The Swedish Kings of Cyberwar

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/01/19/the-swedish-kings-of-cyberwar/

by kushti • 10 years ago

174 85 10 years ago

nybooks.com

grendelt• 10 years ago

Fascinating read. What is the title of the book?

croon4• 10 years ago

Interesting read for a variety of reasons.

As a countryman of Sweden, I think it's sad that we've been playing lapdog throughout history. Germany during WW2, and now the US. The article refers to much less publicized occurances, but there's also lesser stories (but important signaling) like the piratebay court cases farce.

Is Russia up next as our masters, when they want to secure their fiber pipeline?

It's in cases like this that I wish that the EU was something better than what it is. If they want to enforce such federal level supremacy, why let the US pressure individual states?

seppin• 10 years ago

small countries often play small roles to larger ones, is there a need for the "lapdog" language?

croon4• 10 years ago

If it's not in the interest of your population, then yes.

henrikschroder2• 10 years ago

The cablegate diplomatic leaks showed that the relationship between the US government and the Swedish government - regardless of which block is in power - is basically that the US says "Jump!" and the Swedish government asks "How high?".

Zero pushback. There's a huge difference between respecting a larger country and aiming for amicable relations vs. being a complete doormat.

berntb10• 10 years ago

Regarding Sweden and WW II: If Sweden shouldn't have been a "lapdog" -- which side of the war should it have joined? With Norway or with Finland? Not a simple choice, neither now nor at the time.

And regarding USA today:

Check the democratic peace theory -- democracies don't fight wars with each others. (Not even USA. :-) ) So it is arguably in the Swedish interest to help all democracies be as strong and informed as ever possible.

That said, I doubt the reason Sweden is such a handmaid to US interests was so philosophical, of course. Every country do realpolitik and lies shamelessly about it. We don't know what the US paid (hopefully not just bribes to Swedish politicians, old hatt/mössa style... :-) ).

Edit: These comments really jumps up/down in votes. :-)

ggame5• 10 years ago

Does covertly overthrowing a democratically elected government, installing a dictator only to later invade count as two democracies going to war? Otherwise it sounds like a very big loophole and one the US uses all of the time.

jacobush6• 10 years ago

I hope that Sweden got a renewal on its lease on the nuclear umbrella, hopefully long enough to increase its own operative military capability. This would be a win for both the US (capable bilateral partner/buffer zone in area) and Sweden (less likely to be strongarmed into uncomfortable positions). Is that too much to dream of?

henrikschroder2• 10 years ago

Sweden always claims to be neutral, but the open secret is that Sweden is protected by NATO in case "someone" = Russia invades. Such protection costs, but since it's a secret, there can be no public debate about the price and if it's worth it.

So each elected government gets to negotiate the protection payment themselves, and the whole reason for the FRA law was to legally increase and secure the amount of sigint that could be collected and handed over to the US. The whole public debate over that got really weird, because the executive branch was SUPER INSISTENT that the law got passed, but couldn't argue for it, because the actual reason was secret.

dragonwriter3• 10 years ago

Check the democratic peace theory -- democracies don't fight wars with each others.

The Democratic Peace theory has always been bunk: even when it was formulated, for any definition of democracy restrictive enough for the claim "Democracies don't fight wars with each other", the number of available democracy-democracy pairs is so small compared to thr number of pairs of countries that the expected number of wars between them is, rounded to the nearest integer, zero.

Certain, since the wars in the Balkans from the 1990s, the Democratic Peace theory is even less defensible than it was previously.

oskarth• 10 years ago

As another Swede, 100% agree. For another example, look into how Sweden treated Raoul Wallenberg who courageously saved 100 000 Jews in Budapest during WW2. I can highly recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Wallenberg-Marton/dp/B005X8V19S/

Sweden is great in lots of ways, but that attitude in combination with Sweden's often holier-than-thou attitude towards other countries is really hypocritical.

PS. As an aside, I remember when I studied mathematics in Stockholm a few years ago and there were FRA posters for cryptography internships on the wall. It seemed intriguing, if it wasn't for the employer. DS.

croon4• 10 years ago

Thank you for the tip, I will check it out.

Yes, of course! It reminds me of the times when you criticize something (in this case your country) and the other person replies with "then why don't you go somewhere else?". This portrays an adversarial relationship between the populace and the country, much like a consumer<->business, where you vote with your wallet. But I don't want another country to outcompete Sweden, I want Sweden to be better.

But this does also raise another issue I forgot to touch on: How are we supposed to have a (representative) democracy when we first in 2013 [1] find out what the passing of "FRA-lagen" (proposition 2006/07:63) in 2008 was really about?

