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Russian Group That Hacked DNC Used NSA Attack Code In Attack On Hotels (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A Russian government-sponsored group accused of hacking the Democratic National Committee last year has likely been infecting other targets of interest with the help of a potent Windows exploit developed by, and later stolen from, the National Security Agency, researchers said Friday. Eternal Blue, as the exploit is code-named, is one of scores of advanced NSA attacks that have been released over the past year by a mysterious group calling itself the Shadow Brokers. It was published in April in the group's most damaging release to date. Its ability to spread from computer to computer without any user action was the engine that allowed the WCry ransomware worm, which appropriated the leaked exploit, to shut down computers worldwide in May. Eternal Blue also played a role in the spread of NotPetya, a follow-on worm that caused major disruptions in June. Now, researchers at security firm FireEye say they're moderately confident the Russian hacking group known as Fancy Bear, APT 28, and other names has also used Eternal Blue, this time in a campaign that targeted people of interest as they connected to hotel Wi-Fi networks. In July, the campaign started using Eternal Blue to spread from computer to computer inside various staff and guest networks, company researchers Lindsay Smith and Ben Read wrote in a blog post. While the researchers didn't directly observe those attacks being used to infect guest computers connected to the network, they said a related campaign from last year used the control of hotel Wi-Fi services to obtain login credentials from guest devices.
His name is Seth Rich. But you probably know him as Russia.
All while the CNN fact-checks the president during Korean negotiations: "no, no, Trump lied, our nukes are actually old and weak, and not modernized as he claimed."
Headline: Russian Group that hacked the DNC...
First Sentence: A Russian government-sponsored group accused of hacking the Democratic National Committee...
Did they hack it, or are they accused of hacking it?
Thanks NSA for protecting us, doing your duty, and not putting arrogant aggressive desires ahead of rational defense considerations. This all certainly couldn't have been prevented by you reporting exploits instead of weaponizing them!
It's bitztream the autism-hating, custom EpiPen-hating, Musk-hating, Qualcomm-hating, Firefox tabs-hating Slashdot troll!
I'm not a Trump supporter, but this submission headline is really shitty and deceptive.
Here's what it currently is, in case the editors do get off of their asses and fix it:
There's no "alleged" or "accused" or "thought to have" in there. It's stating that some vague, unnamed Russian group did engage in some sort of an attack. It's stating it as if it has been proven, when it hasn't been.
But the first goddamn sentence of the summary contradicts that by at least indicating there's only an accusation so far [emphasis added]:
Fix this shit up, /. editors. It just gives fuel to the pro-Trump crowd when you make stupid and sloppy mistakes like this.
https://www.thenation.com/article/a-new-report-raises-big-questions-about-last-years-dnc-hack/
Eternal Blue ... the Shadow Brokers.
Looks like somebody wants to visit Hotel Azure and meet somebody interesting there. Or start a night club called Friends of the Azure. I couldn't blame them.
The NSA has known for decades that computing systems using a model of ambient authority are insecure. It is my theory that they have promoted this model to allow them to make their work easier. If the worlds computers managed resources in the same manner we manage money, electricity, or any other scarce resource, almost none of this would have happened, and Trillions would have been saved.
A Russian government-sponsored group accused of hacking the Democratic National Committee last year
You can just stop right there. I have been following the news coverage on everything to do with Russia and from what I have seen there is absolutely nothing worth mentioning regarding any connection between the Russians and the DNC or any other Democrat politician or candidate. The DNC was not hacked and what they did with torpedoing the Sanders campaign and colluding^W coordinating with the Clinton campaign during the debate run-ups was perfectly legitimate and in fact done in a spirit of patriotism.
Now, the Russians and the Republicans are a real problem and a threat to the security of the United States. In fact, Trump and Putin have a weekly phone call where they plan how best perpetrate the downfall of the United States. We should not get distracted and stay focused on the real issue. The evidence is out there and we just have to be patient, like we were with Benghazi.
Note: in case your sarcasm filter is on the blink, this was meant to be sarcastic.
