Slashdot Mirror


CIA Tricked Antivirus Programs, Claims WikiLeaks (betanews.com)

Reader Mark Wilson writes: Today, WikiLeaks published the third installment of its Vault 7 CIA leaks. We've already had the Year Zero files which revealed a number of exploits for popular hardware and software, and the Dark Matter batch which focused on Mac and iPhone exploits. Now we have Marble to look at. A collection of 676 source code files, the Marble cache reveals details of the CIA's Marble Framework tool, used to hide the true source of CIA malware, and sometimes going as far as appearing to originate from countries other than the US. The source code for Marble Framework is tiny -- WikiLeaks has provided it in a zip file that's only around 0.5MB. WikiLeaks explains that the tool is used by the CIA to hide the fact that it is behind malware attacks that are unleashed on targets: "Marble is used to hamper forensic investigators and anti-virus companies from attributing viruses, trojans and hacking attacks to the CIA. Marble does this by hiding ("obfuscating") text fragments used in CIA malware from visual inspection. This is the digital equivalent of a specialized CIA tool to place covers over the english language text on U.S. produced weapons systems before giving them to insurgents secretly backed by the CIA. Marble forms part of the CIA's anti-forensics approach and the CIA's Core Library of malware code."

94 comments

  1. One Thing is Perfectly Clear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Our Guard Dogs have turned on us ... and they have rabies.

    1. Re: One Thing is Perfectly Clear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is what JFK concluded, shortly before he was assassinated

    2. Re:One Thing is Perfectly Clear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That certainly doesn't follow from this story.
      Are you saying that we shouldn't have a spy agency, or that they shouldn't create and use malware, or that their malware should say it's from them, or what?

    3. Re:One Thing is Perfectly Clear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That certainly doesn't follow from this story.
      Are you saying that we shouldn't have a spy agency, or that they shouldn't create and use malware, or that their malware should say it's from them, or what?

      I'm a different AC. I would be just fine with entirely disbanding the CIA, and allowing such a thing only during times of war (as in, "Congress has declared war on X nation", you know, the way it's supposed to work?), and even then, to keep them on a very short leash. I'll gladly take that risk, no problem.

      Want to prevent most foreign aggression (both official and terroristic) against the US? That's easy. Don't fuck with Russia. Don't fuck with China, For fuck's sake, STOP fucking with the Middle East. Yes that means stop using the CIA to do things like overthrow the democratically elected governments of nations such as Iran. For bonus points, do whatever it takes to start manufacturing things other than weapons in the USA again, and see if there's not suddenly a drastic decline in the need for all these undeclared wars.

    4. Re:One Thing is Perfectly Clear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm a different AC. I would be just fine with entirely disbanding the CIA, and allowing such a thing only during times of war (as in, "Congress has declared war on X nation", you know, the way it's supposed to work?),

      Sounds good.

      By the way, we're still at war with North Korea.

    5. Re:One Thing is Perfectly Clear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes that means stop using the CIA to do things like overthrow the democratically elected governments of nations such as Iran.

      This really happened of course, during the 1950s. It's documented, acknowledged history.

      Terrorists don't "hate us for our freedoms". They hate us because we want so badly to believe that our government is "of the People, by the People, and for the People" and responds to the will of the People that we tell the whole world that's the system we have. Thus, when our government creates revolutions, trains and equips Al-Qaeda and the Mujahideen, tries and fails to assassinate Castro and Saddam Hussein, then gets Hussein the hard way because of "weapons of mass destruction" that don't exist, etc. ... well they tend to think that this is what the average American wants. That's why they hate us. They think our government represents us and is only doing what we tell it to do. They have no idea how false that really is. The average American might know the entire lineup of a football team or the personal backstory of a celebrity, but has absolutely no clue whatsoever what the US government is doing overseas.

    6. Re:One Thing is Perfectly Clear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thus, when our government creates revolutions, trains and equips Al-Qaeda and the Mujahideen, tries and fails to assassinate Castro and Saddam Hussein, then gets Hussein the hard way because of "weapons of mass destruction" that don't exist, etc. ... well they tend to think that this is what the average American wants.

      Do you seriously believe any of those things would have lost a direct referendum at the time?

    7. Re: One Thing is Perfectly Clear by PoopJuggler · · Score: 1

      We were always at war with North Korea.

    8. Re:One Thing is Perfectly Clear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Naivete' at it's best right here folks. "If we leave everyone else alone they won't mess with us!" Not spent much time on the playground have you? The world isn't much different when you have something others want - if you're weak they will take it. The CIA has a mission but apparently you completely don't understand it. You think in a time of war it could just be stood up like a pop-up tent? Wow....

    9. Re: One Thing is Perfectly Clear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you can't possibly think of any vital need for an international intelligence gathering network that's not war related you're an ignorant fool and out of your depth to say the very least.

    10. Re:One Thing is Perfectly Clear by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      Terrorists don't "hate us for our freedoms".

      That depends on the terrorist. Some of them very much do. Al-Qaeda and ISIS, given the chance, would kill you simply for not converting to Islam in most cases. In the few cases where they don't, then they'd let you get by if you paid a jizya and obeyed sharia law.

      Either way, that is hating your freedom to not being subject to their religion. You can argue all you want about America did this or America did that, but they give the exact same treatment to non-Americans as well, so it's an entirely moot point.

    11. Re: One Thing is Perfectly Clear by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      This is starting to get silly...I'm beginning to think that the next leak is going to include evidence that the CIA plants dime sized listening devices in people's houses.

