Pro-Democracy Websites In Hong Kong Targeted With and Serving Malware

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Pro-Democracy Websites In Hong Kong Targeted With and Serving Malware

Posted by timothy on Sunday October 12, 2014 @08:31AM from the you'd-like-things-like-this-to-be-shocking dept.

An anonymous reader writes A threat campaign tracking report released by Volexity shows that a number of high profile websites related to the Hong Kong democracy movement have been infected with malware. This malware targets both the web servers themselves as well as website visitors. The sophistication and scope of the malware likely points to government involvement as has been the case in previous campaigns targeting Asian charities and government reform organizations.

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Foolish by freeze128 · 2014-10-12 09:51 · Score: 4, Insightful

That move seems just really childish for a government. Couldn't the government just take down the DNS entries of those sites, rather than install malware? Also, this will only help to legitimize the pro-democracy movement. It makes more sense that this was done by script kiddies with an agenda.
1. Re:Foolish by Tablizer · 2014-10-12 10:16 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Indeed. The Chinese Government must have read "How Not to Tick Off a Large City", and did the opposite of the advice. Why would anyone want to go back to being governed by a cheating bully?
  (Other than at gun-point, which it may come down to now.)
  
  --
  Table-ized A.I.
2. Re:Foolish by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2014-10-12 10:36 · Score: 2
  
  If you just take them down, you get nothing, not even traffic data. If you distribute malware, you get continued tracking of people who visited, possibly keylogger data, dumps of address books and contact lists, credentials for other accounts, and other fun stuff.
  
  It'd be childish if the 'malware' were just serving pop-up ads or sending herbal viagra spam. The stuff designed for surveillance of infected targets, though, would be an entirely logical intelligence gathering strategy.
3. Re:Foolish by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2014-10-12 14:39 · Score: 2
  
  I'm...not exactly sure... that the clandestine services of the world are worried about legal exposure incurred in the course of their activities. I certainly can't think of any being bitten in the ass for deploying spyware and it's a matter of public knowledge that it has been done reasonably frequently.
Re:Not invented there by dunkindave · 2014-10-12 09:54 · Score: 2

Not invented there
To be picky, the showing of prior art does not prove the creators of the identified prior art were the original inventors. There are many cases that predate the one you cite. In this case, perhaps the Chinese did invent it and the NSA copied them.
Gee, I crack myself up sometimes.
Re:Clearly Western Interference by r.freeman · 2014-10-12 10:00 · Score: 2

please give me citation of a country where Democracy brought freedom to the masses.
Very good question. Democracy destroys freedoms everywhere, does not bring it. NSA, war on drugs, war on alcohol, war on sharing files - are all brought on by democratic government bodies, funded by democratically assigned taxes, and then other countries copy this laws also by democratic governmnets.
Re:Clearly Western Interference by r.freeman · 2014-10-12 10:02 · Score: 2

America
LOL. What freedom, in America? The freedom to be arrested for filiming police, or for using on own body substances some assholes deemed illegal?
Re:Clearly Western Interference by r.freeman · 2014-10-12 10:03 · Score: 2, Informative

democracy, you tool, is a product of and protector of freedom.
No, democracy is the tool that took away all our freedoms. Who do you think create NSA or DMCA - a king? A dictator? An anarchy? Or a democracy?
Re:Clearly Western Interference by dunkindave · 2014-10-12 10:40 · Score: 2

Who do you think create NSA or DMCA - a king? A dictator? An anarchy? Or a democracy?
A republic, where the authorized representatives have been corrupted by the corporate state. There hasn't been a country operating as a real democracy in over a couple thousand years. Everytime you see a country called a democracy it is really a republic.
But if Democracy comes to China... by srobert · 2014-10-12 14:56 · Score: 2

My portfolio started taking a beating when these democracy agitators started causing trouble in Hong Kong. If Beijing doesn't do something to stamp this out, it could eventually lead to democratic rule in China. Labor activist will start demanding western style salaries and living standards and voting and such. Something really needs to be done about this so as to avoid labor costs getting out of control.
No solid proof, only Schneier's allegations of it by sethstorm · 2014-10-13 01:21 · Score: 2

Schneier's allegations require that you believe a known non-trustworthy person (Edward Snowden)'s own allegation for that to be true.
When all of that can be brought to bear in a US court with Snowden et al in custody, then you can start talking about it as truth when it is proven to be truth.

--
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Re:Clearly Western Interference by HeckRuler · 2014-10-13 08:27 · Score: 2

How about the freedom to sue the police after being wrongfully arrested for filming police and win in the courts or have a settlement worth millions?
And dude, heroin is a terrible drug. One with sociological ramifications. We don't really want something like England's East India Company to have another war. It's not the individualist's paradise that you seem to think it is. It DOES matter what my neighbor does. But yeah, sure, we're learning that it's better not to criminalize some things.