4 ms·

Is this just becoming the easy thing to do? Blame China or Russia while the story is still hot off the press? It seems that every time a company is hacked, the

Is this just becoming the easy thing to do? Blame China or Russia while the story is still hot off the press? It seems that every time a company is hacked, the first thing they do is exclaim how some big, scary government is behind it or how "incredibly complex" the hack was. "Oh yeah, we lost your entire life's information, but it was the most complicated hacking attack we've every seen!" "Our team has never seen something of this magnitude." "We immediately disabled the threat the second our complex internal systems detected the activity." Every hack has the same corporate response.

ProAm 12y ago
I'm surprised it wasn't North Korea.
- Someone1234 12y ago
  I was legitimately surprised when the FBI actually stood behind their NK assertion with the Sony hack. Normally when the US randomly points their finger at some government, when they're challenged they back down or when you dig into it it is an unnamed source in US state/intelligence. So maybe in the Sony hack case it was NK, however I'd love to see the US's evidence. If they have two dozen proxies, one of which happened to come from NK thus that "proves" it was NK, then sorry, but no. However if they can prove that one connection was not proxied somehow and originated from NK then fair call. I doubt they'll ever release technical information however.
  - jackpirate 12y ago
    >if they can prove that one connection was not proxied somehow I don't see how this is even technically possible
famousactress 12y ago
Super easy and really annoying but probably relatively effective PR. The news on this stuff sees lots of eyeballs compared to follow-ups or clarifications. Plus the consequences for being found wrong downstream and pretty minimal, sadly. Casting these kinds of aspersions redirects fear & anger from the company to boogeyman nation-states. [Edit: I just noticed these are government and not private analysts making the claims, so my comment is now a bit cynical for my own taste... but I think it's still effective PR and I expect private security companies to field more "So you're not saying is WASN'T North Korea, right?" kinds of questioning from corporate clients.]
- Estragon 12y ago
  > I just noticed these are government and not private > analysts making the claims, so my comment is now a bit > cynical for my own taste... Not for mine... casting these issues as a threat to national sovereignty is a great way to raise defense funding.
  - famousactress 12y ago
    Yeah, I don't object to suspecting our intelligence agencies have a habit of using information to benefit their budgets in that way, especially when there are opportunities to be technically accurate but let the media fill in the blanks (ie: "We think the hackers were Russian" becomes headline: "Russia involved in hacks").
dmschulman 12y ago
There's a history of state-sponsored and not so state-sponsored cybercrime from both these countries against the United States and US businesses, so it's not an assumption that's too far off the mark. Assumptions don't equal guilt, but even the headline says "suspected". This is SSN data that was stolen, it's a whole different beast that the FBI's kerfuffle (to put it lightly) with the Sony Pictures hack.
- b6 12y ago
  > This is SSN data that was stolen, it's a whole different beast that the ... Sony Pictures hack. I can't tell which one you think is more serious. It sounds like you think it'd be a very serious matter if SSN data was stolen. But haven't the vast majority of SSNs been available on the various blackhat markets for many years?
westiseast 12y ago
The alternative, perhaps equally Occams-Razor-friendly explanation is that only hacks where China can be/is blamed make the news. Boring run-of-the-mill criminal syndicates don't cut it any more.

ProAm 12y ago

I'm surprised it wasn't North Korea.

Someone1234 12y ago
I was legitimately surprised when the FBI actually stood behind their NK assertion with the Sony hack. Normally when the US randomly points their finger at some government, when they're challenged they back down or when you dig into it it is an unnamed source in US state/intelligence. So maybe in the Sony hack case it was NK, however I'd love to see the US's evidence. If they have two dozen proxies, one of which happened to come from NK thus that "proves" it was NK, then sorry, but no. However if they can prove that one connection was not proxied somehow and originated from NK then fair call. I doubt they'll ever release technical information however.
- jackpirate 12y ago
  >if they can prove that one connection was not proxied somehow I don't see how this is even technically possible

famousactress 12y ago

Super easy and really annoying but probably relatively effective PR. The news on this stuff sees lots of eyeballs compared to follow-ups or clarifications. Plus the consequences for being found wrong downstream and pretty minimal, sadly. Casting these kinds of aspersions redirects fear & anger from the company to boogeyman nation-states. [Edit: I just noticed these are government and not private analysts making the claims, so my comment is now a bit cynical for my own taste... but I think it's still effective PR and I expect private security companies to field more "So you're not saying is WASN'T North Korea, right?" kinds of questioning from corporate clients.]

Estragon 12y ago
> I just noticed these are government and not private > analysts making the claims, so my comment is now a bit > cynical for my own taste... Not for mine... casting these issues as a threat to national sovereignty is a great way to raise defense funding.
- famousactress 12y ago
  Yeah, I don't object to suspecting our intelligence agencies have a habit of using information to benefit their budgets in that way, especially when there are opportunities to be technically accurate but let the media fill in the blanks (ie: "We think the hackers were Russian" becomes headline: "Russia involved in hacks").

dmschulman 12y ago

There's a history of state-sponsored and not so state-sponsored cybercrime from both these countries against the United States and US businesses, so it's not an assumption that's too far off the mark. Assumptions don't equal guilt, but even the headline says "suspected". This is SSN data that was stolen, it's a whole different beast that the FBI's kerfuffle (to put it lightly) with the Sony Pictures hack.

b6 12y ago
> This is SSN data that was stolen, it's a whole different beast that the ... Sony Pictures hack. I can't tell which one you think is more serious. It sounds like you think it'd be a very serious matter if SSN data was stolen. But haven't the vast majority of SSNs been available on the various blackhat markets for many years?

westiseast 12y ago

The alternative, perhaps equally Occams-Razor-friendly explanation is that only hacks where China can be/is blamed make the news. Boring run-of-the-mill criminal syndicates don't cut it any more.