      The CIA is and always has been a spy organization, and they've always spied on foreign targets. I'm still waiting for evidence that any of this was used on US citizens.

      Yes, the NSA spying was bad, and Snowden was right to leak it, because they were in fact spying on US citizens. The CIA isn't though; the CIA is merely doing what they've always done, so I don't see why the fact that it involves computers and IoT devices changes anything. (Especially IoT...honestly you have to have your head in the sand if you i.e. still have a smart TV connected to the internet. Many, MANY hacking groups have broken into these so many times that no reasonable person should consider them secure enough to trust. Same with older smartphones that are no longer patched.)

  2. Russian hackers? by Xua · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "and sometimes going as far as appearing to originate from countries other than the US" <- Russian hackers?

    1. Re:Russian hackers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The above comment is likely to be censored in the interests of "National Security".

    2. Re:Russian hackers? by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      The CIA does imitate Russian hackers. But the Russian hackers were imitating Ukranian hackers. What, do you think the CIA could pull off a DOUBLE false flag?

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    3. Re:Russian hackers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you suggesting that if malware 'appears' to have come from Russia it may in fact have come from somewhere 'other' than Russia?

      I'm shocked! It's almost as if the media spin has unravelled right before my very eyes!

    4. Re:Russian hackers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the CIA geeks are typical, they'd probably go for an nth-flag operation, and see how high they can push the "n".

    5. Re:Russian hackers? by zlives · · Score: 1

      no no, Sony was hacked by North Korean hackers on their c-64s

  3. Re:convenient timing as usual from mr. diplomacy by king+neckbeard · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The CIA is a bigger threat to us than Russia is.

    --
    This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
  4. Vault 7? Pshhh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everyone knows Vault 101 is the best.

  5. Typical espionage tactics by evolutionary · · Score: 1

    It's common practice in a secret organization that presumably everyone knows about for your actions so they look in the wrong direct. I'm not justifying anything, just point out the basic "what do you expect". When China attacks us, they blame home grown hackers either domestic or foreign. Russia does the same, why are we any different. What would be interesting is if they did something original, like said it was a rouge employee within their own ranks when they were caught hacking someone. Or have they done that already? Anyone see anything like that from the NSA or CIA?

    --
    "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
    1. Re:Typical espionage tactics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > rouge

      Come on, man. How do people still make this mistake?

    2. Re:Typical espionage tactics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a rouge rogue, and sinister rouge at that.

    3. Re:Typical espionage tactics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > rouge

      Come on, man. How do people still make this mistake?

      Because not making easy mistakes would require thinking.

      What I want to know is why so many people cannot correctly pronounce "nuclear". "Noo-kew-lur" is not an accent or a regional dialect. It's just plain stupid. Few or no people pronounced it that way until George W. Bush said it on TV, and encouraging others to underestimate him was part of his personal strategy and documented in his psychological profile. Then other talking heads on TV started saying it, and it trickled down from there. I bet most people who say "noo-kew-lur" can't even admit that they're parroting the TV. That's the disturbing part. If they can be soft-minded lemmings for a harmless (though annoying) meme, they can be led astray in much more substantial ways as well. All the media has to do is continuously repeat something, portraying it as normal and "just the way things are", and that's all it takes.

    4. Re:Typical espionage tactics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Few or no people pronounced it that way until George W. Bush said it on TV

      Are you twelve? Millions of Americans have been saying it that way for decades.
      I'm not saying they're right; I'm saying you're ignorant.

  6. Re:convenient timing as usual from mr. diplomacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That may be true, but these releases are still clearly meant to be more of a distraction than an attempt at fixing a problem. Kind of trivializes that point of view.

  7. Re:convenient timing as usual from mr. diplomacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Only fools doubt this now, Russia is on the offensive on the internet and deeply implicated in Trump and Brexit elections.

    Weakening Europe so it cannot oppose them in the Ukraine and Crimea .

    Remind me, where is Snowden, now?

  8. russia and china sitting in a tree... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    These leaks don't have the effect that R&C thinks they're having. The US will keep their knowledge of R&C secret while R&C keep disclosing what they know about the US in terms of cyberwarfare abilities. This sort of thing only makes US change tactics and enforces their capabilities.

  9. Alan Turing would've been proud by mi · · Score: 1

    Alan Turing would've been proud of the work, American (and British) intelligence agencies are doing in the area of computers and communications.

    And whoever leaked the information to adversaries, would've been shot in Alan Turing's times... For treason.

    Synzronvg zl gnvy...

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    1. Re:Alan Turing would've been proud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And whoever leaked the information to adversaries, would've been shot in Alan Turing's times... For treason.

      Nah, they'd probably just make them eat a poisoned apple or something.

    2. Re:Alan Turing would've been proud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And whoever leaked the information to adversaries, would've been shot in Alan Turing's times... For treason.

      And let's not forget what that age's paragons of wisdom would do to Turing for being gay. They really had all the right answers, huh?

    3. Re:Alan Turing would've been proud by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

      Alan Turing would've been proud of the work, American (and British) intelligence agencies are doing in the area of computers and communications.

      But if he realized that the 'work' was being used against their own citizens, he would likely have burned not only his own work, but also the entire Bletchley Park complex to the ground and then shot himself after making sure the facts surrounding his actions went public.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    4. Re:Alan Turing would've been proud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Synzronvg zl gnvy...

      Wow, what a sneeze, bless you dear Slashdotter!

