Interdiction is interception of an object prior to its arrival at the location where it is to be used in military, espionage, and law enforcement.
In the military, interdiction is the act of delaying, disrupting, or destroying enemy forces or supplies en route to thebattle area.[1][2] A distinction is often made between strategic andtactical interdiction. The former refers to operations whose effects are broad and long-term; tactical operations are designed to affect events rapidly and in a localized area.
In different theaters of conflict:
The term interdiction is also used incriminology andlaw enforcement, such as in the U.S.war on drugs and inimmigration.[4]
InScots law, an interdict is acourt order to stop someone from breaching someone else's rights, and can be issued by theCourt of Session or aSheriff Court.[5] They are equivalent to aninjunction in other legal jurisdictions, such asEnglish law. A temporary interdict is called an interim interdict.[6]
The term interdiction is also used by theNSA when an electronics shipment is secretly intercepted by anintelligence agency (domestic or foreign) for the purpose of implanting bugs before they reach their destination. According toDer Spiegel, the NSA'sTAO group is able to divert shipping deliveries to its own "secret workshops" in a method called interdiction, where agents loadmalware onto the electronics or install malicious hardware that can giveUS intelligence agencies remote access. The report also indicates that the NSA, in collaboration with theCIA andFBI, routinely and secretly intercepts shipping deliveries for laptops or other computer accessories, such as a computer monitor or keyboard cables with hidden wireless transmitters bugs built-in for eavesdropping on video andkeylogging.[7]
In July 2014 it was reported that handheld shippingimage scanners manufactured inChina were found with pre-installed, weaponized malware which was capable of exfiltrating CRM data and financial data. These scanners are of the type used by many United States retailers and warehouses, as well as delivery services such asUnited Parcel Service andFedEx.[8] The scanned data was copied and sent out to an established comprehensivecommand and control connection (CnC) to a Chinese botnet that was terminated at theShandong Lanxiang Vocational School located in China.[9]
