On January 6th reports of Symantec (makers of Norton Anitvirus) being hacked surfaced. The group of hackers behind the attack behind the attack were from India. In a statement issued by a member from the Lords of Dharamraja group (badass name!), the guys said: 
 
 As of now we start sharing with all our brothers and followers information from the Indian Militaty (sic) Intelligence servers, so far we have discovered within the Indian Spy Programme (sic) source codes of a dozen software companies which have signed agreements with Indian TANCS programme (sic) and CBI 
 
 Ignoring the typing error, gaining access to Indian Military’s Intelligence servers is pretty damning for the agency. The hack got covered since the hackers claimed to have acces to Norton’s source code. Earlier today I came across scans of a set of documents that are internal communications between the Indian Military. The documents claim the existence of a system known as RINOA SUR. While I did not find what SUR stands for but RINOA is RIM, NOkia and Apple. And this is where things start to get very interesting, according to the set of documents, the RINOA SUR platform was used to spy on the USCC—the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Let’s take a moment for that to digest. Here’s an image from the documents underlining the relevant part: 
 
 The documents contain snippets of emails sent by members of the USCC. Apparently, RINOA SUR platform has been declared a success and the Indian Navy has shown interest in the same. The leaked military documents suggest, RINOA were arm twisted into providing backdoor access in exchange for operating in India: 
 
 While the Indian government recently gave the nation’s premiere spy agency—RAW—permission to access any citizen’s electronic communication, the Department of Telecommunications has reached out to the Interpol for help in decrypting communication via services like RIM’s BlackBerry. The set of leaked images: 
 
 Hat tip @csoghoian ||||| U.S.-CHINA ECONOMIC AND SECURITY REVIEW COMMISSION – FACT SHEET 
 
 Establishment:The Commission was created on October 30, 2000 by the Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act for 2001§ 1238, P.L. 106-398, 114 STAT. 1654A-334 (2000) (codified at 22 U.S.C.§ 7002 (2001), as amended by the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for 2002 § 645 (regarding employment status of staff) & § 648 (regarding changing annual report due date from March to June), P.L. 107-67, 115 STAT. 514 (Nov. 12, 2001); as amended by Division P of the "Consolidated Appropriations Resolution, 2003," P.L. 108-7 (Feb. 20, 2003) (regarding Commission name change, terms of Commissioners, and responsibilities of Commission); as amended by P.L. 109-108 (H.R. 2862) (Nov. 22, 2005) (regarding responsibilities of Commission and applicability of FACA). 
 
 Purpose: To monitor, investigate, and submit to Congress an annual report on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China, and to provide recommendations, where appropriate, to Congress for legislative and administrative action. Public Law 109-108 directs the Commission to focus its work and study on the following eight areas: proliferation practices, economic transfers, energy, U.S. capital markets, regional economic and security impacts, U.S.-China bilateral programs, WTO compliance, and the implications of restrictions on speech and access to information in the People’s Republic of China. 
 
 Composition: The Commission is composed of 12 members, three of whom are selected by each of the Majority and Minority Leaders of the Senate, and the Speaker and the Minority Leader of the House. The Commissioners serve two-year terms. 
 
 Staff: The commissioners are supported by policy and administrative staff with extensive backgrounds in trade, economics, weapons proliferation, foreign policy, and U.S.-PRC relations. Some are fluent or proficient in Chinese (Mandarin), and most have significant prior working and traveling experience in China and Taiwan. ||||| Previously a group of Indian hackers called The Lords of Dharmaraja had posted documents that were pillaged during the hack of an Indian military network. That Pastebin post was removed, but can be viewed via Google cache. 
 
 More of the story continues to be unveiled such as when Slashdot reported: 
 
 The memo suggests that, "in exchange for the Indian market presence" mobile device manufacturers, including RIM, Nokia, and Apple (collectively defined in the document as "RINOA") have agreed to provide backdoor access on their devices. The Indian government then "utilized backdoors provided by RINOA" to intercept internal emails of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a U.S. government body with a mandate to monitor, investigate and report to Congress on 'the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship' between the U.S. and China. 
 
 Here's the really interesting parts numbered 3 and 4: 
 
 Although security and privacy researcher Christopher Soghoian tweeted about a possible "intercept backdoor" that Apple has provided to governments, (as seen in paragraphs 3 and 4 above), there were additional interesting insights found while reviewing other @csoghoian tweets. One said, "Instead of worrying about hackers getting access to 5+ year old Norton code we should worry about what NSA/US Military does with recent code." In another, Soghoian tweeted, 
 
 Apparently it's not just Apple, or even RINOA (RIM, Nokia, and Apple) according to this Twitter conversation between Soghoian and Morten Kaasa. Kaasa asked, "Who is less 'evil'? Microsoft or Google? I suppose Apple is out..." to which Soghoian replied, "Microsoft has access to your data when you use Skydrive. Microsoft is quite open about it. Not real crypto." 
 
 The 'backstory' of the hack, so to speech, was posted on Pastebin on December 21, claiming [precise quote typos and all]: "Our Pastebin account was locked and permanently deleted by unknown GVMNT losers. Well we know the reason Y - first of all We do not think Indian Intel is so braniac, It all comes down to USA LE fagots, since they do not want people know about their Secret Negotiations with Corporations and Governments what concerns CHINESE." It included a Imgur link to documents called "the preview of the INDIAN MI spy prgramme called RINOA which they utilize to spy on USCC and so on." 
 
