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Russian Government Gets 'Hacked Back', Attacks Possibly Launched By The NSA (bbc.com)
An anonymous reader write: Russian government bodies have been hit by a "professional" cyber attack, according to the country's intelligence service, which said the attack targeted state organizations and defense companies, as well as Russia's "critically important infrastructures". The agency told the BBC that the powerful malware "allowed those responsible to switch on cameras and microphones within the computer, take screenshots and track what was being typed by monitoring keyboard strokes."
ABC News reports that the NSA "is likely 'hacking back' Russia's government-linked cyber-espionage teams "to see once and for all if they're responsible for the massive breach at the Democratic National Committee, according to three former senior intelligence officials... Robert Joyce, chief of the NSA's shadowy Tailored Access Operations, declined to comment on the DNC hack specifically, but said in general that the NSA has technical capabilities and legal authorities that allow the agency to 'hack back' suspected hacking groups, infiltrating their systems to gather intelligence about their operations in the wake of a cyber attack... In some past unrelated cases...NSA hackers have been able to watch from the inside as malicious actors conduct their operations in real time."
ABC News reports that the NSA "is likely 'hacking back' Russia's government-linked cyber-espionage teams "to see once and for all if they're responsible for the massive breach at the Democratic National Committee, according to three former senior intelligence officials... Robert Joyce, chief of the NSA's shadowy Tailored Access Operations, declined to comment on the DNC hack specifically, but said in general that the NSA has technical capabilities and legal authorities that allow the agency to 'hack back' suspected hacking groups, infiltrating their systems to gather intelligence about their operations in the wake of a cyber attack... In some past unrelated cases...NSA hackers have been able to watch from the inside as malicious actors conduct their operations in real time."
... suddenly get a picture in their heads of that scene from "The Princess Bride" where Vizzini talks about how he was hired to start a war?
"allowed those responsible to switch on cameras and microphones within the computer, take screenshots and track what was being typed by monitoring keyboard strokes." Kindergarden level keylogger hack by standards of the indistry
If the NSA was dumb enough to do this then they just wrote a blanket invitation to all countries to attack US owned agencies and companies openly with impunity. They will sound like complete hypocrites (even more so) and be ignored when other countries do it. I doubt NSA would be that dumb...I hope.
Good to see the NSA point their guns in the right direction, no?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
THE COLD WAR IS BACK its like a sports game our team vs. theirs what a time to be alive!
This totally makes me forget about the fact that my government directs the same exact actions that it uses to ATTACK Russia toward me and mine for the purposes of our own SECURITY. It makes a lot of sense! The enemy is not my government and my employer that supports it, but it is a foreign entity that has almost no effect on my life whatsoever.
It was not the NSA, it was me. Too hot to go outside, and I'm bored, so I decided to hack the Russian intelligence services. Info will be on WIkiLeaks shortly ...
Didn't anonymous post something a day or so ago claiming something similar?
The greatest right given is the right to be wrong...
Wait that I reach the popcorn!
I did it. i agree it is hot outside, but i am not bored, i simply wanted to find oug about the aliends that the kgb abducted from roswell. Thry werd my friends. Except Zoidberg.
having our buddy Edward around should be handy for Putin!
Russian intelligence agencies use computers with Webcam's and mic's in uncovered and useable condition?
I find this a bit hard to believe.
The greatest right given is the right to be wrong...
We should ask: If the republicans had been hacked, would Obama launch an attack?
(Assuming this story is true.)
So how much then,
for two tits? Two tats?
Yeah, woo! Take that! You fuck with our elections?! Well we'll fuck with your elections, Russia...
So their vodka distilleries and botnets got hit?
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
Lol. So, the Obama/Clinton duo got outed for rigging the DNC in Clinton's favor, proving, once again, that American democracy is a farce. Their response? Immediately invoke McCarthyism and, without a shred of evidence, attack Russia!
What a country.
if the NSA would tell Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe, et all of the vulnerabilities they knew about so the companies could patch their software? But no, the Kremlin uses the same vulnerable software so if the NSA protects American citizens it makes it harder to hack the Kremlin.
My bullshit detector is going full tilt over this entire affair. Somebody is making up stories to feed a gullible press that does little to no fact checking anymore.
I don't think we hit their vodka, or they would have already launched nuclear weapons in response. That would be going too far.
Ever notice how there's never any massive data dumps with salacious details about comrade vlad in these hacks?
But I never imagined it would go down like this, or that it would even kick off before he is President.
Given that they can call the CEO and ask people on Morning Joe to be forced to apologize if they say something they don't like and that they're holding clandestine fundraisers with the Washington Post that their lawyers told them not to do, it's hard to tell any more.
For anyone asking for a cite, go read the email leaks.
It's CowboyNeal.
Oops, I've said too much alreadNO CARRIER
Get back to your cubicle comrade... Or we'll dock you your potato wages for the week.
What did you think Russia doesn't follow Russian laws? Thats cute.
Does it pay????
It's the boys in a sand box, eh - I get you back for destroying my sand castle.
Only problem here is that this is not limited to just the sand box and the kids playing in it, maybe the parents to some degree but the billions of humans affected - and much fewer participating as string puppets making the games possible...
A similar game is tit for tat where totally unrelated individuals suffer.
