Of course Kaspersky should be removed from your system.
Or if you want to keep it, then don't complain when your files get reviewed by an invasive dictatorship. Of course, in 90% of cases they might not give a two shits about you, but if they do, then Kaspersky is one of their possible tools.
Also, there is absolutely no doubt that Kaspersky and similar Russian-made products should be removed from government networks or any computers handling sensitive information.
Despite all the bravado the idea of a war in Ukraine for whatever reason seems to be unpopular in Russia and around the World.
Maintaining pretense of non-involvement is good for his domestic agenda and for the agitprop abroad, offering an exit road and to dupe the gullible westerners into lifting sanctions (imposed by the evil Obama and Merkel) and avoid responsibility.
So, despite everything, he will just keep on lying, about his war in Ukraine, about sectarian-ethnic cleansing facilitated by Russian military in Syria, and about pretty much everything else.
UN GA just days ago adopted a resolution finally admitting that Ukraine is a victim of the Russian military agression. Crimea is now an internationally recognized ocuppied region. The war in the eastern parts of the country is also between two nation-states: Ukraine and Russia. Claims about a "civil war" are distilled Fake News, a lie, Kremlin's disinformation.
My worry is that the NSA is likely penetrated by moles or it was successfully penetrated by foreign hackers. Regardless of the actual way those files were exfiltrated, this public stunt is nothing less than a public attack on one of your main intelligence services, by a foreign adversary, a brutal undemocratic and illiberal regime.
The fact that the NSA is under attack (and a public one) is what worries me, not that a bunch of 0-days is made public (and some of them are already fixed).
Because if you really believe that Putin's goons intervene into your elections to promote honesty, integrity, and democracy, you are wrong, very wrong, and I doubt it can be fixed.
Manhattan project also failed to keep its secrets, so did the VENONA project (and many other). Are you going to exercise your smart sense of moral superiority upon their failings?
What if the rest of society is really worried over the fact that a sophisticated adversary is meddling into your domestic affairs (via DNCLeak and DCLeaks, incl Wikileaks) and at the same time confronts one of your main intelligence agencies in public, calling it bluff.
I don't really see anything funny or positive in the fact that one of your main intelligence services is under attack by a hostile power. And this attack is not clandestine, hidden from unwanted eyes, but it is made in public, so as to call NSA bluff and expose your country as a paper tiger.
And this all is compounded by a poorly hidden active measures campaign to benefit one candidate and to destroy another.
I believe that neither Schadenfreude nor sarcastic gleeing over a major f@ck up at the NSA are appropriate in this case, because want it or not, admit it or not, but your country is under attack by a powerful, sophisticated adversary. And it aint good. at all.
Someone had to say this, and thank you very much for making the first reasonable comment under this article.
Assange was exposed as a tool of Russian intelligence services pretty much long ago, not to mention his work for the Russian propaganda network RT (and one can assume he worked there not for free).
So far, what we know about the leaks is that the latest timestamp in the leaked e-mails more or less corresponds to the moment when CrowdStrike purged Russian APTs from the DNC network (May 25 and May 29 corresp). Wikileaks published the dump on June 22, this poor guy was murdered on July 10.
Now we have to suppress our critical thinking and just take a Russian tool who has worked on Russian propaganda network for his word?
Where is your proof Mr. Assange? Please give us any evidence that Seth Rich was your source.
Guess what? Electric grids were already hacked in what appears to be one of the first more or less real cyber-wars (previous - Estonia 2007, Georgia 2008 - were primarily powerful DDoS attacks to either disrupt services or cut off the country from the rest of the world).
The hacking happened in December 2015, in Ukraine. The attack was a sophisticated APT attack from Russia.
Besides, while focusing on this front, let's not forget that the SecureWorks, the DNC staff, and some other companies did detect penetration of the DNC networks by two russian advanced persistent threat groups known as APT29 and APT28.
Should we dismiss it now?
Or, more specifically, how should americans perceive foreign governments running intelligence operations to influence the outcome of the elections and therefore determine who will become the next POTUS?
In this case evidence is rife that the DNC was hacked by the russian intelligence services via a proxy - known as APT28, Sofacy Group, Pawn Storm, etc.
But in order to legalize the stolen documents it uses another front - a sockpuppet called "Guccifer 2.0".
But first of all, did anyone really expect "him" to come out and admit that this is merely a front for the Russian intelligence services running an active measures operation against a presidential candidate they don't like to aid the one they do? That's like expecting from Snowden come out and explain his relations to the FSB prior to boarding a plane to Moscow and especially afterwards.
The man claimed to have easily discovered a 0-day in a proprietary and not public piece of software very likely written in C# and JavaScript using IDA and WinDbg.
In addition, the Vice has found out his romanian is far from being good enough for a native speaker. And this prepared FAQ has a much better English than his prior conversations.
