3 ms·

exactly my thoughts, its like articles about serious "hacks", when the critical steps turn out to be social engineering, definitely interesting, but not what th

exactly my thoughts, its like articles about serious "hacks", when the critical steps turn out to be social engineering, definitely interesting, but not what the title suggests.

082349872349872 6y ago
I agree, but https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24520757 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24520757 is about at least seven dozen people from three of the five eyes on one side, and someone who was infamous for "hacking" Tony Blair and Uscentcom on the other, yet nothing in any of the articles suggests anything much more technical than social engineering[1]. (Indeed, the story as written does have Hollywood MacGuffin floppy disk written all over it, in that I'd find it implausible that, even in a war zone, no one kept anything on-prem, or at least backups? At least performing a "kill -9" via Hellfire missile does upstage Stanford gangstas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fow7iUaKrq4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fow7iUaKrq4 .) [1] Compare https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-why-whistleblowers-betray-their-countries-according-to-an-israeli-expert-1.9167750 https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-why-wh... and remember that the case of TFA starts in 1974 with social engineering via "Nadia." I'm pretty sure the Arthashastra mentions social engineering via thirst trap, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Shi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Shi has a similar story. Then there's https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/12/all-you-need-is-love/302351/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/12/all-you... 's account of deradicalisation via honey trap. Q. How did Adam and Eve anticipate the twenty-first century? A. They failed to read Apple's Terms & Conditions and got in trouble for misunderstanding the Privacy Policy.
- C1sc0cat 6y ago
  The Article doesn't mention Tony Blair at all? Interesting story back when I worked for Poptel which was the ISP the labour party used back then. I had to look up something on our internal system, and was distracted and just hit return when searching and pulled up Tonys's a account details. When we had uploaded all our data from the internal system some one thought it would be fun to make Tony the first entry in the data base. Of course hacking Us would have pissed off our ops guys in Manchester who where members of the UK arm of alt 2600
  - 082349872349872 6y ago
    Sorry, got that from related surfing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junaid_Hussain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junaid_Hussain (Compared to sweden[1], the PLO[2], or even a japanese 財閥[3], either ISIS took a cavalier approach to hooking up their "Cyber Caliphate" or he was not as important as the article, and british tabs, made out.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Bernadotte#History_of_the_Royal_House https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Bernadotte#History_of... "On 21 August 1810, the Riksdag elected Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, a Marshal of France, as heir presumptive to the Swedish throne." [2] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/12/all-you-need-is-love/302351/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/12/all-you... [3] https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan...
AniseAbyss 6y ago
Spycraft is social engineering. It always comes down to bribing someone with money/passport/sex. Its all quite banal.
- implements 6y ago
  (Bribe with) money, (to serve an) ideology, (application of) coercion or (as an outlet for) ego - “MICE”.
  - caseysoftware 6y ago
    You're forgetting a couple motivations: Money Ideology Conscious/Coercion Ego Revenge and Sex (The last two are less relevant in hacking/tech but more relevant in straight espionage.)

exactly my thoughts, its like articles about serious "hacks", when the critical steps turn out to be social engineering, definitely interesting, but not what the title suggests.

082349872349872 6y ago

I agree, but https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24520757 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24520757 is about at least seven dozen people from three of the five eyes on one side, and someone who was infamous for "hacking" Tony Blair and Uscentcom on the other, yet nothing in any of the articles suggests anything much more technical than social engineering[1]. (Indeed, the story as written does have Hollywood MacGuffin floppy disk written all over it, in that I'd find it implausible that, even in a war zone, no one kept anything on-prem, or at least backups? At least performing a "kill -9" via Hellfire missile does upstage Stanford gangstas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fow7iUaKrq4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fow7iUaKrq4 .) [1] Compare https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-why-whistleblowers-betray-their-countries-according-to-an-israeli-expert-1.9167750 https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-why-wh... and remember that the case of TFA starts in 1974 with social engineering via "Nadia." I'm pretty sure the Arthashastra mentions social engineering via thirst trap, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Shi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Shi has a similar story. Then there's https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/12/all-you-need-is-love/302351/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/12/all-you... 's account of deradicalisation via honey trap. Q. How did Adam and Eve anticipate the twenty-first century? A. They failed to read Apple's Terms & Conditions and got in trouble for misunderstanding the Privacy Policy.

C1sc0cat 6y ago
The Article doesn't mention Tony Blair at all? Interesting story back when I worked for Poptel which was the ISP the labour party used back then. I had to look up something on our internal system, and was distracted and just hit return when searching and pulled up Tonys's a account details. When we had uploaded all our data from the internal system some one thought it would be fun to make Tony the first entry in the data base. Of course hacking Us would have pissed off our ops guys in Manchester who where members of the UK arm of alt 2600
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  Sorry, got that from related surfing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junaid_Hussain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junaid_Hussain (Compared to sweden[1], the PLO[2], or even a japanese 財閥[3], either ISIS took a cavalier approach to hooking up their "Cyber Caliphate" or he was not as important as the article, and british tabs, made out.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Bernadotte#History_of_the_Royal_House https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Bernadotte#History_of... "On 21 August 1810, the Riksdag elected Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, a Marshal of France, as heir presumptive to the Swedish throne." [2] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/12/all-you-need-is-love/302351/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/12/all-you... [3] https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan...

AniseAbyss 6y ago

Spycraft is social engineering. It always comes down to bribing someone with money/passport/sex. Its all quite banal.

implements 6y ago
(Bribe with) money, (to serve an) ideology, (application of) coercion or (as an outlet for) ego - “MICE”.
- caseysoftware 6y ago
  You're forgetting a couple motivations: Money Ideology Conscious/Coercion Ego Revenge and Sex (The last two are less relevant in hacking/tech but more relevant in straight espionage.)