    5. Re:Alan Turing would've been proud by mi · · Score: 1

      But if he realized that the 'work' was being used against their own citizens

      There is nothing about that in TFA. We do know about Obama making it easier for his top staff to learn about — and inevitably leaksome such intelligence pertaining to US citizens, but it is still an awesome tech.

      he would likely have burned not only his own work, but also the entire Bletchley Park complex to the ground and then shot himself after making sure the facts surrounding his actions went public.

      No, I'm confident, he would've preferred the "domestic spying" — however appalling by itself — to Hitler's victory.

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    6. Re:Alan Turing would've been proud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And whoever leaked the information to adversaries, would've been shot in Alan Turing's times... For treason.

      ... or some underling who gets thrown under the bus would've been shot for treason.

      Besides, this information isn't surprising to anyone who's even slightly been paying attention. Wait, you mean a government agency with a nearly unlimited budget, no accountability, and a long history of abusive behavior might do deceptive and underhanded things to increase its own power? You mean, now that computers have become really important, some of that agency's usual false-flag tactics will be repeated ... with a computer? Yeah, that just isn't really shocking or surprising at all. I would be shocked to learn that they don't do this. I suppose next it will be revealed that the CIA often violates its mandate to never operate on US soil?

      Hey, at least malware doesn't usually hurt or kill people. That's more than one could say about a great many other things done by spooky government agencies.

    7. Re:Alan Turing would've been proud by BlueStrat · · Score: 0

      ...he would've preferred the "domestic spying" â" however appalling by itself â" to Hitler's victory.

      What's the difference, outside of an obsession with killing Jews, if the methods and results are ultimately nearly the same for regular people? Whether it's the CIA, MI5, or the Nazi SS violating your rights and killing/imprisoning you, you're still just as screwed.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    8. Re:Alan Turing would've been proud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, I'm confident, he would've preferred the "domestic spying" — however appalling by itself — to Hitler's victory

      And I'm confident that he'd recognize that widescale untargeted spying on his fellow Britons would do little to stop Germany.

    9. Re:Alan Turing would've been proud by mi · · Score: 1
      I was going to just ignore your outburst on Godwin's Law grounds, but then realized, that even if, as the Progressive assholes love to claim, the "US is no different from Nazi Germany" (or that "Trump is Hitler"), there is still the importance of your side winning.

      Whether it's the CIA, MI5, or the Nazi SS violating your rights and killing/imprisoning you

      There is a lot more to why we love Nazis, than the SS. And, of course, in reality neither CIA nor MI5 are anywhere close to them in the "killing/imprisoning" part, which you clumsily attempted to conflate with the amorphous "violating your rights".

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    10. Re:Alan Turing would've been proud by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

      Whether it's the CIA, MI5, or the Nazi SS violating your rights and killing/imprisoning you

      There is a lot more to why we love Nazis, than the SS. And, of course, in reality neither CIA nor MI5 are anywhere close to them in the "killing/imprisoning" part, which you clumsily attempted to conflate with the amorphous "violating your rights".

      As far as the CIA/MI5 "not being anywhere close", in many areas I would disagree. In fact, in some areas they've exceeded the wildest dreams of all the dictators and tyrannies of the 20th century. With the widespread use of "Predator"-type weapons systems in the military and the push for domestic law enforcement use of drones, it seems only a matter of time before they exceed yet more past dreams of tyrants.

      And as for your referring to "...the amorphous "violating your rights"." the rights in question are very clear as well as the serious and numerous clear violations of those rights. There's nothing "amorphous" about it.

      History is filled with numerous stories of how dictators, tyrants, and authoritarian regimes have risen and fallen through the decades and centuries. One lesson stands clear. It's best not to wait until the checkpoints are set up and the armored vehicles are stationed at intersections before trying to prevent the slide into authoritarianism.

      Being aware of the dangers and sensitive to trends from more than a passing knowledge and understanding of history, thus allowing political action early on before things escalate, leaves a lot fewer dead bodies all around.

      Read history books. Times may change but human nature and behavior does not. The life/lives you save may be your own and your family's, for many generations to come. Or not.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    11. Re:Alan Turing would've been proud by mi · · Score: 1

      in some areas they've exceeded the wildest dreams of all the dictators and tyrannies

      "In some ways", maybe — because of the technology advances. But not in the killing/imprisoning part.

      As for the rest, I remind you of the Godwin's Law once again... Farewell.

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  10. Re:convenient timing as usual from mr. diplomacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    That may be true, but these releases are still clearly meant to be more of a distraction than an attempt at fixing a problem. Kind of trivializes that point of view.

    It is true. The CIA is a grave and existential threat to everything that the US stands for. They will stop at nothing to distract, and ultimately consolidate power. This is not power for the people, nor by the people, it is lawless power over the people.

  11. My sub is better, missing key fact. by bongey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The key fact is it disguises the original malware writers in Chinese, Russian, Korean,Arabic and Farsi.
    Wikileaks Vault 7 Part 3 has released the CIA's Marble framework that is used the disguise the origin of malware. Specifically it is designed to " "[D]esigned to allow for flexible and easy-to-use obfuscation" as "string obfuscation algorithms (especially those that are unique) are often used to link malware to a specific developer or development shop."
    https://slashdot.org/submissio...

    Brings up a key point if the CIA does this, other countries do the same thing.
    Do you really think Russia would sprinkle their hacked documents with Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear?

    1. Re:My sub is better, missing key fact. by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Yes the CIA could change the code litter. A later gov or private sector investigation would find the code litter of another nation as talking point.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  12. What is the Slashdot and "BetaNews" connection? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wish that somebody would dig into the relationship between Slashdot and this "BetaNews" site that's being linked to.

