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> what makes "Russian" hackers more exciting then just "Hackers?" It's all about what ultimately happens to the information harvested. If it's some kids in mom

> what makes "Russian" hackers more exciting then just "Hackers?" It's all about what ultimately happens to the information harvested. If it's some kids in mom's basement doing it for lulz, that's not very concerning. But, presumably, Russian hackers, even if not actual Russian government employees, would pass on useful information to their government. Even if non-classified, that could be very damaging to national security. From the article, the attacks were relatively sophisticated. Which makes it more likely that "state actors" were involved. The article also claims that the two most common state actors are Chinese and Russian, and the fingerprints of this operation pointed more to Russia than China. YMMV. As you say, "attribution is a very difficult and often impossible process".

EugeneOZ 12y ago
Russian hackers (and most of russian programmers) don't support current government and would never give such important information to government. This title is just part of the information war. In Russia government is trying to create image of "cruel Americans", so maybe it's the try to make something similar from USA side. Or not :)
bear_hug_bro 12y ago
In the US (and a few other places in the world), the NSA has capabitilites that private hackers don't, because they get to place their equipment on the backbone. The Russian version of the NSA has no special access in the US, so what Russian government hackers can do, any private hacker can do. Any private hacker can damage national security just as much (or more) by selling the data to the highest bidder(s) or releasing it publicly. Because of this, there is no difference for national security whether Russian government hackers did it, or anyone else. The only piece of useful info is that the systems were hacked and how they were hacked. The attribution is just for show (and as always in these cases, not very reliable either).

EugeneOZ 12y ago

Russian hackers (and most of russian programmers) don't support current government and would never give such important information to government. This title is just part of the information war. In Russia government is trying to create image of "cruel Americans", so maybe it's the try to make something similar from USA side. Or not :)

bear_hug_bro 12y ago

In the US (and a few other places in the world), the NSA has capabitilites that private hackers don't, because they get to place their equipment on the backbone. The Russian version of the NSA has no special access in the US, so what Russian government hackers can do, any private hacker can do. Any private hacker can damage national security just as much (or more) by selling the data to the highest bidder(s) or releasing it publicly. Because of this, there is no difference for national security whether Russian government hackers did it, or anyone else. The only piece of useful info is that the systems were hacked and how they were hacked. The attribution is just for show (and as always in these cases, not very reliable either).