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Snowden Speculates Leak of NSA Spying Tools Is Tied To Russian DNC Hack (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Two former employees of the National Security Agency -- including exiled whistleblower Edward Snowden -- are speculating that Monday's leak of what are now confirmed to be advanced hacking tools belonging to the U.S. government is connected to the separate high-profile hacks and subsequent leaks of two Democratic groups. Private security firms brought in to investigate the breach of the Democratic National Committee and a separate hack of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have said that the software left behind implicates hackers tied to the Russian government. U.S. intelligence officials have privately said they, too, have high confidence of Russian government involvement. Both Snowden and Dave Aitel, an offensive security expert who spent six years as an NSA security scientist, are speculating that Monday's leak by a group calling itself Shadow Brokers is in response to growing tensions between the U.S. and Russia over the hacks on the Democratic groups. As this post was being prepared, researchers with Kaspersky Lab confirmed that the tools belong to Equation Group, one of the most sophisticated hacking groups they've ever investigated. "Why did they do it?" Snowden wrote in a series of tweets early Tuesday morning. "No one knows, but I suspect this is more diplomacy than intelligence, related to the escalation around the DNC hack." In a brief post of his own, Aitel agreed that Russia is the most likely suspect behind both the Democratic hacks and the leaking of the NSA spying tools. He also said the NSA data was likely obtained by someone with physical access to an NSA secure area who managed to walk out with a USB stick loaded with secrets.
K, thanks for the speculation.
I think it's clear that the West's thinking that Russia (and others) are less advanced as they are in computer-technology (as I dislike the wording of 'cyber'), is offset by reality by quite a bit. Reality, it seems, is that Russia is a peer at it. China is, surely, too. Popular politicians and their methods of communications are decennia behind the capabilities of even simple computercriminals. We have to wait for leaks to open up the mistakes of non-popular power-yielding individuals. But surely this will happen too. Meanwhile a crackdown on freedom and democracy in the form of forbidding encryption is for sure going to happen.
So now what? Edward, you tell us. Clearly, the opensource community has no idea.
I don't see much media coverage about the NSA hacking tools being put for sale. If they really belong to TAO, this is probably the most advanced and dangerous hack in history. It's like if somebody penetrated into the cyber equivalent of Area 51, and stole the cyber equivalent of a flying saucer! Basically now every NSA attack will be easily fingerprinted and blocked. I'm afraid people aren't exactly realizing how bad it is for the US government cyberoffensive capabilities: they've been basically wiped out.
Aren't NYT, WaPo, HuffPo (if they still publish something not about Trump), etc... interested in that? Obviously Trump's wife's tits are FAR MORE IMPORTANT, but besides those, maybe some media coverage about this hack would be appropriate.
I don't see him saying that. But thanks for inserting that narrative.
Weird that my draft committed suicide as I attempted to reply... Reminds me of http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... in some ways...
Anyway, the introduction to my comment is that I don't like or dislike Hillary, but she is clearly well qualified to be president and the Donald is clearly fundamentally not qualified. The HuffPo piece is just one more angle on why not.
Therefore I believe that a Trump victory would be quite similar to a decapitation strike. Insofar as America has real enemies including Putin and Daesh, they would obviously be motivated to do anything they can to help Trump win. Hacking the DNC is one angle, but I'm more concerned about a major terrorist strike timed just before the election. America's enemies may be crazy, but they aren't stupid.
Cue the crazy trolls. Actually, I'm not convinced all of Trump's trolls are crazy. Even the ones that seem to be sincere might be faking it, like Trump himself. Actually makes more sense to me that some of them are paid to fake it (perhaps by Putin and his fiends). (Apologies to Rocky and Bullwinkle, eh?)
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Why would you want the US/NSA to know that you've compromised them? That's stupid. It's more likely that the NSA is selling its own fingerprinted tools as an opportunity...or someone taking advantage of the current climate to take some suckers for a ride.
... they got copies of hacking tools used by the NSA. Are the two related?
If so, why did the DNC have NSA hacking tools?
If not, what is the reason for tying the stories together?
...was immediately followed by this week.
Coincidence? I think not!
What? "Exile" isn't even a thing (any more).