It's the first time i see such an inclination by the media to discover the source of a leak and the methods used while acting like the content and the leak itself doesn't exist. If only they has the same willingness to discover the dirt of a political system and inform the citizens (basically do their job) there would be no need for hacking emails.
a special thanks to NSA and CIA for attacking other countries like this, and then leaking your exploits while lying who is behind it, and for what motives. Your accusations that some supposed Russian "hacker group" has done something bad is a pathetic way of distracting people from what you are doing yourself. The supposedly evil Russians are not the problem here. You are.
There is zero evidence that there was a hack on the DNC. None. Nada. Zippo.
Furthermore, the DNC has refused to allow access to their servers suggesting that there is a great deal of "politics" involved in the claim.
And we know via Wikileaks' Podesta emails that the DNC had a leak problem.
Additionally, Assange has said that the leaker was American, and suggested that it was an insider. He also strongly suggested that insider was Seth Rich -- the technical/systems director for the DNC. (Which would make sense).
The Russian hacking narrative has all but been debunked and the onus of proof is on those who continue to make the claim.
Lack of oversight and a complete inability to keep their own exploits out of the hands of criminals and foreign powers is the exact reason we should be shuttering the doors on this nonsense. Its far better for everyone in the long run to patch exploits instead of hoarding them and turning them into a tool to undermine the very safety and security of the nation they were "meant" to protect. This exact same issue applies to back doors on encryption or secure systems of any kind. No one will probably care until the entire economy crashes after a back door exploit leaks out on financial transactions.
This is the interweb. Driving clicks is what matters. Turn off the adblock and see what shit pops up on Slashdot - like that Taboola clickbait shit nonsense.
Turn it back on and see the other ads that stick around.
Our comments just fed into their business model, btw.
Your ONLY recourse is just stop coming to this website.
Actually, ALL websites that have this news aggregation commenting shit are garbage. It's a complete waste of time, does nothing to inform us, and the commenting is just folks shouting at each other. It's just appealing to our little lizzard parts of our brain that gets a bit of a dopamine hit when we comment - maybe get modded up - and flagellate our little egos.
Most of the web has devolved to the lowest common denominator - Slashdot included. And it's amazing that they haven't gotten rid of AC posting - isn't it? (HINT: It has NOTHING to do with allowing anonymous voices.)
So, stop coming or suck it up.
fuck failing slashdot, i don't need to read this crap.
Pulitzer-Prize Winning Reporter: FBI Report Shows It Was Seth Rich – Not Russians – Who Gave DNC Emails to Wikileaks
They [the FBI] found what he [Rich] had done was he had submitted a series of documents – of emails, of juicy emails – from the DNC.
By the way, all this shit about the DNC, where the hack, it wasn’t hacked
...
I have a narrative of how that whole fucking thing began. It’s a [former CIA director John] Brennan operation. It was an American disinformation [campaign].
Yeah, Seymour Hersh. Must be a right-wing crazy. You keep telling yourself that.
What I don't get about this whole "Russia" narrative is why the fuck the leftists can't provide any evidence or proof.
It has been, what, almost 8 months since Trump was inaugurated. It has been about 10 months since he was elected. That's plenty of time for some real evidence to be presented.
Yet all we get are questionable accusations from leftist talking heads.
Where is the goddamn evidence?! Where is the goddamn proof?!
More and more this is looking like a "Boy-who-thinks-he's-a-girl-and-surgically-alters-his-genitalia Cries Wolf" situation with these leftists.
Please, provide some quality evidence or quality proof of these accusations!
If this problem were as serious as the leftists claim it is, assuming it even actually exists, then they should have no problem providing us with boatloads of solid, unquestionable evidence and proof.
Yet they can't even provide us with the flimsiest of evidence or proof! That's how bad the situation now is: even half-assed, questionable evidence would be better than the unsubstantiated accusations they're throwing around now.
Fun fact, not only is it not proven that Russia hacked the DNC. There isn't a SINGLE witness who has analysed the DNC hacked servers that is willing to say Russia did it while under oath.