    There is a submission linking to this "BetaNews" site almost every day. Hell, there have already been two submissions linking to that site today alone! There were 3 submissions linking to that site on March 25!

    Why are they getting so much attention around here? Their site isn't remarkable in any way. The articles are mediocre.

    I have no evidence that something nefarious is going on here, but I do find it suspicious. Why is a such a little-known site ending up linked to from the front page of Slashdot so often?

    Even if it's purely accidental, perhaps the Slashdot editors should be more careful about plastering links to that site all over the Slashdot front page. If that site has a truly remarkable article then link to it. Otherwise, keep the links to their site to a minimum. Maybe just one or two a month, if even that many.

    If we really felt the need to read "BetaNews" articles, we'd visit the "BetaNews" site directly! We come to Slashdot for variety, and not to be sent to "BetaNews".

    At this point it's really starting to feel like another Bennett Haselton sort of situation. We really don't need that to happen again.

  13. Redirecting the discussion by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Julian's a Russian asset. He might've had the best intentions at some point, but it's very difficult to realize them while staring down the barrel of a figurative or literal gun. His omissions, timing, and deeply misleading editorialism are equally as powerful as printing blatant falsehoods.

    And by that you mean that his release isn't authentic?

    Or maybe that it isn't important? Or interesting? Or valuable to society?

    And I have to wonder, just how is it that you know his intentions? Or that he's a Russian asset?

    You mention "printing blatant falsehoods". Do you have references, sources, rationalization, or... in fact... *anything* to support what you just said?

    Someone always tries to direct the conversation away from the issues and to the person making the claim.

    Does this work on Slashdot? Can we get everyone talking about the merits of Julian Assange at the top of the discussion, pushing any real debate down "below the fold" so fewer people see it?

  14. Stop flas Flag Russians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most efficient ad & threat blocker there is

    APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-5 32/64-bit https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=%22APK+Hosts+File+Engine%22+and+%22start64%22&btnG=Google+Search&gbv=1/

    Ads & malwares rob speed, security & privacy

    Hosts add speed (hardcodes/adblocks), security (bad sites/poisoned dns), reliability (dns down), & anonymity (dns requestlogs/trackers) natively

    Host&s stops all trafic even better than a fierwall to unknown hosts and ports all while us less powr

    Hosts better than AV at detecting malicious software and stop$ in tracks

    Less power/cpu/ram + IO use vs. DNS/routers/addons/antivirus + less security bugs/complexity

    * Using what you already NATIVELY have, built into your TCP/IP stack running in FASTOR kernelmode!

    Able to keep Grandm4 and you kid sister out of your porn stash

    Generate nightly when I sodomize yur cat

    So simple it won't actually provide any protection that a small child couldn't get around

    APK

    P.S. - Safe because it will only keep script kiddies at bay on the best day

    1. Re: Stop flas Flag Russians by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fake A.P.K for President. I love you man.

  15. Leave it to BetaNews by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Leave it to BetaNews to misundertand a story. They didn't fool antivirus software. They fooled "forensics experts." Stop pushing this crappy site with crappy writing already. There are so many things wrong in that article I don't know where to start.

  16. Strings by Sloppy · · Score: 1

    How dastardly! These CIA hackers wrote a program that takes the "Copyright 2011 CIA" strings in executables and replaces them with Chinese copyright notices!

    On the other hand, it's nice that the CIA was putting origin-identifying strings into the binaries in the first place (so they exist to be removed or changed). If I were running a spy agency, I'm not sure I would have thought to do that.

    --
    As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
    1. Re:Strings by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think Oracle has a patent on this. The CIA is going to find itself in deep litigation soon!

  17. Re:convenient timing as usual from mr. diplomacy by BlueStrat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Remind me, where is Snowden, now?

    Right where the US knowingly forced him to be. Snowden didn't want to seek refuge in Russia, the US gave him no choice by yanking his passport when/how they did. It's easier for the US intelligence services and their propaganda mouthpieces to dismiss Snowden's revelations to the low-info US public that way.

    Russia is on the offensive on the internet...

    When has Russia, or every other major power including the US for that matter, NOT been on the offensive on the internet?

    ...deeply implicated in Trump and Brexit elections.

    Innuendo and conjecture unsupported by verifiable facts. Just as likely, if not more so, that it was British and US intelligence services attempting to interfere, if anyone was. They'd have more to gain (or lose), actually.

    Strat

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  18. Re:convenient timing as usual from mr. diplomacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    And you're a CIA asset, it seems.

    Look: Putin's an authoritarian asshole. The FSB is out of control, and Russian government is pushing their power agenda, among other at the Russian's cost (excepting the few ultra rich). We know that.

    But what the fuck has this to do with the fact that our secret services are out of control, a state whithin the state, and that we have to do something about it, if we want to keep our democracies in working order -- more or less.

    Why are you trying to derail the discussion? Let's focus on CIA's abuses here, shall we?

  19. Re:convenient timing as usual from mr. diplomacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    That may be true, but these releases are still clearly meant to be more of a distraction than an attempt at fixing a problem. Kind of trivializes that point of view.

    It is true. The CIA is a grave and existential threat to everything that the US stands for. They will stop at nothing to distract, and ultimately consolidate power. This is not power for the people, nor by the people, it is lawless power over the people.