He's "Avoiding prosecution Edward Snowden." In the days when exile was a thing, it was a punishment. Just like jail, or death, or a fine. You know, the sort of thing that comes after a trial. He's not an exile, he's a fugitive.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Weird that my draft committed suicide as I attempted to reply... Reminds me of http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... in some ways...
Anyway, the introduction to my comment is that I don't like or dislike Hillary, but she is clearly well qualified to be president and the Donald is clearly fundamentally not qualified. The HuffPo piece is just one more angle on why not.
Therefore I believe that a Trump victory would be quite similar to a decapitation strike. Insofar as America has real enemies including Putin and Daesh, they would obviously be motivated to do anything they can to help Trump win. Hacking the DNC is one angle, but I'm more concerned about a major terrorist strike timed just before the election. America's enemies may be crazy, but they aren't stupid.
Cue the crazy trolls. Actually, I'm not convinced all of Trump's trolls are crazy. Even the ones that seem to be sincere might be faking it, like Trump himself. Actually makes more sense to me that some of them are paid to fake it (perhaps by Putin and his fiends). (Apologies to Rocky and Bullwinkle, eh?)
Right before posting, I always <ctrl>-A/<ctrl>-C to grab a copy of the text. That way if the system hiccups, I can open a local text file and save the text while I straighten things out. Has saved my bacon bunch of times.
On your point about Hillary being qualified, and not trying to provoke an emotional response, I took the trouble to research Hillary's decisions and accomplishments over the last 16 years.
And came up empty.
There's not a single moment that I could find, no decision or action or award, that Hillary can point to with pride and say "I did this!". The best I can come up with is that she was elected as senator.
Since you think she's qualified, can you help me out by justifying that a bit? I mean... is there *anything* you can point to that forms the basis of your opinion?
I don't mean "she's not Trump", either. I could just as well vote for the Green or Libertarian candidate, and they're also not Trump.
What has she actually *done* that merits your support?
(Note that I'm trying not to be trollish, and I haven't thrown any insults. Please keep that in mind when responding.)
Slashdot is getting ADD.
Go, read entire series of Snowden's twits on the subject. The whole point is: this disclosure is a warning shot. Imagine if the rest of the files will reveal targets, personally identifiable info on perpetrators, provable attribution etc. God forbid malware targets are in NATO countries or some such. This thing might explode into a serious international scandal.
Russians are mentioned simply because they might have better motives for pulling this off (with some tit-for-tat hacking going on right now). But that's beside the point.
Who writes articles like this? Why would Snowden be making such statements. What did he mean when they say "NSA data was likely obtained by someone with physical access to an NSA secure area who managed to walk out with a USB stick loaded with secrets." "calling itself Shadow Brokers is in response to growing tensions between the U.S. and Russia over the hacks on the Democratic groups" It reads like propaganda to me. I don't believe Snowden is in Russia and also still a reliable source of information, especially on matters to do with Russia... a nation with the potential to take over the media and even explode journalists. You can believe what you like about Snowden and the NSA, but trusting the info stream from Snowden inside of Russia is stupid.
The hacked emails show that the media colluded with the Hillary campaign to shut Bernie out. That story lasted less than 1 day before those same media entities changed the story to focus on the Russian hacker speculation, which was then followed by several days of talking about how Trump supposedly asked Russia to hack the DNC.
Look -> Squirrel.
Does anyone believe that Russia doesn't hack US systems? Or the reverse? This story might be slightly interesting if it revealed some specific hack that broke new ground. It might be interesting if it had a devastating effect upon US intelligence operations. It might be compelling if we could prove a direct connection to Mr. Putin. And those things may come to pass but they haven't been observed yet.
So slashdotters are left to speculate, to opine about what may become of this. Thus we may be among the first to insert foot in mouth as we wait for more facts to be available. Click bait.
We know that Putin doesn't want to deal with Clinton and he thinks Trump will be easier to 'negotiate' with, and so it's easy to believe he is attempting to pull strings; but let's be patient for real evidence of what's happening before we raise our voices.
...omphaloskepsis often...
The GOP wasn't hacked cuz it was self-destructing on its own and didn't need any help from Russia to fall completely apart.
Also there is this possibility that Trump is a Russian agent, doing what he does best, to be rewarded with ownership of a prime vacation palace on the shores of the Crimea. I'm not saying that's what's going on... I mean you just got to wonder. You know? What with being so chummy with Vladimir. It could be.... we'll have to wait and see where Trump goes after he drops out of the race... but I'm just speculating. You know?
