6 ms·
There 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-str
by thaumaturgy 9y ago
There 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?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- oculusthrift 9y agoi didn’t know there were people who thought iran rigged the election? are we off russia now? people know trump hates iran right?
- jakeogh 9y agoIran's gov, not it's people. The US faction in power in 1953 disposed Mossadegh, allowing a worse power structure to take hold. Pretty standard order out of chaos thing. Looking up old pics of Iran is interesting. Eisenhower knew he got played and left with a important warning about what we now call the deep state.
- selimthegrim 9y agoMossadeq was no democrat.
- mars4rp 9y agoCan someone please downvote this for me? He 65 years ago in middle east was way more Democrat than current US president! Read the book The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War
- jakeogh 9y agoIf you have a critique of the Corbett Report's (YT) take on Allen I would appreciate your thoughts. I haven't read the book.
- mars4rp 9y agoI haven't watched the Corbett Report completely but it had too much conspiracy theories in it. Dulles brothers were very pro corporations and very very anti communist. John foster Dulles that became secretary of state under Eisenhower after ww2 was pro Hitler at the beginning of war (before US involvement) as an ally against Soviets. US banks gave Hitler huge loans before the war that helped him to rebuild the economy. The idea that a small country can challenge a corporation interest was something the Dulles brothers couldn't live with. The iran coup was the beginning. They used CIA to insure corporate interests anywhere in the world and they used communism as an excuse to do so. Mossadegh was one of the most democratic leaders of the middle east at least. At the height of his power he refused to close communist newspapers that were attacking him. Can you imagine Trump having that power and not using it because of his belief in free speech?
- FreedomWarrior 9y ago> If it wasn't done by the US government this is terrorism Why would the situation be different if it turns out it was US government?
- cup 9y agoIt would be an act of war.
- dragonwriter 9y agoActs of terrorism (other than top-down state terrorism) are usually acts of war whoever the perpetrator is.
- dragonwriter 9y ago> If it wasn't done by the US government this is terrorism pure and simple Whether it is terrorism is an orthogonal issue to whether it was done by the US Government.
- c0nducktr 9y ago> terrorism pure and simple, That word really has lost all meaning.
- CalRobert 9y agoI imagine you think spam is pretty terrifying too?
- zeth___ 9y agoMost of the US political class seems to. That's why we're having the whole Trump/Russia investigation after all.
- jakeogh 9y agoThe only reliable APT fingerprints I can think of are things that are hard, like forging real certs, SCADA malware targeting specific hardware, jumping airgaps, coordinated friendly media pushes for cover, etc. The "Russia did it thing" was pretty funny to watch. Very convenient way to not talk about the contents. It's well known where _that_ data came from, the xfer rates (among practical admissions elsewhere) support it. William Binney has it right as usual.
- ComodoHacker 9y agoYour activity here looks exactly like "friendly media push for cover".
- jakeogh 9y agoI'm about as open book as it gets. Commenting with my real name. I'm more than happy with my positions, if there's something inconsistent, maybe you should point that out instead of implying I'm a shill.
- Molaxx 9y ago> Given the recent surge in nationalistic sentiment among young people in the tech community in the last decade What?
- jakeogh 9y agoGen Z is pretty based. Nothing fundamentally wrong with liking your country. The common "nationalism is bad" thing is a long term well funded push towards a truly awful idea; global government. All enemies, foreign and domestic and all that.
- mythrwy 9y agoI think a level of global governance is a pretty darn good idea and not because of some well funded push either. Just can't imagine any people living or dead I'd like to see in charge of the whole globe, particularly any politicians or bureaucrats I'm aware of, so hoping AI improves soon. I imagine the ideal situation being loose global governance coupled with city/county level governance. That way if people want to wear funny hats or forbid cheese with dye in it or pray to aliens fine. But no slavery, war nor suppression of fundamental rights anywhere on the face of the globe sounds pretty good to me. Along with improved efficiency of trade and resource allocation.
- jakeogh 9y agoHey, I applaud you for at least admitting it (and using the correct term:)
- Angostura 9y agoTell me more about hats.
- dmix 9y ago> But no slavery, war nor suppression of fundamental rights anywhere on the face of the globe sounds pretty good to me. It never just stops there. This is like expecting the vanguard government to give up control after the socialist revolution. There's more than enough history to demonstrate otherwise, and buying into that idea in 2018 is willful blindness. The smaller and more localized the governments the better IMO. There's a reason the smaller countries have the best governments: US in the 19th century-early 20th century, modern Canada and some of Scandinavia, etc. Federalism with state/provincial governments a minimal federal government and no executive branch.
- tzahola 9y ago>young people You mean young white males, right?
- toomanybeersies 9y agoI would think that "in the tech community" implies the white male part.