    Yeah but the CIA does a few "nice" things for us. I mean, if not for them it would be much harder to buy illegal drugs! They pretty much owned the LSD manufacturing (a truly complex process requiring specialized knowledge of organic chemistry). In the 80s they deliberately saturated poor African American neighborhoods with crack cocaine (as though those people didn't have it bad enough as it was). They import most of the illegal opiates including heroin too. As a matter of fact Afghanistan became one of the major producers of opium and opium products, once our regular military got rid of that pesky Taliban that strictly forbade such things.

    Drugs being illegal means high profit margins! And every time the police shut down one of their upstart competitors they control even more of a given market. Seriously this is how they fund a lot of their black-ops, this way there's no accountability, no high-ranking Congresspeople with security clearances can see the real total of how much they're spending or everything they spend it on. They see only the more legitimate-looking line items, if they even have access to that much. Why, the only ones who lose are the regular people.

    All of the above is documented and not a difficult research topic. It just isn't something the mass media is going to spoon-feed to you. For more fun and excitement (outrage) read up on MK-ULTRA some time. How do you cause law-abiding family men to suddenly go assassinate an inconvenient pest or just flip out and go on shooting rampages, effectively turning them into remote-control killers, sleeper agents who don't know they are sleeper agents? With Soviet-style brainwashing, of course! If you ever saw The Manchurian Candidate, that's very much how it is done.

  20. CIA *is* Russia by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The CIA is a bigger threat to us than Russia is.

    I think you're missing a key point here: The CIA threat *is* the Russia threat.

    Consider the balance of evidence: Putin says the Clinton leaks did not come from Russia, Julian said specifically that he knew where the Clinton leaks came from and that it wasn't Russia, the US evidence that the Clinton leaks came from Russia can be summed up as "it's something they would do".

    And now we find out that the CIA can leak whatever they want and make it *look* like it came from Russia.

    Also, they are one of the government agencies who claims that the leaks came from Russia.

    Now, I don't have any evidence that the CIA is leaking things and making it appear as if Russia did it, but this has to make us question whether we can trust *any* government pronouncement of where some leak or another came from.

    All this "the Russians did it!" can now be completely ignored as an ad-hominem attempt to lead attention away from the actual data that was leaked.

    We don't know *who* leaked it, because for all we know it was our own security agency.

    (And need I point out that GCHQ, Russian intelligence, and a host of other players could probably do the same thing.)

    1. Re:CIA *is* Russia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now, I don't have any evidence that the CIA is leaking things and making it appear as if Russia did it, but this has to make us question whether we can trust *any* government pronouncement of where some leak or another came from.

      It's truly astounding and mind-boggling. Really it amazes me very much that anyone gives any sort of credibility or trust to *any* agency of the federal government. If a regular person blatantly lied to you, right to your face, just a few times, you would soon stop trusting anything they say because it would be established that they're a liar. Somehow if you have the right symbol (badge, logo, agency) people will continue to take you seriously no matter how many times you lie to them.

      Government is nothing more than an attempt to monopolize the use of violence and the credible threat of violence. That's what makes government special, what it can do that private citizens are not allowed to do. Government is a necessary evil. Please stop celebrating it and for the love of $DEITY stop giving them the benefit of doubt. They've proven themselves unworthy of it time and again.

  21. Re:convenient timing as usual from mr. diplomacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They pretty much owned the LSD manufacturing (a truly complex process requiring specialized knowledge of organic chemistry).

    Indeed. This isn't like crack or meth. LSD isn't something the local gang member is going to cook up in his kitchen. Even assuming said gang member can somehow obtain the laboratory glassware, chemical feedstocks, and reagents without raising a ton of suspicion and getting loads of attention from law enforcement (they routinely catch people making methamphetamine this way, and unlike LSD, the ingredients for meth generally have plausible legitimate/legal uses).

    The CIA did give up on trying to use LSD to control people. As Terrence McKenna put it, LSD "dissolves the social machinery through which it moves". People who took it reported a feeling of oneness with other human beings and a desire for peaceful coexistence. That's really not what the CIA stands for.

  22. Why don't your precious "Heroes" step in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't worry, those "heros" you worship so hard will do the right thing and put a stop to it. After all I keep hearing from you people online about your "freedom" and "freedom isn't free" and other patriotic garbage. I'm sure the Muircan people will stand up and say no more.

    Right "Murica"?

  23. Re:convenient timing as usual from mr. diplomacy by benjonson · · Score: 1

    The CIA is a bigger threat to us than Russia is.

    Sure, right. Because Wikileaks has also given us equivalent info on Russian espionage.

    Wait, they haven't? What's going on here?

    --
    =-+
  24. Re:convenient timing as usual from mr. diplomacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Innuendo and conjecture unsupported by verifiable facts.

    Politics does not operate by means of verifiable facts. I'm not sure if it has ever worked that way, except MAYBE in small-scale democracies like Athens where important offices were assigned by lottery. Even then ...

    No, politics at the individual level is governed by two major things: what someone has been taught to believe and never seriously questioned, and what someone really wants to believe. To give an easy example, a lot of people want to believe that banning guns will work in the USA. If you point out, with references that Chicago has loads of shootings despite it being nearly impossible to legally own a gun there, or that mass shootings overwhelmingly happen in "gun free zones", or that states which enable conceal-carry experience lower violent crime rates, or that (and this is basic and easy to understand) criminals willing to commit mass murder aren't afraid of weapons charges, well they get upset.

    They get angry. They get upset. They might try to shout you down (or mod you down), call you names, demonize you, misrepresent your position, etc. They don't do anything like saying "hey that's a good point, and I really need to explain that or else my position becomes untenable". Far from it. That's politics.

