Just days after NSA leaker Edward Snowden sat for a rare remote interview broadcast at SXSW, new information linked to his original trove of data indicates that the NSA implemented some of its surveillance activities by masquerading as Facebook servers.
The report, published by The Intercept, the news site co-founded by the former Guardian journalist, Glenn Greenwald, who published the original leaked Snowden documents, claims that the NSA spread malware to users' computers under a program called TURBINE.
See also: NSA Illegally Collected Emails of Americans With No Terrorism Links
TURBINE, which was allegedly part of a larger intelligence initiative called "Owning the Net," was reportedly able to infiltrate 85,000 to 100,000 computers around the world. According to the documents cited in the report, the initiative includes a number of targeted operations with codenames and acronyms out of a pulp spy novel. But the one that likely to raise the most eyebrows, called QUANTUMHAND, allegedly used Facebook to gain access to computers around the globe.
In the report, The Intercept details what it claims are the methods the NSA used to execute the exploit.
When a target attempts to log in to the social media site, the NSA transmits malicious data packets that trick the target’s computer into thinking they are being sent from the real Facebook. By concealing its malware within what looks like an ordinary Facebook page, the NSA is able to hack into the targeted computer and covertly siphon out data from its hard drive.
According to The Intercept, this particular phase of the operation began back in 2010.
Of course, for some long-time Facebook critics, this latest revelation will likely further stoke suspicions around the social network's rumored links to the intelligence community. But when contacted by Mashable, the social network distanced itself from the allegations contained in the report.
"We have no evidence of this alleged activity," Facebook spokesperson Jay Nancarrow told Mashable. "In any case, this method of network level disruption does not work for traffic carried over HTTPS, which Facebook finished integrating by default last year. If government agencies indeed have privileged access to network service providers, any site running only HTTP could conceivably have its traffic misdirected."
Facebook has been under the microscope, along with other major tech firms, over the past year regarding how it communicates with the U.S. government abound user information.
As recently as Feb. 3, Facebook posted an update offering more detail on its transparency report, which outlines the overall volume and types of information contained in national security requests from the U.S. government.
The voluminous report, which describes several other global surveillance projects linked to TURBINE, goes on to claim that the NSA shared some details about the initiative with Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
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