Slashdot Mirror
CIA Prepping For Possible Cyber Strike Against Russia (nbcnews.com)
Slashdot reader schwit1 reports that the Obama administration "is contemplating an unprecedented cyber covert action against Russia in retaliation for alleged Russian interference in the American presidential election," according to U.S. intelligence officials who spoke to NBC News:
Current and former officials with direct knowledge of the situation say the CIA has been asked to deliver options to the White House for a wide-ranging "clandestine" cyber operation designed to harass and "embarrass" the Kremlin leadership. The sources did not elaborate on the exact measures the CIA was considering, but said the agency had already begun opening cyber doors, selecting targets and making other preparations for an operation. Former intelligence officers told NBC News that the agency had gathered reams of documents that could expose unsavory tactics by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Vice President Joe Biden told "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd on Friday that "we're sending a message" to Putin and that "it will be at the time of our choosing, and under the circumstances that will have the greatest impact." When asked if the American public will know a message was sent, the vice president replied, "Hope not."
Not mounting a response would weaken U.S. credibility, one senior U.S. official said, while others said hundreds of millions of dollars has been allocated to the team mounting the attacks. Thursday US officials familiar with the investigation told CNN there was "mounting evidence" that Russia was supplying leaked emails to WikiLeaks, and last week in a conference call organized by the Clinton campaign, former Acting CIA Director Mike Morrell said it was "absolutely clear... WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2 are working with the Russians on this."
Vice President Joe Biden told "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd on Friday that "we're sending a message" to Putin and that "it will be at the time of our choosing, and under the circumstances that will have the greatest impact." When asked if the American public will know a message was sent, the vice president replied, "Hope not."
Not mounting a response would weaken U.S. credibility, one senior U.S. official said, while others said hundreds of millions of dollars has been allocated to the team mounting the attacks. Thursday US officials familiar with the investigation told CNN there was "mounting evidence" that Russia was supplying leaked emails to WikiLeaks, and last week in a conference call organized by the Clinton campaign, former Acting CIA Director Mike Morrell said it was "absolutely clear... WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2 are working with the Russians on this."
We're really escalating toward what could become war over completely unproven allegations that Russia hacked a private organization like the DNC? This wasn't even a hack of the real government. This is pure insanity.
Since when is slashdot a propaganda tool?
since we're talking about it before it happens.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Strong leaders just go ahead and do that cyberstrike.
Weak leaders hint, mince and taunt, but never come to the table with force.
This is why the USA is losing prestige worldwide. We have become a wimpy bully instead of a strong, clear force.
Alternative Right.
"is contemplating an unprecedented cyber covert action against Russia"
Usually the first step in covert actions is you don't tell anyone. Especially not the enemy.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
they've also been peeking in cyber windows, and they bought some cyber treats in case they run into any cyber dogs
That's what you get when you elect people who see the federal government as their personal army. And yet that s nothing compared to what would happen under Clnton.
Yeah, let's all get our panties in a bunch over the buffoon and his crude behavior and lack of class, meanwhile the spawn of Satan is getting ready to go back to the White House to monetize the presidency again. Who cares if American lives are lost in the process, as long as it's not her princess she doesn't care. There's already a trail of corpses behind that couple that makes Gacy look like Mother Teresa.
lucm, indeed.
Don't contemplate an unprecedented cyber covert action against the messenger.
This is typical of people acting irresponsible. The real blame here is the people responsible for securing the data in the original place. They are the ones at fault and are using the media to distract from the fact that they are the failures in the first place. Had they done their job, secured their data, they wouldn't be searching high and low for someone to blame.
If I leave $100 bill on a table in public and return to find it gone, I'm the one to blame. It's time the parties responsible for securing systems with worldwide access to stand up and admit their failures and to start doing their jobs.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
No, really. Not that this is news that doesn't matter, but why is NBC broadcasting that the CIA is planning a huge cyberattack? If this is a serious attack then shouldn't they wait until they carried out the operation before telling the world. They're giving a heads up to Russia by publishing this story, and I'm assuming that NBC got the greenlight to tell the world about this, because I can't imagine that they'd publish this story if that wasn't the case.
Word on the street is that it's a war started specifically to win the election, to whip up some patriotism for the ruling party.
Specifically, it's noted that if we actually wanted to do this, then we would not advertise it ahead of time (scroll down a few entries).
We did a similar thing in Syria the last couple of days by announcing an attack, then filming the attack.
