ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

New evidence uncovered by security researchers suggests that a dangerous hacking collective is actually the National Security Agency. The so-called Equation Group, a set of hackers responsible for at least 500 malware infections in 42 countries, is considered one of history’s most effective cyber espionage rings. Now, the Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab is pointing to new signs that the group is actually made up of NSA personnel. In a report published Wednesday, Kaspersky researchers revealed that the term “BACKSNARF” was found inside the code of the Equation Group’s online platform. The same term was used by the NSA as the name of a project by its cyber warfare unit. In addition to that coincidence, analysis of the Equation Group’s working hours suggests it operates as a regular software development team, likely located on the East Coast of the United States. Members of the group work overwhelmingly during regular business hours from Monday through Friday and almost never on Saturda...

Reuters / Kacper Pempel NATO says a plan by the European Union to create its own army would be ineffective. The military alliance’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, says the EU should make sure everything they do is complimentary to NATO and avoid duplication. Stoltenberg told a press briefing in Belgium that he would welcome an increased investment by European nations in defense, but this should be channeled towards NATO, adding that “duplication would be inefficient.” "It's important to avoid duplication and I urge Europe to make sure that everything they do is complementary to the NATO alliance," he said, Reuters reported. The idea of creating an EU army to counter the perceived threat from Russia was the brainchild of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who spoke of his ideas to a German newspaper on Sunday. “An army like this would help us to better coordinate our foreign and defense policies, and to collectively take on Europe's responsibiliti...

Exclusive: In House testimony, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland blamed Russia and ethnic-Russian rebels for last summer’s shoot-down of MH-17 over Ukraine, but the U.S. government has not substantiated that charge. So, did Nuland mislead Congress or just play a propaganda game, asks Robert Parry. By Robert Parry An early skill learned by Official Washington’s neoconservatives, when they were cutting their teeth inside the U.S. government in the 1980s, was how to frame their arguments in the most propagandistic way, so anyone who dared to disagree with any aspect of the presentation seemed unpatriotic or crazy. During my years at The Associated Press and Newsweek, I dealt with a number of now prominent neocons who were just starting out and mastering these techniques at the knee of top CIA psychological warfare specialist Walter Raymond Jr., who had been transferred to President Ronald Reagan’s National Security Council staff where Raymond oversaw inter-agency task forces th...

Exclusive: Official Washington operates in its own bubble of self-delusion in which the stars of U.S. politics, policy and media don’t realize how the rest of the world sees their sociopathic behavior. This craziness is now reaching a crisis point on Iran and Russia, reports Robert Parry. By Robert Parry The chasm between reality and the U.S. political/media elite continues to widen with Official Washington’s actions toward Iran and Russia making “the world’s sole remaining superpower” look either like a Banana Republic (on Iran) or an Orwellian Dystopia (regarding Russia). On Iran and the international negotiations to rein in its nuclear program, the American people witnessed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu striding into the U.S. Congress – like some imperial proconsul – to deliver a faux State of the Union address that undermined the sitting U.S. president. Then, 47 Republican senators furthered Netanyahu’s intent to denigrate President Barack Obama by sending an open lette...