Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
The Military Democrats Government Security

Russian Government Gets 'Hacked Back', Attacks Possibly Launched By The NSA (bbc.com) 173

An anonymous reader write: Russian government bodies have been hit by a "professional" cyber attack, according to the country's intelligence service, which said the attack targeted state organizations and defense companies, as well as Russia's "critically important infrastructures". The agency told the BBC that the powerful malware "allowed those responsible to switch on cameras and microphones within the computer, take screenshots and track what was being typed by monitoring keyboard strokes."
ABC News reports that the NSA "is likely 'hacking back' Russia's government-linked cyber-espionage teams "to see once and for all if they're responsible for the massive breach at the Democratic National Committee, according to three former senior intelligence officials... Robert Joyce, chief of the NSA's shadowy Tailored Access Operations, declined to comment on the DNC hack specifically, but said in general that the NSA has technical capabilities and legal authorities that allow the agency to 'hack back' suspected hacking groups, infiltrating their systems to gather intelligence about their operations in the wake of a cyber attack... In some past unrelated cases...NSA hackers have been able to watch from the inside as malicious actors conduct their operations in real time."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Russian Government Gets 'Hacked Back', Attacks Possibly Launched By The NSA

Comments Filter:
  • ... suddenly get a picture in their heads of that scene from "The Princess Bride" where Vizzini talks about how he was hired to start a war?

  • "allowed those responsible to switch on cameras and microphones within the computer, take screenshots and track what was being typed by monitoring keyboard strokes." Kindergarden level keylogger hack by standards of the indistry
    • Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Funny)

      by sumdumass ( 711423 ) on Saturday July 30, 2016 @07:23PM (#52614541) Journal

      But the trick was getting them to install it by putting out a package called "DNC hack files complete ".

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by ShakaUVM ( 157947 )

      >"allowed those responsible to switch on cameras and microphones within the computer, take screenshots and track what was being typed by monitoring keyboard strokes." Kindergarden level keylogger hack by standards of the indistry

      Or you just upgrade them to Windows 10.

  • Good to see the NSA point their guns in the right direction, no?

    • There are no right directions in this kind of game any more. Nobody has any moral high ground left to call an end to it, which means it's an ever-escalating cat-and-mouse game. The agencies and politicians doing this should sober up and call an end to it. Make the world a safer place by blocking holes in software products, not create them.

      • You gotta do both.

        Nobody has any moral high ground left to call an end to it, which means it's an ever-escalating cat-and-mouse game..

        Exactly. All bets are off. The baddest sociopath wins. But you do get points for subtlety. As they say, "blood is a big expense..."

        • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

          There is a high ground in this case, just not a moral one. That high ground is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] and it is exactly where this stupidity will end. They keep playing this game and eventually they will start pulling each others plugs and we will get caught in the crossfire.

      • I don't care about moral high ground nearly as much as I care about American elections staying American.

        • That's just the thing, it's out of control at the moment. The US, for example, has supported or brought countless dictators [wikipedia.org] to power by fixing or helping fix elections, or otherwise playing dirty. I'm sure the people of these countries feel the same way you do. The healing process begins at home.

    • Good to see the NSA point their guns in the right direction, no?

      So they're probably not.

      Bill Binnie is saying that it was an NSA agent who hacked the DNC because he was personally pissed off that SoS Clinton was using Gamma intel in unclassified memos and never had to be accountable for that.

      Anyway, Snowden said that XKeyscore can already tell exactly who hacked the DNC, so the NSA already knows (assuming he's right - he says he's done that kind of tracing himself).

      Putin is probably laughing at the D's and

      • Possible that Snowden is the "hacker"? He has shown a certain distaste for the democrats, with all his "leaks" targeting this administration, and potentially the next.

        Yeah, Johnson would be the preferred "anti-Trump" vote, but it's Trump's followers that need to be convinced.

  • WHAT FUN (Score:1, Insightful)

    by axewolf ( 4512747 )

    THE COLD WAR IS BACK its like a sports game our team vs. theirs what a time to be alive!
    This totally makes me forget about the fact that my government directs the same exact actions that it uses to ATTACK Russia toward me and mine for the purposes of our own SECURITY. It makes a lot of sense! The enemy is not my government and my employer that supports it, but it is a foreign entity that has almost no effect on my life whatsoever.