Thats right kiddies. Not only have they not shown proof, but they don't have a single expert willing to say it happened. I know you think the FBI and NSA are on it, but under oath Comey said the FBI did not look at DNC servers and only Crowdstrike did, and Crowdstrike is now unwilling to say Russia did it. When asked why he thought Russia did it, I shit you not, Comey replied "It just makes sense". Yep, even Comey knows its a lie.
fuck failing slashdot, i don't need to read this crap.
So why do you read it?
Last I heard, reading Slashdot was voluntary. Clue: you can even read some threads and not others! 8-)
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
https://www.thenation.com/arti...
Really this is all a cover up for the real scandal which is that the Hillary camp stole the nomination from Bernie. That act got the Bernie people to leak DNC emails which they had access to... and now the DNC is blaming the consequences of their own corruption on Russia... which has lead to sanctions on Russia and all sorts of diplomatic consequences. The impact of Russia or any hack on the election is at best dubious.
Fact is that the Dems got split by a corrupt primary followed by a serially weak candidate that failed last time around and shocker failed again. Dems are mad at Trump... they did this to themselves. The Obama presidency was relatively popular... just like the end of the Clinton administration. They could have rolled that into another Dem presidency. But they decided to blow it.
And just like with the Gore campaign, rather than own up to serious errors in judgment and misteps... the Dems have claimed that the election was stolen from them.
Guess any time Dems don't win it must be a rigged election, right guys?
Of course, despite saying that, the dems seem very resistant to the idea of Voter ID reform or Election inspections or anything that would address the thing they allege is taking elections from them. Its almost as if they don't really believe it. Its almost as if its just a dumb excuse they tell rubes to keep them angry and protesting. If the dems actually thought they were getting elections stolen from them, they'd be the ones pushing election reform. That they're the ones resisting reform makes it very clear their assertions are insincere.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Forensicator and Adam Carter have provided much stronger evidence and analysis that is was a leak from the inside and a coverup that tried to pin it on the Russians. Look here with an open mind>
Do you really, really believe this "Russian Hacker" narrative? In which case your judgement on any and every other politically tinged story here is more than suspect. Or are you spreading this fake Russian news at the behest of a higher editorial dictate? I have slightly more respect for an unwitting pawn than I have for a fool. I think...
Witness BitZtream getting pwned!... twice.....three times!
Maybe the NSA used the NSA exploit to hack the DNC. Before the exploit was made public this seems to be the most likely explanation. These exploits work fine after they are made public so the NSA can still use them and shift the blame.
Isn't this headline extremely disingenuously now that there's been a report confirming it was an internal leak?
We have to put up with your climate change stuff. The least you can do is to suck it up for an occasional Russian hacker story.
Have gnu, will travel.
Because the US media made the accusation in the first place while all evidence points in the other direction. There is no evidence the Russians were even involved much less that they run this particular hacker collective.
The claim that an NSA exploit was used but the NSA exploit wasn't even released until earlier this year. So either the NSA aided and abetted the "Russians" or the story is just spin.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Brain washed
Nobody has shown one shred of real admissible evidence to the contrary. All you have are accusations from the DNC, of course!
The most the Russians did was to aid in the GOP propaganda. If it was illegal, then go for it.
If you want to see real attempted fraud, read the emails.
If liberals want representation in the government they will have to form their own party. Let the dems merge with the republicans. They're more than half way there anyway.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
You want to hang on the one word of a journalist "accused", as if the journalist is the definitive definition of their involvement.
The plans of Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, Putin's planners, have already been leaked in details. The details of how the Russians did the hack, also revealed. Manasfort's home was raided and he's filed an extra disclosure showing he was paid by a Putin backed group.
At some point you have to accept you were attacked with a very effective beheading strike.
I know Hannity and Fox News are pretending it was Seth Rich, not Russia, but they are just putting their party alliance ahead of their country. They seem happy for Putin to hack America, as long as he hacks the way they approve of.
