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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
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.
Didn't anonymous post something a day or so ago claiming something similar?
The greatest right given is the right to be wrong...
Are you just born yesterday? NSA hacked a lot of countries before this hack. Even allies. Are you really that stupid? USA is a bully for a very long time. USA is only the best at one thing: creating their own enemies.
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.)
I doubt NSA would be that dumb..
Wow,... did you miss the entire set of leaks from Edward Snowden? Because the NSA has been doing _exactly that_ to the entire world for over a decade. Sorry man, that ship sailed a long long long time ago. It's not a matter of guessing: it's established fact.
Not openly and so apparently obviously they haven't,
No no he is right! I heard it came from a dilapatated arcade on Coney Island with a busted up sign and an illegal connection to the power grid.
Yeah, woo! Take that! You fuck with our elections?! Well we'll fuck with your elections, Russia...
Ha ha ha! Russian elections! Oh wait, you were serious.
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.
Yes his complete of ability...
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.
USA is a bully for a very long time.
It's even more funny when Russia complains it's being bullied while at the same time announcing how it might use nuclear weapons on its neighbors or how it's ramping up its military spending as well as increasing its cyber operations against its neighbors.
I wonder how much of this is a shot over the bow, for when one of our presidential candidates invited and approved of Russia and other countries to hack us.
Sec takes statements like that deadly seriously.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Ever notice how there's never any massive data dumps with salacious details about comrade vlad in these hacks?
Might be pretty easy, just hack into the systems Russia uses to fix their elections.
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Please. The administration has never once shied away from blaming hacks on North Korea or China.
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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
Ha ha ha! Russian elections! Oh wait, you were serious.
I don't know how Trump consider himself relative Putin but I'm not sure he's got the upper hand.
Anyone who's willing to vote for Trump would likely had been willing to vote for Putin too. Coming from Sweden I'd vote for all of Trump, Putin and Hitler if I had a choice but sadly I don't.
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.
Prothero: Do you believe this crap: Dascombe?
Dascombe: It's not our job to believe it, Lewis. Our job is to tell the people --
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.
https://news.slashdot.org/stor...
Read that article, they admit to hacking other countries.
Be seeing you...
All your signals are belong to us!
X0X0X0 Uncle Sam
Seriously though, if you don't think the US government takes election tampering seriously, my goodness. There are going to be a wide variety of responses to be expected. I wouldn't be surprised to see arrests or intrigue.
USA sends their troops to invade some small and poor countries around the world, miles away from their homes. And who supplies terrorist organizations:
US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia (Al Qaeda, ISIS, UCQ terrorist organization from Kosovo, and probably more).
Is anyone else a little disappointed with season 2 so far? We're four episodes in and absolutely nothing has happened!! If Elliot spend most of this season pissing about inside his head then I'm afraid all the groove set up in season 1 will be lost :(
NSA hacked a lot of countries before this hack. Even allies.
How do you even know this? Are you guessing?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Americans being the bully on this planet is completely unrelated to Russia's behavour, but if you put it that way, then what Russia does is small potatoes in comparison, barely a blip on the radar. Even the UK has invaded more countries in the past 20 years and is responsible for more people killed.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
speaking as a finnish dude..
I find it crazy that USA first says that a cyberattack is an act of war and theb proceeds to give state agencies the rights to perform them without congressional oversight.
Russia, sure, they do whatever shit they want but at least they don't pretend it would be acts of war.
NSA hacked a lot of countries before this hack. Even allies.
How do you even know this? Are you guessing?
How do you not know this? Are you Trolling?
Funny how the U.S. is the bully when Russia repeatedly interferes in the internal affairs of its neighbors, sends its troops to invade and attack its neighbors and funds and supplies terrorist organizations on its neighbors soil to destabilize them.
You could have the same about US policy in Central and South America at least a couple of years back.
Try the last 40-50 years w.r.t. US meddling in Central America and South America among other countries around the planet. Who funded Osama bin Laden when the US was fighting a proxy war with the Russians in Afghanistan? The US has blood dripping from its fingertips.
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?????
They're just following the long-standing example of the USA.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
American exceptionalism. "It's wrong except when we do it."
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
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
American LEADERSHIP exceptionalism. "It's wrong except when we do it."
FTFY
" Seriously though, if you don't think the US government takes election tampering seriously, my goodness. "
The USG just hates competition is all. Can't swing an election one way or another with other folks meddling with things too. :)
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.
Wasn't there stuff in the Snowden files about the NSA hacking Merkel's phone? And bugging G8 summit meetings?
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
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 !@#$
Because the US has conquered Middle East countries and occupied them for a period of time?
Exactly which Middle East country has the US annexed like Crimea or parts of Georgia?
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Name a single country that the US annexed like Crimea or parts of Georgia.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?