SPYING AGENCIES the US NSA and UK GCHQ have been accused of a hacking attack on a Belgian cryptography expert in one of the latest internet spying revelations. <\/p>\n
Belgian newspaper De Standaard reported that professor Jean-Jacques Quisquater is the latest victim to be named in the scandal and that his personal computer fell victim to the spooks. <\/p>\n
\"A new Belgian episode in the NSA scandal: Belgian professor Jean-Jacques Quisquater, internationally renowned expert in data security was the victim of hacking,\" it reported. <\/p>\n
\"And, as was the case in the Belgacom hacking affair, there are indications the American secret service NSA and its British counterpart, the GCHQ might be involved.\" <\/p>\n
The attack on the 67 year old Quisquater, who is a professor at the Universit Catholique de Louvain, was uncovered during the Belgacom hacking investigations. According to De Standaard, the professor has lodged a formal complaint. <\/p>\n
The newspaper reported that both attacks used similar methods, and explained that the professor was lured into a trap through a socially engineered fake Linkedin message. <\/p>\n
The message purported to come from the European patent office. Quisquater holds 17 patents dating back to 2007. <\/p>\n
In an email to the Gigaom news website Quisquater confirmed that the police alerted him to the intrusion and that he was acting on its information. <\/p>\n
\"The Belgian federal police (FCCU) sent me a warning about this attack and did the analysis,\" he said, adding that the motive remains unknown. <\/p>\n
\"We don't know [why]. There are many hypotheses (about 12 or 15) but it is certainly an industrial espionage plus a surveillance of people working about civilian cryptography.\" <\/p>\n
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