Slashdot Mirror
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?
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.
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.