The string pullers should be locked in a great cage so they can fight it out and hit their own heads bloody.
Maybe the good Donald will finally get this fixed?
Oh well.....
If the Russians did it they didn't hack the USA government. They hacked the DNC and made Hillary look bad compared to Bernie by revealing the truth about Wasserman Schultz's grubbiness.
That's no excuse to use the USA governments resources for a cyberstrike against the Russian government. Very irresponsible. Don't confuse "defending" the DNC with defending the USA. Two very different things.
NSA hackers have been able to watch from the inside as malicious actors conduct their operations in real time
Why would they go that far, but not actually stop the operations?
Prothero: Do you believe this crap: Dascombe?
Dascombe: It's not our job to believe it, Lewis. Our job is to tell the people --
Punch yourself in front of a staff and sock somebody up, saying they did it first.
Hack yourself then come to the rescue.
US government are grasping at straws right now, believe nothing hack or spy related it is all fucking bullshit.
Welcome back to life EditorDavid you dead son of a bitch liar.
Just release skynet already!
not to use the US made OSs, but to develop their own.
Hillary will win this election. And the next. She will also get an overwhelming majority in Congress in due time. Get over it. I would back up your legitimate data to prepare for transfer to "approved" devices if I were in your shoes, and destroy any possible evidence of politically etherodox viewpoints. Dispossess yourself of anything that could get you into trouble (guns above all, but also "questionable" literature and audio/video material that could be seen as "controversial"). Step into line. Conform. It's not that hard.
The Russians did it so be angry at them! Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
Truly the government is embarrassed of what revealed in the DNC emails. In all the hacks that's happened in the past few years, this one prompts the Nsa to hack back?????
It's just a Russian version of security theater.
They should know.
During much of the Cold War typewriters were state of the art, so they were the focus of spooks and spies just as mobile phone networks, emails and social networks are today.
Techniques were developed to use cheap microphones to listen to key taps and decipher what was being written, spy cameras could peer over typist's shoulders and undercover agents could photograph and leak documents.
Debonair KGB agents were even tasked with seducing typists and winkling information from them.
Missile-equipped Aston Martins aside, some of what you see in James Bond films actually went on.
In 1984 the NSA became paranoid about the extent of this sort of Russian infiltration and began what it called Project Gunman, under which it replaced every piece of communications equipment at embassies in Moscow and Leningrad.
It shipped the old devices back to the US for analysis, and when they were X-rayed it was discovered that 16 IBM Selectric typewriters had been bugged.
For eight years they had sent the contents of every single document to the Kremlin, via a man crouching outside with a radio receiver.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Enjoy the files!
! !
Please ignore the complete media blackout of election fraud, the killing of a prosecutor's husband investigating bill clinton for sex slavery with epstein, the death of the DNC election Data director, the huge clinton foundation selling out of the state department, the collusion between comey-lorrette lynn-clintons-hsbc, and the absolute fail to prosecute for 158 counts minimum secret data stashing so foreign agents can get it. Yep its those nasty russians. sigh... Look what our failure to be fix the system does. Feel free to keep voting for people that are part of the process, perhaps the TPP getting the rest of your middle class jobs to leave will make it all better. Of course its not like what you vote for this election cycle will matter, the fix is already in.
They need every big time side show right now they can get, to take your eyes off the election. The election is a sham election.
Body double Hillary vs. Trump/Bernie with same Jewish backers.
I wouldn't blame Putin if he just fucked some spies up.
First off,
The Democrat Party/DNC/etc is NOT the U.S. government. It is a private company...that is all. Were it not so, the election fraud engaged in would have every oath sword and bound officer of the U.S. armed forces obligated to act in the DNCs removal for being a clear and present threat to our Constitution's democracy. But it's not...it is merely a political party.
So what if it was hacked by Russians. Of which I am rather doubtful.
So we are going to engage in an escalation of cyber-warfare with a nuclear armed nation over politics. That's just dumb. And when they respond and hack the Pentagon? Or other fare far more critical assets....what then?
What happens when they realize they can hack our drones and crash them into our own carriers. This is just stupid behavior on the part of our President who is retaliating over personal attachment. DUMB DUMB DUMB.
So we are going to engage in an escalation of cyber-warfare with a nuclear armed nation over politics. That's just dumb. And when they respond and hack the Pentagon? Or other fare far more critical assets....what then?
What happens when they realize they can hack our drones and crash them into our own carriers. This is just stupid behavior on the part of our President who is retaliating over personal attachment. DUMB DUMB DUMB.
I think the worst thing about the internet is that it has made people feel empowered to share opinions on subjects they know nothing about. You know nothing about the intelligence community, or what they do. You have no idea who conducted this hack. You have no idea if Obama had anything to do with it. You apparently have no idea that "cyber-warfare" by your definition is already going on 24/7 all over the world. Believe me, if the Russians knew how to "hack our drones and crash them into our carriers," they wouldn't hold back. It isn't a matter of waking up one morning and realizing they could have been doing that this whole time.
So how about we all stop playing Monday-morning Quarterback and let the adults handle their business.
Blah blah blah....
I never said we didn't engage in it. But publicly announcing we're increasing our cyber attacks....sorry. If you think that is good intelligence community action than you're dumb as !@#$