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Sun, May 29, 2022 | 17:48
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'White-hat' hackers join teleconference on NIS scandal
野, 해킹의혹 토론회…'첫 폭로' 加 연구팀 참여
Posted : 2015-07-30 16:56
Updated : 2015-07-30 18:59
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By Do Je-hae

Foreign "white-hat" hackers exchanged opinions with Korean experts and lawmakers in a teleconference organized by the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD), Thursday.

The party said Citizen Lab, a group of ethical hackers from the University of Toronto, Canada, and the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) joined the conference to raise awareness of illegal surveillance on people by spy agencies worldwide.

Citizen Lab first revealed spyware deals between the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and Hacking Team, an Italian firm, which it discovered through hacking in 2012. It also released the Italian firm's spyware transactions in 20 other countries.

The conference came as the Park Geun-hye administration and the NIS are facing growing calls to address surveillance allegations surrounding the spy agency.

During the conference, held at the National Assembly, Bill Marczak, a researcher at Citizen Lab, said that many of the 21 countries found to have purchased the RCS technology were "repressive states," such as Ethiopia, Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.

According to Hacking Team's e-mail correspondence viewed by Citizen Lab, a Hacking Team official visited Korea to meet an NIS agent. The NIS is said to have inquired about the Remote-Controlled System's (RCS) capacity to intercept dialogue on Kakao Talk, the country's most popular messaging app.

The researcher also said that the e-mails revealed that NIS had shown interest in monitoring mobile phones through telecommunication firms, such as SKT.

RCS is spyware sold exclusively to governments. Recently, Citizen Lab found it being used by the Ethiopian government against domestic and international journalists.

Current or former government users of the spyware are: Azerbaijan, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, and Uzbekistan.

Marczak said it found other cases in Ethiopia and Dubai where the RCS had been used to monitor journalists and civilians.

The ruling Saenuri Party has criticized the NPAD for blowing the incident out of proportion, saying that Korea is the only country out of RCS users where the use of this particular spyware is controversial.

Citizen Lab said that so far, there are no traces of North Korea purchasing RCS.

Nate Cardozo, a staff attorney at the EFF discussed surveillance by intelligence agencies in the U.S. at the conference. The EFF is an international non-profit digital rights group.

The NIS has been engaged in illegal surveillance of civilians using RCS since its purchase by a NIS officer in 2012, according to Citizen Lab.

The NIS has maintained that the potent spyware was used exclusively in relation to North Korea and other terrorist organizations.

In a statement, the Saenuri Party described the conference as a "show to exaggerate the allegations against the NIS."


野, 해킹의혹 토론회…'첫 폭로' 加 연구팀 참여

국정원 해킹프로그램 대응 백신 베타버전도 발표

새정치민주연합 이종걸 원내대표는 30일 국회에서 비영리 사단법인 '오픈넷'과 함께 '국정원 해킹사태 해결을 위한 토론 및 백신프로그램 발표회'를 개최한다.

참석자들은 국가정보원 해킹 의혹의 진상규명을 위한 기술적 방법을 모색하고 국가기관의 해킹 프로그램 사용의 위법성과 해결방안에 대해 토론할 예정이다.

특히 이날 행사에는 지난해 2월 이탈리아 업체 '해킹팀'이 우리나라를 비롯한 21개국에 스파이웨어를 판매한 흔적을 확인했다고 최초로 발표한 캐나다 토론토 대학의 비영리 연구팀인 '시티즌랩'도 영상통화를 통해 패널로 참여한다.

'시티즌랩' 관계자는 해킹팀의 스파이웨어에 대한 분석결과 및 해외 민간인 사찰 사례를 소개할 것으로 알려졌다.

해외 화이트해커 그룹인 전자개척자재단(EFF) 역시 해킹툴을 이용한 해외 민간인 사찰 사례와 국제 시민사회의 대응에 대해 설명한다.

아울러 오픈넷은 국정원이 사용한 해킹 프로그램의 작동원리를 설명하고 민간 전문가들과 함께 개발한 백신 베타버전도 발표한다. (연합뉴스)
Emailjhdo@koreatimes.co.kr Article ListMore articles by this reporter
 
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