The biggest flying aircraft was developed, tested, and manufactured in Soviet Ukraine, which became an independent state after the union went kaput. And, you should know that Ukraine is not Russia at all. Moreover I would not dare to draw conclusions similar to that you have made taking into account surface area only. First computers were developed in Ukraine, rockets (carriers) were developed in Ukraine and so on.
Then, It should be also taken into account that in the nearest future there will be parliamentary elections in Russia, and a little bit later, the presidential elections (approx in 100 days from today). These great plans can be just a part of the PR. These things are used to show the Russians how mighty and powerful became Russia lead by President Putin, and how even more powerful and developed it can become with Tsar Putin the great.
In any case, time will show, how honest were these plans.
After watching Fox News on YouTube for some time, I can not tell if there is any difference between Fox News or Kremlin News -- they both are really twisted.
If taken seriously, it is ridiculous that the bushies have launched an aggression on another independent state, established unlawful trials and tortures for the prisoners, having intelligence agencies spy on own citizens, did not sign Kioto treaty and so forth are criticizing Russia for some unclear reasons. It is like if the Oceania is on war with Eurasia...
PS: Is the PATRIOT Act still in force?
I think this is kinda flame-bait, arguing in one sentence that an unhappy work environment and an insistence on using MS Office are somehow related. MS Office do not assholes make, nor do I consider the people I work with assholes, despite Office being installed on every machine here.
From my own experience, I can tell that being forced to author documents in a Word (actually any WYSIWYG tool) is a pain in the ass compared to using LaTeX or any other markup solution.
And authoring scientific documents in Word is even worse than just pain in the ass.
I can add even more: most (really, most) of the books authored in Word are bad. These books (or documents) are poorly structured, have very little cross-references, seldom, they have something like an index of terms in the back matter, text formatting might be inconsistent, and the quality of formulae is worse than poor.
So, yes, being forced to use Word and unhappy work environment are interrelated.
The reason why I am saying this is that currently, I am forced to use Word to write documentation.
Not only Chechen people are being oppressed. It looks like xenophobia is very common in Russia nowadays. You can check http://xeno.sova-center.ru/ -- a center that gathers information on this topic.
And, about two or three months ago, a very strong anti Georgian (and anti Mikhailo Saakashvili) campaign was made in Russia.
It was also written in the press, that almost 50 000 skinheads (neo-Nazi racists live in Russia).
Slashdot Mirror
Of course russian intelligence services are using Kaspersky for their own purpose.
Of course Kaspersky should be removed from your system.
Or if you want to keep it, then don't complain when your files get reviewed by an invasive dictatorship. Of course, in 90% of cases they might not give a two shits about you, but if they do, then Kaspersky is one of their possible tools.
Also, there is absolutely no doubt that Kaspersky and similar Russian-made products should be removed from government networks or any computers handling sensitive information.
Despite all the bravado the idea of a war in Ukraine for whatever reason seems to be unpopular in Russia and around the World.
Maintaining pretense of non-involvement is good for his domestic agenda and for the agitprop abroad, offering an exit road and to dupe the gullible westerners into lifting sanctions (imposed by the evil Obama and Merkel) and avoid responsibility.
So, despite everything, he will just keep on lying, about his war in Ukraine, about sectarian-ethnic cleansing facilitated by Russian military in Syria, and about pretty much everything else.
UN GA just days ago adopted a resolution finally admitting that Ukraine is a victim of the Russian military agression. Crimea is now an internationally recognized ocuppied region. The war in the eastern parts of the country is also between two nation-states: Ukraine and Russia. Claims about a "civil war" are distilled Fake News, a lie, Kremlin's disinformation.
My worry is that the NSA is likely penetrated by moles or it was successfully penetrated by foreign hackers. Regardless of the actual way those files were exfiltrated, this public stunt is nothing less than a public attack on one of your main intelligence services, by a foreign adversary, a brutal undemocratic and illiberal regime.
The fact that the NSA is under attack (and a public one) is what worries me, not that a bunch of 0-days is made public (and some of them are already fixed).
Because if you really believe that Putin's goons intervene into your elections to promote honesty, integrity, and democracy, you are wrong, very wrong, and I doubt it can be fixed.
Manhattan project also failed to keep its secrets, so did the VENONA project (and many other). Are you going to exercise your smart sense of moral superiority upon their failings?
What if the rest of society is really worried over the fact that a sophisticated adversary is meddling into your domestic affairs (via DNCLeak and DCLeaks, incl Wikileaks) and at the same time confronts one of your main intelligence agencies in public, calling it bluff.
I don't really see anything funny or positive in the fact that one of your main intelligence services is under attack by a hostile power. And this attack is not clandestine, hidden from unwanted eyes, but it is made in public, so as to call NSA bluff and expose your country as a paper tiger.
And this all is compounded by a poorly hidden active measures campaign to benefit one candidate and to destroy another.
