Mashnouq, Ibrahim Dismiss Hacking Report as 'Exaggerated'

W460

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq and General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim on Friday dismissed a report accusing General Security of a major hacking operation as “exaggerated.”

“We discussed the issue of the report related to General Security, which is an exaggerated report,” Mashnouq said after a Higher Defense Council meeting that also tackled other issues.

“CIA does not have the ability to spy on 500,000 phone lines,” the minister added.

Ibrahim for his part said: “We are strong, but not to the extent mentioned in the report.”

A report published Thursday said the hacking operation blamed on General Security was exposed after careless spies left hundreds of gigabytes of intercepted data exposed to the open internet.

Mobile security firm Lookout, Inc. and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, said the haul, which includes nearly half a million intercepted text messages, had simply been left online by hackers linked to Lebanon's General Directorate of General Security.

"It's almost like thieves robbed the bank and forgot to lock the door where they stashed the money," said Mike Murray, Lookout's head of intelligence. Lookout security researcher Michael Flossman said the trove ran the gamut, from Syrian battlefield photos to private phone conversations, passwords and pictures of children's birthday parties.

"It was everything. Literally everything," Flossman said.

The report said suspected test devices all seemed to have connected to a WiFi network active at the intersection of Beirut's Pierre Gemayel and Damascus Streets, the location of the bulky, sandstone-colored high-rise that houses Lebanon's General Directorate of General Security.

Other data also points to the intelligence agency: the report said the internet protocol addresses of the spyware's control panels mapped to an area just south of the GDGS building.

Electronic Frontier Foundation Director of Cybersecurity Eva Galperin said the find was remarkable, explaining that she could think of only one other example where researchers were able to pin state-backed hackers to a specific building.

"We were able to take advantage of extraordinarily poor operational security," she said.

The 49-page document lays out how spies used a network of bogus websites and malicious smartphone apps — such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Threema and Signal — to steal passwords or pry into communications, eavesdropping on conversations and capturing at least 486,000 text messages. Some victims were tricked into visiting the websites or downloading the rogue apps by booby trapped messages sent over WhatsApp, the report said. Others may have had malicious programs installed physically when they were away from their phones. Still more may have been lured into compromising their devices by a set of apparently fake Facebook profiles set up to look like attractive young Lebanese women.

EFF and Lookout said the spying stretched over 21 different countries, including the United States and several European nations.

Lebanon has historically been a hub for espionage and Lebanese spies have a documented interest in surveillance software. In 2015, for example, the internet watchdog group Citizen Lab published evidence that GDGS had tapped FinFisher, a spyware merchant whose tools have been used to hack into the computers of several African and Middle Eastern dissidents.

SourceNaharnet
Comments 2
Thumb ex-fpm 19 January 2018, 19:53

“CIA does not have the ability to spy on 500,000 phone lines,” the minister added.

How cute!

Thumb lubnani.masi7i 20 January 2018, 14:16

These two idiots think the report was 'complimentary' when in fact it was far from that. The report talks about how the General Security left a wide open digital trail behind them that led the two specialized companies to determine it was the General Security who was hacking people's phones.