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Cyber Sleuths Track Hacker to China’s Military

wsj.com

11–20 of 57 posts

Re: Cyber Sleuths Track Hacker to China’s Military

#11
post #3

Google redirect: https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web...

Still paywalled for me, even following that link.

Copy and paste the article title into a Google Search and click the article link in the search results.

Re: Cyber Sleuths Track Hacker to China’s Military

#12
"Grassroots" hacking isn't a good strategy for a state that wants to cover up its tracks. So I'm suspicious of these claims.

Perhaps the government makes it worth the hackers' while to hack the USG instead of it. Just sad that so many intelligent people would rather be powerful/wealthy than free (not that the USG is a shining example of that sentiment).

Re: Cyber Sleuths Track Hacker to China’s Military

#13
post #9

I think it is very important to understand that the timing of this report is likely no coincidence. With Xi set to have discussions today with Obama, this is effectively a slap across the face to Xi right before an important visit that he can't back out of, and effectively puts china on a lower footing by showing them to be lying directly to the US about their intentions. Edit: this isn't to say publication/announcem…

I think Xi meeting with Silicon Valley business executives before meeting with Obama wasn't any better.

Re: Cyber Sleuths Track Hacker to China’s Military

#14

If you get the paywall, I'd advise downloading the actual report from ThreatConnect it's far more detailed: http://www.threatconnect.com/camerashy/

Why do companies, security companies even, do something like this... " Below are the document checksums for Project_CAMERASHY_ThreatConnect_Copyright_2015.pdf

MD5: b12f118840d0aa0d5ab2fb9aa052ede3 SHA1: dbd710751a6c32ba91401fb5e5623f46b4d2475f SHA256: da6b105f1e58f860ce67b2ad2db7b15ff7b637cfb37f7d0680a20eb633bcc741"

... when you are then providing both the PDF, and the list of its supposed hashes, over an unencrypted connection! It renders it meaningless. I can't trust those hashes or that document. And creating megabyte long PDFs with colliding MD5 hashes is not even a difficult challenge anymore.

The irony here is this page is say "hey open this document, it's safe, trust us" when the document is all about APT attack methods, which often involve compromising people's computers by opening untrustworthy documents! I doubt that's what's happening here, but still kind of silly when you think about it.

Please, all the companies out there. Stop adding a list of hashes to appear more legitimate when you clearly don't know what you are doing.

Re: Cyber Sleuths Track Hacker to China’s Military

#15
post #9

I think it is very important to understand that the timing of this report is likely no coincidence. With Xi set to have discussions today with Obama, this is effectively a slap across the face to Xi right before an important visit that he can't back out of, and effectively puts china on a lower footing by showing them to be lying directly to the US about their intentions. Edit: this isn't to say publication/announcem…

I have no doubt there is significant espionage going on.

What the last some years have done, however, is to make me rather distrusting of both sides.

I may be in the minority. But a democracy is in significant trouble when its own population no longer trusts and believes it, in the large. The leadership either turns increasingly autocratic, or it loses its power.

The t-word wins again. The lies told ostensibly because t-word, are proving to be far worse than the original risk of t-word.

And instead of effective oversight to harden our own systems, we have blindness, lack of accountability, and scapegoating.

It's not just the data collection that makes me distrust the Feds. It's its gross mis-management, abuse, and the insistence that I can't know what is going on.

So, pump out your stories about the Chinese. Many of you politicians sold us down the river, in that regard, years ago.

Re: Cyber Sleuths Track Hacker to China’s Military

#16

If you get the paywall, I'd advise downloading the actual report from ThreatConnect it's far more detailed: http://www.threatconnect.com/camerashy/

Why do companies, security companies even, do something like this... " Below are the document checksums for Project_CAMERASHY_ThreatConnect_Copyright_2015.pdf MD5: b12f118840d0aa0d5ab2fb9aa052ede3 SHA1: dbd710751a6c32ba91401fb5e5623f46b4d2475f SHA256: da6b105f1e58f860ce67b2ad2db7b15ff7b637cfb37f7d0680a20eb633bcc741" ... when you are then providing both the PDF, and the list of its supposed hashes, over an unencrypted…

> creating megabyte long PDFs with colliding MD5 hashes is not even a difficult challenge anymore.

Source, please? Suppose the hashes and PDF were provided over HTTPS. How would it be easy to create another document that collided with all 3 hashes?

Not trying to be facetious - just wondering.

Re: Cyber Sleuths Track Hacker to China’s Military

#17
post #9

I think it is very important to understand that the timing of this report is likely no coincidence. With Xi set to have discussions today with Obama, this is effectively a slap across the face to Xi right before an important visit that he can't back out of, and effectively puts china on a lower footing by showing them to be lying directly to the US about their intentions. Edit: this isn't to say publication/announcem…

It's possible this was coördinated, but likely it's rather one of those current trends things. Like on HN, article on X comes up, and soon after article on tangent of X comes up shortly after riding the coattails of X.

Mr Xi is in town, what else related to Xi can give us more eyeballs now that all things Xi/China are in the news, what do we have? Oh, yes, of course, spying!

Re: Cyber Sleuths Track Hacker to China’s Military

#18

If you get the paywall, I'd advise downloading the actual report from ThreatConnect it's far more detailed: http://www.threatconnect.com/camerashy/

Why do companies, security companies even, do something like this... " Below are the document checksums for Project_CAMERASHY_ThreatConnect_Copyright_2015.pdf MD5: b12f118840d0aa0d5ab2fb9aa052ede3 SHA1: dbd710751a6c32ba91401fb5e5623f46b4d2475f SHA256: da6b105f1e58f860ce67b2ad2db7b15ff7b637cfb37f7d0680a20eb633bcc741" ... when you are then providing both the PDF, and the list of its supposed hashes, over an unencrypted…

Well, not meaningless. You can monitor the original values of the hashes, and verify they haven't been changed. The PDFs will be copied around and around.

Also - There is no known method to (within the lifetime of this universe) create a different document with the same MD5 and SHA1 and SHA256. Adding the MD5 doesn't weaken things, and might improve them.

Re: Cyber Sleuths Track Hacker to China’s Military

#19
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still paywalled for me, even following that link.

try opening it in a private tab, Google tracking cookies seem to break it for some reason.

Thanks, don't know why but opening it in incognito mode broke the signup-wall

Re: Cyber Sleuths Track Hacker to China’s Military

#20
post #9

I think it is very important to understand that the timing of this report is likely no coincidence. With Xi set to have discussions today with Obama, this is effectively a slap across the face to Xi right before an important visit that he can't back out of, and effectively puts china on a lower footing by showing them to be lying directly to the US about their intentions. Edit: this isn't to say publication/announcem…

I have no doubt there is significant espionage going on. What the last some years have done, however, is to make me rather distrusting of both sides. I may be in the minority. But a democracy is in significant trouble when its own population no longer trusts and believes it, in the large. The leadership either turns increasingly autocratic, or it loses its power. The t-word wins again. The lies told ostensibly becaus…

> But a democracy is in significant trouble when its own population no longer trusts and believes it, in the large.

Actually, democracy is safest when the people distrust it.

The real problem is that we have far too many people who are either completely trusting or totally inert.

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