No-name crew
The NN crew was a German group of hacktivists . One of the most spectacular activities of the group with a broad public impact was the hacking and publicizing of the location system of the German Federal Police Patras , which had been kept secret until then , to which the German Customs also had access. The published data included, among other things, movement profiles of observed people from all over Germany, sorted according to different police stations .
Actions
One of their spectacular activities in the summer of 2011 was the uncovering of security gaps in the IT systems of the German Federal Police and Customs . The German group overheard the entire communication between the two authorities months earlier. The tapped data should include emails, confidential correspondence and lots of "dirty things" (NN crew).
On July 7th, 2011, at 6:04 p.m., the Hamburger Abendblatt received an email announcing the publication of data from the Federal Police. On July 8, 2011 at around 00:00, archive files and associated application notes as well as operational data from the customs investigation system " Paip-Tracking-Server " (Patras) appeared on the NN crew's website . The NN crew, driven by the German Silvan Fülle, was able to access software packages and service messages for the installation of Patras servers of the federal police and customs, which were able to crack the necessary activation key by talented computer talent. However, normal PC users cannot use the Federal Police and Customs software without the necessary activation key. In the field of customs investigation service were anonymous GPS - tracking data, the selection numbers of the tracking device used, directory name and the name be consulted the relevant services. In one case, the corresponding license plate number and the type of car were read out, which were certainly not, as previously assumed, erroneously stored on the server, since when programming software, corresponding variables are defined which apply over the entire period and the use this seems intentional.
The published data included movement profiles from all over Germany. The individual records were sorted into files that were named after different police stations. These included joint investigation groups from the state police , the federal police and the customs duty to combat narcotics , and customs investigation offices , mobile task forces and the surveillance of innocent citizens are also affected. The individual data sets contained position logs which, according to the documents of the NN crew, had been recorded in 2009 and 2010. It is still unclear whether this is actually data from preliminary proceedings in which a judge has allowed the surveillance of suspects. Spiegel Online suspected that the authorities tested the new software for analyzing movement profiles in a field test and did not show any consideration for citizens in Germany.
The published documents showed that the collected position data was uploaded to several servers for evaluation. In a message from a technical service provider, the employee describes how the "installed Patras web interface " can be adapted. The published documents indicated that the Federal Police had or is still operating a download server (“BPOL Download Server”) from which other agencies could download software, such as German customs. These included programs such as GPSTracker and Patras.
In addition, it was possible to set up the forwarding of business e-mails to a private e-mail inbox and thus gain access over a longer period of time to the private computer of a federal police officer who "contrary to instructions" sent business files to his private e-mail -Mailbox forwarded. As a result, locally limited service information (organization plans, service instructions, forms) was temporarily available to the NN crew. As soon as the security incident became known, all Patras systems used were immediately disconnected from the network and switched off.
The Cologne Customs Criminal Police Office announced that his access to the Patras system had been accessed. The system enables geo-data using a card-based Web application through the system using a Google - API to graph. The system's passwords and usernames were copied by the NN crew. The authorities feared that the hackers could publish information about how the target tracking system was working. According to the Federal Police, Patras was completely shut down and all users were warned.
The group offered an encrypted archive file with confidential documents from the BKA, the federal police and customs for download on its website. The sensitive file was secured with a password, which is automatically published on the website after a 24-hour countdown should one of the members be arrested.
The NN crew had announced further actions against authorities: "From now on, every loophole will be shamelessly exploited, everything we get our hands on will be leaked in order to inflict the greatest possible damage on the image of the enemies of freedom," said the group.
Publicity
One of the group's greatest successes was to draw the public's attention to the existence of the state, nationwide surveillance system Patras . The Patras spy program evaluates position data transmitted by cellular phones , for example GPS receivers from vehicles of monitored felons and suspected terrorists . This allows movement pictures of suspects to be created and evaluated by the state criminal police offices , the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and customs.
Arrest and structure
Investigators from the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) in North Rhine-Westphalia arrested a 23-year-old German from Rheine on behalf of the Cologne Public Prosecutor in 2011 on suspicion of spying on data and suspicion of data modification and computer sabotage. He is said to be the leader and founder of the NN crew. When his house was searched, evidence was secured and, according to information from Spiegel Online, it was the hacker "Darkhammer".
Members of the group continued to give interviews after the arrest. In it they stated that internal communication takes place predominantly via internal IRC channels and their own IRC servers ( Internet Relay Chat ). The hackers protect themselves with false identities on the Internet, using a proxy or VPN and with completely encrypted computers and hard drives.
Some of the crew members should work in the IT area, but that is not mandatory, because: for us, hacking is a philosophy of life , said one crew member in an interview with gulli.com .
background
The hacker group justified their attack with political motives: they wanted to fight for the rights and freedom of citizens. Above all, the activists are concerned with protecting privacy from government interference such as data retention.
The NN crew stated that the Basic Law guaranteed the secrecy of letters , post and telecommunications . However, politics undermine this fundamental right . "We want to re-establish basic rights and privacy. This is the only way to achieve a balance between security and freedom," said the leader of the NN crew, Silvan Fülle. Furthermore, one group member explained: "It is about issues such as data retention, corruption and when people are simply stamped as a number. We had that from 1939 to 1945"
The group also put 25 sides of the right-wing extremist NPD out of action and published their donors.
Movies
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hacker - Server hacked by Customs and Federal Police , focus.de, July 8, 2011, accessed June 6, 2017
- ↑ Hacker attack greater than known July 18, 2011, WeltN24 , accessed June 6, 2017
- ↑ http://dipbt.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/17/069/1706972.pdf
- ^ "Patras" server Hacker attack on Cologne customs
- ↑ http://www.golem.de/1107/85020.html
- ↑ The no-name crew in the gulli: Interview ( memento from January 24, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ NN-Crew - NPD donors on Google Maps: This is where the Nazi gold sits