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US Govt Data Shows Russia Used Outdated Ukrainian PHP Malware

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Re: US Govt Data Shows Russia Used Outdated Ukrainian PHP Malware

#11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me the ongoing 'Russia rigged elections' smells like propaganda from the other side. And maybe russia did release the DNC emails, but Assange said that wasn't the case and I feel he's more likely to be telling the truth than state players. And even if they did release these emails it's hardly rigging an election. Comneys email announcement at the 11th hour about reopening email investigation was probably a decidin…

Nobody said Russia rigged the election. The issue was the attempts to influence the election which Russia has a long, documented history of doing so. And the US had an obligation to respond which they did with minimal effect. So claiming all of this was about propaganda really makes no sense given the facts on the ground. And please remember why Russia's relations with almost all of the world deteriorated in the firs…

> Nobody said Russia rigged the election.

Nobody sensible said that, but I've seen more than a few comments along those lines on various sites, enough to believe that general sentiment is commonplace.

As for Comey, I'd say he let her off easy. Take a look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC1Mc6-RDyQ

Then look at the PDF attached here of an email between Colin Powell and Hillary Clinton and ask whether this looks intentional or not:

https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/30324

Re: US Govt Data Shows Russia Used Outdated Ukrainian PHP Malware

#12
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the conclusion anyone working in the security/network area was bound to arrive at. It's really interesting FBI/DHS would make those claims publicly when the chance of having any hard evidence of that would be minimal. But they still did it. Why?

a) Anyone who thinks this document is the sole source of evidence is deluding themselves. The intelligence agencies are not going to document their capabilities to the world. Which I am sure would include compromised Tor nodes and DPI (including SSL/encrypted traffic) across many of the key sites/switches/cables. b) It has been claimed that this document is more a guide for other companies and government agencies abo…

The problem with a line of reasoning that includes secret evidence we'll never get to see is that it can be used to support any conclusion whatsoever.

Inasmuch as it's a guide for other agencies, they'd be better served by OWASP recommendations. It's not clear what anyone could do with a report like this. I don't see any great takeaways that one could add to the next revision of their STIG. There are no 0-days for an IAVA.

As long as we're going for pure speculation, I think that Kim Dotcom hired Ukranian hackers and I could potentially find weak circumstantial evidence by going through a timeline of his Tweets. I seem to remember that he had foreknowledge of some of the items to be leaked, though that could've been pure BS and I didn't really investigate it at the time. He also has motive based on this administration's treatment of him.

EDIT: Found it -

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-05-14/kim-d...

Re: US Govt Data Shows Russia Used Outdated Ukrainian PHP Malware

#13
post #9

Someone around the GOP could merely have hired a hacker from Eastern Europe or Russia specifically to do the hacking. I find it troubling that this avenue was not explored.

If we're going to speculate, I'd say Kim Dotcom is more suspicious based on his tweets. I thought he tweeted some statements indicating foreknowledge of certain leaks, but I never investigated it carefully.

EDIT: I'm certainly not claiming he did anything, I read this as just sour grapes, but look for yourself at a sample - http://imgur.com/a/zv174

EDIT 2: This is more like it - https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-05-14/kim-d...

Re: US Govt Data Shows Russia Used Outdated Ukrainian PHP Malware

#14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me the ongoing 'Russia rigged elections' smells like propaganda from the other side. And maybe russia did release the DNC emails, but Assange said that wasn't the case and I feel he's more likely to be telling the truth than state players. And even if they did release these emails it's hardly rigging an election. Comneys email announcement at the 11th hour about reopening email investigation was probably a decidin…

Nobody said Russia rigged the election. The issue was the attempts to influence the election which Russia has a long, documented history of doing so. And the US had an obligation to respond which they did with minimal effect. So claiming all of this was about propaganda really makes no sense given the facts on the ground. And please remember why Russia's relations with almost all of the world deteriorated in the firs…

> Nobody said Russia rigged the election.

Obama and Josh Earnest have not gone as far as using the word "rigged" but they have essentially implied as much. Other large media outlets have done the same and yes, some have used the word "rigged" directly [1] (and if I dug through CNN / MSNBC / ABC reels I am positive I could find many more examples). Lesser known media outlets and internet commentators have been using the word "rigged" profusely, so it's not "nobody".

> Diplomatic sanctions have been the correct response and I don't see anyone asking for an escalation of that.

Hillary Clinton herself is on video calling for an escalation of that in the form of a military response, shortly after some saber-rattling about the US nuclear arsenal [2].

> And please remember why Russia's relations with almost all of the world deteriorated in the first place. It's because they annexed Crimea (unprecedented for our generation)

And you should remember the unprecedented actions that have caused the United States' relations with almost all the world to deteriorate. Claims of influencing foreign elections (c.f. the entire history of the CIA) and widespread hacking (c.f. the NSA essentially pwning the world) are particularly hypocritical.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/07/opinion/how-to-rig-an-elec...

The election was rigged by Russian intelligence, which was almost surely behind the hacking of Democratic emails, which WikiLeaks then released with great fanfare.