I believe that neither Schadenfreude nor sarcastic gleeing over a major f@ck up at the NSA are appropriate in this case, because want it or not, admit it or not, but your country is under attack by a powerful, sophisticated adversary. And it aint good. at all.
Someone had to say this, and thank you very much for making the first reasonable comment under this article.
Assange was exposed as a tool of Russian intelligence services pretty much long ago, not to mention his work for the Russian propaganda network RT (and one can assume he worked there not for free).
So far, what we know about the leaks is that the latest timestamp in the leaked e-mails more or less corresponds to the moment when CrowdStrike purged Russian APTs from the DNC network (May 25 and May 29 corresp). Wikileaks published the dump on June 22, this poor guy was murdered on July 10.
Now we have to suppress our critical thinking and just take a Russian tool who has worked on Russian propaganda network for his word?
Where is your proof Mr. Assange? Please give us any evidence that Seth Rich was your source.
Thanks
Guess what? Electric grids were already hacked in what appears to be one of the first more or less real cyber-wars (previous - Estonia 2007, Georgia 2008 - were primarily powerful DDoS attacks to either disrupt services or cut off the country from the rest of the world).
The hacking happened in December 2015, in Ukraine. The attack was a sophisticated APT attack from Russia.
You can find more by following description in IR-ALERT-H-16-056-01 or reading the Wired article by Kim Zetter.
And, by the way, malware did find its way into nuclear power plants (though not control systems).
Besides, while focusing on this front, let's not forget that the SecureWorks, the DNC staff, and some other companies did detect penetration of the DNC networks by two russian advanced persistent threat groups known as APT29 and APT28.
Should we dismiss it now?
Or, more specifically, how should americans perceive foreign governments running intelligence operations to influence the outcome of the elections and therefore determine who will become the next POTUS?
In this case evidence is rife that the DNC was hacked by the russian intelligence services via a proxy - known as APT28, Sofacy Group, Pawn Storm, etc.
But in order to legalize the stolen documents it uses another front - a sockpuppet called "Guccifer 2.0".
For example, if the Russian government finds Trump far more preferable, and runs a campaign to discredit his only competitor to get him elected.
But really, did anybody expect that sockpuppet to come out and admit that he is the front for the Russian intelligence services? Like, really?
But first of all, did anyone really expect "him" to come out and admit that this is merely a front for the Russian intelligence services running an active measures operation against a presidential candidate they don't like to aid the one they do? That's like expecting from Snowden come out and explain his relations to the FSB prior to boarding a plane to Moscow and especially afterwards.
The man claimed to have easily discovered a 0-day in a proprietary and not public piece of software very likely written in C# and JavaScript using IDA and WinDbg.
In addition, the Vice has found out his romanian is far from being good enough for a native speaker. And this prepared FAQ has a much better English than his prior conversations.
More information on this affair:
The biggest flying aircraft was developed, tested, and manufactured in Soviet Ukraine, which became an independent state after the union went kaput. And, you should know that Ukraine is not Russia at all. Moreover I would not dare to draw conclusions similar to that you have made taking into account surface area only. First computers were developed in Ukraine, rockets (carriers) were developed in Ukraine and so on. Then, It should be also taken into account that in the nearest future there will be parliamentary elections in Russia, and a little bit later, the presidential elections (approx in 100 days from today). These great plans can be just a part of the PR. These things are used to show the Russians how mighty and powerful became Russia lead by President Putin, and how even more powerful and developed it can become with Tsar Putin the great. In any case, time will show, how honest were these plans.
After watching Fox News on YouTube for some time, I can not tell if there is any difference between Fox News or Kremlin News -- they both are really twisted. If taken seriously, it is ridiculous that the bushies have launched an aggression on another independent state, established unlawful trials and tortures for the prisoners, having intelligence agencies spy on own citizens, did not sign Kioto treaty and so forth are criticizing Russia for some unclear reasons. It is like if the Oceania is on war with Eurasia... PS: Is the PATRIOT Act still in force?
From my own experience, I can tell that being forced to author documents in a Word (actually any WYSIWYG tool) is a pain in the ass compared to using LaTeX or any other markup solution.
And authoring scientific documents in Word is even worse than just pain in the ass.
I can add even more: most (really, most) of the books authored in Word are bad. These books (or documents) are poorly structured, have very little cross-references, seldom, they have something like an index of terms in the back matter, text formatting might be inconsistent, and the quality of formulae is worse than poor.
So, yes, being forced to use Word and unhappy work environment are interrelated.
The reason why I am saying this is that currently, I am forced to use Word to write documentation.
And, about two or three months ago, a very strong anti Georgian (and anti Mikhailo Saakashvili) campaign was made in Russia.
It was also written in the press, that almost 50 000 skinheads (neo-Nazi racists live in Russia).
No, in Ukraine Gymnasium is a common name for privately owned (or, commercial) secondary Schools.