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Probe Of Leaked US NSA Hacking Tools Examines Operative's Mistake (reuters.com)
Joseph Menn and John Walcott, reporting for Reuters: A U.S. investigation into a leak of hacking tools used by the National Security Agency is focusing on a theory that one of its operatives carelessly left them available on a remote computer and Russian hackers found them, four people with direct knowledge of the probe told Reuters. The tools, which enable hackers to exploit software flaws in computer and communications systems from vendors such as Cisco Systems and Fortinet Inc, were dumped onto public websites last month by a group calling itself Shadow Brokers. The public release of the tools coincided with U.S. officials saying they had concluded that Russia or its proxies were responsible for hacking political party organizations in the run-up to the Nov. 8 presidential election. On Thursday, lawmakers accused Russia of being responsible. Various explanations have been floated by officials in Washington as to how the tools were stolen. Some feared it was the work of a leaker similar to former agency contractor Edward Snowden, while others suspected the Russians might have hacked into NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland.
Russian (state sponsored) hackers seem to be the scapegoat du jour. For the past few years, all hacking was attributed to Chinese hackers. Then Donald Trump makes some flippant statement, the news starts talking about the Russian government hacking the DNC and BAM, all hacking is now attributed to Russian hackers.
Did China suddenly stop hacking entirely? Are there no longer any hackers in Romania? Where did the Nigerians go?