American Spying HDDs. Now that gets somewhere to fiction level to me. Though what the hell, it gives me the feeling all these global spying stuff which no normal human would believe to were actually true. First Snowden, now this? But a hard drive?!

But but.. They told us it's all Chinese & Russian hackers. North Koreans a bit too!

I want to know:

1) Is it a Trojan, or something more clever like it prevents encryption? But a firmware level code capable of internet connections? That's still impressive. Then again, if they can access your files over the internet they don't need to decrypt your mounted filesystems!

2) How to I detect it. How do I delete it.

I want to know what the hard drive manufacturers have to say about this. They had to be in on it, right? So the firmware could be custom suited? Because if not, that means they somehow infected the code for new hard drives without destroying the fact it's firmware.

I think it's amazing not a single person involved in the HDD scandal at WD/Seagate/etc bothered to leak this. (On the other hand, a "contractor in Mexico" is the one that leaked it, if I recall correctly, so perhaps that was one of their manufacturing planets*.)

[edit] *Wonderful typo.

Theoretically, if a computer had one of these bugged devices on it BUT was not plugged into the net, could it be accessed still?

I actually had an idea for something like that. Sending encrypted data within socially taboo things, like dick pics.

Actually, weren't the terrorists already smarter than the NSA, and sent intel inside SPAM messages? So the NSA wasn't looking at the spam blocked intel.

[edit] Linky

The purpose of big media is not to inform you of the facts or make your life better in any way.

The purpose is to control what you believe so that ultimately your decisions and actions will align with the goals of their corporate stakeholders. Furthermore, most governments are now property of those corporate stakeholders, and therefore will also likewise align their actions.

Snowden directly attacked these stakeholders. I say that's good -- we are at war with those people. The article spins it as bad. They represent those people.

[edit: ... better words]

Well, what are we going to do about it?

I can't do much, but I've decided to talk with my parents. It may be the first time I have ever intentionally brought up a controversial topic with them. If anyone has any stories of success or failure with regards to handling controversial topics with loved ones, I'm mostly ears.

Read some Sun Tzu?

Get involved in your community and don't take mass media too seriously. They're in it for themselves.

I've brought up these controversial topics with my parents. It was fruitless for me. My mother was offended, albeit at the time I was a bit more aggressive, paranoid, and was reading garbage like infowars. YMMV, of course. Your parents are not my parents (at least, AFAIK).

It was quite a few years ago now. The discussion was about the war in Iraq and 9/11, although Bush was almost out of office at the time. She was of the opinion that the war was right because of 9/11.

I admittedly got a little angry about what she was saying, because it really was quite ignorant. The discussion got ugly real fast, and if correcting someone's errors is "talking down" to them then I was definitely "talking down"!

I learned my lesson and no longer bring up foreign affairs. There's no reason to, either. I could make dinner and tell my mother it was a dish called Boko Haram and she would be none the wiser.

It's really up to our generation to hold the government accountable. Nevermind convincing your parents of the problem. It's not their problem and for the most part they are set in their ways. It's our problem. Spend your time where it matters: on younger people that have the energy to fight, and are open to new things. Get involved in online activist movements that will keep you up to date and help you to organize your efforts. Learn how your political system works and take an active role in it, even if that just means keeping a loose eye on the candidates and voting at election time. Even better if you help to expose misinformation campaigns during the pre-election cabaret show and encourage peers to think extra critically prior to taking sides or voting. And of course, encourage peers to give a damn and cast their vote after careful consideration...

I'd been wondering whether Thomas would chime in. Do you see the HDD market changing in response to privacy concerns? Open-source firmware would be a dream come true.

Half of this is a good point, though I disagree that it's not their problem. They may not perceive it as their problem, but if they use a computer, it is their problem. Furthermore, because they depend upon the U.S. economy, it is their problem.

Engadget has a report that addresses William's question. Here's hoping that targeted countries cancel U.S. imports. That might get the message across.

I'll report back after talking with the parents... It won't be soon. We don't get the chance to talk often these days.

Click here to see which countries are targeted how often. (Image is from page 20 of the full report.)

About how the miscelenous firmware functions, I didn't google it yet but I would assume this: firmware hides whatever HDD space nesessary for the actualy miscelenous software. It can easily be hundreds mb without anyone noticing nowdays.

Append:
I'm in shock how silent the media is about it. Reuters, and some other news sources I never heard of. Got a bit more covered in Russian language it seems, but just a bit. Nobody cares, really.. Seriously. The most massive spying uncovored, & ... Silence.

Append1:
This is what is looking like some real data on the topic.

Append2:

You kiddin' me, right?

Append3:
Moar food.