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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."
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.
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.
A bit hard. try impossible to believe. It would be like suggesting the NSA sit in front of computers with open webcams and mics. I work with one defense agency (from another country) and cameras are not permitted in the building, any permanent device with a web cam either has it mechanically disabled or tapped over. I would be stunned if this is not standard practise everywhere, especially agencies in the US and Russia where they take paranoid to whole new levels.
Ha ha ha! Russian elections! Oh wait, you were serious.
But the trick was getting them to install it by putting out a package called "DNC hack files complete ".
So their vodka distilleries and botnets got hit?
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
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.