Strong Analysis supporting this claim. It was an inside leak. This is pretty close to damning evidence. Compare it to the evidence supplied by the Democratic Leadership in charge of the IC pinning it on Russia.
I don't support Russia, or anything associated with the authoritarian regime of Russia and it's leadership. That does not mean I simply accept allegations that "Russia did it" for everything the Democrats and Democratic Party's praetorian guard media wants to claim either.
Is it possible that Russia had something to do with the breach? Sure, it's also possible an insider fed up with the corruption is responsible for the breach. I have yet to see compelling evidence pinning any of these breaches on Russia. I have yet to see anything in the way of anecdotal evidence that would lead to a compelling "Russia did it" either. What I have seen is a whole lot of claims which don't stand up to basic scrutiny.
We have a paid-for DNC report from a private company making the claim being repeated by Democratic politicians as "fact". Yet a request by the FBI to investigate the server being denied by the DNC. If they are so sure, why didn't they let the largest Federal Law Enforcement agency investigate for validation?
Maybe it was Russia. Show us the evidence (not an allegation made by a company paid by the DNC) and I'll be right on board with bitching about them nasty Russians. There is enough dirty with the DNC and politicians from the last administration that people _should_ be skeptical until such evidence is provided. (If you don't think anything is dirty, you are not even trying and rational discourse is impossible. Colluding to oust Sanders, Lynch on the tarmac, Comey's actions, Huma Abedin, and Wasserman Shultz are easy, but not only subjects for you to read about. )
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
" This sort of connection isnt available across the atlantic, and isnt available from any ISP in the States."
Bullshit, there was 2GB of emails hacked, about 1 pirate DVD's worth of bandwidth. It was hacked from their Google for business account. Are you seriously trying to pretend that GMAIL, Google, doesn't have a 200mbps link???
You liars want to pretend it wasn't Russia, either because you're shills, or you want to cover for Trump. But think about that second one for a moment. Trump is so clearly connected to Putin, that you need to cover Russian involvement.
It was not an insider leak, it was a spear phishing attack, sending a 'password reset' link to a plausible server mimicking Google. Since DNC used Gmail for business, a few suckers reset their password, giving access to the DNC emails. Which they then downloaded 2GB of emails from the Gmail servers.
1. Why would an insider use a spearphising attack?
2. I've seen various claims from you that 200mbps links is somehow special super-fast, or that 2GB is somehow huge requiring an insider. None of these claims stand up. 200mbps is domestic fibre speed. 2Gb is one pirated movie.
3. 59 election registration sites were also attacked, and some RNC targets too. Why would a DNC insider also hack these registration sites? Again it makes no sense.
Russian military hackers, the same group that attack the German Parliament. The same fake SSL cert, the same C&C server.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Democratic_National_Committee_email_leak
"Thomas Rid, a professor at King’s College in London, who discovered an identical command-and-control address hardcoded into the DNC malware that was also found on malware used to hack the German Parliament in 2015. According to German security officials, the malware originated from Russian military intelligence. An identical SSL certificate was also found in both breaches....Traces of metadata in the document dump reveal various indications that they were translated into Cyrillic. Furthermore, while Guccifer 2.0 claimed to be from Romania, he was unable to chat with Motherboard journalists in coherent Romanian. "
If you're a Trump supporter trying to pretend Russia wasn't involved, ask yourself why you're doing that? Is Trump so provably involved now that the only way to rescue him, is to pretend Russia wasn't involved?
So is that the game now? Try to pretend a clear attack on America by Russian military hackers, is somehow a partisan issue?
blah blah blah Clinton blah blah blah Obama blah blah blah???
And Republicans are supposed to rally round, and approve of this attack on America, just as long as it was an elephant that Putin put in power?? Party before country?
Yet Putin will put Putin friendlies into power, Republican or Democrat or other. They'd be gullible to think he will stop after a successful attack on America.
Fake news. Somebody here is feeding an agenda, not searching for the truth.