The material walked out with a real human. It was then given to the press. More of a US Watergate informant talking to the press about their day job than any real hacking.
The US cover story sold to the press is that super smart nations got into the US political party computers, stayed in over some time totally undetected, got the data out in bulk and just left a huge amount of logs showing their tool sets and real ip ranges.
Smart enough to get in, stay but no skills in covering their origins or method.... methods that got presented to the waiting US press in full.
The covering up of another cleared, trusted person walking out the press with material had to be covered up.
Blame another nation, roll out their methods to friendly US press to sell the spy plot globally. Hope to sell the hacking fantasy to the tech sector.
The second story is some NSA tool set got found in use online and master keys to many US brands of OS, telco equipment. More people will be able to go totally undetected or create their own bespoke malware per OS just as security experts warned thanks to junk crypto standards. Lots of ex staff, former staff, nations that worked with the US have had access to the same skills, tools.
Given to them by the US or borrowed by dual citizen staff, methods kept after projects together. With so many tools floating around, in use, it was only a matter of time until someone tracked the tool sets back and got a copy in the wild...
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Look -> Squirrel.
What?
Where?
Where did it go?
It really depends on what was lost. It could have just been a set tools used via some US advertising front or bespoke computer entry tools that evade detection left on a computer system in the wild during random US gov/mil surveillance.
The US set up a home, front company and bought in a series of computers with a prosumer or commercial optical link to the outside world.
For that surveillance task, that site was going to be their collection point. All gov documents would show is a rented home or a dot com advertising or new economy engineering start up.
Someone notice the command and control and ip, looked in and walked away with tool set.
Police forces use the same methods everyday to cover their total control of chatroom, forums, sites. Any ip will be traced back to an expected home, small business, rented site on a business estate.
This time the other agency surveillance team found in the wild was a bit more interesting...
Would the direct use now be trackable by the NSA, GCHQ, other 5 eye nations? Yes
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Doesn't that make him an ungrateful pr*ck to call them out for dirty shenanigans?
sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)
"Exiled" is perfectly applicable. Quit trying to assign your own made-up meanings to words and you'll be much happier.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
The correct phrase is, "I tasted bile." Leave it to Americans to be both ignorant AND disgusting, *sigh*.
(Before you mod me as a troll--yes, I'm American, and yes, I do know what I'm talking about.)
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Ban USB - in fact lets's ban Serial - or Busses - yea that'll fix it.
Were some abracadabra Cyrillic-looking characters left behind? But it is not only Russian language which uses non-Latin alphabet.
"More neocon shilling.. More russian boogeymen that never materialise on your doorstep"
..
Yea, my thoughts precisely, it's either one of North Korea, China or Russia
Perhaps the tool set comes a package as an app the code as part the bespoke contractor tool set sold/rented to the NSA?
So a server found in the wild would have both a binary, exploits, debugging and code it in some folder for use or better obfuscation or alteration in the field..
i.e. binaries with help, options settings.. versions to cover updates or unexpected changes days or months later, without needing a secure connection back to the mil/gov to fix things in the wild. The code could be altered as needed by the front company. i.e. mid mission the site is the end point for all communications..
This could have been a team of contractors, work left over with another nation..ex staff, former staff, dual citizens walked out and tried it for their other country.. and it went a bit wrong.
i.e. someone saw something and tracked back the stream of data exiting a system under US or UK watch.
Some other options:
Someone induced US automated gov malware to react, infect a network and tracked the NSA interest in their computer back to a US gov/mil commercial fronted site.
The new buddy system failed epically and some mil/gov site used for some collection project was left wide open, tools exposed to the wild for a short time..
An insider walked out and needs to keep the upgraded counter surveillance teams guessing.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Only one thing she *could* accomplish: saving the Supreme Court from being packed with right-wing, misogynist (but I repeat myself) psychos that by comparison would even make Scalia look like an actual jurist instead of the corrupt partisan hack that he was.
Then again, I don't think a GOP-controlled Senate will ever again let any Democratic president appoint another judge at any level, let alone a Supreme. That is their most effective way of delaying (denying) true social progress in the USA - especially the overturning of Citizens United (the Dred Scott of the modern era).
You fucked up again FBI slashdot.
