Slashdot Mirror
Report Links Russian Intelligence Agencies To Cyber Attacks
narramissic writes "A report released Friday by a group of cyber-security experts from greylogic finds it is very likely that the Foreign Military Intelligence agency (the GRU) and Federal Security Service (the FSB) directed cyber attacks on Georgian government servers in July and August of 2008. 'Following a complex web of connections, the report claims that an Internet service provider connected with the Stopgeorgia.ru web site, which coordinated the Georgian attacks, is located next door to a Russian Ministry of Defense Research Institute called the Center for Research of Military Strength of Foreign Countries, and a few doors down from GRU headquarters.' But Paul Ferguson, a researcher with Trend Micro who has reviewed the report, says it's a 'bit of a stretch' to conclude that the Georgia attacks were state-sponsored. 'You can connect dots to infer things, but inferring things does not make them so,' he said. One other interesting allegation in the report is that a member of the Whackerz Pakistan hacking group, which claimed responsibility for defacing the Indian Eastern Railway Web site on Dec. 24, 2008, is employed by a North American wireless communications company and presents an 'insider threat' for his employer."
Well, cyber ATTACKS might be a bit overstated. I've been following the news fairly closely and as far as I can tell there's not been much aside from cyber VANDALISM. No major infrastructure has been destroyed, hospital operations have not been impeded, etc... It's just government and related websites that have been defaced and while that can interfere with productivity to some extent, it's hardly akin to warfare.
This game will waste your life. Don't clicky!
If they're ballsy enough to launch a physical attack on another country, annex territory, and dare the international community to do something about it, they're ballsy enough to sponsor some hackers.
Slow Down, Cowboy! It's been 60 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment.
I have always said that that guy with the blue car who lives on the corner near Castle street is a spy. I once saw him swearing at a cat in a funny language that was not American. I love Jesus. It is hard when nobody listens to you and then the government is like "yeah, whatever" and the mailman is ugly and mean. I love Jesus and Christenea Aguilira.
Come on, of course it was state-sponsored. Russia clearly had the most motive of any country, and has a government with authoritarian leanings and a track record of things like assassinating critics. But set aside motive/means/opportunity and look at it this way: does anyone really believe that in today's Russia someone could mount a large, sustained cyber attack on a neighboring country without the government knowing about it? Does anyone think that Russia couldn't have stopped the attacks if they'd wanted to? It was just unconventional warfare with plausible deniability.
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
Why would the enemy government's websites not be legitimate targets in a war?
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
You are likely to be eaten by a GRU...
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
You don't connect the dots...
The dots connect you.
Russian security establishment might have been behind the attacks on Georgian infrastructure during a brief but violent war between these two countries when hundreds of people were dying. Is this supposed to be shocking news?
Seems like they've been focusing their efforts on attacking OSDN tonight.
. . . they are spies, they are supposed to be spying. What else do you expect them to do? Tend to the gardens at Lenin's tomb?
If these spies were being controlled by the late Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria and Kim Philby, . . . well, *that* would be news!
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
... if you can drive 100s T-72s over the border and kill them all? This is ridiculous. Can't compare the damage.
- Arwen, I'm your father, Agent Smith.
- Well, you're just Smith, but my father is Aerosmith!
Remmeber, citizens, we are at war.
We have always been at war with USSR^WNorth Korea^W^WVietnam^WIran^WIraq^WRussia^WChina^W????. Oh fuck it, we are at war with everybody, all the time.
Remember this citizens. Devote yourselves to overcoming our inifinitely powerful enemies, who wish to destroy the American Way of Life(TM). Your Economy^WCountry Needs You.
Boris, now we can finally put an end to Moose and Squirrel!!!
full load of bullshit ///Foreign Military Intelligence agency (the GRU)
at example:
Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff. The full name is GRU GSh (GRU Generalnovo Shtaba (or "GenShtaba"), i.e. "GRU of the General Staff").
