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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 $10 each. Once under Microsoft's control, the domains get redirected from Russia's servers to the company's, cutting off the hackers from their victims, and giving Microsoft a omniscient view of that servers' network of automated spies.
"In other words," Microsoft outside counsel Sten Jenson explained in a court filing last year, "any time an infected computer attempts to contact a command-and-control server through one of the domains, it will instead be connected to a Microsoft-controlled, secure server."
There'd be colonies on Mars.
With a court order they can look up who is behind the compromised IP.
Then they can call them up from "Microsoft Techsupport" to inform them that they've been infected with a virus!
Now that's service!
This is just Microsoft taking over random phishing domains, yes?
I'm still amazed that the Russian state's superhackers have no state-level tools like the NSA's TAO program revealed to us all and are forced to phish everyone in the hopes of getting a day or two worth of access to an interesting email account and rob rubes of rubles. It's almost like the APT is just some low-level nobodies instead of a state-run organ of a major geopolitical power.
Crowdstrike makes this story leave poo in the mouth. Senate wants to see ya Crowdstrike, where's your story now bitch.
We would all be trying to browse the internet with Netscape Navigator... on a Macintosh... using 5 1/4" floppy disks... and Linux and Unix would be nonexistent... and Hillary Clinton would be the president of the USA... in 2017.
...to help (a tiny bit) solve the huge problem their crappy software created in the first place.
"In other words," Microsoft outside counsel Sten Jenson explained in a court filing last year, "any time an infected computer attempts to contact a command-and-control server through one of the domains, it will instead be connected to a Microsoft-controlled, secure server."
So, sorta like M$ $kype?
It's hardly just malware we face from Russia, Putin is notorious for killing dissidents abroad with radioactive metals, e.g. Alexander Litvinenko killed in London with polonium.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2015-03-15/litvinenko-hearings-put-putin-s-kgb-state-on-display
I see John McCain has brain cancer. It's unlikely (given his age cancer is likely by random chance) but he should be checked anyway for radiation. If you think Putin would think nothing of taking POTUS control but would be afraid to poison lesser Americans, you're dreaming.
"Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium-210, a rare radioactive isotope. For years the U.K. sought the extradition of two Russian men -- Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun -- who met Litvinenko for tea on the day he was poisoned. And for years Russia has refused."
"Indeed, last Sunday -- a day before the inquiry was to examine Lugovoi's single interview with British police in Moscow -- President Vladimir PUTIN AWARDED HIM A MEDAL "for services to the fatherland" in Russia's parliament"
You may not want to face reality here, but Putin poisons people who disagree with him, and he does that regardless of where they are. McCain is a Putin critic and USA has a duty to ensure Putin hasn't poisioned him.
You can pretend that checking is somehow a left wing or political thing to do. No, it's defending a countries leaders from foreign assasins of a rogue state.
they are still the only ones proven to exist, proven to be breaking into networks of peaceful countries and sabotaging them. When will CIA and NSA be sued for what they've done?
This is just Microsoft trying to make sure they're the only people putting malware on your computer. Old monopolies die hard. ;)
Shut up and eat your vegetables!!!
Is there any of you cretinous enough not to notice the agenda of the owners of Slashdot? Russia this- Russia that- and I've lived long enough to understand how vastly more malicious the anti-russian propaganda is compared to any time in the 60s, 70s and 80s.
A vote for Clinton was a vote for war against Greater Humanity- yet with Clinton's loss the entire mainstream media of America doubles down and howls every day for any and all action likely to lead to the extermination of BILLIONS of people on our planet. When Trump wasin danger of meeting his anti-war election promises, slashdot and the rest of the filthy zionist media took the Far East to the brink of total catastrophy by pointing Trump at N Korea (and N Korea, remember, only exists at the behest of Japan to prevent a re-unified Korea from overtaking Japan as the no.2 regional power).
Slashdot and the rest of the neo-liberal left were aghast at the fact that Trump would ineviltably withdraw US support from Clinton's wahhabi terror gangs in Syria, allowing Russia to complete the elimination of ISIS as a major political force in Syria and Iraq.
