‘List of ddos ​​and spoofing tools of the British spy service appears online’

The British intelligence agency GCHQ has a set of tools to manipulate information on the internet. Among other things, the service can influence polls on the Internet, retrieve private photos on Facebook, spoof mail from BlackBerry users and mask Facebook postings.

The tools’ existence is apparent from new slides from the GCHQ, provided by whistleblower Snowden and published by The Intercept. This involves a large number of ‘collection’ tools for gathering information on the Internet. With these tools, members of the spy service can receive information that is placed on YouTube, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter, among others. It also contains tools for port scanning of cities and countries, IP harvesting and obtaining the location of hotspots.

In addition, there is a list of Effects tools for influencing the Internet and systems. For example, the slide describes a tool called Angry Pirate for permanently deleting a user account on a computer and ‘Clean Sweep’ for masking Facebook postings from users or entire countries. The GCHQ can also determine the outcome of online polls and send mail that appears to come from BlackBerry users or any email address.

Various tools can be used to transfer large amounts of data to websites, computer systems or mobile phones. The spy service can also connect two target telephones and make the use of a device impossible via call bombing.

The tools are developed by JTRIG, the part of the GCHQ responsible for research and development. Most tools have been developed for a special operation, but can also be used for other purposes afterwards. JTRIG emphasizes that the list, which is published within the GCHQ via a wiki page, is not exhaustive and they can develop to order. The unveiling took place just before the start of a public hearing in the UK on the functioning of the GCHQ.