    At most, verifiable facts might be (selectively, carefully framed, with no rebuttal permitted) brought up after a decision has already been made, in order to give an appearance of objectivity to what was going to happen anyway because that's what the monied interests want. This also has the side-effect of convincing supporters that they had a monopoly on truth all along, increasing their zeal, making them more useful, vocal, and so convinced that "their side" is "right" that listening to reasonable doubts seems like a waste of time.

  25. Re:convenient timing as usual from mr. diplomacy by dbreeze · · Score: 1

    https://search.wikileaks.org/?...
    Mebbe there's no equivalent info on russia because they have less of a corrupt, lawlessness problem with their government than we have here in America.
    Some people just don't understand that there's little excuse for not knowing almost anything you want these days...

    --
    When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law he tore his robes.2Kings22:11
  26. Proprietary software: still untrustworthy. by jbn-o · · Score: 3, Informative

    The "guard dogs" were proprietary programs. Users of proprietary OSes (chiefly MacOS and Windows) were trusting one black box to "guard" against the ills of other black boxes (other likely proprietary programs running on the same system). This was always known to be foolish and this WikiLeaks release shows another indisputable example how this system is broken by design.

    Software freedom (the freedom to run, share, inspect, and modify) is no guarantee against malware, life offers no such guarantees. As with other endeavors we can act to improve the odds in our favor for computers we own so we don't fall prey to the ills of proprietary software. We know that keeping secrets from computer users prevents them from controlling their own computers (this is the power of a proprietor and why proprietary software is released). When we have software freedom we increase the odds skilled software practitioners will identify malware, change the software to excise the malware, and release the improved software. One could even hire someone's skill and time to do this on their behalf.

    But no such inspection, improvement, and release is legally permitted with proprietary software. Thus most computer users fall prey not only to the traps of proprietary software itself, but also to the traps built into the software, and the traps of the software ostensibly meant to guard from the ills of other malware. There's no good reason to have faith in one black box over another, trust that one black box will keep you safe while another is less trustworthy, or to continue choosing one master over another. It's easy, convenient, and untrustworthy to do as the proprietors want you to do. You can choose software freedom and invest in businesses working to provide you with practical hardware to make this an everyday reality that meets your computing needs. The Free Software Foundation's "Respects Your Freedom" list includes a high-powered X86 64-bit mainboard called the "Vikings D16 Mainboard" which looks particularly appealing for high-powered, high RAM ceiling systems. WikiLeaks continues to tell us all why we need hardware and software we can trust, software that respects our freedom—we see the consequences of not having trustworthy systems! We can choose to value software freedom for its own sake and we should. Investing in our own future in this way now portends big practical payoffs in the near and long-term future.

    1. Re:Proprietary software: still untrustworthy. by sokk · · Score: 2

      Good points, but I still think that open source suffers because of the lack of a economic model that fits application developers. Open source is good for the big dogs ("cloud", "enterprise") - not so good for the garage guys. I think the status quo will self-correct if the economic incentive can be tilted. How about an open source license that only allows distribution to other license holders?

    2. Re:Proprietary software: still untrustworthy. by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      The advantage of open source it is very hard to sneak stuff in or leave bugs in there because every countries across the board can take a squiz http://www.dictionary.com/brow... at the code, unlike closed source. So when they find a bug, it is not like they can secure their own without the rest finding out, so in spy vs spy open source tends by the nature of it's design to be neutral territory (not that they would not hack it but secure it for one, secure it for all and blinding hoping the fully visible bugs wont be found is like sitting on a mine and hopping for the best).

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    3. Re:Proprietary software: still untrustworthy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the problem is not the fact that one can redistribute. the problem is the lack of imagination of developers in creating their business model. people think that you have to restrict distribution, but there are over 6 billion people on the planet. Get a grip...

  27. How I know I'm winning... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: You're reduced to impersonating me w/ bogus posts (or downmodding my real posts) & can't prove me wrong technically so yes, I am winning.

    APK

    P.S.=> Thanks whoever you are impersonating me - you're tipping your hand you can't get the better of me... apk

    1. Re: How I know I'm winning... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seeing that shit is annoying isn't it? Now take a hint and both of you go away.

  28. Re: What is the Slashdot and "BetaNews" connection by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What is wrong with Bennett Haselton? If a man decides to have a sex-change operation, that is his right.

  29. What the source code could show? by AHuxley · · Score: 1

    Could the source code reverse a method? A good tech journalist could then look back over past events and uncloak past cold litter discoveries?

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    1. Re:What the source code could show? by tobiah · · Score: 1

      Cold litter ate my source code.

      --
      "The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool" - Jane Wagner -
    2. Re:What the source code could show? by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      All the past cold case discoveries packed with "evidence" that had to point to nations due to "language" or expected code "fragments". i.e. cold case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... but now we have old litter that can be reexamined.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  30. Yes, and others by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

    "and sometimes going as far as appearing to originate from countries other than the US"
    TFA includes a partial list of the languages used by the tool:

    The code includes Chinese, Russian, Korean, Arabic and Farsi language examples,

    In other words: The CIA tool could fake their attacks as originating from, or sponsored and assisted by, at least the following state-level powers:
      - China
      - Russia
      - North Korea
      - ISIS
      - Iran

    So, Yes. The CIA could routinely fake their malware, and attacks using it, as coming from Russia.

