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Microsoft Launches A Counterattack Against Russia's 'Fancy Bear' Hackers (thedailybeast.com)
Kevin Poulsen writes on the Daily Beast:
It turns out Microsoft has something even more formidable than Moscow's malware: Lawyers. Last year attorneys for the software maker quietly sued the hacker group known as Fancy Bear in a federal court outside Washington DC, accusing it of computer intrusion, cybersquatting, and infringing on Microsoft's trademarks... Since August, Microsoft has used the lawsuit to wrest control of 70 different command-and-control points from Fancy Bear... Rather than getting physical custody of the servers, which Fancy Bear rents from data centers around the world, Microsoft has been taking over the Internet domain names that route to them. These are addresses like "livemicrosoft[.]net" or "rsshotmail[.]com" that Fancy Bear registers under aliases for about $10 each. Once under Microsoft's control, the domains get redirected from Russia's servers to the company's, cutting off the hackers from their victims, and giving Microsoft a omniscient view of that servers' network of automated spies.
"In other words," Microsoft outside counsel Sten Jenson explained in a court filing last year, "any time an infected computer attempts to contact a command-and-control server through one of the domains, it will instead be connected to a Microsoft-controlled, secure server."
Not sure if trolling or just dumb.
The whole 'space race' pissing contest with Russia was the direct impetus for approximately 99.999% of the development of space flight technology.
If it weren't for Russia you wouldn't have a fucking cell phone.
The reality is:
Russia hacked the US election. Team Trump gladly accepted their help, coordinated with them. Most of Trump's team have been vetted by Moscow, the latest reveal shows Sessions was interviewed. Most of team Trump have financial and commercial links to Moscow. The latest is his Communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, founder of Skybridge Capital.
http://tass.com/economy/925424
From TASS, the Russian official news agency:
"President-elect Trump’s incoming staff advisor and public liaison to government agencies and businesses, Anthony Scaramucci and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev discussed prospects for US-Russian business cooperation in Davos, according to Scaramucci speaking with TASS on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in what was his first interview with the Russian media. "I saw him [Dmitriev] half an hour ago," he said. "
So be clear, Scaramucci DID have a meeting with the Russians back in January to discuss lifting sanctions, because lifting sanctions would have to be a precursor for business cooperation.
All of team Trump have met with the Russians, discussed sanctions, given positive opinions on that, and been approved BY MOSCOW for appointment to team Trump.