Canada’s electronic spies revealed

EONBLUE: The Communications Security Establishment’s EONBLUE program tapped into the physical infrastructure of the Internet, collecting data at real-world choke points, according to documents published by Der Spiegel newspaper. The program reportedly allows CSE to collect vast amounts of information, as well as conduct cyberdefence and potentially offensive actions.

Levitation: Another tool in CSE’s mass surveillance box, Levitation tracked between 10 million and 15 million downloads and uploads to popular file-sharing sites per day, according to documents reviewed by CBC. Of the hundreds of millions of interactions tracked, CSE found approximately 350 “interesting downloads” per month, the outlet reported. Cyberwar never changes: Another set of documents reviewed by the CBC showed that CSE has a number of offensive weapons for waging cyberwar, including the ability to hack other governments. Proving this fact was important, as Western countries often frame the discussion in terms of cyberdefence, rather than acknowledging hacking operations themselves.

Free airport Wi-Fi: While signing on to dubious free Wi-Fi is never a good idea, the CBC reported that the spy agency had used Wi-Fi at an airport to spy on Canadians. The story was disputed by CSE’s independent review body, saying no such spying took place. Still, you probably shouldn’t connect to free Wi-Fi.