[1] Translated news originally in DN: http://www.thelocal.se/20131013/50760

AndyMcConachie• 10 years ago

Some quick Googling says that Raoul Wallenberg died at the hands of the NKVD and that Sweden had nothing to do with it. What exactly do you think the Swedish government did to Raoul Wallenberg? Where can I find more information on that?

toyg• 10 years ago

The EU discourse is complicated, but in short: US interests and EU finances do not currently allow Europeans to develop a voice independent of NATO; and without a shared defense policy independent of US, there is little space for a shared foreign policy that can push back on this sort of topics. Ironically, what could change this state of things is the antagonistic US/UK isolationism currently on the rise.

alasdair_• 10 years ago

I don't think it's ironic. In The Foundations of Geopolitics, Alexandr Dugin (an ultra-right wing thought leader that seems to heavily influence Russian military thinking) explains how to make Russia a superpower once again. Putin is reportedly a big fan.

Dugin outlines a playbook that is chilling in its real world implications today. For example, he advocates propoganda aimed to have Britian leave the EU, the invasion of the Russian speakung parts of Ukraine, US to become anti-immigrant and isolationist and the ceeding of certain islands bacj to Japan to improve Russian relations and weaken Japan's reliance on the US.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics

I've yet to find a complete English translation.

eternalban• 10 years ago

As a countryman of Sweden, I think it's sad that we've been playing lapdog throughout history.

I wouldn't take it to heart. It's a matter of geography. You were caught between a rock and a hard place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Poltava

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_East_India_Company

matt4077• 10 years ago

I doubt that such cooperation is actually the result of (at least overt) pressure (and couldn't find anything in the article implying it). I think it may be the result of some more subtle mechanisms.

First among them is simply that there's nothing wrong with the data collection in the first place, and that the US/NSA is on your side. I'm rather uninformed about Swedish politics, but a generally positive view of the US is shared almost universally among the European elite. Many have studied in the US, binge-watched The West Wing, or simply see the positive role the US has played in Europe over the last 70 years. The only exceptions I can think of are France and some left-of-left-of-center parties.

Secondly, for someone working on or leading such efforts it's tremendously flattering to be noticed by the NSA. It may seem strange to think such basic emotions could influence policy, but I'm absolutely certain that there are people, from the actual programmers up to and including ministers, who love being invited to whatever the NSA version of WWDC is, and that they can influence policy.

ptaipale• 10 years ago

I don't quite understand this lapdog argument. For obvious geopolitical reasons, Russia is an existential threat to Sweden (and Finland, where I'm from, as well as many others of its neighbours) and seeking support from other major powers - the USA, and European integration - is quite natural because USA is not an existential threat to Sweden specifically. (EU is perhaps a little bit more so, particularly with some of the highly idealistic policies it has been up to).

In WW2, what should Sweden have done? Looking from the place that lies between you and Russia, I think the Swedish policy was the wisest it can adopt and it succeeded very well: keep out of the war, keep up the defenses, do not antagonize anyone enough to test those defenses. And I appreciate the support Sweden gave to my country which was actually at war against the clear threat to Sweden, USSR, and and the endgame, against the has-been threat of Germany during Lapland war.

moogly2• 10 years ago

It's pretty disheartening to know that the Swedish press won't touch this with a 10-foot pole; they're busy digging/drumming up the "good ole" Russian Scare from the 60s/70s right now amidst the sabre-rattling coming, frankly, largely from the West.

berntb10• 10 years ago

> sabre-rattling coming, frankly, largely from the West

Uh, the Western democracies have started to do wars in Europe for territory? :-)

After Soviet fell, the NATO forces (and the neutral countries) in Europe melted away; the US/Canadian units in Germany went home and so on. This changed after Russia started to rebuild and do wars.

Edit: This was about the new "sabre rattling". Long, long after the Balkan horrible tragedies. (And I'd really argue if the "West" rattled any sabers there, but it isn't relevant anyway.)

kushti• 10 years ago

Wrong, Balkan wars were after Soviet fell

krona• 10 years ago

The anti-NATO propaganda in Sweden is also tearfully inaccurate at times.

jacobush6• 10 years ago

Yes. Unfortunately any "team" gets embarrasing supporters. However, both sides (pro/anti) should by now agree on the need to HAVE a military of substantial size. One side, to credibly stay out of NATO. The other, to credibly expect an application be granted.

widforss• 10 years ago

Well, it is not exactly news is it? It has been known since Snowden that the FRA is working closely with the NSA.

And it is really hard for journalists to write something constructive about the FRA because of the secrecy [1].

[1] https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2519&ar...

EDIT: The link covers an incident where one of FRA's planes were shot down in 1952. Everything were successfully covered up for more than 50 years, and a lot of the reports are still unavailable. The FRA _really_ likes to not talk about themselves, more so than many other intelligence agencies.

The FRA claims that the now 65 year old reports could still pose a threat to current operations.

lostlogin4• 10 years ago

The west hasnt invaded anyone or shot down any airliners though has it?

chinathrow• 10 years ago

Well, not or on purpse, a few airlines has indeed been shut down over the time, including "by the west":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airliner_shootdown_inc...