    • Yeah it would be fun to watch the CIA fund the opposition in russia to weaken the position of putin. Its not that they are not experienced, this is a standard tool in their toolset. Maybe we get crimea back, and russia becomes a democracy. Russia joining EU, anyone??

      • by Layzej ( 1976930 )

        it would be fun to watch the CIA fund the opposition in russia to weaken the position of putin.

        There is evidence that Russia has been doing something similar in the USA:

        In his research from St. Petersburg, Chen discovered that Russian internet trolls — paid by the Kremlin to spread false information on the internet — have been behind a number of "highly coordinated campaigns" to deceive the American public.

        "I created this list of Russian trolls when I was researching. And I check on it once in a while, still. And a lot of them have turned into conservative accounts, like fake conser [businessinsider.com]

      • by fnj ( 64210 )

        Maybe we get crimea back, and russia becomes a democracy.

        Who is "we"? Russia *IS* a representative democratic republic, Sparky. It's just as much a "democracy" as the US. As for the Crimea, the people spoke in a referendum, and unification with Russia won. Look, the Crimea was always overrun since antiquity by one set of conquerors after another; it got its ass handed to it when it was annexed by Russia in 1783. Then the USSR colonized it pretty thoroughly from 1917 on. Unfortunate, but no way is that going

        • Who is "we"? Russia *IS* a representative democratic republic, Sparky. It's just as much a "democracy" as the US.

          Not even the most brainwashed supporter could ever actually believe that. Russia is a democracy in name only. It isn't a constitutional democracy--the constitution says whatever Putin says it does. The US is highly flawed, but nobody is concerned that Obama is going to have Trump killed. Putin won't allow challengers, and we both know it.

        • Who is "we"?

          Citizens of the "grand area" of places of US influence. You know, it is true, the US maintains some sort of control over countries which live in the "grand area", the area of its influence. But the countries have much better freedom, much better judiciary systems, much less bribe going on and almost no oligarchy system in the economy. That's why I am on their side.

          any more than the seizure of North and South America from the natives by Europeans will be undone.

          Are these countries parts of the territory of the european countries? No they aren't, they became independent. Different story for crimea.

      • Yeah it would be fun to watch the CIA fund the opposition in russia to weaken the position of putin.

        Do you think we didn't have a role in the Ukrainian fiasco that ousted the pro-Russian government?

    • by fnj ( 64210 )

      THE COLD WAR IS BACK

      The cold war was too much of a good thing for too many of the power elite for them to let it go. Part of it (but not all of it) is that it fits their worldview of cowboys and indians. With the cold war to fall back on, they never have to evaluate real issues with real thought.

    • THE COLD WAR IS BACK

      Was it ever really gone, or just taking a nap?

      We're gonna need more missile defense, though.

  • Didn't anonymous post something a day or so ago claiming something similar?

  • Russian intelligence agencies use computers with Webcam's and mic's in uncovered and useable condition?

    I find this a bit hard to believe.

    • Re:In other news (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30, 2016 @07:02PM (#52614453)
      A bit hard. try impossible to believe. It would be like suggesting the NSA sit in front of computers with open webcams and mics. I work with one defense agency (from another country) and cameras are not permitted in the building, any permanent device with a web cam either has it mechanically disabled or tapped over. I would be stunned if this is not standard practise everywhere, especially agencies in the US and Russia where they take paranoid to whole new levels.
      • Re: In other news (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Have been inside NSA facility, can confirm they are not dumb enough to have webcams, or for that matter non air gapped systems. They are very thorough about that.

        • or for that matter non air gapped systems.

          Oh good, no databases. That must make IT easy.

        • by Jeremi ( 14640 )

          Have been inside NSA facility, can confirm they are not dumb enough to have webcams, or for that matter non air gapped systems.

          How do they share information amongst their computers then? The only thing I can imagine is via sneakernet, but of course malware can and does propagate via USB keys and laptops also, so it seems like even that might not be sufficient.

          I suppose printing everything to paper and then typing it all back in on the next computer might be secure (assuming the typist recognizes malware before he types it in ;)), but that doesn't sound very practical.

