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Kaspersky Lab Denies Involvement in Russian Hack of NSA Contractor (theguardian.com)
Moscow-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab has hit back at a report in the Wall Street Journal which accused it of being involved in a Russian government hack of an NSA contractor in 2015. From a report: The paper reported on Thursday that the NSA contractor, a Vietnamese national who was working to create replacements for the hacking tools leaked by Edward Snowden, was hacked on his personal computer after he took his work home. There, the report says, the contractor's use of Kaspersky's antivirus software "alerted Russian hackers to the presence of files that may have been taken from the NSA." Once the machine was in their sights, the Russian hackers infiltrated it and obtained a significant amount of data, according to the paper. Calling the allegations "like the script of a C movie," Eugene Kaspersky, the infosec firm's founder, gave his own explanation of what might have happened. Mr Kaspersky vehemently denied that his company had played any active role in the breach, noting: "We never betray the trust that our users put into our hands. If we would do that a single time that would be immediately spotted by the industry and our business would be done." Instead, he implied that the root of the problem was that Kaspersky Lab had correctly identified the hacking tools the contractor was working on as malware -- perhaps through Kaspersky Lab's own research into the Equation Group, a "sophisticated cyber espionage platform" believed to be linked to the NSA.
I'm shocked, shocked to see spying from a Russian company!
After all, Russia is TEH EVUL!!!!, right?
The Kapersky Labs campus has a mysterious building that is off limits to all employees except a select few with very close government ties and high security clearances. All products must be approved by the black building for release to the public. Nobody knows what exactly goes on in that building, just that it is where the products must be reviewed before their release and that there are a lot of black SUV's that come and go.
I'm honestly torn between a corporations invasion of personal privacy on one hand, and the anger from the NSA that it identifies thier hacking tools as malware and helps remove thier backdoors. You can't really win as anti virus software is never good and you can be certain no one really has your best interests in mind.
Yet Another Russian Hack of the NSA -- This Time with Kaspersky's Help
"This is either an example the Russians subverting a perfectly reasonable security feature in Kaspersky's products, or Kaspersky adding a plausible feature at the request of Russian Intelligence. In the latter case, it's a nicely deniable Russian information operation. In either case, it's an impressive Russian information operation."
"What's getting a lot less press is yet another NSA contractor stealing top-secret cyberattack software. What is it with the NSA's inability to keep anything secret anymore?"
"Instead, [Kaspersky] implied that the root of the problem was that Kaspersky Lab had correctly identified the hacking tools the contractor was working on as malware..."
Given the circumstances, this may be the best unintentionally ironic example ever of the well-worn meme, "It's not a bug, it's a feature."
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Letting anyone, let alone a contractor, let alone a foreign national, take files, and especially code, to their HOME PC?
This was on purpose, right ?
captcha: dumber
a) A contractor was allowed to take his work home on an unencrypted, unsecured laptop
b) The contractor was a foreign national (hint: you can't get top secret clearance unless you're a US citizen)
c) The contractor created viruses and malware directly in his "core" work environment, where I suppose he also keeps his e-mail and other stuff, not in a VM
d) The NSA then also installed Kaspersky even though the NSA has quite publicly said Kaspersky is all sorts of bad (unsubstantiated)
So the crux of the story:
1) NSA is lying
2) NSA is incompetent
3) Both
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
OK, so if - as Gene says - there was just a flag that malware existed on a given computer, and that flag made it all the way back to Kaspersky Central's servers, how did that flag then get to the people who entered the computer and copied the files? That step seems to indicate some kind of inside job and/or collusion between Kaspersky and the black hatters, n'ext-ce pas? So even if Gene and what he thinks is his company were totally sincere (something I doubt is confirmable for any KGB-trained human) in his denials, that log that contained that flag got into the hands of the bad-actors, and Kaspersky IS responsible for THAT.
Don't believe anything they say, until they officially deny it.
It's so reliable, there's an entire subreddit dedicated to the phenomenon.
https://www.reddit.com/r/RussiaDenies/
captcha: invade
Damn, looks like the U.S. gov really wants to discredit Kaspersky.
Assume that it is true and they did not where used by the Russians (with or without their consent), why would the NSA say so?
Hold on to your tinfoil hats, here we go.
The NSA has hacked the persons PC. The NSA has given the person the files to put on his PC. The NSA has put a NSA version on the persons PC that looks hacked. The NSA now blames the Russians to have hacked it. People stop using said software and start using software that the NSA has actually hacked.
So now the NSA gets access to people who previously used software that was actually safe and did not have a backdoor.
This so some senators and/or others that they want to have access to stop using it, putting the rest of the world in harms way.