E.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655 "Iran Air Flight 655 was an Iran Air passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai. On 3 July 1988, the aircraft operating on this route was shot down by the United States Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes under the command of William C. Rogers III. "

290 casualties.

tsukikage• 10 years ago

We've been invading random places in the middle east for decades. We're invading some right now.

lern_too_spel3• 10 years ago

Don't they have any editors? "Over the following weeks and months, Snowden’s revelations about the NSA’s global surveillance efforts, and in particular its bulk data collection program, called PRISM," has been known to be wrong for a few years now. This calls the rest of the reporting into question.

Karlozkiller• 10 years ago

They have? I must've missed the announcement stating this about what Snowden told the world. Care to expand on it?

lern_too_spel3• 10 years ago

Pretty much everybody in Silicon Valley knows how wrong Snowden was about PRISM. Unlike The Guardian, The New York Times interviewed actual engineers and got the story correct from the very beginning.

Here is a competent explanation of how Snowden didn't understand that DITU is an FBI department and not a bulk collection system on internet companies' networks: https://medium.com/@alecmuffett/how-to-talk-about-prism-and-...

ommunist• 10 years ago

Very funny. Russia is actually gated with the Internet through Sweden and Finland. It is really easy to wage cyberwars, sitting on the supply cable.

jessaustin2• 10 years ago

Wikipedia suggests it is also connected through Frankfurt and Tokyo.

rqebmm• 10 years ago

I guess that makes it unsurprising that Sweden, Germany, and Japan are all pretty valued allies to the US these days.

robert_foss2• 10 years ago

I find the pressure Sweden was exposed to by the US to ram this legislation through making us literally spy on our neighbors appalling.

Sweden was at the time threatened with being delisted from a US preferential trade list if it did not comply.

As a result of bowing down to the US, Sweden is now complicit in the crimes of the US. The global spying, the drone killings it leads to, the increased pressure Russia finds itself under (and has to act out against).

nugator• 10 years ago

"... the increased pressure Russia finds itself under (and has to act out against)."

Sounds a bit biased to my Swedish ears.

dromen• 10 years ago

How is that biased?

Russia is getting tonnes of flak for basically doing some hacking. They're just a useful distraction from the massive civil rights violations by the US government now people are starting to become less amenable to the "AGAINST TERRORISM!!!" theme.

robert_foss2• 10 years ago

"has to" might be a bit of an overstatement, but I don't find it the least bit surprising that is provokes some sort of a response.

schoen• 10 years ago

The most interesting point to me here is the Carl Bildt Internet freedom part.

When Bildt was asked at a forum on Internet freedom in 2013 how he reconciled these two views, he explained that Sweden was doing surveillance for a good purpose. “There is a difference between good states and somewhat less good states,” he said.

I think this is from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stDl6ovmwrE

which really sets out a major set of tensions that all of us working in this area must have felt.

sslalready• 10 years ago

FRA made a deal with an entity called Krigsarkivet, a Swedish national archive for military history, to store data they collect in and around Sweden. For like, future research. Naturally they couldn't store this data within the Krigsarkivet's existing archives, so K had to open an archive on FRA's premises. Because this was for future research, the deal was that they were, you know, just to store the data and be done with it. Of course, that's not what happened at all. Instead, they're actively maintaining the archive, meaning that they're effectively using the "for future research" K archive as their own XKeyScore.

hallaathrad• 10 years ago

Irrelevant question but... Has nobody noticed this article is dated in the future?

intarTrode• 10 years ago

Weekly magazines often appear in doctors offices and in mailboxes of consumer home subscriptions many days before their ascribed "newstand date." (newsweek, time magazine, national geographic, the economist... )

Note the qualifier "ISSUE," which would hint that it's not a daily.

For weeklies, editors probably have their print runs prepped for the publishers a few weeks in advance, with some variable slots left ambiguous for flexibility, in case they want to pre-empt a soft story with significant breaking news.

This piece doesn't seem to be a run up of current events, like the latest Trump tweets or whatever active shooter incident du jour. It's really a research piece that probably took several months to compile, edit and sweeten. Figure the broad strokes and the idea of the article were crafted over the summer, maybe.

tormeh2• 10 years ago

Belgacom, a Belgian telecom company whose clients include the European Commission and the European Parliament.

So an EU member helps the US hack the EU? Wow. I mean, why is that even necessary? Why not just forward the emails?

koltaggar• 10 years ago

Lol

Sami_Lehtinen• 10 years ago

I guess the new C-Lion1 cable is the reason why Finland is now changing legalization to allow monitoring, intelligence, snooping, espionage and offensive action. Basically looking to have NSA like capabilities legally and hack anyone anywhere, just as US does.

The Swedish Kings of Cyberwar

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