 On Facebook, security software firm Symantec confirmed "that a segment of its source code used in two of our older enterprise products has been accessed, one of which has been discontinued. The code involved is four and five years old. This does not affect Symantec's Norton products for our consumer customers." Symantec said the source code was not stolen from its network, but from an unconfirmed third party. The Lords of Dharmaraja claimed to have snatched the files from Indian military intelligence servers. 
 
 Meanwhile cybersecurity guru Bruce Schneier agreed that exposed source code is not a big deal, but "Bad press is certainly Symantec's biggest worry right now." According to The Atlantic Wire, Schneier said, "The source code might have huge smoking guns." And some of those smoking guns allegedly point to former CIA, U.S. law enforcement and Intelligence, at least according to an interview on InfoSec Island with Yama Tough  who was one of the hackers allegedly involved in the breach. In discussing the timeline to release the Norton source code, Tough wrote [another direct quote not rewritten for typos]: 
 
 As soon as we r over with the blockade we experience from Indian and US LE and Intel, since the issue not really in Symantec but In fact that India is spying on USCHINA ECON SEC commission (example William Reinsch Larry Wartzel, Dan Slane, Michael Dannis etc emails) we think since they are former CIA US and India block our mirrors and we have many of our brothers now under search and ceizure warrants pending Symantec is not a big deal they just happened to sign an agreement with Indian MI thats all the deal is what kind of stuff we;ve owneed by owneeing MEA servers...we expect to publish by 10th -16th this month. 
 
 Another document on Imgur is from the Embassy of Russian Federation complimenting the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, etc. It's doubtful we've heard the last of The Lords of Dharmaraja AntiSec hack as details about big companies and government conspiring for backdoors and more surveillance will surely be dumped in due time. 
 
 Sometimes it seems like all the big players are surveillance bullies, so it's no surprise that some hackers mean to expose it. Borrowing from Shinedown's Bully lyrics, some hackers may be feeling like, "We don't have to take this, back against the wall, we don't have to take this, we can end it all." ||||| Leaked memo suggests India sought backdoor access from mobile device firms to spy on U.S. 
 
 By Muriel Kane 
 
 Sunday, January 8, 2012 17:31 EDT 
 
 An internal memo from India’s Military Intelligence that hackers have posted online suggests that manufacturers of mobile devices have provided “backdoor” access to the Indian government in exchange for access to the Indian market. The manufacturers, referred to collectively in the memo as “RINOA,” include RIM, Nokia, and Apple. 
 
 Indian blogger Manan Kakkar, who may have been the first to realize the implications of the memo, wrote late on Friday, “Earlier today I came across scans of a set of documents that are internal communications between the Indian Military. The documents claim the existence of a system known as RINOA SUR. While I did not find what SUR stands for but RINOA is RIM, NOkia and Apple. And this is where things start to get very interesting, according to the set of documents, the RINOA SUR platform was used to spy on the USCC—the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.” 
 
 Scans of the memo can be viewed here. 
 
 According to its website, “The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission was created by the United States Congress in October 2000 with the legislative mandate to monitor, investigate, and submit to Congress an annual report on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China, and to provide recommendations, where appropriate, to Congress for legislative and administrative action.” 
 
 The USCC has taken a particular interest in cybersecurity threats emanating from China, which may explain the Indian government’s interest in its deliberations. A story published by the India Times in October, for example, noted that “the bipartisan commission typically goes much further in publicly outlining perceived cyber threats to national security from Beijing than have U.S. administrations, which must deal with other issues on which China’s cooperation is critical.” 
 
 Kakkar also suggested a connection between the leaked memo and earlier reports of an attack on Symantec — the makers of Norton Antivirus — by a group of Indian hackers calling itself the Lords of Dharamraja. 
 
 A member of the group, known as Yama Tough, boasted at Google+ and Pastebin, “As of now we start sharing with all our brothers and followers information from the Indian Militaty (sic) Intelligence servers, so far we have discovered within the Indian Spy Programme (sic) source codes of a dozen software companies which have signed agreements with Indian TANCS programme and CBI.” 
 
 Photo by Research In Motion Limited (RIM) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
– An internal memo from India’s Military Intelligence posted online by hackers contains some disturbing allegations: It claims RIM, Nokia, and Apple provided the Indian government with backdoor access to their mobile devices in exchange for "Indian market presence." The story was initially picked up by Manan Kakkar, an Indian blogger for ZDNet, and cybersecurity researcher Christopher Soghoian. The document can be viewed here. According to the Raw Story and Slashdot, the Indian government then allegedly used those backdoors to intercept emails from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a group created by Congress to monitor and investigate the national security implications of the US-China economic relationship. Raw Story notes that the USCC has dug into Chinese cybersecurity threats, an investigation it says India may want to be privy to. Kakkar thinks there may be a connection between the info revealed in the memo and an earlier hack of Symantec by Indian hacker collective the Lords of Dharamraja. More at Computer World.