U.S. intelligence officials determined the Chinese spy balloon used a U.S. internet provider to communicate

return2ozma@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 501 points –
U.S. intelligence officials determined the Chinese spy balloon used a U.S. internet provider to communicate
nbcnews.com
47

This is what you get for not castrating them 25 years ago.

Make internet a utility already, fuck.

I really thought you were going somewhere else before I got to the second sentence.

This was probably the biggest intelligence coup of this century. Our intelligence agencies have extremely capable hacking capabilities. I’m sure they not only know the provider, they know the exact building down to the individual IP addresses of the PCs that data was transmitted to. If they get that, they will be able to trace all of the other activities that originated from that Chinese agency.

On top of that when the US was done it still shot it down and now has the hardware to analyze.

I was having a hard time imagining which company this could be. Not that I'm a fan of Verizon or Comcast, but I think they know what side their bread is buttered on. Which one wouldn't?

Then I remembered Starlink exists.

It’s a satellite provider. Cell networks don’t work at that altitude. Starlink was my first guess too but, after some more thought, it could be Hughesnet. They probably have wider coverage.

5 more...

That just sounds like efficient design if you ask me.

I thought the official announcement from the pentagon was it never sent any data?

You're correct, it didn't send any data, it sent data.

Ah yes of course, my apologies for the misunderstanding. I hate when a butt plug is the voice of reason, thank you for your service though.

Right, because they figured out which provider was using and had them cut it off...

Wait, you mean US corporations will take money to do questionable things? Surprised Pikachu face.

Maybe the US government shouldn't have set the precedent that that was EXPECTED AND ENCOURAGED

Ok, now tell us what the hell you shot down way up north during that time.

Didn't that turn out to be a weather balloon launched by an amateur meteorology club?

No that ended up being swamp gas from a weather balloon trapped in a thermal pocket which reflected light from Venus. Pretty common mistake.

The one over the Great Lakes may have been an advertisement from a car dealership.

Well..how many nationwide internet suppliers could there be?

I'll have a good laugh if it turns out the baloon was not chinese after all, it has just contained some iot device with previously unknown call home function to collect diagnostic data.

Someone tell China how to install Google earth app

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Officials familiar with assessment said it found that the connection allowed the balloon to send burst transmissions, or high-bandwidth collections of data over short periods of time.

Such a court order would have allowed U.S. intelligence agencies to conduct electronic surveillance on the balloon as it flew over the U.S and as it sent and received messages to and from China, the officials said, including communication sent via the American internet service provider.

"As we had made it clear before, the airship, used for meteorological research, unintentionally drifted into U.S. because of the westerlies and its limited self-steering capability," Liu said in a statement to NBC News.

The previously unreported U.S. effort to monitor the balloon's communications could be one reason Biden administration officials have insisted that they got more intelligence out of the device than it got as it flew over the U.S.

In an exclusive interview with NBC News this month, VanHerck explained that he worked together with the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees U.S. nuclear weapons, to reduce the release of emergency action messages to ensure the Chinese balloon could not collect them.

“Protecting EAM and nuclear command and control communications is of critical importance to the United States,” a senior defense official told NBC News.


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Wow really they used infustructure in the United States to communicate with something in The United States instead of putting a super expensive and moving satellite dish on the thing???

The PCC must be feeling all smart about their spy balloon design choices. Just wait until they need to talk to Comcast customer support...

Can't wait for the final report in 10 years that confirms it was a weather balloon and some dumbass CO was too excited and wanted to see an AIM-9x get used on a static 10mph moving target.

Pentagon really running out of fun ideas to waste tax dollars.

Could have at least used the 20mm guns included in the F22 instead of $500,000

Could have at least used the *20mm guns

No, you really can't.

The Canadians tried with an F-18. They shot the absolute shit out of a balloon with its Vulcan, but because they aren't under pressure like your typical party balloon, it didn't really do much.