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A Modest Proposal Sometimes investigators know the actual actors involved with such attacks. 15 years ago I worked for Microsoft and went to a security presen
by efitz 3y ago
A Modest Proposal
Sometimes investigators know the actual actors involved with such attacks. 15 years ago I worked for Microsoft and went to a security presentation where the team had done some brilliant work and collaborated with law enforcement over months and had specifically identified an individual associated with a cyber attack. The individual was out of reach because of weak computer crime laws in the attacker’s country and poor diplomatic relations.
The FBI was co-presenting and touting the staggering amounts of manpower and funds dedicated to this investigation.
I leaned over to a friend of mine and said something to the effect of “with the state of organized crime in that country we could spend a few tens of thousands of dollars for a permanent solution”.
I always think back to that comment. Attribution in computer crime is hard, but attackers get away with impunity because they either hide behind anonymity or behind jurisdictional issues. Should we just let that go or use more pragmatic solutions?
- kramerger 3y ago[flagged]
- et-al 3y agoThey did start with "A Modest Proposal".... But folks are probably doing this because of terrible job prospects in their country. If you pay their government to off this one person, you'd probably need to off five more next week.
- nradov 3y agoChina actually does the same thing to us. Organ harvesting sensationalism aside, they do operate illegal "police stations" inside the US. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-arrested-operating-illegal-overseas-police-station-chinese-government https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-arrested-operating-illega... https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4008817-crack-down-on-illegal-chinese-police-stations-in-the-u-s/ https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4008817-crack-...
- Jiro 3y ago>Now, what if they do the same thing to you? If they're going to do the same thing to us, they're going to do it to us anyway, regardless of whether we do it to them first or not.
- knome 3y agoAre you really advocating the government use extrajudicial assassinations whenever they have difficulties charging someone they accuse of committing a crime?
- RajT88 3y agoHe might be. Or he might be suggesting to bribe local officials to interpret the laws in a way favorable to extradition. I think both are the same pile of cash. That sort of thing isn't the FBI's style though.
- efitz 3y agoIt was really a thought experiment rather than advocacy of action. The question I have is, is it right to let someone continue to hurt people just because we don't have an agreed on process to stop them? > That sort of thing isn't the FBI's style though. Agreed
- hotpotamus 3y agoIt's very much Mossad's style - I don't know which US agency outsources the job to them, but if someone pisses of the US spook community enough, it does get ordered. I don't think they get pissed over what happens to a hospital in any country in the world, however.
- RajT88 3y ago> I don't know which US agency outsources the job to them I think we'd probably all be shocked at the list if such a list could be produced. But I think we wouldn't be shocked at which agency is at the top of the list.
- blooalien 3y ago> "That sort of thing isn't the FBI's style though." True. That's more like something the CIA would do.