Irked By Cyberspying, Georgia Outs Russia-based Hacker

coondoggie writes "In one of the photos, the dark-haired, bearded hacker is peering into his computer's screen, perhaps puzzled at what's happening. Minutes later, he cuts his computer's connection, realizing he has been discovered. In an unprecedented move, the country of Georgia — irritated by persistent cyber-spying attacks — has published two photos of a Russia-based hacker who, the Georgians allege, waged a persistent, months-long campaign that stole confidential information from Georgian government ministries, parliament, banks and NGOs."

Comments

Tomorrow's news

[godel_56]

"Bearded man found shot dead in Russian apartment, found hunched over keyboard."

The Georgians don't mess around, any more than the Russkies do.

He'd better watch his back.

".

Politics are dirty

[epSos-de]

This guy looks Georgian to me. He could be a human rights activist who is now accused to be a spy. Politics are dirty and the truth is far from what the officials say in that part of the world.

Webcams

[girlintraining]

Public Service Announcement:
Don't hack with a web cam plugged in.

Re:Webcams

[zerro]

..... or microphone plugged in, or from your own pc, or from a non one way-terminal (like x/vnc), or open unknown target's docs on your own machine instead of a burnable vm, etc,....

Doesnt sound like a top-level professional, but the junior-grade trainee - probably taking orders from above.

Re:Webcams

[Mitreya]

Doesnt sound like a top-level professional, but the junior-grade trainee - probably taking orders from above.

Or, you know, also sounds like not a hacker at all.

What makes you think he's an actual hacker and not just someone who was a source of inconvenience for other reasons?

Carpet

[Psychotria]

I love the carpet on his ceiling. Not sure how easy it is to vacuum though. Also, have I seen that guy in a movie somewhere?

Re:Carpet

[Psychotria]

Looks more like pressed tin

Hmm. You might be right. Perhaps he added that as a comfort feature so that he could remove his tinfoil hat when indoors.

Re:Carpet

[Jafafa Hots]

It was not only common in the US in stores/markets, it was almost universal.
Barbers shop, shoe store, clothing store, diner, bar, all had pressed tin ceilings circa 1900.

Most are long since gone, You can still find some in historic downtown buildings in most cities.

In Soviet Russia...

[H3GS]

...Computer Hacks You! Seriously loving the decor though.

Re:lol georgia

[wonkey_monkey]

Story says hacker knew he was hacked after 10 minutes. How does that explain two pictures different angles one shirt less.

It's a well-known and interesting fact that hackers can move their laptops and put on a shirt in less than five minutes.

Re:lol georgia

[frosty_tsm]

My worry is what did the web cam capture between shots when he stood to get a shirt.

Re:A "hacker" or a "cracker"?

[TapeCutter]

Words are often meaningless without context, a 'cracker' could be..

In the UK, something really good, as in "she's a cracker".
Short hand for 'firecracker'.
Someone who breaks computer security.
Someone who can open a safe without the combination.
Something to do with an american state, not sure what?.

What's most surprising to me is the webcam

[Guru80]

How is that not the first thing removed if it isn't built-in or covered up with a piece of duct tape if it is? High skilled dumbass apparently.

Re:Hell, here we go again:

[TapeCutter]

Anonymous americans will swallow anything and then regurgitate it as fact. Georgia attacked the Russkies at the border, the Russkies chased them all the way back to the capital. If they "wanted their colonies back" they could easily have stomped the capital there and then and made the case that it was for their own defence. But that's not what happened, having marched to the city limits of the capital they had proved their point to the world and reiterated that point by simply walking away.

Re:lol georgia

[lightknight]

Does using a trojan count as hacking? I can't keep up with things these days.

Still the part where the 'hacker' downloads an executable file, and runs it...that's weak sauce. One, it tells us he's probably running Windows. Two, it shows he is an idiot: what 'hacker' blindly runs an executable file, even one given to him by 'friends'?

See, if the 'authorities' had managed to capture an image of him by pulling apart a botnet client, tracing the originating command server through several wayward paths, spelunking their way up the internet one router at a time until they found the source of the packets containing a fraudulant origin IP address, then exploited a weakness on a service running on a common port that wasn't patched / no one knew about, then turned on his webcam to grab a photo or two of him while quietly copying evidence off his machine, I'd be inclined to say "GG" and award some finger-snaps for one-upping someone on their own battlefield.

But using social engineering on someone running a common operating system, someone without the common sense inherent in a level one helldesk operator (do not run unknown executables)...I mean, he doesn't even fire up a VM and lock it off the internet before running the thing? Does anyone actually think this guy was anything more than, at best, a script kiddy, and at worst, a pawn?

If this is the best news that they can put out these days regarding their capture of 'cyber-criminals,' there either aren't any, or they're getting schooled.

Here's a hint for understanding power in the virtual realm -> if you need to work with others to achieve something, or need to get a judge to sign off on something, you're doing it wrong. If you need to call up a Bell to run a data tap to find the equivalent of the opportunistic thief robbing a 7-11...then you don't know enough about technology to 'fight' effectively.