When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law he tore his robes.2Kings22:11
Your points are well taken. The fundamental facts of the whole Russia hacked the DNC narrative have never been questioned or put under scrutiny. There are many reasons for this, the primary one being that most of the media is a mouthpiece for the Democratic party. One can laugh at that, but this is the sort of shit that happens when a democracy does not have a free and fair press.
Actually the narrative is questioned, which is why you see the allegation come out and vanish almost as quickly. The narrative will be repeated and repeated until people get tired of pushing back and we end up with white washed history.
Repeat a lie long enough and loud enough and eventually the people will believe it. Not an exact quote of Goebbels, Mussolini, Stalin, Lenin, Pot, Mao, etc.. but the basic premise of their propaganda machines.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Your last comment gives you away. Questioning the narrative given by Democratic Politicians and their Media is not "alt-right", any more than questioning a GOP narrative or their Media is not "Marxist".
You may not be intentionally smart enough to be a propagandist, but you certainly are foolish enough to repeat it.
Shill Outed!
Republicans started the Russian scare.
The DNC has NEVER given its server over to anyone in our government to investigate. They have refused every request. So all we have is the moderate-confidence of a "private" company( CrowdStrike ), that the RUSSIANS did it. This whole Russian thing is a BULLSHIT distraction. But STUPID people think the Russians hacked/colluded our election just so we could find out that the DNC and Clinton(Foundation) are a bunch of crooks... Yeah, that makes sense. What makes sense, is that someone who worked for the DNC who saw all of the corruption going on with the DNC/Clintons, LEAKED the emails to bring it into the light. That persons name is mostly likely Seth Rich and unlike this whole Russian-BULLSHIT-narritve/Conspiracy-Theory, there's actual evidence which points to him as the source and that makes him a hero.
My personal take is that none of the evidence is sufficient proof of the "hacker's" identity, but whoever did it was quite lazy. If they were trying to hide their fingerprints, they did a singularly bad job of it. That by itself leans me slightly toward the 'Russia' theory: The DNC would have a lot more to lose if their supposed conspiracy (complete with murder) was unmasked, while Russia would lose nothing but a little international respect they didn't have to begin with.
The DNC has not been nearly as good as they think they are in terms of hiding their actions. They have gotten away with so much because of people in political positions than being clever. Lynch on the tarmac, Comey's indictment and subsequent dismissal of all charges, DWS email chain/IT guy, Abedin/Wiener, Rice/Holder etc... using easy to track fake names in communications, Clinton's Server, Benghazi, Holder's Fast&Furious, etc...
The public is outraged because so much has been outed with no criminal action against perpetrators, not because they have been so clever at hiding things.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Did the NSA not have a tool that signs malware with the code of known groups as a way of implicating them and not the NSA? This tool simply existing calls into question pretty much any "hacker group did such and such". Unless that group claims responsibility, then we can't be really sure who did what.
I just have one single question for people who say the DNC has been hacked by Russians. If Russian hacking is the case, then why has the DNC absolutely refused, for over a year, to allow their servers to be examined by ANY law enforcement authority or even ANY authority beyond their own outside consultants? I mean, if Russia hacked our election and installed a manchurian candidate, and we should be removing this guy at 'all costs' -- why can't anyone obtain any evidence at all from the DNC hack? Can ANYONE answer this for me?
One big Mafia and all their members display the usual Mafia behaviour:
* Threats
* Lies
* No respect for any rules which are in their way
* Steelish support of the top thug
It is rather incredible to believe they didn't know what was going on while at the same time they aspire to save each and every email. They also aspire to save each and every ip source/destination tuple.
But they cannot really come up with any HARD FACTS about what was going on at the DNC. And they are too stupid to shut down an insecure system run by one of the top two parties ? Too stupid to send an officer down to them and demand the insecure thing to be secured ?
Come on.
Why was Clinton allowed to run her PRIVATE Email server for years ? They did not know this ?
Nobody dared to advise her about the risks ?
That does not really make sense.
Those intel services are corrupt to the bone. See "Iraq WMD".
Can you trust them ? Do they still have the concept of truth and evidence ?