With what the NSA already has pulled of in the past, it somehow does not eve look that weird of a plan and it wil actually work.
The real question is now: do you want the Chinese, the Russians or the Americans read your stuff. I go with the Russians, because the Chinese get the data over my phone (Huawei) and Americans already get data via several other means, like the transatlantic lines. I just don't want the Russians to be left outside the loop.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
The story is that Russian hackers stole documents from the contractor's laptop, which he had stolen from NSA.
What I haven't seen is how NSA learned that the Russians obtained that information, and how do they know it came from a compromised Kaspersky installation on that particular guy's laptop?
It sounds like all the spooks are hacking each other.
This stuff keeps happening with contractors. And in this case, a foreign national? From Vietnam???
A.) If you aren't a US government employee you should probably have Kaspersky installed on your machine for security reasons. B.) The government has started recruiting foreign nationals to develop cyber espionage software. Not surprising since they have many more options available for silencing recruits that decide they want to go public and since they aren't protected by the US Constitution they can pretty much do whatever they want with them; in secret of course. Yikes!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Look, I hake to wake you up, sunshine, but we're in Cold War III right now.
And the Russians aren't our friends. Nor are the Saudis.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I use Kaspersky at home. During my research, I looked up what malware Kaspersky Labs had discovered and wanted to see if they'd be bold enough to uncover any Russian state sponsored malware - there weren't any, while they did discover several with links back to NSA and Israel - interesting, but didn't think much more of it.
Best case scenario is that Kaspersky do not have ties to government, but they're not stupid enough to reveal Russian state sponsored malware either (if they did so publically, I can't imagine them being allowed to operate in Russia). What this means is you cannot count on Kaspersky to protect you from malware developed by Russian authorities (at least not until they're public knowledge), but then again, it is unlikely any commercial product would either.
Another theory: The NSA suspected a Russian agent. They suspected someone at Kaspersky. So they setup a test: Put Kaspersky on a laptop, put something valuable on the laptop that would be found by Kaspersky AntiVirus, then wait and see what happens.
The result is they successfully baited out the hacker.
Alternative theory: The NSA wanted to discredit Kaspersky, so they put something on the laptop that they new Kaspersky antivirus would find. Maybe Kaspersky automatically downloaded that file, and now the NSA can say "look, Kaspersky is a front for Russian hackers! They used it to download our secret stuff!"
but I'm glad we don't have any shadowy government agencies in the US that are under the umbrella of the DoD and have a penchant for illegally spying on American citizens or otherwise our antivirus products would be suspect as well!
> The British intelligence are our ALLIES, and have been for decades.
I didn't realize we'd declared war on Russia, and they were also allies during WWII, so you'll have to be clearer about who you think is on our enemies list and exactly why. Not that I can't guess your reasoning, but I think it's circular to put them there for the very thing you wish to prove to be bad. I thought this was all about "foreign collusion" which is apparently only a bad thing if you're not having the FBI pay British spies $100k to compile opposition research from your wedge candidate in Utah and wiretapping the other candidate. There are some hilarious memes out there with the CNN headlines alternating between saying Trump was & wasn't wiretapped thanks to that one. Not to mention the popular opinions on Comey & the FBI going back and forth faster than Forest Gump's ping pong balls, but I digress.
I also note that you apparently haven't realized that the dossier in question was never verified by any of the media outlets in any meaningful way, despite many attempts, was proven to place someone in entirely the wrong country due to confusion with someone of the same name unconnected to Trump, and it appears to have sourced its most infamous allegations from a rumor started by /pol, who fed a ridiculous fanfic to assorted media outlets.
Finally, don't you consider it just a bit strange that they're not even attempting to interview Wikileaks to ask for information about who gave it what? I don't know about you, but I think it's strange that they wouldn't even interview a key witness who offered to talk to them.
But let me guess, you won't actually respond to any of these points with any kind of facts and will instead post some absurd insult? Because that's what I see 90% of the time here on Slashdot. Hurr durr! You posted as AC! I don't even have to try to bring facts into the debate! I'll shout some talking points and throw out an insult, that's totally convincing! Maybe I should tell you guys that anonymous sources told me that ridiculous rejoinders like that erode public support? That usually gets you to believe things. Hell, you guys even believed that nonsensical story about the bank communicating with a 3rd party marketing site for Trump when it was some stray DNS queries caused by Russian spam back when it hit Slashdot.
In other news, the president of the united states denied having a sex dungeon under the white house. He hasn't denied one below the pentagon, so we assume it exists.
So, if they programmed in a series of vectors that could be potentially exploited at the behest of the Russians, could they still say they weren't involved in the Russian hacking? Perhaps, because technically they weren't. They just left a couple of doors open. I imagine something similar to that is what is factual.