'Even worse than your worst nightmares': How the NSA can use your iPhone to spy on you



Security expert Jacob Appelbaum has revealed that the NSA has the technology to turn your iPhone into an eavesdropping device

They can also use radar wave devices to harvest electronic information from computers, even if they aren't online

Appelbaum described his revelations about the NSA as 'wrist-slittingly depressing'

Apple released a statement saying they have 'never worked with the NSA to create a backdoor in any of our products'

The information was first published by German magazine Der Spiegel along with a catalog of high-tech gadgets for hackers to use



The NSA has the technology to turn your iPhone into an eavesdropping tool, revealed a well-known privacy advocate at a hacker conference in Germany on Monday.



Journalist and security expert Jacob Appelbaum used his slot at the event to pull back the curtain on the National Security Agency's arsenal of high-tech spy gear including how it can use radar wave devices to harvest electronic information from computers, even if they aren't online.



Appelbaum told hundreds of computer experts gathered at Hamburg's Chaos Communications Conference that his revelations about the NSA's capabilities ‘are even worse than your worst nightmares.’

A backdoor is a hidden remote access from an outside source to the device (stock image pictured) that enables the hacker to have almost full access with little detection

‘What I am going to show you today is wrist-slittingly depressing,’ he said.



Even though in the past six months there have been an unprecedented level of public scrutiny of the NSA and its methods, Appelbaum's claims - supported by what appeared to be internal NSA slideshows - still caused a stir.

One of the slides described how the NSA can plant malicious software onto Apple's iPhone, giving American intelligence agents the ability to turn the popular smartphone into a pocket-sized spy.



‘Apple has never worked with the NSA to create a backdoor in any of our products, including iPhone,’ the company said in a statement to AllThingsD.

Appelbaum told hundreds of computer experts gathered at Hamburg's Chaos Communications Conference that his revelations about the NSA's capabilities 'are even worse than your worst nightmares'

‘Additionally, we have been unaware of this alleged NSA program targeting our products.’



Another slide showcased a futuristic-sounding device described as a ‘portable continuous wave generator,’ a remote-controlled device which - when paired with tiny electronic implants - can bounce invisible waves of energy off keyboards and monitors to see what is being typed, even if the target device isn't connected to the internet.



A third slide showcased a piece of equipment called NIGHTSTAND, which can tamper with wireless internet connections from up to eight miles (13 kilometers) away.



An NSA spokeswoman, Vanee Vines, said that she wasn't aware of Appelbaum's presentation, but that in general should would not comment on ‘alleged foreign intelligence activities.’



‘As we've said before, NSA's focus is on targeting the communications of valid foreign intelligence targets - not on collecting and exploiting a class of communications or services that would sweep up communications that are not of bona fide foreign intelligence interest to the U.S. government.’

The investigation followed earlier reports of the NSA (headquarters pictured) spying on Apple products, which suggested a 'backdoor' in iOS could provide hackers with valuable information. Apple said at the time that it had never worked with the NSA to deliberately weaken its products

The documents included in Appelbaum's presentation were first published by German magazine Der Spiegel on Sunday and revealed details about the undercover work carried out for the NSA by an elite team of hackers known as Tailored Access Operations (TAO).

TAO's mission is ‘Getting the ungettable,’ and an unnamed intelligence official had said that TAO had gathered ‘some of the most significant intelligence our country has ever seen.’

When agents with the TAO division want to infiltrate a network or a computer, they turn to their technical experts known as Advanced Network Technology (ANT), which produces tools for penetrating network equipment and monitoring mobile phones and computers.



ANT's products have helped TAO agents infiltrate networks and divert or even modify data wherever the NSA's usual methods aren't enough.



TAO has a catalog of high-tech gadgets for hard-to-crack cases, including computer monitor cables specially modified to record what is being typed across the screen, USB sticks secretly fitted with radio transmitters to broadcast stolen data over the airwaves, and fake base stations intended to intercept mobile phone signals on the go.

GSM base stations, for example, make it possible to monitor mobile phones, such as that of German Chancellor Angela Merkel

In the catalog a rigged monitor cable, which allows ‘TAO personnel to see what is displayed on the targeted monitor,’ goes for $30.



An ‘active GSM base station’ that makes it possible to mimic the cell phone tower of a target network and thus monitor mobile phones, is available for $40,000.



Computer bugging devices disguised as normal USB plugs, capable of sending and receiving data undetected via radio link, are available in packs of 50, for over $1 million.



These tools haven't just been used exclusively to track suspected terrorists. GSM base stations, for example, make it possible to monitor mobile phones, such as that belonging to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.



Radar systems such as the one known as DROPMIRE have also been used to spy on allies, for example EU representatives in Washington. And the hardware 'implants' found in the ANT catalog evidently have been used to tap encrypted faxes.

Protestors hold up placards featuring a picture of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and with the world Asylum on it during a march against the spying methods of the US in Hamburg, northern Germany on Sunday

The catalog isn't up to date and many of the software solutions on offer date from 2008. As a result some apply to server systems or mobile phone models that are no longer on the market.



A Trojan for gaining total access to iPhones, which was still new at that time, was still in development, though its specifications were still listed in the catalog.



One internal NSA document dating from 2004 describes a spyware program called VALIDATOR that it provides 'unique backdoor access to personal computers of targets of national interest, including but not limited to terrorist targets.'

The NSA has also targeted products made by well-known American manufacturers and found ways to break into professional-grade routers and hardware firewalls, such as those used by internet and mobile phone operators.



ANT offers malware and hardware to take advantages of weaknesses in computers made by some of the world's leading information technology companies, including Cisco Systems, Dell, Juniper, Hewlett-Packard and China's Huawei Technologies

Appelbaum and Der Spiegel have both played an important role in the disclosures of NSA leaker Edward Snowden, but neither has clarified whether the most recent set of slides came from Snowden.

Protestors hold up placards featuring a picture of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden during a march against the spying methods of the US in Hamburg, northern Germany on Sunday