Obama you're a lame-duck president, you've done almost nothing in 8 years, and please don't get us into WWIII before you leave!. Please PLEASE put the welfare of the people ahead of your political agenda this one time!
On a different point, note that if whistleblowers were protected and shielded in this country the hackers could come forward and identify themselves as non-Russian agents and defuse a potential war.
But that won't happen because they'd get royally screwed and their lives and freedom would be over. (Not that I blame them.)
For example, here's a couple of wikileaks sources facing serious charges.
Note that the hacker gave leaks to Motherboard under the agreement of anonymity. Here's what happened:
“When Cracka leaked to Motherboard he asked not to be named as he wanted to confidentially leak information, Lorenzo disregarded it and listed that it was from him — he even wrote that Cracka asked not to be listed like a total piece of shit,” Liverman noted.
Journalistic integrity at its finest.
People thought a couple of months ago that Trump would be the one to get us into WWIII.
I wonder what they think now?
our cybersecurity is so pathetic a la OPM hack, they are really taunting them like this??
they've also been peeking in cyber windows
Ha, their plot will be foiled because the Russians ditched windows for Linux.
Hmm. How is it unproven? Because you and other civilians haven't seen or read the evidence, you believe there is none? Or, it's it because certain news outlets and other propaganda deny such evidence? Anyway, I can see a clear case for avoiding any proactive action on our part but also see good cause to do so. It's a difficult decision to make that the average person can't contemplate due to our lack of insight and knowledge.
Let's not forget that the previous administration (Bush) took us to war under false pretenses.
If you're old enough to remember that era, recall that Bush and Cheney were all over the news saying that the evidence was real, and Tony Blair even came out and confirmed the evidence of WMDs.
Everyone *else* in the world, including the UN inspectors, claimed that there were none.
Does anyone remember the Iraq war? It took 9 years and cost us $2 trillion, caused half a million civilian deaths, 4500 American serviceman deaths, and several hundred American amputees.
I think it's entirely reasonable that, before we go to war with a fukkin' nuclear power, that we be shown some of the evidence first.
Do you disagree?
And here is photographic proof of Trump grabbing a pussy...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
jc... http://www.nytimes.com/interac...
I don't have access to that, it's paywalled.
Do you have a non-paywalled link? Or can you post the text?
Recommend everyone who thinks this is a good idea should read Cyber War . In short summary, America probably has good offensive capabilities, but pretty much NO defenses and HIGH vulnerability. The Chinese are actually best positioned to fight and win any cyber war, and I wouldn't even be surprised if they are framing the Russians right now...
However, my main disappointment just now is with the state of Slashdot. No prior mention of "defense"? Where has all the insight gone?
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
The claim defies history and basic reasoning. Wikileaks gained notoriety by publishing a shit-ton of information from a US Soldier fed up with the system. The Guardian (now looks like a leftist rag) gained notoriety by publishing a shit-ton of information from a NSA contractor fed up with the system. Obama has jailed a record 31 Whistle blowers during his term so far, and wanted a 32nd in jail who fled to Russia. They also want Assange in jail or dead. Make it 33.
The DNC leak is thought to be attributed to the person killed in the Robbery where nothing was Stolen. We have countless people working in Federal law enforcement fed up with the system who are forced to leak information for fear of being jailed or worse. The damages from these dumps are not anti-America, they are anti-corrupt politician. Russian gains nothing from seeing Hillary lie, they probably laugh and think "just like us".
Write your Congress and Senate representatives and demand a halt to any action. It could be blowing smoke, but given the massive amount of visible corruption I'm not so sure. I sure as hell don't trust Obama or Clinton who have on numerous occasions stated that they want to censor web sites "they" find unfavorable. Consider that the US is currently bombing Yemen without any public inspection of policy and media refuses to talk about it. They are way too busy fabricating false victims to smear Trump to talk about the real world.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Embarrass the kremlin leadership? Shit, their job's already been done for them :P
This is a country where the dictator regularly posts simi-homoerotic shirtless pictures of himself. Go ahead and try to embarrass him. Just remember when the DOD tried to launch a online anti-IslamicState social media campaign they actually ended up encouraging more people to join.
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
What a bunch of fucking idiots we have in DC. First of all there's no proof, secondly it's because the Cliton campaign is butthurt that they got hacked and will use any excuse, thirdly... why make a public statement that they're going to retaliate? I'm sure the Kremlin has already hardened their security, which was probably already better than anything DC has. Morons.
Or this story (of a 'cyber strike') is just made up crap by media trolls during an election cycle.
