing with 'terrorist' states in the past, even when those sanctions were imposed by the US itself. It's more of a "do as we say, not as we do" thing.

Of course one can only imagine the level of surveillance active in the US or UK, with data-collection centers built by the NSA piggy-backing on the telecoms and datacenters. Kudos to Telecomix for exposing this, but it's not going to cause so much as a stir here in the US. This is just business as usual.

Agreed. It's just nice to actually witness the hypocrisy of US foreign affairs policy. It's not ok to censor the freedoms of others but if you're going to do it you might as well use US technology to further the cause

Your other point is more of what I was attempting to get at. If this level is exposed on foreign soil imagine what's being done at home.

brill

Originally posted by broahes
And another thing.. THESE are the people that gave Egypt the means to communicate with the outside world when their government tried to shut those means down. I know people like to give Anonymous a lot of credit for that, but they are wrong. The reason most don't know this is because they aren't in it for fame or praise. They are the true free spirits of the digital world.

Good point. They did get help from telecoms in France to assist with providing dial up access for Egyptians. Their motives are definitely more sound and arguably productive than Anon, but the more the merrier

bill

reply to post by brill


Not very surprising that this stuff was shipped overseas to syria.
It's so easy to setup a straw buyer to buy this stuff and just send it over.
How would they know.

But it's disturbing.

People call these guys/gals criminals. I don't.

Hacktivists are not out to get the normal working population. They are after the crooks who are hiding things from us. Prolly the forerunner of this movement is LulzSec and ANON. I support the truth, and if these guys are going to do things to expose that then I'm all for it.

-SAP-

Maybe we are taking too naive a look at this - the US intelligence community may have helped Assad acquire the hardware/software to spy on his own citizens as a way to provide a backdoor into his surveillance apparatus - ensuring the CIA has the same access to the surveillance intel that Assad has without him being any the wiser.

This would be a significant step for the "resistance" if... and only if.. it's not just another "government" splinter group, given a civilian name and making sure that we stay quiet and fail to act.

Anon and Now this group, it would seem like the general Jo Blow is being left with a feeling.... "oh well these tech heads have it covered on the resistence front, and OWS is crowding the streets".... without lifting a finger Joe Blows, feels as if his work has been done.

But alas... a smart government would ensure these types of groups existed so we'd feel like we had people on our side.

Like does anyone actually no anything about either Anon or this group... who there members are, who they affiliate with, who's paying for there servers, network, comms, video's etc, who's the who organizing them...

We are just as quick to support these groups as we are to support our corrupt governments every time they go to poll, I think a little more detail from these groups and some transparency for us "Typical Folk" ..... someone must know someone, who knows someone, who knows whether these guys are legit.. or a distraction....

Originally posted by brill
Secondly the exposure of global technology firms who in many cases are in violation of established US embargos. Here's a brief list:

So here's something to think about. Embargos and legislation restricting business might actually only exist to constrain competition. They are nothing more than ideas written down. They aren't "real" and don't actually do anything. The people who *created* them know this, and know that they aren't violating anything but a shared belief. And since they would *want* all of us to share this belief so we couldn't compete with them, we shouldn't be surprised when the biggest are violating them.

That's the entire point.

It helps when you can package your straight jacket with a good additional (but not the real) reason it's necessary.

It's like trying to play a sport where one team creates the playbook for the other team, but doesn't have to use the same one themselves. Of course they will always win until we stop playing the game according to their rules. This doesn't have to mean causing chaos or destruction at all, and actually most people given the opportunity to stop playing by those rules would finally be able to bring the full weight of the good they have to offer out.

We have the option to stop believing that just because a document is called "official", that it is actually doing anything at all and that we are bound by it. We are simply volunteering to restrict ourselves without realizing the nature of the restriction on the full stage at play. We're just afraid of the chaos that we fear "might" happen if we just said "No" and stopped following the rules en-masse. Thus the fear keeps the jacket tighter.

However that's changing! And I'm a big enjoyer of change.

why do u people keep mistype things like "their/there"?

reply to post by coyote66

Originally posted by coyote66
u

On topic, never heard of Telecomix.
Thanks for bringing them up.

I knew it would have been only a matter of time before something of this sort would have reared it's head. I guess when it gets really bad I wonder if the people backing the censoring the internet movement will back off or continue. Lots of internet wars going on in this and set for the next it seems.

Originally posted by ErgoTheConfusion
We have the option to stop believing that just because a document is called "official", that it is actually doing anything at all and that we are bound by it. We are simply volunteering to restrict ourselves without realizing the nature of the restriction on the full stage at play. We're just afraid of the chaos that we fear "might" happen if we just said "No" and stopped following the rules en-masse. Thus the fear keeps the jacket tighter.

However that's changing! And I'm a big enjoyer of change.

I think your putting too much emphasis by portraying this violation as having no real impact. I get the point that this offers up select business opportunities, but there can be severe repercussions (of course only to the extent the law is actually applied).

The US Dept Of Commerce is responsible for maintaining sanctions against Syria. Their Bureau of Industry and Security mandate is to enforce this legislation.

“Today’s action is part of an aggressive investigation by BIS's Office of Export Enforcement into the diversion of U.S. technology to Syria. It is vital that we keep technology that can be used to further the repression of the Syrian people out of the hands of the Syrian government,” said Under Secretary for Industry and Security Eric L. Hirschhorn. "This investigation is ongoing and additional enforcement actions are likely."

BIS controls exports and reexports of dual-use commodities, technology, and software for reasons of national security, missile technology, nuclear non-proliferation, chemical and biological weapons non-proliferation, crime control, regional stability, foreign policy and anti-terrorism. Criminal penalties and administrative sanctions can be imposed for violations of the Export Administration Regulations.

src

So there are criminal penalties, when enforced, but obviously this benefits the US intelligence community so I'm certain this will be conveniently overlooked. To wit:

Department of Commerce said it put Waseem Jawad and the Ras Al Khaimah-based company Infotech, also known as Info Tech, on a list of people and institutions determined to "have engaged in activities contrary to U.S. national security and/or foreign policy interests."

src

The story goes now that these devices were being shipped to a UAE reseller and then off to Iraq (umm this should raise my eyebrows but that's another story). From there these devices ended up in Syria. Naturally the vendor denies any direct sale to Syria but how this product magically gets updates and registers from a known foreign terrorist state is anyone's guess. Keep in mind that these products are logging massive volumes of data also accessible from the vendor, convenient of course.

Bottom line.....your absolutely correct in your post, its just difficult to watch the one side, who wrote the playbook, sound like they care. Thanks for your post.

brill