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More states confirm suspected cyberattacks sourced to DHS

60 points by aburan28 10y ago

idm 10y ago
Are they reporting what is a mis-identification of automated vulnerability scanning? We've been talking for weeks now about how NSA continually weakens the US by attacking encryption and infrastructure - and nobody is actually helping tighten our networks. Could it be that DHS has some mandate to scan government networks?
- tjfl 10y ago
  > Are they reporting what is a mis-identification of automated vulnerability scanning? If DHS doesn't have approval/authority, isn't an automated vulnerability scan a cyberattack?
- stephancoral 10y ago
  It could also be that a) DHS machines are compromised b) They are just falsifying the IP
  - neuronexmachina 10y ago
    If they're all from the same IP address, it seems likely that it's a compromised machine.
apeace 10y ago
I'm shocked that this story seems to be upvoted less than the Gimli Glider story which has been on the front page for more than a day. One would think that the recent allegations of Russian hacking [0], as well as these allegations, would be of interest to the HN community. Whether either of the allegations is well-founded or not, they need to be investigated and understood by the public. It's worth noting that the President spent a great deal of his final press conference discussing the Russian hacking issue [1]. Why is this not bigger news, especially here? [0] http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/19/politics/russian-election-hacking-podesta-brazile-mccain/ http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/19/politics/russian-election-hack... [1] https://www.emptywheel.net/2016/12/18/obamas-response-to-russias-hack-an-emphasis-on-americas-more-generalized-vulnerability/ https://www.emptywheel.net/2016/12/18/obamas-response-to-rus...
- Fjolsvith 10y ago
  Could it be because it delegitimatizes the reports of Russia being to blame for election agency hacking?
  - cvwright 10y ago
    Could be part of it. Also, election fatigue. The 2016 election has dominated every news cycle for more than a year. Everybody is just plain tired of it, for better or worse.
- dellpluslinux89 10y ago
  Because it is a non-story: http://thehill.com/policy/technology/310812-dhs-responds-to-hacking-accusations-from-georgia http://thehill.com/policy/technology/310812-dhs-responds-to-...
ccarter84 10y ago
Unrealistic, but fun theory: Maybe DHS was hacked by Russia and then used as attack-vector
godgod 10y ago
So now their little copy and paste story doesn't hold water. The DHS gave a bullshit explanation and now they're caught lying. This is a criminal government.
cagey_vet 10y ago
my bet is on an assessor mis-scanning an ip range during a scheduled network assessment. having been in those trenches, this is how it was firmly explained to me every week when tasks were delegated: "double and triple-check all your target ip addresses. we don't want someone outside the network complaining about a scan, that's a reportable incident and makes us look like douches when we are trying to get new business with the fed client."

60 points by aburan28 10y ago

idm 10y ago

Are they reporting what is a mis-identification of automated vulnerability scanning? We've been talking for weeks now about how NSA continually weakens the US by attacking encryption and infrastructure - and nobody is actually helping tighten our networks. Could it be that DHS has some mandate to scan government networks?

tjfl 10y ago
> Are they reporting what is a mis-identification of automated vulnerability scanning? If DHS doesn't have approval/authority, isn't an automated vulnerability scan a cyberattack?
stephancoral 10y ago
It could also be that a) DHS machines are compromised b) They are just falsifying the IP
- neuronexmachina 10y ago
  If they're all from the same IP address, it seems likely that it's a compromised machine.

apeace 10y ago

I'm shocked that this story seems to be upvoted less than the Gimli Glider story which has been on the front page for more than a day. One would think that the recent allegations of Russian hacking [0], as well as these allegations, would be of interest to the HN community. Whether either of the allegations is well-founded or not, they need to be investigated and understood by the public. It's worth noting that the President spent a great deal of his final press conference discussing the Russian hacking issue [1]. Why is this not bigger news, especially here? [0] http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/19/politics/russian-election-hacking-podesta-brazile-mccain/ http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/19/politics/russian-election-hack... [1] https://www.emptywheel.net/2016/12/18/obamas-response-to-russias-hack-an-emphasis-on-americas-more-generalized-vulnerability/ https://www.emptywheel.net/2016/12/18/obamas-response-to-rus...

Fjolsvith 10y ago
Could it be because it delegitimatizes the reports of Russia being to blame for election agency hacking?
- cvwright 10y ago
  Could be part of it. Also, election fatigue. The 2016 election has dominated every news cycle for more than a year. Everybody is just plain tired of it, for better or worse.
dellpluslinux89 10y ago
Because it is a non-story: http://thehill.com/policy/technology/310812-dhs-responds-to-hacking-accusations-from-georgia http://thehill.com/policy/technology/310812-dhs-responds-to-...

ccarter84 10y ago

Unrealistic, but fun theory: Maybe DHS was hacked by Russia and then used as attack-vector

godgod 10y ago

So now their little copy and paste story doesn't hold water. The DHS gave a bullshit explanation and now they're caught lying. This is a criminal government.

cagey_vet 10y ago

my bet is on an assessor mis-scanning an ip range during a scheduled network assessment. having been in those trenches, this is how it was firmly explained to me every week when tasks were delegated: "double and triple-check all your target ip addresses. we don't want someone outside the network complaining about a scan, that's a reportable incident and makes us look like douches when we are trying to get new business with the fed client."