        • It's just a Russian version of security theater. [telegraph.co.uk]

          They should know.

          During much of the Cold War typewriters were state of the art, so they were the focus of spooks and spies just as mobile phone networks, emails and social networks are today.
          Techniques were developed to use cheap microphones to listen to key taps and decipher what was being written, spy cameras could peer over typist's shoulders and undercover agents could photograph and leak documents.
          Debonair KGB agents were even tasked with seducing typists and winkling information from them.
          Missile-equipped Aston Martins aside, some of what you see in James Bond films actually went on.

          In 1984 the NSA became paranoid about the extent of this sort of Russian infiltration and began what it called Project Gunman, under which it replaced every piece of communications equipment at embassies in Moscow and Leningrad.
          It shipped the old devices back to the US for analysis, and when they were X-rayed it was discovered that 16 IBM Selectric typewriters had been bugged.
          For eight years they had sent the contents of every single document to the Kremlin, via a man crouching outside with a radio receiver.

    • A quick reread might help.

      The article stated that "the attack targeted state organizations and defense companies". No mention of intelligence agencies.

  • We should ask: If the republicans had been hacked, would Obama launch an attack?

    (Assuming this story is true.)

    • Re:Favoritism (Score:4, Insightful)

      by BarbaraHudson ( 3785311 ) <barbara@jane@hudson.icloud@com> on Saturday July 30, 2016 @07:35PM (#52614589) Journal

      The favoritism is all from the media - notice how quickly attention was diverted from the DNC fixing the nomination process? If this had been the republicans, they'd be all over the nomination fixing like flies on shit.

      Subverting the election process is a lot more damaging long-term than a one-time hack by someone in Russia who may or may not be from the government.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • "how quickly attention was diverted from the DNC fixing the nomination process"

        That is more because there was no evidence of the DNC fixing their nomination process, just an expected level of ineffectual bitching by minor players.

        The common message these days is that Wikileaks no longer promotes any useful information, just doxing of proles.

        • Re:Favoritism (Score:4, Informative)

          by BarbaraHudson ( 3785311 ) <barbara@jane@hudson.icloud@com> on Sunday July 31, 2016 @07:31AM (#52615855) Journal
          The DNC was supposed to be impartial. The DNC favored Clinton before any votes were cast [observer.com]. Bernie was a "problem" for them.

          Other emails show DNC staff in damage control over allegations from the Sanders campaign, when a report - corroborated by a Politico - revealed the DNC’s joint fundraising committee with the Clinton campaign was laundering money to the Clinton campaign instead of fundraising for down-ticket Democrats. Regardless of the fundraising tactics, because both major campaigns didn’t agree to use the joint fundraising committee super-PAC with the DNC, the DNC should have recused itself from participating with just the Clinton campaign.

          Follow the money.

        • That is more because there was no evidence of the DNC fixing their nomination process, just an expected level of ineffectual bitching by minor players.

          This is the stupid spin we're talking about. There's *tons* of evidence the DNC was subverting their nomination process. But unless Anderson Cooper says it, people don't think it. So the media says "nothing to see here, move along move along" when there is in fact tons to see here. The media shifted focus to "Trump's a russian agent!" This is so completely ridiculous I hope it helps wake people up to the propaganda shitshow our media is.

    • I'd bet you he would. Any excuse will suffice to get a free pass on collecting all that information.

  • Tit for Tat (Score:4, Funny)

    by guises ( 2423402 ) on Saturday July 30, 2016 @07:15PM (#52614507)
    Yeah, woo! Take that! You fuck with our elections?! Well we'll fuck with your elections, Russia...
    • by wasteoid ( 1897370 ) on Saturday July 30, 2016 @07:23PM (#52614537)
      Ha ha ha! Russian elections! Oh wait, you were serious.
      • by aliquis ( 678370 )

        Ha ha ha! Russian elections! Oh wait, you were serious.

        I don't know how Trump consider himself relative Putin but I'm not sure he's got the upper hand.

        Anyone who's willing to vote for Trump would likely had been willing to vote for Putin too. Coming from Sweden I'd vote for all of Trump, Putin and Hitler if I had a choice but sadly I don't.

    • Might be pretty easy, just hack into the systems Russia uses to fix their elections.

