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Global cyber attack that left U.S. flag on screens
- nodesocket 9y agoIf there is anything we have learned from the Russian meddling with our elections is that they are masters of counter-intelligence. I am willing to wager 100% these attacks were not by pro-US organizations. They just want the media to report it as pro-US, which hook-line-and-sinker they did. Please don't be fooled.
- Waterluvian 9y agoI bet they're no fools either. But like all media, they are happy to report a narrative that generates views (if private), or fits their goals (if state owned).
- nodesocket 9y agoBut that is precisely the problem. Because their businesses is failing, they report things that are false but generate page-views and the outraged and less informed eat it up.
- jstanley 9y agoDid you read the article? They didn't report it as pro-US.
- emodendroket 9y agoI mean, if I'm being asked to believe that they swung the election to Donald Trump with $100k in Facebook ads and a group about dogs I guess I'd have to believe they're geniuses. But I am pretty skeptical. The evidence for the attribution of DNC hacks seems quite weak too (and at worst it involves the genius maneuver of making public what Hillary Clinton's campaign actually said and thought).
- viraptor 9y ago> if I'm being asked to believe that they swung the election to Donald Trump with $100k in Facebook ads and a group about dogs I'm not sure anyone's asking that. The social media results were not about ads bought. The issue was about accounts pumping specific content which was then reshared by actual voters. (and official news outlets) Those accounts were happily switching between being really interested in US, then French elections, then Brexit, with some middle east commentary in between. There's lots of research about them a few google queries away.
- jakeogh 9y agoYou left out Bernie rallies and BLM.
- akhilcacharya 9y ago>evidence for the attribution of DNC hacks seems quite weak too I guess you know more than the CIA
- FreedomWarrior 9y agoYes, because the CIA would never lie to us, right? They would never poison a Russian ex-spy to make Putin look bad? I don't think this attack was orchestrated by a US entity. Or Russian for that matter. But when an entity that's hell-bent on controlling the worlds information gives a blanket statement about something without proof, I can only assume it's a lie.
- akhilcacharya 9y agoI take the CIA's word, which is part of our own government, over the word of individuals who seek harm to American interests.
- fiblye 9y agoIt's easy to find information on bad things the CIA did [1], "minor" things of note including classic hits like "imposing a dictatorship in Iran, leading to an Islamic fundamentalist revolution and thus creating a powerful enemy against the US where there wasn't one before" and "trafficking drugs into the US and greatly amplifying America's drug problems", but looking for times where they actually did good for the country leaves me with little if anything. The CIA's actions aren't done in national defense. They're a subversive organization. The fact the CIA suddenly shifted from being a shadowy government organization that people pretty much only knew about through action movies to being "open" about their ongoing activities within these past few years raises some red flags. Looking at the CIA's history, it's incredible that anyone would sit there and think they're trustworthy. I encounter people trying to say "well that's in the past" pretty often, which is a silly position to take, because why would they have any reason to stop? [1]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/12/23/the-cia-says-russia-hacked-the-u-s-election-here-are-6-things-to-learn-from-cold-war-attempts-to-change-regimes/?utm_term=.f777a7343d66 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/12/2...
- tlrobinson 9y agoI don’t think anyone would actually believe a US-affiliated organization would do this. It’s not their style. (unless you count some pro-US hacker/group doing it for the lulz) But maybe that’s what they want us to think, and it’s actually counter-counterintelligence to make it look like an independent hacker/group...
- matthewaveryusa 9y agoMasterful is a bit strong. From the evidence I've seen I would say they are more like opportunists
- zeth___ 9y agoIf western governments can be overthrown by 6 facebook maymays we might as well throw in the towel and accept Putin as our God Emperor.
- stinos 9y agoPlease don't be fooled. By you? :P Given the lack of real info all the rest is in my opinion belief. Or, at most, a semi-educated guess. So whether I believe you on this topic or any other opinion, I'd be fooled no matter what. Just saying 'I don't know' seems the easy and most correct way out here, for now.