LOL. That bit was good.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
I don't believe Snowden is in Russia
I do. There aren't really a lot of places he could be and be protected from being killed or forcibly brought back to stand trial in the USA. Given that both his father and girlfriend have both been seen getting on flights to Moscow to visit him, you seem to be suggesting a highly unlikely scenario here.
and also still a reliable source of information, especially on matters to do with Russia... a nation with the potential to take over the media and even explode journalists. You can believe what you like about Snowden and the NSA, but trusting the info stream from Snowden inside of Russia is stupid.
Now you are dead on the money with this comment, but I got branded a troll here the last time I made a post suggesting something negative about Snowden. We'll see how yours does.
It would be easier to get the tools off of a honeypot that was set up to entice the use of the tools rather than to get them by hacking the Equation Group. If you want the Equation Group's tools all you have to do is convince them that they have found a chink in the armor of a high value target. Let them own a computer (referred to as the pivot in the hacking world) that seems to have access to further hardened targets. The tools will start appearing. A Potemkin honeypot.
See, this isn't particularly difficult if you're being even vaguely intellectually honest. The very premise of your inflammatory question is false, and it's up to you to show otherwise. To wit:
she is clearly well qualified to be president and the Donald is clearly fundamentally not qualified
To which multiple people very politely asked, "how is she clearly well qualified?"
And to which you first replied with vacuous rhetoric, then, when that was pointed out, simply pounded the table.
It's clear that you can offer no objective, measurable data points to justify why Hillary is even vaguely qualified, much less well qualified, to be president. This is not surprising.
Dave Aitel DID NOT SAY the DNC hack was the Russians. He said THIS hack was the Russians. Snowden similarly did not say the DNC hack was the Russians, he said THIS hack was, and that it was related to the eacalation after the DNC hack--that is, accusations toward Russia afterwards. There is zero evidence that the DNC hack was rhe Russians, nor that it was even so sophistocated as to require a state actor.
You forgot to mention the link between Clinton and the Russian Uranium mining company getting rights to US government land.
Basically, whatever you think you have on Trump probably reflects back on Clinton as well. If one is corrupt, then both are.
Vote Gary Johnson.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Quit your Sophism. We already know you have no positive defense of Donald, but changing the subject is NOT going to work if America has been decapitated.
However, I predict there are lots of other questions you can't deal with. For example "Who do you hate most?"
That's the defining characteristic of Trump supporters, but the ones who are smart enough to use computers have apparently learned not to address that one. It was kind of funny in the period when they would try to defend their various hatreds. They must have gotten a memo.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
The "snowden's a double agent!" line didn't work in 2013, why do you think anyone would believe you now?
Hate? Nah. But I do tend to feel pity for people with such reduced capacity that they (a) can't or don't know how to make a cogent argument and thus just mindlessly cheer for "their team," and (b) dissolve into incomprehensible, name-calling rants when asked a basic question about their mindless cheering.
Just to put the rattle back on the high chair one last time:
1. I said nothing whatsoever about Trump.
2. You said something about Hillary.
3. I asked you to justify what you said.
4. You melted down.
Buh bye, lil' troll. It's been real.
What is to be said about someone who starts his campaign by declaring all Mexicans are rapists--and goes downhill from there?
What is to be said to someone who thinks Hillary Clinton has accomplished nothing?
(It is certainly possible to disagree about the value of some of her accomplishments, though the main thing I don't like about her is that she's just another lawyer. I don't dislike it either because that's just the way the game is rigged these years.)
Yeah, there are certainly some trolls around here.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Got any evidence for the false equivalence?
Clinton's connection with the uranium sale is well known. At a time when Russia was acting friendlier than it is now, Clinton, along with several other people, approved a sale that benefited Russia. It was an overt and legal act. I've seen speculation on Clinton's motives, but not on the other participant's motives, so I discount it.
In contrast, we've got a much less friendly Russia, and (inconclusive) evidence that it's committing crimes to influence a US election. I completely fail to see the similarity.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Nope. There's evidence that the DNC hack had Russian involvement. It isn't conclusive, but we may never get conclusive evidence on this. I don't think there's actual evidence of Russian state involvement, although it seems like reasonable speculation to me.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Z^14
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Link me, then. And i was correct that neither Snowden nor Aitel have blamed Russia for the DNC leaks.