You've been hacked, do you a) patch your security holes + b) Sack your NSA chief for withholding known 0 day vulnerabilities from US corps.
Or
c) Do some kind of symbolic shit of no consequence in the hope it might deter Russia from hacking US again. Wouldn't Russia simply patch their security holes and sack their FSB chief for withholding 0 day exploits?
It all seems to be built up from Biden's comments on a 'response' and have nothing to do with the real world.
Does anyone else not find it hilarious there are reports of a covert CIA "cyberattack" plastered all over the Internet?
"Hey, we're gonna attack Russia soon, but don't tell anyone, k?" *nudge* *nudge* *wink* *wink*
Putin is a former KGB agent with a mind trapped in a cold-war mentality where the west and the USA in particular are the greatest threat to Russia and out to get him.
I'm not sure it is such a good idea to fan the flames of his paranoia.
We are hacking the Russians because they revealed the truth about the Democrat party? And now our President is butt-hurt his party is exposed? He'll run a clean election and no big issue but good grief...this retaliation is too stupid
Re 'Ha, their plot will be foiled because the Russians ditched windows for Linux."
Russia studied US actions in Serbia and will be able to absorb any induced issues.
Power grid, mass media. Turn off the lights and block the wider public from their favourite broadcasters.
Discontent will drive people to new faces and well developed US funded slogans.
The next step is to fund NGO's and groups to push local issues or create issues to sway elections and demand a change of government.
Another color revolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
NGO's, civil society then get vast amounts of cash to change to supporting US backed policies.
The only big question is just how much Western infrastructure Russia added to its grid and how networked it was.
Expect a flood of placed stories on US founded web 2.0 media and some attempt to game the Russian speaking social media.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
NBC and Joe Biden are absolutely the worst type of Trolls. SJWs unite and take them down!
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
There are rational reasons for hating Clinton. The ties to Wall Street are the ones that matter for me. (Well, in addition to being a lizard person--I'm a mammal supremacist and speciest towards lizard people.)
Whether it's because of a deep-seeded hatred for women (did your mommy not hug you enough?), or just maybe the sight of a powerful woman is a trigger for your micro-phallyic self-loathing
Woah, there! You're dangerously close to asserting that anybody who dislikes Clinton a.) is male b.) suffers from a medical condition (warning: penis!) c.) for some reason hates women because of that medical condition. A guy I knew who said he suffered from that would indicate that he was perfectly capable of pleasuring a woman in other ways. I forget why it even came up. Probably lots of alcohol.
What would you say to a woman who isn't voting for Clinton? Or is that unpossible in your mind? What about Stein voters? Are they also all sexually inadequate men? Are Stein voters sexists now too?
I was encouraged that the media did not go down the macho white knight rabbit hole you just went down. Does bigoted shit like that get you all the Hunnies? No? Yes? Good for you.
Protip: there's still a chance I might vote for Clinton. But please be my guest and fly off the handle and post something equally bigoted in response to this comment that will completely turn me off to the idea. Obviously I must be a Trump supporter. Because how dare I question the Lizard Queen?!
Disclaimer: No, I've never had a girlfriend. I made out with a girl once while drunk. I can confirm that I am not attracted to women no matter how much you want to pretend I am in your response. I have no problem getting boyfriends. Some of us don't view women as sexual objects or define our lives in terms of creeping on women and popping cherries. I know that's a radical concept to a white knight like you.
Okay, I finally found a way around the NYT paywall (and I feel "dirty" for having done it the way I did... :-)
The article refers to old chemical weapons left over from previous (to the Iraq War of 2003-2011) decades.
The article makes it pretty clear that these were not the WMDs referred to by Bush to justify the war. Here's a quote from the article (emphasis mine):
All had been manufactured before 1991, participants said. Filthy, rusty or corroded, a large fraction of them could not be readily identified as chemical weapons at all. Some were empty, though many of them still contained potent mustard agent or residual sarin. Most could not have been used as designed, and when they ruptured dispersed the chemical agents over a limited area, according to those who collected the majority of them.
It was well known that Saddam Hussein had and used chemical weapons in previous decades, but Bush was pretty clear that Hussein was manufacturing new WMDs in the months running up to the war. No manufacturing facilities were ever found.
I'm not sure why you took the trouble to post the link. It's a complete non-sequitur, which I immediately suspected because there were no corroborating stories about having found WMDs during the 2nd Iraq war.
I did not make a single mention of Hillary killing anyone. I eluded to a strange murder related to the DNC leaks to discredit the allegation that Russia is responsible.
