Summary: Activists have their computers intruded by predatory multinationals

The Mad Hatter has just informed us that "there's an article in the Financial Times about the French Nuclear Energy operator EDF spying on Greenpeace, through use of a Trojan. If they [had] been running anything other than Windows, the Trojan wouldn't have worked." From this article:

EDF, France’s nuclear energy operator, paid investigators to infiltrate the anti-nuclear movement around Europe, according to testimony given in a French judicial investigation.

The investigation is looking into whether the state-controlled group condoned illegal practices as part of a surveillance operation.

The affair has exposed an underworld of computer hackers and private investigators who claim to have worked for some of the world’s most respected companies. It also raises questions over the methods employed to ensure the safety of nuclear operations in France and abroad.

Now is a good time to reread last week's post about CIPAV, especially since the BBC has also just published the following:

US 'should go on cyber-offensive'

A US Air Force officer has told the BBC that his country should create an offensive botnet to target any forces that launch a cyber-attack against it.

In simple terms, the US Air Force is prepared to hijack its own citizens' Windows PCs for "good cause". See references [22] and [23] in this post for details about other plans of the United States government to physically bomb sources of cyber-attacks (e.g. suspected botmasters). This has developed like some sort of a Hollywood movie plot; it's no conspiracy of course, it's verifiably true. It's talked about openly. ⬆

"It is no exaggeration to say that the national security is€ also implicated by the efforts of hackers to break into€ computing networks. Computers, including many running Windows€ operating systems, are used throughout the United States€ Department of Defense and by the armed forces of the United€ States in Afghanistan and elsewhere."

--Jim Allchin, Microsoft