Trump finally ended CIA support to Clinton's islamic extremists because Putin took out the entire upper hierarchy of ISIS, along with their British and American handlers, with a strike on two building in which a massive planning meeting was taking place. This strike got minimal coverage in the West, of course- but added many new stars to the infamous CIA memorial plaque.
Clinton's American terror has been defeated in Syria and Iraq, and will be eventually rolled back in Libya. Clinton did America massive damage in Turkey. Clinton's terror in East Ukraine has been thoroughly beaten as well. The zionist owners of Slashdot are in despair- which is why we see these moronic "anything that bashes Russia" stories now.
Slashdot wants the big one- war with Iran involving nuclear strikes by the USA- but slashdot has been wanting this since PNAC was first published, and the new owners feel no closer to this holocaust than 15 years back. The rage against Russia smacks of the expected impotence of vile evil warmongers, of course- but the owners of slashdot also gamble that there is a real possibility of triggering a 'crazy' act by Trump whose fallout would lead to a spiral of events giving them the new wars they crave.
How evil is the neo-liberal left in the West? Tony Blair's Fabian movement that perfectly forms alliance with the traditional warmongers of the right. When Tony Blair first sought real power, posters appeared all across the UK showing him with DEMON eyes (go google this fact). While the posters were passed off as nothing but an opposition knocking campaign, nothing like this has been seen before or since in UK party political propaganda.
What the owners of slashdot do- in the name of warmongering- can only by described as 'demonic'. What Blair and Clinton did in Iraq, Syria and Libya can only be described as 'demonic'.
Anyway here's a story about Microsoft and 'hacking'- the same microsoft that spent many billions of dollars designing the NSA "spy in every home" NSA device called kinect 2 (always on microphone and camera system allowing the NSA to track the lives of millions of ordianry Americans). Despite Microsoft and slashdot's best efforts, kinect 2 was utterly rejected by ordianry people- and is now no longer part of Microsoft consoles. You see Slashdot and Microsoft can lie and lie and lie, and Clinton-loving neo-liberals can cry and cry and cry- but chances are despite the propaganda ordinary people will still perceive the truth.
Russia is the last hope against the unprecedented murder machine we know as the military forces of the USA. America is now Salusa Secundus- and slashdot but another propaganda organ designed to condition the drones.
Is to bypass the default DNS servers.
Not all THAT hard to do. After all, Microsoft does that now to prevent redirecting their own spyware foisted off on users.
I propose to pay fees or royalties per satellite to Russia because was the first.
Getting poisoned with polonium is not a 'unfortunate event', its an assasination. Putin gave the killer a medal for services to the fatherland, the day after he was interviewed by the UK police visiting Moscow. Putin is not the victim here, the victim is dead of pollonium poisoning and his killers are in Moscow showered with money and a medal from Putin.
I think you would put Putin in charge of protecting American Congressmen and Senators from poison, rather than face the reality of what Russia is.
McCain is sick, it's cancer. It's likely his age, but may not be. That needs to be checked. Putin does not respect territorial boundaries, he kills abroad. He does not respect rank, he kills politicians and rigs POTUS elections.
Really the cyber attacks are just one of Putin's attack vectors. He is a major threat.
Remember when Obama told Romney Russia was not our problem anymore? Remember when Clinton did the big Red reset button with Russia. Gee, now that the Democrat's mucked it all up they want to now claim everything is on Trump?? Hmmm. Glad Microsoft is actually doing something about it. But how long did this go on before they did anything?
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.
Are they actively trying to make people think that this is a government operation? Why not the same with the description of Microsoft?
"Today Washington put their best layers on stopping a Russian hacking group"
.
$ nslookup rsshotmail.com
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: rsshotmail.com
Address: 40.112.210.240 -> 40.112.210.240 United States California San Jose
$ nslookup livemicrosoft.net
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: livemicrosoft.net
Address: 40.112.210.240 -> 40.112.210.240 United States California San Jose
Doesn't look like thoses are russkies
idiotic approach to the problem of National Security Letters.
They undoubtedly have more experience since they have been making since inception.
Microsoft just acquired its own botnet on the cheap. I wonder what they will do with it under the table.