- thaumaturgy 9y agoI've heard this called "epistemic learned helplessness", and I think it's a cool bit of self-awareness.
- slashcom 9y agoEither this was a distraction/rogue American sympathizer, or the Trump Administration has jumped the shark in its “America first” behaviors.
- lowpro 9y agoDoes anyone really believe this was done by a pro-US entity (or the US itself)? This would only strain relations more than they already are, and I wonder effect this would have in Syria where the US is leaving and Iran/Russia still have a large interest in what happens in the area. It's always interesting to think about the 2nd or 3rd level effects that whoever did this was aiming for
- emodendroket 9y agoI'm not sure that the administration bringing in John Bolton and making it really clear they want to tear up the Iran deal would necessarily consider it negative to strain relations with Iran.
- cma 9y ago>I'm not sure that the administration He specified: "pro-US entity."
- jakeogh 9y agoThe numbers disagree. Consumer confidence? Nah. Unemployment? Don't talk about it. ISIS? Oh... we stopped funding it and wrecked that TLA toy. North Korea? TPP? Supreme Court? Tax Cut? I'm not arrogant enough to propose a "New Rule", buy just maybe the unhappy people should back up their snark with a hint of data.
- imron 9y ago> Does anyone really believe this was done by a pro-US entity I blame the Russians /s
- ascorbic 9y agoIt sounds like it wasn't a particularly sophisticated attack, so I'm quite willing to believe it was by a pro-US individual who doesn't particularly care about the subtleties of the geopolitics. That said, this is hardly going to move the needle when there are real events like Trump threatening to reintroduce sanctions.
- csours 9y agoFalse Flag seems a little on the nose here...
- aphextron 9y agoCan we just ban Russia from the internet?
- knodi 9y agoThugs can only play games for so long before people rise up. Russia is a thug nation and the world has had enough.
- dang 9y agoWould you please stop posting uncivil and/or unsubstantive comments to HN? You've been doing the political flamebait thing repeatedly. It's destructive of this site and not ok. In particular, comments smearing an entire country are bannable offences here regardless of which country it is. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- eatinggrin 9y agolol thank you for voting
- dang 9y agoNational attacks are not ok on Hacker News, regardless of which interpretation of current events you subscribe to. Please don't post like this again. Edit: I want to say more about this. The overwhelming majority of HN users are legit community members, from lots of countries. Imagine being a legit community member from Russia and seeing people posting like you guys did here. It's frankly disgraceful.
- exabrial 9y agoGiven the USA nearly always operates with secrecy [no matter what agenda or party has traditionally been in power], I'll go with false flag operation. There are a lot of entities that would benefit from this that aren't the USA, like the incumbent government. I'm curious to hear other opinions, especially any that disagree with my initial assumptions.
- justonepost 9y agoProbably not even false flag, it’d be more subtle. Likely they want to muddle the pot for those trying to accuse Russians.
- knodi 9y agoRussian meddling again, playing straw man.
- deltaprotocol 9y agoTo me, this feels like a move to distract the target(s). If it is so it makes sense for both the US to be responsible (knowing such an obvious reference will be interpreted as originating from someone else. e.g. Russia) and also for its enemies (well, they want to draw attention). "But sir, everyone will notice", said the operator, hesitating. "Use one of your tricks, I don't care", replied the commander. "Just get it done!". "Mike, do you still have that script, the one with the American flag?" the first man whispered.
- andrewstuart2 9y agoAnybody who's actually investigating this will not consider that a useful clue in either direction. It's easy to take it to ridiculous dimensions from "Go USA!!1" to "Now they'll think it was the USA" to "Now they'll think someone's framing the USA." It's just not helpful digital evidence in any way because it was clearly intended to be seen in a world where you cover your tracks as much as you can.
- ShorsHammer 9y agoAttribution ain't easy. In the end it comes down signalling. Who did it is somewhat irrelevant in this regard. There is a silent war going on right now in a new domain, managing public perception of war is always necessary,regardless of country.
