Page 15 - digicel 15 july 2015
P. 15
TECHNOLOGY A23
Wednesday 15 July 2015
South Korean spy agency explored technology to hack chat app
By KIM TONG-HYUNG and 2003, were convicted
Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) and received suspended
-- South Korea’s belea-
guered spy agency has prison terms for overseeing
acknowledged exploring
the purchase of technolo- the monitoring of mobile
gies to intercept communi-
cations on the popular Ka- phone conversations of
kao Talk smartphone chat-
ting service, but maintains about 1,800 of South Ko-
it only intended to strength-
en its monitoring of rival rea’s political, corporate
North Korean agents, not
South Koreans, lawmakers and media elite.
said Tuesday.
The revelation is sensitive Earlier this year, another
because the country’s spy
agency has a history of il- former NIS chief was sen-
legally tapping South Kore-
ans’ phone conversations. tenced to three years in
National Intelligence Ser-
vice chief Lee Byoung Ho prison after being found
told legislators in a closed-
door briefing that the guilty of ordering an il-
agency bought hacking
programs from an Italian licit online campaign to
company, Hacking Team,
in 2012 that were designed support then-ruling party
to intercept information
from cellphones and com- candidate and current
puters, according to de-
tails released to reporters President Park Geun-hye
by the office of lawmaker
Shin Kyung-min, who at- ahead of the 2012 presi-
tended the meeting.
Lee didn’t indicate wheth- dential election.
er the agency obtained
the technology for hacking The spy service has previ-
Kakao, but he acknowl-
edged that it asked Hack- ously countered that its
ing Team about getting
such technology, accord- agents were only trying to
ing to Shin’s office.
The spy agency didn’t im- cope with North Korean
mediately return calls seek-
ing comment. South Korean National Intelligence Service chief Lee Byoung Ho attends a closed-door briefing at cyberwarfare by posting
Lee said the hacking pro- the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea Tuesday, July 14, 2015. comments meant to coun-
grams bought from Hack- ter messages that praised
ing Team would be inef- Associated Press the North and spread
fective for spying on ci-
vilians because the NIS which Seoul blames for re- South Korean entities were Two previous NIS directors, groundless rumors about
only received enough to
monitor 20 different de- peatedly attacking Inter- among those dealing with who successively headed South Korean government
vices at once. He said the
programs have been used net networks and stealing the Italian surveillance firm. the spy service from 1999 policies.q
mainly for research as the
country looks to strengthen information from comput-
its cyberwarfare capabili-
ties against North Korea, ers, Shin’s office said.
Fingerprint scanner testedLee also told lawmakers
that the programs the NIS
purchased from Hacking
on foreigners leaving AtlantaTeam were used by 97 in-
telligence and investiga-
tion agencies in 35 coun- ATLANTA (AP) — Federal ington. biometric verification, the
tries around the world. authorities are testing a The agency, which is under release said.
Kakao Talk is a free mo- mobile device to scan fin- a congressional mandate Officer will stand at the
bile chatting app that is gerprints from a sample of to record the biometrics of passenger loading bridge
used by 38 million people foreign air travelers as they departing foreign visitors, of selected flights leaving
at least once a month in depart from the United plans to test the devices the U.S. and will use the
South Korea. Kane Lee, a States through Atlanta’s through next June. new hand-held devices,
spokesman for Daum Ka- airport. Then it will decide whether which are a bit bigger than
kao Corp. which operates U.S. Customs and Border it’s feasible to further ex- a smartphone, to scan the
Kakao Talk, said the com- Protection officers be- pand their use without dis- fingerprints and passports
pany’s servers have never gan using the devices last rupting travel too much, of selected foreigner trav-
been breached. However, week to scan some foreign Evanitsky said. elers.
Lee said there are hacking passengers on selected Border officers currently col- The agency said it will
tools that could infiltrate flights at Hartsfield-Jack- lect digital fingerprints and match that data to the
mobile devices without go- son Atlanta International photos from arriving foreign data collected when the
ing through the servers. Airport, agency spokes- travelers to ensure they are person entered the country
The story emerged earlier woman Jennifer Evanitsky who they say they are, the and then it will be stored in
this month when a search- said Tuesday. The test will agency said in a news re- systems managed by the
able library of a massive be expanded in the fall to lease. The new scanners Department of Homeland
email trove stolen from airports in Chicago, Dal- have the potential to en- Security. The agency said
Hacking Team, released las, Houston, Los Angeles, hance existing tools and it “remains committed to
by WikiLeaks, showed Miami, Newark, New York, to confirm the departure protecting the privacy of
San Francisco and Wash- of a foreign traveler using all travelers.”q
