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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.
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.
"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.
Not necessary evil but insidious is a better term for the Russian Government. After the chaos after the Soviet Union dissolved, there population in general has accepted a strong man government to keep order. Russia is a major world player and with its strong man government in charge, it isn't happy with just controlling it local populous but also the rest of the world. They realize that the military would suffer losses if they try to openly attack NATO countries, or China and its allies.
However after generations of being a master in the propaganda engine under the USSR, they can use these skill sets with modern technology to manipulate other countries.
Being that it is strong man government with a lot of control, a company based in Russia, wouldn't be free from government influence and if the company had built up some good will with rival nations, that could be used for Russia's advantage.
Trump became president due to Russian influence in our election, If Trump and his team was involved with the Russians is a different question, but with the Russians spamming Facebook with fake news, raising the ideas of divisions where they were more or less settled in the past, and create chaos in the systems. Allowed for people be afraid of the establishment and vote for the Simple Fix.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
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
Trump became president due to Russian influence in our election
No, that's not why he became president, but it's a wonderful ego-saving belief for a segment of the country.
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.
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.
I wonder if, when Mueller's report comes out showing collusion, the shrinking minority of Republicans who still support Trump will eat their words? Or if they'll act like Fox News analysts caught in a lie, and just move onto the next hot topic with their credibility among other conservatives mysteriously intact?
But you're right to a tiny degree, Trump didn't become president due to Russian influence alone. Voter suppression, moving from dog whistles to overt racism and sexism that appeal to a segment of the country, and the Democrats refusing to acknowledge how weak a candidate they chose... All of these things played a role.
I'm curious to see if Republicans will switch from ignoring the evidence of foreign influence to excusing it. It'll be fascinating to watch that play out, even as we figure out what to do with the court appointments and other fruit of the poison tree of an illegitimate president.
Trump became president due to Russian influence in our election
No, that's not why he became president, but it's a wonderful ego-saving belief for a segment of the country
There are a number of high-profile investigations going on that are starting to provide results and evidence of how a foreign actor (Russia) tried to influence the election in favor of Trump.
And Russia has a history of manipulating public opinion and interfering with elections in other countries.
Do you think all of this is "fake news" and all the agents, secret services, politicians and other actors that are involved in these investigations are part of a liberal conspiracy?
I guess that's a wonderful ego-saving belief for a segment of the country.
Trump became president due to Russian influence in our election,
Nope. Trump became president because a lot of folks detest Hillary Clinton. She still hasn't realize this. It reminds me of celebrity who cries:
"What?!?! There are people who don't like me!?!?! I'm so great that everyone must absolutely love me!"
In the election folk did not vote for the better candidate. They voted for the least worse.
A lot of folks held their noses while voting.
It's quite sad actually.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Burr said the committee had come to a conclusion on at least one issue: that it had faith in the conclusions of the intelligence community assessment (ICA) presented by the CIA, FBI and NSA to Barack Obama and Donald Trump in January.
That assessment found that Vladimir Putin and the Russian government had intervened extensively in the presidential election and âoeaspired to help president-elect Trumpâ(TM)s election chances when possible by discrediting secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to himâ.
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.
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
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!"
Of course you'd reply as AC. You're still at the denial stage of grief. https://www.reuters.com/articl...
The British intelligence are our ALLIES, and have been for decades. Can't you tell the difference anymore, or more likely, will you just say anything that seems to support your point in the moment?
Contractors typically work from home, especially if they don't live in the US.
I'm shocked to see them denying it. Russians are honourable people. If they'd done it, they'd admit it.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."