    I find it interesting, though unsurprising, that this was not included in the slashdot posting. B-b

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  31. Annoying? It makes me laugh... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See my subject: I catch & log (in bookmarks) every time this impersonating me happens (makes me laugh & proves I'm right is why)

    APK

    P.S.=> Yes, I know - you're the SAME weak jackass doing the impersonating of me & yes, you can go FUCK yourself whimp - NOW, & I've said this before? The owner here whipslash/Logan Abbott, can ask me to leave in person or by email (apk4776239@hotmail.com) & yes, I'll leave (he'll have to KNEEL to me to do it, essentially martyring me, proving me right (I affect ads from his sponsors, & yes, that's how it really works (same thing's happening w/ InfoWars & Alex Jones - everyone KNOWS how bogus "the system" is))... apk

    1. Re:Annoying? It makes me laugh... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      See my subject: I catch & log (in bookmarks) every time this impersonating me happens (makes me laugh & proves I'm right is why)

      APK

      P.S.=> Yes, I know - you're the SAME weak jackass doing the impersonating of me & yes, you can go FUCK yourself whimp - NOW, & I've said this before? The owner here whipslash/Logan Abbott, can ask me to leave in person or by email (apk4776239@hotmail.com) & yes, I'll leave (he'll have to KNEEL to me to do it, essentially martyring me, proving me right (I affect ads from his sponsors, & yes, that's how it really works (same thing's happening w/ InfoWars & Alex Jones - everyone KNOWS how bogus "the system" is))... apk

      I wish he WOULD martyr you. Maybe a public lynching? Hey if that's what you want, there's got to be some third world nation some place that will oblige. Necklacing is a particularly popular method in various parts of Africa, maybe you should try it? Then you can REALLY be a martyr instead of crying about phony persecution to a bunch of Slashdotters who don't give a shit about anything you say or anything you have ever done, you pathetically insecure lonely little shell of a man.

      Don't you dare compare yourself to Alex Jones. The "Bulldog" actually does useful things and enlightens people who want to listen. You're just a fucking spammer. I've never seen Jones spam an unrelated forum. I always have to go to his sites that he owns, or specifically search for him on Youtube, to see his message. UNLIKE YOU! You're a fucking pest. Next time you get a couple hours on Coast to Coast AM you just let us know. Then you will have accomplished something other than writing a program that concatenates strings and writes the output to a fucking plain text file, woohoo what a grand accomplishment, fucking give me a break. No wonder you're so psychotic and pesky, if you actually accomplished something then OTHER PEOPLE would COME TO YOU and you wouldn't have to SPAM them. Dipshit. Go cry now about how everyone who disagrees with you is really just a one-man conspiracy because they're trying to KEEP YOU DOWN, oh boo hoo you poor guy you.

    2. Re:Annoying? It makes me laugh... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      See my subject: I catch & log (in bookmarks) every time this impersonating me happens (makes me laugh & proves I'm right is why)

      APK

      P.S.=> Yes, I know - you're the SAME weak jackass doing the impersonating of me & yes, you can go FUCK yourself whimp - NOW, & I've said this before? The owner here whipslash/Logan Abbott, can ask me to leave in person or by email (apk4776239@hotmail.com) & yes, I'll leave (he'll have to KNEEL to me to do it, essentially martyring me, proving me right (I affect ads from his sponsors, & yes, that's how it really works (same thing's happening w/ InfoWars & Alex Jones - everyone KNOWS how bogus "the system" is))... apk

      I wish he WOULD martyr you. Maybe a public lynching? Hey if that's what you want, there's got to be some third world nation some place that will oblige. Necklacing is a particularly popular method in various parts of Africa, maybe you should try it? Then you can REALLY be a martyr instead of crying about phony persecution to a bunch of Slashdotters who don't give a shit about anything you say or anything you have ever done, you pathetically insecure lonely little shell of a man.

      Don't you dare compare yourself to Alex Jones. The "Bulldog" actually does useful things and enlightens people who want to listen. You're just a fucking spammer. I've never seen Jones spam an unrelated forum. I always have to go to his sites that he owns, or specifically search for him on Youtube, to see his message. UNLIKE YOU! You're a fucking pest. Next time you get a couple hours on Coast to Coast AM you just let us know. Then you will have accomplished something other than writing a program that concatenates strings and writes the output to a fucking plain text file, woohoo what a grand accomplishment, fucking give me a break. No wonder you're so psychotic and pesky, if you actually accomplished something then OTHER PEOPLE would COME TO YOU and you wouldn't have to SPAM them. Dipshit. Go cry now about how everyone who disagrees with you is really just a one-man conspiracy because they're trying to KEEP YOU DOWN, oh boo hoo you poor guy you.

      Hahaha speak the truth brother! I've almost never seen APK get 0wned quite like that. Truth hurts when you're an insecure little biatch!! Wow, writing concatenated strings to a file, what a master programmer. I've never seen people who really accomplish something great, have to use "bridges" (wtf? do you not know anything about networking?) to evade posting limits just to brag about it. No, when people really accomplsih something their achievements speak for themselves. Of course Mr. Kowalski can't understand that. He has no experience of it.

    3. Re:Annoying? It makes me laugh... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey Mr. Kowalski, what do you think of this page?

      http://www.thorschrock.com/2008/05/19/how-to-respond-when-people-threaten-to-sue-you-on-the-web/

      I think it would make a fine frontpage Slashdot submission, since you insist on being a prominent member of this site, everyone may as well know the whole story! What do you say?

