NSA Accessed Mexican President's Email

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/nsa-hacked-email-account-of-mexican-president-a-928817.html

By Jens Glüsing, Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach and Holger Stark
Spiegel.de
October 20, 2013

The NSA has been systematically eavesdropping on the Mexican government 
for years. It hacked into the president's public email account and gained 
deep insight into policymaking and the political system. The news is 
likely to hurt ties between the US and Mexico.

The National Security Agency (NSA) has a division for particularly 
difficult missions. Called "Tailored Access Operations" (TAO), this 
department devises special methods for special targets.

That category includes surveillance of neighboring Mexico, and in May 
2010, the division reported its mission accomplished. A report classified 
as "top secret" said: "TAO successfully exploited a key mail server in the 
Mexican Presidencia domain within the Mexican Presidential network to gain 
first-ever access to President Felipe Calderon's public email account." 
According to the NSA, this email domain was also used by cabinet members, 
and contained "diplomatic, economic and leadership communications which 
continue to provide insight into Mexico's political system and internal 
stability." The president's office, the NSA reported, was now "a lucrative 
source."

This operation, dubbed "Flatliquid," is described in a document leaked by 
whistleblower Edward Snowden, which SPIEGEL has now had the opportunity to 
analyze. The case is likely to cause further strain on relations between 
Mexico and the United States, which have been tense since Brazilian 
television network TV Globo revealed in September that the NSA monitored 
then-presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto and others around him in 
the summer of 2012. Peña Nieto, now Mexico's president, summoned the US 
ambassador in the wake of that news, but confined his reaction to 
demanding an investigation into the matter.

[...]

--
Find the best InfoSec talent without breaking your
recruiting budget! Post a Job, $99 for 31 days.
Hot InfoSec Jobs - http://www.hotinfosecjobs.com/