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Russians Used Malware On Android Devices To Track and Target Ukraine Artillery, Says Report (reuters.com)
schwit1 quotes a report from Reuters: A hacking group linked to the Russian government and high-profile cyber attacks against Democrats during the U.S. presidential election likely used a malware implant on Android devices to track and target Ukrainian artillery units from late 2014 through 2016, according to a new report released Thursday. The malware was able to retrieve communications and some locational data from infected devices, intelligence that would have likely been used to strike against the artillery in support of pro-Russian separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine, the report from cyber security firm CrowdStrike found. The hacking group, known commonly as Fancy Bear or APT 28, is believed by U.S. intelligence officials to work primarily on behalf of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency. The implant leveraged a legitimate Android application developed by a Ukrainian artillery officer to process targeting data more quickly, CrowdStrike said. Its deployment "extends Russian cyber capabilities to the front lines of the battlefield," the report said, and "could have facilitated anticipatory awareness of Ukrainian artillery force troop movement, thus providing Russian forces with useful strategic planning information."
With civilians! Way. To. Go!
Damn Hillary was in charge of 9 different government agencies? Wait no you are spreading fake news.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/10/26/the-facts-behind-trumps-repeated-claim-about-hillary-clintons-role-in-the-russian-uranium-deal/
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2016/sep/30/donald-trump/nuclear-claim-donald-trump-says-hillary-clinton-ga/
The State Department was one of nine agencies comprising CFIUS, which vets potential national security impacts of transactions where a foreign government gains control of a U.S. company. It was established by Congress in 2007 after the controversy over the planned purchase of seaports by a company in United Arab Emirates. The other agencies were the departments of Treasury, Defense, Justice, Commerce, Energy and Homeland Security, and two White House agencies (Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and Office of Science and Technology Policy).
Why would the Russians, who are close allies with Hillary since she sold them a chunk (20%) of the US uranium deposits for a simple donation to the Clinton Foundation
The State Dept. was one of nine agencies who reviewed the deal. And Clinton wasn't even the State Department person who sat on the committee who reviewed it.
And the biggest donor didn't even have a financial stake in the company in question at the time he donated to the Clinton Foundation.
and the fake news sites (CNN, etc) are so relentless on spreading this rumor without any evidence.
Yes imagine, someone spreading rumours of corruption without evidence.
I stole this Sig
The Ukrainian army was systematically undermined (i.e. weapons, planes, navy ships, communications hardware was sold off) during previous administrations, which had all been corrupt to varying degrees. The Yanukovych administration (whose shocking corruption and increasingly authoritarian tendencies would cause a popular revolution) in particular, was systematically disassembling Ukraine's army, probably under Russian guidance. When Russia invaded Crimea, Ukraine was essentially unable to front any sort of response. By the time Russia invaded Donbas, Ukraine's civil society had gotten a makeshift army together, which consisted partly of volunteers (the volunteer units would eventually be integrated into the official army). To compensate for shortfalls in funding and equipment, army staff and engineers had to use ingenuity, which often resulted in less than ideal solutions, especially when considering that they were up against the Russian army, which has some of the best artillery and communications equipment in the world. Basically, the choice was often to use a suboptimal solution, or to use nothing at all, so they used the suboptimal solution - this included using mobile phones for communications, as well as other purposes.
It's not clear that Russia has any intention to minimize civilian casualties. For one thing, their proxy forces (the DNR and LNR) get paid to fire off a certain amount of salvos, and when they shoot these artillery shells, they often fire pretty indiscriminately. This guy is located in Lugansk, and his Twitter timeline is dedicated to keeping track of the artillery shelling, in case anyone's curious about it. Second, Russia controls all of the media in the occupied territories, and their MO has been to get one of their GRU/FSB-connected "journalists" into an area (there are certain channels, such as LIfeNews, which are particularly linked to Russian security services), have the Russian journalist direct artillery or tank fire into a civilian target, and then present the footage under the guise of "the junta" shelling Donbas civilians - this is intended to foment a local uprising against Ukraine, but it only works on the most gullible individuals, and according to Russian pollsters, most people in Donbas still support Ukraine.
Possibly two most famous incidents of Russia shelling civilians in Donbas were the Volnovakha bus station bombing (it was an MH17-like situation, where the Russians thought they hit a Ukrainian military target, took credit for it, realized they hit a civilian target, and started fabricating stories that Ukraine did it) and the Mariupol bombing, in which Russia killed at least 29 people, and injured at lest 97. Another famous one was a Donetsk city mortar shelling, which, of course, the Russians tried to pin on Ukraine, until everyone realized that the shelling was done by mortar, the mortar used has a range of a few km, at most, and the nearest Ukrainian position is 20km away; at that point, the Russian terrorists shut up about it. In summary - the only sure way to limit civilian casualties, is to get the Russian invading force off of Ukrainian territory.
You do realize that if Russia invaded Ukraine it would be Georgia all over again
Well, let's see - Putin already admitted to invading Crimea, so you must be talking about the Donbas. Here's an active duty Russian (Buryat) soldier talking about how he and his tank battalion invaded Ukraine, where he sustained horrific injuries. He was telling his story openly in the Russian papers; afterwards, his mom started complaining that the Russian military is refusing to provide his family with benefits. Here's VICE tracking down another active duty Ukraine invader, in Russia. Here's the download link for the Nemtsov report, detailing loads of evidence of Russian soldiers in Ukraine, up to early 2015 (when Nemtsov was murdered right in front of the Kremlin): http://4freerussia.org/putin.w...
Russia is a nation with one of the most advanced and active space programs
Read up on the dependence of Russian aviation, space, and military companies on Ukrainian parts (incidentally, the top people in the Soviet space program were Ukrainian). That's one of the reasons that Russia invaded Ukraine - they've been disassembling defense factories in Lugansk and Donetsk, and shipping them back to Russia.
and a fucking pathetic one at that. It's even more fucking pathetic that this got modded insightful and shows how fucking bad /. has gotten.
Maybe read some news sometimes. Both the FBI and CIA say it was fucking Russians. What do they have to gain by saying that but animosity from the president-elect? FFS.