    4. Re:Annoying? It makes me laugh... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Coren22 https://slashdot.org/~Coren22 = Derek Simard - 6415 Jefferson Pl, Glen Burnie, MD 21061 (410) 766-5672 (410) 766-6068

  32. Wikileaks summaries are propaganda by kent.dickey · · Score: 1

    Why aren't people paying attention? Wikileaks summaries are always just propaganda, intentionally misleading to work up conspiracy theorists. It's clever though, it's based on half-truths, but it's generally nothing in the end. They look over their info for weeks to write their summary, then dump a huge amount of info that no one can reasonably read quickly, so the media just publishes the Wikileaks summary.

    Just wait a few days, the truth will come out to be something extremely boring. Ah, but who follows up and finds out the truth? This propaganda is very effective.

    I think the most shocking revelation from the Clinton email leaks was Podesta's risotto recipe.

    1. Re:Wikileaks summaries are propaganda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Totally agree. Anyone who believes that government agents or politicans could be involved in conspiracies is just a delusional no good russian commie.

    2. Re:Wikileaks summaries are propaganda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agree completely. The fact that Clinton's emails where such a snore fest is likely the reason pizza gate is so vehemently believed in. After the hype and build up by wikileaks of how important and historic the release was, believers literally had to fabricate a hidden conspiracy within the emails to prove to themselves they hadn't been duped/lied to by wikileaks. Cognitive Dissonance, it's a thing.

  33. So now we know it was the CIA leaking to Wikileaks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And changing the code to make it look like the Russians were involved. Stirs up all their targets and doesn't burden us with that snore-fest of a drunkard Hillary Clinton.

  34. Re:convenient timing as usual from mr. diplomacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow get out much do you?

  35. Re:convenient timing as usual from mr. diplomacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...deeply implicated in Trump and Brexit elections.

    Innuendo and conjecture unsupported by verifiable facts.

    FACT: RT exists and has a pro-Russia - and therefore anti-Hillary - bias.

    FACT: RT has a website where they sometimes post their biased US coverage which often ends up on facebook and twitter where innocent American eyes might see it.

    FACT: Lying on the internet is completely equivalent to - if not actually worse than - hacking into government vote-counting machines or computers in swing states on election day and adding thousands of votes for Trump.

    FACT: No American news organizations have any institutional biases of their own; agenda-driven, factually-deficient journalism is a complete unknown in the US; and Americans would never, ever, EVER meddle in anyone else's elections.

    CONCLUSION: Russia hacked the election, Trump is Putin's puppet, and we must neutralize him immediately by any means necessary before he causes the annihilation of all life on earth.

    QED

  36. Re:convenient timing as usual from mr. diplomacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sure, right. Because Wikileaks has also given us equivalent info on Russian espionage.

    Irrelevant.

    Wait, they haven't? What's going on here?

    You're an idiot repeating a dumbfuck talking point, as truth does not need to be "balanced" to be true. That's whats happening.

  37. CA & fat pig Thor SCHMUCK make me laugh more! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See my subject: Why? CA falsely accused a ware of mine of being malware & had to remove it (reduced to zero threat in the end) on my passing all 21 of their then questions for removal (This was upon the advice of an attorney John Lowe of Hiscock & Barclay in a conversation with him regarding it on the telephone that I take their test for removal).

    So, I did so, & I passed the 21 questions, & the "alleged threat" was downrated, BUT, should have been removed totally: It wasn't.

    APK

    P.S.=> CA's reputation IS questionable: CA accounting scandals the SEC got onto them for + they WERE found guilty... apk

  38. /.ers disagree (you did better? No) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm going to continue using the Host File Engine. Your software is well written, functional. The Host File Engine performs exactly as promised by mmell

    his hosts program is actually pretty good by xenotransplant

    I've never tried to belittle (APK's) work, I've flat out said it's good by BronsCon

    take a look at the APK hosts file engine by SuperKendall

    APK is kinda right. I've tried his hosts file generating software. It works by bmo

    I like your host file system by Karmashock

    I find your hosts file admirable by vel-ex-tech

    his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources by alexgieg

    * Recommended & hosted by Malwarebytes' hpHosts!

    APK

    P.S.=> You can try put down my doing well but you never will manage the above & you KNOW it, UNIDENTIFIABLE "ne'er-do-well" troll loser... apk

  39. /.ers disagree (you did better? No) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm going to continue using the Host File Engine. Your software is well written, functional. The Host File Engine performs exactly as promised by mmell

    his hosts program is actually pretty good by xenotransplant

    I've never tried to belittle (APK's) work, I've flat out said it's good by BronsCon

    take a look at the APK hosts file engine by SuperKendall

    APK is kinda right. I've tried his hosts file generating software. It works by bmo

    I like your host file system by Karmashock

    I find your hosts file admirable by vel-ex-tech

    his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources by alexgieg

    * Recommended & hosted by Malwarebytes' hpHosts!

    APK

    P.S.=> You can try put down my doing well but you'll never manage the above yourself & you KNOW it, UNIDENTIFIABLE "ne'er-do-well" troll loser... apk

  40. Re:convenient timing as usual from mr. diplomacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nah man gotta push that speed to keep the oil workers getting that black gold.

  41. Thanks 4 letting me know I'm winning! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See my subject: Impersonating me lets me know you can't validly technically prove me wrong on hosts & my program!

    * :)

    (Get your head examined, whacko - you're not only LOSING but you're also LOSING IT!)

    APK

    P.S.=> I must've really, Really, REALLY "torn you apart" before that you're SO BUTTHURT you'd stoop to IMPERSONATING ME & failing (even others noticed it in replies to your sorry whacko butthurt ass)... apk