Russian Cyberspies Targeted MH17 Crash Investigation (trendmicro.com)

itwbennett writes: Security researchers from Trend Micro have found evidence that the Pawn Storm cyberespionage group set up rogue VPN and SFTP servers to target Dutch Safety Board employees before and after the report on the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) was finalized. It is likely that the rogue servers were set up with the goal of phishing login credentials from people involved in the MH17 crash investigation in order to obtain access to confidential information, the researchers said.

Comments

Who is surprised?

[mi]

For a country that shot a passenger airliner to begin with — and not for the first time — for such a country to attempt to affect the investigation of the crime is no surprise at all. What may be surprising, is that none of the Dutch officials involved were killed or blackmailed. But it ain't over yet, is it?..

Re:Who is surprised?

[Zocalo]

Dumb thing is that KAL007 should have taught them nothing much would come of it even if they did own up, and in this case they could quite easily have pegged the blame on some unidentified rogue elements of the Pro-Russian forces in Eastern Ukraine right from start and probably have walked away from the whole affair without so much as a slap on the wrist. Instead, all the heavy handed actions, conspiracy theory level alternative theories and random protestation, just make it look all the more likely that they have something to hide - which is kind of ironic coming from the nation that pretty much made the concept of "if you've got nothing to hide, then you've got nothing to fear..." not all that long ago.

Re:Who is surprised?

[mi]

it was rebels from Ukraine which were armed by Russia

False. Operating the Buk system is too complicated for "peaceful coal-miners" to have done it — certainly not the mere 3 months into the insurrection. It was Russian military — even if disguised as locals. Whether they targeted a passenger liner by mistake or deliberately is still a question, but it obviously was not the rebellious locals.

I'm pretty sure a good number of the commercial airplanes which were shot down could be attributed to the US.

For an accusation of such gravity, you better have more solid citations than your own "pretty sure". Do you?

Finally, Ukraine also shot a Russian commercial aircraft in 2001.

First of all, that was an honest mistake. Second, Ukraine hasn't denied it. And third — and most intriguing — the missile was fired from Crimea and the servicemen responsible are now all Russians. Temporarily.

And by the way, the US certainly played an important role in the current Ukrainian situation

Whether that's true or not, how is this relevant to the conversation?..

The ones who are in power right now in Ukraine had support from the US and Europe

So?.. Your desperation in trying to switch the topic is really showing. Mr. Kiselev would've done a better job — were he not busy blaming some non-existent Ukrainian jets for the crime.

Imagine if Russia was supporting a successful coup in Mexico.

Why imagine it in Mexico, when saw it actually happen in Cuba and, more recently, Venezuela? No passenger airliners were shot down in either place...

Go back to watching Kremlin-TV...