There have been more revelations today about New Zealand's GCSB assisting the NSA with spying - this time with China.
NEW
ZEALAND PLOTTED HACK ON CHINA WITH NSA
Ryan
Gallagher and Nicky Hager
18 April, 2015
New
Zealand spies teamed with National Security Agency hackers to break
into a data link in the country’s largest city, Auckland, as part
of a secret plan to eavesdrop on Chinese diplomats, documents reveal.
The
covert operation, reported
Saturday by New Zealand’s Herald
on Sundayin
collaboration with The
Intercept,
highlights the contrast between New Zealand’s public and secret
approaches to its relationship with China, its largest and most
important trading partner.
The
hacking project suggests that New Zealand’s electronic surveillance
agency, Government Communications Security Bureau, or GCSB, may have
violated international treaties that prohibit the interception of
diplomatic communications.
New
Zealand has signed both the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic
Relations and the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations,
international treaties that protect the “inviolability” of
diplomatic correspondance. The country’s prime minister, John Key,
said in a recent
speech on
security that New Zealand had an obligation to support the rule of
law internationally, and was “known for its integrity, reliability
and independence.”
Last
year, Key said that
New Zealand’s relationship with China, worth an estimated $15
billion in annual two-way trade, had “never been stronger.” The
relationship was not just about “purely trading,” he said,
“it is so much broader and much deeper than that.”
In
2013, Key described a
meeting with top Chinese officials in Beijing as “extremely warm”
and told of how he was viewed as a “real friend” by the country’s
premier, Li Keqiang.
At
the same time, as minister in charge of the GCSB, Key was overseeing
spying against China – which included the top-secret planned
operation in Auckland, aimed at the Chinese consulate.
The
hacking project is outlined in documents obtained by The
Interceptfrom NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
A
secret report called “NSA activities in progress 2013,”
includes an
item titled
“New Zealand: Joint effort to exploit Chinese MFA [Ministry of
Foreign Affairs] link.” The operation, according to another
NSA document,
had “identified an MFA data link between the Chinese consulate and
Chinese Visa Office in Auckland,” two buildings about a five-minute
walk apart on the city’s busy Great South Road.
The
document added that the New Zealand agency was “providing
additional technical data” on the data link to the NSA’s Tailored
Access Operations,
a powerful unit that hacks into computer systems and networks to
intercept communications. The agencies had “verbally agreed to move
forward with a cooperative passive and active effort against this
link,” it said.
Passive
surveillance refers to a method of eavesdropping on communications
that intercepts them as they are flowing over Internet cables,
between satellites, or across phone networks. Active surveillance is
a more aggressive tactic that involves hacking into computers; in the
case of the Auckland operation, active surveillance could have
involved planting spyware in the Chinese government computers or
routers connected via the consulate data link.
The
documents do not reveal whether the operation was successfully
completed, due to the timeframe that the records cover. In May 2013,
Snowden left his Hawaii-based intelligence job and flew to Hong Kong
carrying the cache of secret files. In April 2013, shortly before
Snowden’s departure, “formal
coordination”
on the hacking plan had begun between the NSA and its New Zealand
counterpart, according to the documents.
More
New Zealand operations targeting China appear to have been ongoing at
that time. In another
April 2013 NSA document describing
the agency’s relationship with New Zealand spies, under the heading
“What partner provides to NSA,” the first item on the list is
“collection on China.” New Zealand’s GCSB surveillance agency
“continues to be especially helpful in its ability to provide NSA
ready access to areas and countries that are difficult for the United
States to access,” the report said.
China
intelligence is handled inside the New Zealand agency by a special
section that focuses on economic analysis. According to sources with
knowledge of the agency’s operations, its economic section, known
as the “IBE,” specialised in Japanese diplomatic communications
from 1981 until the late 2000s. In recent years its focus has shifted
to intercepted Chinese communications, the sources say.
In
response to the revelations, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in
New Zealand told the Herald
on Sunday that
the country was “concerned” about the spying. “We attach great
importance to the cyber security issue,” the spokesman said, adding
that “China proposes to settle disputes through dialogue and
formulate codes to regulate cyber space behaviors that are acceptable
to all sides.”
China
itself is known to be a major perpetrator of espionage on the global
stage, and it has been repeatedly accused by
the U.S. government of hacking into American computer networks. Last
year, China was linked to
an apparent intelligence-gathering hack on a powerful New Zealand
supercomputer used to conduct weather and climate research.
But
the Snowden documents have shown that countries in the so-called
“Five Eyes” surveillance alliance – which includes New Zealand,
the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia – are
also heavily involved in conducting aggressive spying and hacking
operations across the world.
Previous
revelations have detailed how agencies in the alliance have
hacked law-abiding companies, foreign
government computers, and
designed technology to attack and destroy infrastructure
using cyberwar techniques. Last year, The
Intercept revealed how
the NSA had developed the capability to deploy millions of malware
“implants” to infect computers and steal data on a large scale.
The
NSA, the GCSB and the New Zealand prime minister’s office each
declined to answer questions about this story.
GCSB’s
acting director, Una Jagose, said in an emailed statement that the
agency “exists to protect New Zealand and New Zealanders.” She
added: “We have a foreign intelligence mandate. We don’t comment
on speculation about matters that may or may not be operational.
Everything we do is explicitly authorised and subject to independent
oversight.”
Here
is the parallel article from the NZ Herald
The government is using ISIS to up the terrorist alert in the country (while 'not exaggerating the threat). This Radio New Zealand report discusses the likelihood of an attack in New Zealand but skirts round the issue of using the situation to counter internal dissent
How
real is the terrorist threat to NZ?