- codedokode 9y agoIt is interesting that in the message left by hackers [1] American flag is pictured incorrectly: there are too many stars. [1] https://cdn.i24news.tv/upload/image/9d8a60d8155d08ddbfe86542bad9240ab015458a.jpg?width=716 https://cdn.i24news.tv/upload/image/9d8a60d8155d08ddbfe86542...
- knodi 9y agoClassic Russian blunder again.
- shkkmo 9y agoIs somebody trying to contact american time travelers in Iran?
- DrScump 9y ago67 stars? Thus is literally a False Flag event.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- codedokode 9y agoI found that if you google for "usa flag ascii" then this is the first result [1]. So probably hackers just copied it from that page. [1] http://chris.com/ascii/index.php?art=objects/flags http://chris.com/ascii/index.php?art=objects/flags
- andy_ppp 9y agoHaha, it’s so much more interesting if we pretend 67 has something to do with the occult though...
- DrScump 9y agoThis is reminiscent of the infamous Osama bin Laden posters that inadvertently used an image from the Bert is Evil! website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_is_Evil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_is_Evil
- thaumaturgy 9y agoThere is more (and better) information over on Slashdot, which had the story earlier today: https://it.slashdot.org/story/18/04/07/2312200/vigilante-hackers-strike-routers-in-russia-and-iran-reports-motherboard https://it.slashdot.org/story/18/04/07/2312200/vigilante-hac... Motherboard was able to make contact with the purported attackers. This doesn't carry any of the typical fingerprints of a state-level attack. It was a single exploit against Cisco devices, combined with Shodan for an easy directory of vulnerable devices. Given the recent surge in nationalistic sentiment among young people in the tech community in the last decade, it looks reasonable to stick with the simplest explanation here: one or more folks found a flaw and exploited it for fun and attached a flag to it for more fun. There are situations for which "Russia did it" is an explanation that makes sense. I don't think this is one of them. We should also beware of being too willing to jump to conclusions that anything was done by America's enemy-du-jour; the country's been down that road plenty of times before and it never goes anywhere good.
- zeth___ 9y agoIf it wasn't done by the US government this is terrorism pure and simple, going by what the people in your source said: >"We were tired of attacks from government-backed hackers on the United States and other countries," someone in control of an email address left in the note told Motherboard Saturday... "We simply wanted to send a message...." In addition to disabling the equipment, the hackers left a note on affected machines, according to screenshots and photographs shared on social media: "Don't mess with our elections," along with an image of an American flag...
- lawnchair_larry 9y agoTerrorism doesn’t happen over computers. This is simply a large inconvenience.
- techman9 9y agoWhat do you believe defines terrorism?
- catfood 9y ago"Some 55,000 devices were affected in the United States and 14,000 in China, and Iran's share of affected devices was 2 percent," Azari-Jahromi was quoted as saying. Pretty misleading headline.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- dang 9y agoOK, we've taken Iran out of the headline above. All: this thread is an unsalvageable trainwreck. If you want to recite low-substance talking points or smack each other over the head with political and national insults, please do it somewhere else. Posting that way here will eventually get your account penalized and/or banned; it's not in the least what this site is for. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- _bxg1 9y ago"cyber code" Gotta love stock "hacker" photos
- mkalygin 9y agoI can see that people on HN blame other countries easily without any real evidence...
- thaumaturgy 9y agoThis sort of reaction isn't specific to HN, unfortunately (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/08/american-mosques-and-american-muslims-are-being-targeted-for-hate-like-never-before/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/08/ameri...) or even America (http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43385677 http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43385677). It's a vulnerability in human tribal psychology that other folks have been exploiting for political purposes for centuries. Even though the bug report is thousands of years old now, there's still no patch available. Some people think this means the maintainer has abandoned the project.
- mkalygin 9y agoI know that. I mean that I love HN mostly for smart comments. Sometimes I don't read an article, I read its comments. :) But blaming without evidence is not that kind of comments.
- Molaxx 9y agoI believe the title is clickbatey. The article clearly states that only 2% of affected devices were in Iran, while the Lion's share was in the US. Could someone fix this?
- dang 9y agoWe took the reference to Iran out of the title.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]