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

Re:They just can't do that

[Zocalo]

Sure they could. They'd only have needed to have done a little handwavium over where the BUK launcher used actually came from (not too much of a stretch given that the Ukrainian military operates the launchers), continued to deny any official Russian military involvement, and insisting that it was all the work of separatists. That still fits the official internal Russian storyline, yet provides a much more plausible story to everyone else that maybe the Ukrainian government really might have "misplaced" a BUK in the turmoil and that it fell into the hands of separatists who, not being suitably trained in its use, then proceeded to shoot down a target without adequately verifying it wasn't civilian - or even did so regardless. Not perfect, certainly, but a heck of a lot better than all the indications of a cover-up that they are now ensnared in.

Re:Who is surprised?

[Zocalo]

I don't think that's the issue that the Russians are so touchy about. Realistically, it's highly unlikely that the Russians would just "give" a BUK to the separatists and let them drive it away without there being some unofficial advisors along for the ride to provide at least some training/oversight. That implies that not only are Russian personnel officially on the ground (something they are still denying, despite all the evidence to the contrary) but that they were almost certainly on hand when the BUK was used since a BUK apparently requires override to enable it to fire at a commercial aircraft that was presumably broadcasting its IFF, something untrained personnel wouldn't have been likely to know how to do.

I don't think it's about the slap on the wrist for culpability they might have got (or not, given what happened in the aftermath of all the events you listed), and others like KAL007 and KAL902, it's about maintaining the pretense that they have no official involvement on the ground. Basically, in their panic after MH17 was shot down, the Russian government rushed out a story to maintain that pretense that was never going to stand up to scrutiny instead of taking their time and coming up with something that might at least have raised enough doubt. Now they are stuck with either trying to defend a story that has more holes in it than the fuselage of MH17 or changing their story and risking blowing away the fiction of their non-involvement they have spun for their own people.