Radio NZ
19 April, 2015
Originally aired on Insight, Sunday 19 April 2015
Brent
Edwards, Political Editor - Brent.Edwards@radionz.co.nz
Rebecca
Kitteridge is a worried woman.
Since
Ms Kitteridge took on the job as director of the Security
Intelligence Service 11 months ago, she tells Insight,
the threat of a terrorist attack in New Zealand has risen.
Last
year she reported the SIS had a watch-list of 30 to 40 people it was
monitoring closely.
In
typical spy speak she now says the people under watch has increased
to the high end of that range, not the low end. Some are considering
terrorist action in this country.
But
Rebecca Kitteridge does not want to exaggerate the threat.
She
says people can still go to the supermarket without worrying about
the prospect of being caught up in a terrorist attack.
Ms
Kitteridge says it is her job to worry so the public do not have to.
What
mainly worries her is the influence of Islamic State, as it uses
social media to reach out to disaffected people in the West to not
just travel to Syria and Iraq to fight, but to also carry out attacks
in their own countries.
"I
think it's the first time that we've seen a terrorist organisation
actively trying to recruit people to commit attacks internationally
and that is the difference from what we see now to what we have seen
before.
"So
there is an active effort to recruit anybody who might be susceptible
to this kind of propaganda to and to give them information on how to
commit attacks too."
Islamic
State uses a professionally designed and produced magazine Dabiq to
get its message across.
But
how serious is the threat and is anyone in the Muslim community
taking note of the propaganda?
Young
Muslims say they are not aware of Islamic State's social media
campaign getting any traction in New Zealand.
Tayyaba
Khan is the chief executive of the Change Makers Refugees Forum in
Wellington.
"I
know for a fact that through my work and through the work that I do
with different organisations within the Muslim community, we are not
aware of any such social media interaction that can be seen as
threatening or concerning," Ms Khan says.
Auckland
blogger Latifa Daud agrees.
"No,
actually, I haven't seen anything."
Ms
Daud says she has not heard anyone talking about Dabiq.
Both
she and Ms Khan worry that the focus on Islamic State has made the
Muslim community in New Zealand a target.
Ms
Ketteridge says she has been very careful to avoid that.
"The
fact that there is a very tiny group who might be categorised as
Muslim... I think the most important thing to think about with these
people is not what is their religion but what are they doing.
"What
behaviours are they exhibiting that means that they may be a
terrorist risk to this country?" she says.
Ms
Khan says while the Muslim communities themselves are peaceful, there
might be one or two individuals attracted by Islamic State's
propaganda.
"We
are extremely concerned about those who might be likely to be
affected by this recruitment process and like I said I think we want
to get involved because who better to get involved in changing things
than the Muslim community themselves."
The
SIS has been given greater powers to monitor people, particularly by
being able to conduct urgent video surveillance before a warrant is
issued.
Those
changes were rushed through Parliament late last year, prompting
widespread concern from Muslims who felt they were not consulted over
powers they believe are directly aimed at them.
Ms
Kitteridge says the new powers, plus extra money for the SIS to
expand its activities, have helped.
But
will those new powers and sending troops to Iraq make New Zealanders
safer as they go about their daily business?
One
security contractor, who wishes to remain anonymous, believes it is
only a matter of time before there is a terrorist incident in this
country.
He
is appalled by security at public venues, particularly airports.
He
says the main threat will come from a so-called lone wolf attack, not
from some planned and coordinated terrorist plot.
No
one can discount an incident of that nature, including Otago
University lecturer Najibullah Lafraie, a former foreign minister for
Afghanistan.
"That
kind of incident, isolated but nonetheless affecting someone and then
ISIS trying to find it and influence so that's possible. Hopefully
that's not there but, as I said, we cannot rule it out."
But
Professor Ramesh Thakur from the Australian National University says
people have to keep the threat in perspective, and made reference to
the 2008 terrorist attacks in India when 10 gunmen belonging to the
Islamist terror group, Lashker-e-Taiba, carried out a three-day
rampage in Mumbai’s main railway station, five-star hotels and a
cafe killing more than 160 people.
"Think
of the attention that was given to the terrorist attack on Mumbai. Of
course it was a serious incident. But, as I said, in terms of people
who are killed on the roads in India and in India it is pedestrians
and cyclists who are killed much more than people in the cars, or any
other way you look at it, in terms of the real threats to people's
safety and security terrorism should rank way down in the sale."
A
fire blazes at the Taj Mahal Hotel on 29 November 2008 - one of
several sites attacked that month in Mumbai. - Photo: AFP
He
says Western governments have exaggerated the threat of terrorism to
justify giving their spy agencies stronger powers and to win public
support for military intervention in the Middle East.
Ms
Ketteridge says she has no interest in exaggerating the threat.
She
says her job is to worry about the unthinkable so ordinary New
Zealanders do not have to worry when they visit the shopping mall.
This program was aired a week ago , featuring Keith Locke of the Green Party who was spied on from the age of 11( for most of his adult life), and a former SIS spy.
Spying
on ourselves - A panel discussion
A
couple of weeks back we took a look at the ethics of spying on your
friends and neighbours, today we're exploring the ethics of spying on
ourselves. Keith Locke is a former Green MP whose SIS file revealed
that he had been under surveillance since he was 11 years old and
attended a William Morris social evening; Rhys Ball is a former SIS
intelligence officer turned Massey University academic; and Kathleen
Kuehn is a Victoria University media studies lecturer and author of a
forthcoming BWB text on surveillance in New Zealand.
And here is a story about the outing of a police spy
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