It seems they do not even trust their own folks any more. Lying is a Modus Operandi for them and they no longer bother to perfom cold hard police work.
You would have to fire the entire senior leadership of NSA and CIA to perform an honest inquiry. So far we hear lies, conjecture and more lies.
It could easily have been
* rogue CIA
* rogue NSA
* Unit 8200 of Israel
* BND
* North Korean long range recon (they are big time players in the network recon biz)
* Bulgaria
* you name it
They have been hosed by the Norks in a quite thorough way, because they offended the "great leader".
They definitely have the capabilities to reconnoiter Missus Clintons private Server and the muppets at the DNC.
Commies and similar folks know you do not need evidence. All you need is to parrot the same lies over and over. That is sufficient for commies to believe into it and that is all they need.
It could have been ANYBODY with some hacking skills or an insider ?
It was just more fancy to blame it on the Russkies ?
Thanks for admitting.
Now citate HARD FACTS which point towards Russia. A police-style investigation, not just the blabbering of US intel community LIARS (those who allowed the Iraq WMD thing to happen).
Thank you very much !
In my Euro country I talked to a member of the local variety of Clintonists about a Credit Card Hack, which exposed 100 Million CC numbers.
The guy had been in the US in his youth (in some sort of exchange program) and was now an old database expert and mathematician. He suggested to "kill" the hacker.
Given this attitude of the lefties, the murder to Seth Rich would nicely would make "sense" in their warped way of "justice". The lefties are mobsters at their core and they are willing to kill extrajudicially.
By now the US and Euro lefties and their Corporate Friends have replaced the COMINTERN as the leading internationalist powermonger people.
Putin is just the president of Russia while the internationalists yearn for world domination. They are "offended" by the idea of nation states being independent of some sort of UN/NATO tyranny.
Funny how things can inverse...
You refer to Clinton and Obama and Bush, who invaded several countries for no good reason ?
...their definition of "hacking". It includes "Russian voices on message boards". Yes, no viruses needed at all, just people voicing pro-Russian arguments. That "counts" as "hacking" to these US intel types.
Comprendre ?
Mabye from the FBI , complete with HARD EVIDENCE ?
For all those people that continue to use Windows, really how bad does it have to get before you finally switch to something better/more secure?
Tell me, just how dumb are these people?
Any tech who looked at what 'evidence' we were presented with know this is all just BS.
it's kinda like climate change. Yes, they are technically accused, just like climate change is technically a theory, in the sense that every expert in the field who isn't a paid shill agrees: they hacked the DNC and yes, our planet it getting warmer. So yes, a proper journalistic source wouldn't have run with a headline like that. But /. is a lot of things, and a proper source of journalism isn't one of them. That's why /. links articles instead of writing them.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
How's life in the hypocrite lane?
Yeah, doesn't sound like Trump at all.
Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
The uploader is dead, killed at the behest of party leaders.
Nothing like a 2 second google search, unless you are a rightard convinced any proof that you don't like is "Fake news" that is.
for all the rational world I think you should heed the words "Stuff it"!!
I am becoming less convinced that the work attributed to "Fancy Bear, APT 28" are in fact Russian. We've already exposed NSA/CIA as acting in disguise as foreign entities.
The irony, is for all the talk of Russian interference. We have done the exact thing in Russia's elections and dozens of other nations. We're the biggest hypocrites. Lastly, the majority of hacking and election tampering was done by the DNC to impede Bernie Sanders and prevent him from winning the nomination.
You do realize that there has been no independent verification of any data in the paid-for report right? No law enforcement agency, not the FBI (not in CIAs jurisdiction), has been allowed to review any information used to create the report.
Saying that the report looks right assumes that the facts are correct, and that is where law enforcement agencies have no such verification. That is why the FBI requested, and to my knowledge still has an open request, to examine the DNC servers.
So again, could they be right? Sure but I want to see the independent verification. Politicians are nasty people and there has been so much illegal and immoral activity exposed over the last few years that we should all be demanding independent verification.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.