  • by EvilSS ( 557649 ) on Saturday July 30, 2016 @07:27PM (#52614553)
    So their vodka distilleries and botnets got hit?
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Lol. So, the Obama/Clinton duo got outed for rigging the DNC in Clinton's favor, proving, once again, that American democracy is a farce. Their response? Immediately invoke McCarthyism and, without a shred of evidence, attack Russia!

    What a country.

  • by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Saturday July 30, 2016 @07:37PM (#52614597)
    if the NSA would tell Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe, et all of the vulnerabilities they knew about so the companies could patch their software? But no, the Kremlin uses the same vulnerable software so if the NSA protects American citizens it makes it harder to hack the Kremlin.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Even worse, the NSA makes companies leave holes open for reasons of national security.
      It really is a 1984 situation, insecurity is security.

  • I call BS (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mea2214 ( 935585 ) on Saturday July 30, 2016 @07:58PM (#52614673)
    My bullshit detector is going full tilt over this entire affair. Somebody is making up stories to feed a gullible press that does little to no fact checking anymore.
    • Is it gullibility or are they just taking orders?

      • by Anonymous Coward

        Given that they can call the CEO and ask people on Morning Joe to be forced to apologize if they say something they don't like and that they're holding clandestine fundraisers with the Washington Post that their lawyers told them not to do, it's hard to tell any more.

        For anyone asking for a cite, go read the email leaks.

      • It's just kind of all incestuous. You've got journalists married to DNC honchos or siblings of people in the administration, all beholden to the money from the same companies that own the media outlets. Our media is just propaganda, but it's not like the state is running the media. It's more like the same people who run the state run the media.

    • I call BS on your entire frame of mind.

      The press isn't gullible, they just don't care. They know their job is to prune the psyche of the public, not to report facts and allow the public to maintain its own psyche.

    • Good call. But doesn't matter, it's a story, damnit!

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Ever notice how there's never any massive data dumps with salacious details about comrade vlad in these hacks?

    • by swb ( 14022 )

      Vlad rode a horse without a shirt. Fucking Chuck Norris won't say shit about him.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    But I never imagined it would go down like this, or that it would even kick off before he is President.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    It's CowboyNeal.

    Oops, I've said too much alreadNO CARRIER

  • by no-body ( 127863 ) on Saturday July 30, 2016 @10:11PM (#52615029)

    Does it pay????

    It's the boys in a sand box, eh - I get you back for destroying my sand castle.

    Only problem here is that this is not limited to just the sand box and the kids playing in it, maybe the parents to some degree but the billions of humans affected - and much fewer participating as string puppets making the games possible...

    A similar game is tit for tat where totally unrelated individuals suffer.
    The string pullers should be locked in a great cage so they can fight it out and hit their own heads bloody.
    Maybe the good Donald will finally get this fixed?

    Oh well.....

  • by Anonymous Coward
    If the Russians did it they didn't hack the USA government. They hacked the DNC and made Hillary look bad compared to Bernie by revealing the truth about Wasserman Schultz's grubbiness.

    That's no excuse to use the USA governments resources for a cyberstrike against the Russian government. Very irresponsible. Don't confuse "defending" the DNC with defending the USA. Two very different things.
    • A foreign agency is very possibly trying to interfere in US elections. Maybe you didn't think about that.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        If they are interfering by exposing what politicians plan and say to each other behind closed doors then they're welcome to come and do some more as far as I'm concerned.

  • Prothero: Do you believe this crap: Dascombe?

    Dascombe: It's not our job to believe it, Lewis. Our job is to tell the people --
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Truly the government is embarrassed of what revealed in the DNC emails. In all the hacks that's happened in the past few years, this one prompts the Nsa to hack back?????

  • First off,

    The Democrat Party/DNC/etc is NOT the U.S. government. It is a private company...that is all. Were it not so, the election fraud engaged in would have every oath sword and bound officer of the U.S. armed forces obligated to act in the DNCs removal for being a clear and present threat to our Constitution's democracy. But it's not...it is merely a political party.

    So what if it was hacked by Russians. Of which I am rather doubtful.

    So we are going to engage in an escalation of cyber-warfare with a n

"You can't get very far in this world without your dossier being there first." -- Arthur Miller

Working...