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FBI Investigating Russian Hack Of New York Times Reporters, Others (cnn.com)

Posted by msmash on from the Russia's-growing-interest dept.

Hackers thought to be working for Russian intelligence have carried out a series of cyber breaches targeting reporters at the New York Times and other U.S. news organizations, reports CNN, citing US officials briefed on the matter. From the report: The intrusions, detected in recent months, are under investigation by the FBI and other US security agencies. Investigators so far believe that Russian intelligence is likely behind the attacks and that Russian hackers are targeting news organizations as part of a broader series of hacks that also have focused on Democratic Party organizations, the officials said. "Like most news organizations we are vigilant about guarding against attempts to hack into our systems," said New York Times Co. spokeswoman Eileen Murphy. "There are a variety of approaches we take up to and including working with outside investigators and law enforcement. We won't comment on any specific attempt to gain unauthorized access to The Times." The breaches targeting reporters and news organizations are part of an apparent surge in cyber attacks in the past year against entities beyond US government agencies.

13 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. How dare they hack NY Times reporters! by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's the NSA's job!

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    1. Re:How dare they hack NY Times reporters! by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 2

      All must live in Fear.

      Take your Soma, citizen!

      Questions mean strife.

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  2. modus operandi doesnt seem to make any sense. by nimbius · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The Clinton campaign has claimed the hack as proof that the Russians are trying to aid the election of Donald Trump.

    Or maybe russian hackers understand that US Media outlets actively collaborate and conspire with political campaigns during election seasons to control and direct dissent within the party and defuse potential scandalous or controversial events in an effort to ensure a positive return on their future investment. that to undermine this quiet system of quid pro quo would be a huge step in election transparency and overall freedom of elections in a country that uses elaborate systems of delegate voting, districts, and voter identification to suppress and manipulate the outcome of a potential election.

    maybe, just maybe, Russian hackers are the good guys here.

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    1. Re:modus operandi doesnt seem to make any sense. by swb · · Score: 2

      Or maybe russian hackers understand that US Media outlets actively collaborate and conspire with political campaigns during election seasons to control and direct dissent within the party and defuse potential scandalous or controversial events in an effort to ensure a positive return on their future investment.

      I'd say that's just too conspiratorial. The Russians probably realize that the Times' editorial bias favors Clinton. The Russians aren't trying to aid Trump or necessarily defeat Clinton. What they probably want is to minimize Clinton's ability to command some kind of "mandate" sized victory and maintain the fractured domestic political structure.

      A non-landslide victory by Clinton will be met with at least as much if not more obstructionism by Republicans and a level of continued division in the public. Distract and divide benefits the Russians because it keeps whoever runs the US from having the political capital to make bold steps.

    2. Re:modus operandi doesnt seem to make any sense. by PvtVoid · · Score: 2

      Note to nimbius: look up the term "useful idiot".

      Especially since that term is attributed to Lenin.

    3. Re:modus operandi doesnt seem to make any sense. by Layzej · · Score: 2

      It looks like a Russian operative infiltrated the Trump campaign and "worked behind the scenes to make sure the new Republican platform won’t call for giving weapons to Ukraine to fight Russian and rebel forces".

    4. Re:modus operandi doesnt seem to make any sense. by rtb61 · · Score: 2

      Would those Russian intelligence services have the interests of the US more or less than the current crop of entirely corrupt US corporations that run the US government. Taking into account recent behaviours of US multi-national corporations and Russian intelligence services, when it comes to the typical Anonymous citizen, yeah Russian intelligence service cares more about you than US corporations and their corrupt US government. A country falling apart due to excessive corruption with a whole bunch of nukes and insanely greedy war industries is a threat to everyone on the planet (they might not love you but they certainly do not hate you, no matter how much they dislike abusively destructive multi-national corporations), in this case, them striving to make themselves safer makes all the rest of us safer and buys us the time to clean up or break up multi-national corporations.

      The gist of the article is interesting, as it comes off like the New York Times is now a government agency, I wonder which dog is wagging which tail when or do they just take turns, the white house being nothing more than just another corporate media channel, no decision making, just public announcements of the decisions made by others.

      So who wants to steal our democracy more, the writers of the TPP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... (the toilet paper protocol for what it does to all member countries constitutions) corporate manifesto or the Russian military. So do I trust them, has very little to do with would I use them when we share joint objectives, hell, I would use the NSA if they serve my purpose or the FBI or the SEC, that is what you are meant to do, so the FSB https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., falls in exactly the same category (would I oppose them, sure, all of them, if they opposed my underlying principles of freedom, democracy and justice, on any particular issue, that I deemed honourably appropriate).

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  3. Re: This should be a bigger story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    I'm still waiting on a shred of evidence that the Russian government is behind any of these. Claims from Hillary's campaign manager don't count.

  4. Ok /. editors you want Clinton. by bongey · · Score: 2

    How many more Russian conspiracy stories are going to run from " anonymous government official" ? Just put on your tin hats now. Slashdot fueling the new neo mccarthyism trend. https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  5. If only. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 4, Funny

    If only we had some sort of national agency that would find weaknesses in security and ensure we were protected. A "national security agency" if you will... oh wait. -_-

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  6. Re:This should be a bigger story by tomhath · · Score: 2

    NY Times...neutral...those do not go together.

  7. This entire story is a mess... by colin_faber · · Score: 2

    So wild guessing again, likely piggy backing off the erronious statements that the Times itself made regarding the sources of these hacks...

    Hackers thought to be working for Russian intelligence have carried out a series of cyber breaches targeting reporters at The New York Times and other US news organizations, according to US officials briefed on the matter.

    The intrusions, detected in recent months, are under investigation by the FBI and other US security agencies.

    Hm...

    Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said the company had seen "no evidence" that any breaches had occurred.

    "We are constantly monitoring our systems with the latest available intelligence and tools. We have seen no evidence that any of our internal systems, including our systems in the Moscow bureau, have been breached or compromised,"

    So no hack?

    The Times has brought in private sector security investigators who are working with US national security officials to assess the damage and determine how the hackers got in, according to the US officials.

    So they were hacked?

    Attention has grown on the hacks thought to be carried out by Russians since Wikileaks released a trove of emails stolen from the DNC in the weekend before the Democratic Party's convention to nominate Hillary Clinton for president. US intelligence officials say there is strong evidence showing Russian intelligence behind the DNC hack. The Clinton campaign has claimed the hack as proof that the Russians are trying to aid the election of Donald Trump.

    Thought by who? Is there some official statement that the earlier hacks of the DNC and DCCC are the work of the Russians (with proof?). Likely no, more than likely this statement is based off the flawed TrustConnect analysis which assumed Russian intelligence services had something to do with this because the originating IP of the hack was hidden behind Russian VPN.

    And there we have it folks. News! Predictably from CNN they have to of course point out that the Evil DT is the one responsible for all of this, according to a documented liar.

  8. Re: This should be a bigger story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    We can trust Hillary. Hillary never lies. The DNC never lies or tries to fix elections or blame their problems on damn foreigners. The Washington Post never holds clandestine fundraisers for Hillary.

    The Russians don't hack the NY Times, they have always had an admin login account provided by the management. After all, how else would they be the first to toe the Party line?