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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.
In the US if you refuse to sabotage your product the worst they can do is maybe find out you cheated on your taxes and/or publicly shame you somehow.
Nope, your business gets destroyed by the government if you refuse. See: Lavabit
In Russia you fall down elevator shaft, after shooting self in back of head 4 times.
Where as in US you can get shot by government in clear daylight with everything caught on video and murderers escape all punishment.. Apples and oranges.
"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.
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.
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,
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!
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.
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!"