Go take your medication and leave the sane people alone.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Blame Trump for her own lousy security.
Drone-kill Assange.
Start a cyber war with Russia.
So i assume they will plant a lot of my little pony pornography into putin's computer and tell everyone?
I mean do they think we are stupid?
Imminent collapse of the entire Western Banking System due to incredible never before seen in the history of the world lawlessness and money printing.
So they can say, "See we had to go to war with Russia so the banking system would collapse and we could blame them so you don't suspect all of the criminal activities since 2007 actually did it."
They start a war with Russia to cover this up and there is goingto be a serious WAR at home.
Never go full retard.
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
Russia wants a world where Putin can manufacture his own reality. Where Russia never occupied half of Ukraine. Where the Syrian "government" is vigilantly and legitimately fighting terrorists.
DNC leaks is just one arrow in the assault on fact-based, sane, public discourse. Not by what the leaks reveal, but by the increase in conspiracy-theories on the one hand, and self doubt on the other hand. The increase in "pick your own facts" is the real threat to the west in general and US in particular. Also exemplified by russian troll-armies and Trump quoting fabrications from Russia Today in his rallies. I hope when the CIA retaliates it will not be with a troll-army of its own, but with something that can start to build a common set of indisputable facts to roll back the post-factual chaos.
On was it a russian ...chances are it was.
was it the russian govt - that is a big step and really hard to prove - don't forget, much like many other private organisations/individuals, these guys are for hire - it could have been my hamster who paid for it.
On Clinton / Trump
It worries me that you Americans - on both sides - seem to lose sight of the fact that someone may disagree with your politics and still be a good person and have genuine and reasonable reasons for holding their opinion.
Personally I think it is at least partly because some of the bad things the other side says are true (on both sides) and to stop thinking about that you hold closer to your chosen man|woman and shout louder at the other woman|man.
There also seems to be a view that if you dont vote trump|clinton you are effectively voting clinton|trump
Personally I think they both have serious issues.
If I had a vote in this election (and I dont) I would not vote for either. I would look for a way of saying that neither of these are good enough for the job.
In the UK they report on the number of spoilt ballots.
if that number got be be something like the margin of victory, in a reasonably democratic country it should give the political classes as a whole pause.
Most of us have to go read the actual sources because there is virtually no real journalism in the US. Stop pretending that the only options are the furthest right compared to the left. Believe it or not, even while being taught compliance we learned to read. Anyone who understands the goals of the left understands what I just stated regarding compliance with education. We can't get that from media because media refuses to talk about real issues in a factual way. We get to these conclusions by using logic and reason while evaluating evidence.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Because, think for a moment: what else could they leak?
There are just too many skeletons in the locker.
They (Russians) probably have a good idea of just how corrupt every single elected official in most of the Western world is.
And there's an election coming up not only in the US, but also in Germany.
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
I find it telling that people here actually have a hard time believing a former KGB agent is using propaganda to influence a rival's election. Are you all too young to remember the cold war? Putin is a product of that time and it is apparent.
Time makes more converts than reason
They are desperately trying to add credibility to the narrative of "Russia did it" so that people stop looking at the contents of the email. As I have stated at a staggering frequency in posts lately, the media is no different than the Pravda we used to mock. What we are witnessing is not simply appalling, it's outright frightening.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
The political elites don't like it when the sheeple find out how bent and broken the system actually is. If the system was not so bent then the emails would have done any damage but would have highlighted how good it is. But instead the exposed emails show how the elites and the bent corporate financiers are giving each other blow jobs then the next day raping an pillaging your average tax payer.
"Hire competent staff" is just not in the government playbook.
They're the 'cyber-warfare' agency, right?
OK several things.
First most of this story is ridiculous for a variety of reasons. However what I found most disturbing is the accusation that Wikileaks is now working for the Russians to hack the USA. Really? For real? OK I get it that the US is pissed about the leaking of embarrassing ambassadorial private messages, and images of the US military seemingly killing civilians at will. Oh no wait, it's Sweden wanting Assange on rape changes from years ago. Nope, its that he is a Russian saboteur... Seemingly justice is dead, and the US is willing to use whatever excuse they can throw towards their ends. That is scary stuff. Do I or anyone else really believe that Wikileaks is working with Russia to coordinate cyber attacks on the US? Nope. Please.
Second, "Former", "Acting".... So this guy making the accusations, isn't anybody, and when he was somebody, it was only temporary. Great credentials to cite.