CNN
The Hill: FBI fingerprint software could contain Russian code: report
Software for analyzing fingerprints used by the FBI and more than 18,000 other U.S. law enforcement agencies could contain Russian code.
Two former employees of a subsidiary of the French firm Safran Group told BuzzFeed News that the company secretly purchased code from the Russian cybersecurity company Papillon Systems. That code was then included in fingerprint analysis software the company sold to the FBI when the bureau purchased new software in 2011.
Papillon Systems regularly works with law enforcement agencies in Russia, including the Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia's modern-day spy agency. U.S. intelligence agencies say the FSB was linked to efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
Read more ....
Update: FBI Software For Analyzing Fingerprints Contains Russian-Made Code, Whistleblowers Say (Buzzfeed)
WNU Editor: The new rule in Washington .... "No Russian software please".
2 comments:
No, actually the rule in Washington is "blame everything on the Russians." Never mind that all kinds of other people, such as the Israelis the British, the Saudis, and many others have been mucking around in Washington for decades. And there are plenty of home grown interests, such as Wall Street financier interests, doing their monkeying around, too.
https://mobile.twitter.com/justinjm1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailykos.com%2Fstory%2F2017%2F12%2F28%2F1728314%2F-Donald-Trump-to-NY-Times-There-is-no-collusion-and-even-if-there-was-it-s-not-a-crime
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safran
As the NYPost notes:
"The company, Papillon AO, boasts in its literature about its close cooperation with Russian ministries as well as the Federal Security Service — the successor of the Soviet-era KGB that has been implicated in hacks of US targets.
Cybersecurity experts acknowledged that the dangers of using the Russian-made code couldn’t be determined without examining the code itself.
But “the fact that there were connections to the FSB would make me nervous to use this software,” said Tim Evans, the former head of operational policy for the National Security Agency’s cyberintelligence unit who now helps run cybersecurity firm Adlumin."
A quick search of Safran shows than the TSA also uses the software, as well as a large number of biosecurity companies.
But don't worry, Papillon AO assured Safran in writing, that there were no backdoors or other trips in the code,
Not that anybody but the creator's have examined the code.
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