4 ms·

I don't understand what difference it makes if it's state-sponsored or not. It seems like Yahoo's PR wants to switch focus to state-sponsored hacking and form

I don't understand what difference it makes if it's state-sponsored or not. It seems like Yahoo's PR wants to switch focus to state-sponsored hacking and form a narrative around what's been in the news lately as opposed to Yahoo's incompetence. Also it's less embarrassing to get hacked by a whole nation than a few nerds in their basement.

frandroid 10y ago
If you're a human rights activist with a Yahoo account and Russia or China stole these passwords, then your communications have a much higher chances to have been breached and spied upon than if say, a Russian gang got their hands on this and used accounts to spread more ransomware around.
user5994461 10y ago
IMO: State attack = a state steals the access and keep the breach secret for as long as they can [or until they get hacked themselves]. They use it for espionage and similar purposes Evil bad guy = all accounts and passwords are already available on blackmarket.com since Day+1 after the breach. They'll probably end up in a torrent within the next month. Evil bad guy sponsored by a state = Well, somewhere between the two. Hopefully the state ensures they get exclusive access and non disclosure.
- randomfool 10y ago
  Once the accounts are for sale on the black market (they are), then the distinction between state and non-state is moot.
  - andruby 10y ago
    Do you have a source? Has it been mentioned that these accounts are afor sale?
MichaelApproved 10y ago
> I don't understand what difference it makes if it's state-sponsored or not. > Also it's less embarrassing to get hacked by a whole nation than a few nerds in their basement. Seems like you understand just fine.
gcp 10y ago
A state sponsored attacker has some (easy) possibilities that are normally out of the league of a normal attacker. Like showing up on the doorstep of a CA and asking them to issue forged SSL certificates. This was relevant for the pinning bug that was just fixed in Firefox 49: normal users shouldn't care about it, but it's very dangerous for Tor users.

frandroid 10y ago

If you're a human rights activist with a Yahoo account and Russia or China stole these passwords, then your communications have a much higher chances to have been breached and spied upon than if say, a Russian gang got their hands on this and used accounts to spread more ransomware around.

user5994461 10y ago

IMO: State attack = a state steals the access and keep the breach secret for as long as they can [or until they get hacked themselves]. They use it for espionage and similar purposes Evil bad guy = all accounts and passwords are already available on blackmarket.com since Day+1 after the breach. They'll probably end up in a torrent within the next month. Evil bad guy sponsored by a state = Well, somewhere between the two. Hopefully the state ensures they get exclusive access and non disclosure.

randomfool 10y ago
Once the accounts are for sale on the black market (they are), then the distinction between state and non-state is moot.
- andruby 10y ago
  Do you have a source? Has it been mentioned that these accounts are afor sale?

MichaelApproved 10y ago

> I don't understand what difference it makes if it's state-sponsored or not. > Also it's less embarrassing to get hacked by a whole nation than a few nerds in their basement. Seems like you understand just fine.

gcp 10y ago

A state sponsored attacker has some (easy) possibilities that are normally out of the league of a normal attacker. Like showing up on the doorstep of a CA and asking them to issue forged SSL certificates. This was relevant for the pinning bug that was just fixed in Firefox 49: normal users shouldn't care about it, but it's very dangerous for Tor users.