Well, they're still not audacious enough to invade another country, occupy it and call the whole process "liberation".
The cold war never ended for either China or Russia. Both are still engaged in it. We (as in all citizens; not just the wests) just keep hoping for something different. China has moved the war to economic at this time, but is quietly building up nuke subs, as well as space based weapons. On the economic front, they have tied their money to the dollar, and the Euro. In addition, they have selective trade barriers. Basically, Japan is their largest import because they are hoping that in the future they will control them one way or another. Even now, they are pushing to be allowed to NOT have to control their CO2 or other pollution, while they expect all others in the west to control theirs (That is why I still say drop the cap/trade and move to a time incremental VAT tax on ALL goods based on Pollution).
Russia has EU by their energy demands. The best thing that EU could do is move off gas heating and power and move to geo-thermal HVAC. That would drop their MAIN dependency on Russia. In addition, it would stimulate their economy quickly. By moving to electric, then they can change out the production rather quickly to say Solar Thermal backed up by natural gas (later with thermal storage), Wind, geo-thermal, tidal (very possible in EU because of the high coastline to area ratio), etc and nukes.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
While connecting the dots to infer something may not make it so, Russia has a rich history of cyber attacks against enemies. Isn't it prudent to consider their history when looking at the evidence?
And metamods that's no troll it's bang on target.
"While connecting the dots to infer something may not make it so, Russia has a rich history of cyber attacks against enemies. Isn't it prudent to consider their history when looking at the evidence?"
What evidence a report that claims that Stopgeorgia.ru is hosted by an ISP that's in the same street as GRU headquarters. Like, given the history of the KGB, do you think they would be that stupid.
'* The StopGeorgia.ru forum was part of a bulletproofed network that relied on shell companies and false WHOIS data to (a) prevent its closure through Terms of Service violations, and (b) to maks the involvement of the Russian FSB/GRU. By mimicking the structure of the Russian Business Network, a cyber criminal enterprise, it created plausible deniability that it is a Kremlin-funded Information Operation (IO)'
Why set up a traceable organization when you can instruct your own agents in the real organizations to carry out such blackops. I mean that's the one thing spy organizations are designed to do, infiltrate conventional organizations with their own secret agents. And given the nature of DDOS attacks, it wouldn't take that much organization. Cases in point being the Conficker worm and the BBCs bought in botnet. Are we supposed to take this 'report' at face value, given its timing and its source, a front organization with ties to the US intelligence community.
"The cold war never ended for either China or Russia. Both are still engaged in it. We (as in all citizens; not just the wests) just keep hoping for something different"
It really did, some Neocons in the US administration, being nostalgic for the old days, are attempting to bring it back by provoking the Russians by putting missiles in Poland and US airbases in Kyrgyzstan.
The US promised the Russians that if they went capitalist, NATO would not expand east and the former Eastern block countries wouldn't join the EU. In both matters they lied. Now you've got a pissed off Russia with Putin in charge.
davecb5620@gmail.com
slashdot links to fake bullshit bogus 'report' ...
davecb5620@gmail.com
.
lets jsut say they ain't so perfect and nice either.
Any country that don't have a hacking team is well
STUPID.
Ah tell ya, it's them Kaspersky boys!
Them an' their souped up Lada, "The General Potemkin"!
- Boss Higgs
-
Extracting sunbeams from
Russia wants former Soviet territories back.
Of course, Russian rule in the Baltics -- Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia -- was so oppressive that these nations are resisting to the death. Russian rule destroyed their prosperity, wounded their culture, and resulted in many of their intellectuals and leaders being killed. They are ethnically and culturally different from their Slavic neighbors.
Russia will continue this kind of passive-aggressive pseudo-warfare (hah, take that, internet pseudo-intellectuals) in order to provoke a conflict which enables them to storm in and seize more lands.
I can't blame Russia. That's how you get to be a superpower.
Futurist Traditionalism