In WWI, the US really had no business getting involved or picking sides, and its involvement was a part of Woodrow Wilson's interventionist policies, which was the ancestor of yesterday's neocon policies of Clinton/Bush/Obama. WWI was really the activation of alliances in Europe drawn up along a combination of ethnic and political lines - Serbia + Russia + France + Belgium + UK + myriad other countries along its fringes vs Austria-Hungary + Germany + Bulgaria + Turkey. The US had the lend-lease policy w/ UK and Wilson was busy selling armaments to one of the parties in the war - the Allies, so if you were Germany, that was obviously an act of war. The trigger that had the US join in was the German sinking of US ships carrying weapons to the allies, but it takes a completely subjective view of that to state that the US was provoked into joining the war. The US joined a war it had no business being involved in: there were no national interests involved, nor for that matter, even humanitarian interests: Kaiser Wilhelm II was not remotely similar to Hitler!
What you are describing is more WWII - the US was in no mood to join the war, and didn't. There was an anti-war movement within the US that saw to it. However, once Pearl Harbor happened, and both Germany & Japan declared war on the US, it wasn't up to FDR at all.
Or for that matter, started on the same side as the Third Reich, and only 'switched' due to Operation Barbarossa.
The paper calls the hacker group "Putin's hackers", and many comments here follow the trend. But Microsoft is a bit more prudent, as noted in TFA:
Microsoft doesn’t name Russia in its suit, instead describing Fancy Bear as a “sophisticated and well-resourced organization” that remains unidentified.
Indeed the hackers are probably Russians, and they seem to follow our perceived Russia government's interests, but reducing everything to the enemy's leader, which has to be evil, is basic war propaganda. That does not help thinking, and it drives us away from interesting questions: what are Russia's interests? Does Fancy Bear help serving them?
"Microsoft doesn’t name Russia in its suit, instead describing Fancy Bear as a “sophisticated and well-resourced organization” that remains unidentified."
If the Germans wouldnt attack, the Russians would a bit later. They joined attack on Poland to get back some territory they considered theirs (remember that they only lost it 20 years earlier). Notice that they didnt join the rest of the war as there was nothing interesting for them there - they just reverted to neutral status. They would just wait for German exhaustion and attack then to gain even more territory. Obviously this plan didnt work.
Anyone who talks about "Fancy Bear" or "Cozy Bear" without irony is as much of an idiot at this point as those who still question Obama's birth certificate. It's all based on a CrowdStrike study paid for by the DNC (who wouldn't let the FBI touch it, another giant tell people choose to ignore). But it's a company with no credibility and has ties to the anti-Russian Atlantic Council.
This is pure swiftboating, only this time flowing from Democrats. The election interference last year wasn't from Russia in the general, but by the DNC in their own primary. Hacking is what Obama did to Angela Merkle's cell phone.
Do I understand the article right, that virus is trying to connect Microsoft's command and control center? I am not surprised.
Possibly! But one of the major surprises for Stalin was that despite several warnings of an impeding German invasion, he refused to prepare. Had he been the head of a democratic country & done that, he'd have been impeached. The only thing that saved the Soviet Union was their strategic depth - their troops could retreat thousands of miles into Siberia, which in fact formed their industrial heartland, since Ukraine & Byelorussia were battlefields & wastelands. And of course, the winter was what saved the Soviets against Hitler, just like they saved the Russians against Napoleon
Actually, Russia did prepare well in case of a German invasion, and built not one but two lines of fortifications. Then, Stalin decided to blow up these fortifications when preparing an attack.
Barbarossa was not a planned backstab but a desperate pre-emptive strike. In most places Germans entered over barbed wire cleared by Russians just a week if not the day before. Barbarossa succeeded (temporarily) only because of extreme incompetence of Russian leadership -- routinely purging anyone with a shred of skill isn't conductive to growing an efficient cadre. There were no contingency plans at all, upon hearing the news Stalin did refuse to hear anyone for a week, the top brass did not dare to do anything without Stalin's approval, making the army collapse. Ridiculous Russian tactics, making them lose 10:1 in terms of manpower even when orders did come in, weren't helpful either.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.