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ahr0-KpvLM

Re: US Govt Data Shows Russia Used Outdated Ukrainian PHP Malware

#15
I posted most of this stuff earlier, incl. the actual samples which someone here might be interested in.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13280068

Based on the conclusions the authors of the article don't seem to understand the purpose of these IoCs. Individually they aren't all intended to be 100% solid indicators that you were targetted in this campaign, but to be used as a whole.

Re: US Govt Data Shows Russia Used Outdated Ukrainian PHP Malware

#16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me the ongoing 'Russia rigged elections' smells like propaganda from the other side. And maybe russia did release the DNC emails, but Assange said that wasn't the case and I feel he's more likely to be telling the truth than state players. And even if they did release these emails it's hardly rigging an election. Comneys email announcement at the 11th hour about reopening email investigation was probably a decidin…

Nobody said Russia rigged the election. The issue was the attempts to influence the election which Russia has a long, documented history of doing so. And the US had an obligation to respond which they did with minimal effect. So claiming all of this was about propaganda really makes no sense given the facts on the ground. And please remember why Russia's relations with almost all of the world deteriorated in the firs…

> So claiming all of this was about propaganda really makes no sense given the facts on the ground.

Where are those facts? please show hard evidence. So far I haven't seen any hard evidence that proves it was the state of Russia who orchestrated the hacks.

> And please remember why Russia's relations with almost all of the world deteriorated in the first place. It's because they annexed Crimea (unprecedented for our generation) and allowed soldiers and weapons to flood into Ukraine which then resulted in Flight 117 being shot down.

If you believe that Russia is absolutely bad and the US and Ukraine are infinitely good and righteous, then you might want to look at what the other side says: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KHCNk9BYy4

The fact that the majority of the Crimean population is Russian, should give you a hint that maybe there is more to this story than what the Western media says.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimea#Demographics

I have yet to see Putin making an aggressive announcement, however US officials continuously keep making threats and sanctions.

> Nobody is looking for a fight with Russia but capitulating and doing nothing is not an answer either. Diplomatic sanctions have been the correct response and I don't see anyone asking for an escalation of that.

Destroying diplomatic relations and throwing sanctions sound like looking for a fight to me. I fail to see anything good coming out of this.

Re: US Govt Data Shows Russia Used Outdated Ukrainian PHP Malware

#17
post #3

The conclusions are of particular note: "The IP addresses that DHS provided may have been used for an attack by a state actor like Russia. But they don’t appear to provide any association with Russia. They are probably used by a wide range of other malicious actors, especially the 15% of IP addresses that are Tor exit nodes. The malware sample is old, widely used and appears to be Ukrainian. It has no apparent relati…

That's the conclusion anyone working in the security/network area was bound to arrive at. It's really interesting FBI/DHS would make those claims publicly when the chance of having any hard evidence of that would be minimal. But they still did it. Why?

>It's really interesting FBI/DHS would make those claims publicly when the chance of having any hard evidence of that would be minimal. But they still did it. Why?

Occam's razor says it's what the DNC wanted them to say. Politically it's a lot easier cop to being penetrated by a state actor than a group like Anonymous, and it allows the Democrats to deflect the conversation from the content of the emails. Well, to make the attempt, anyway.

I'll be curious to see what Trump does with this once he takes office. If there's no compelling evidence of Russian state involvement I suspect he'll direct the relevant agencies to release everything. If he doesn't do that it's going to be difficult for him to cast doubt on the Russian angle.

Re: US Govt Data Shows Russia Used Outdated Ukrainian PHP Malware

#18
post #17
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the conclusion anyone working in the security/network area was bound to arrive at. It's really interesting FBI/DHS would make those claims publicly when the chance of having any hard evidence of that would be minimal. But they still did it. Why?

>It's really interesting FBI/DHS would make those claims publicly when the chance of having any hard evidence of that would be minimal. But they still did it. Why? Occam's razor says it's what the DNC wanted them to say. Politically it's a lot easier cop to being penetrated by a state actor than a group like Anonymous, and it allows the Democrats to deflect the conversation from the content of the emails. Well, to ma…

the DNC

Just an observation: I don't recall until very recently the DNC or the RNC to refer to the parties, as opposed to the Democratic Party or Republican Party. I wonder why the shift? The focus on the Podesta/DNC emails? Makes sense during the election, and now it seems to have transferred over to referring to the party as part of the government (e.g., in reference to the FBI or DHS). Last time I remember the DNC being mentioned so much by name was during the Bill Clinton campaigns, in contrast to the Democratic Leadership Council. My memory can be faulty and selective, so I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed this as well. (Anyone else remember Sinbad in Shazam?)

Re: US Govt Data Shows Russia Used Outdated Ukrainian PHP Malware

#19
post #13
post #9

Someone around the GOP could merely have hired a hacker from Eastern Europe or Russia specifically to do the hacking. I find it troubling that this avenue was not explored.

If we're going to speculate, I'd say Kim Dotcom is more suspicious based on his tweets. I thought he tweeted some statements indicating foreknowledge of certain leaks, but I never investigated it carefully. EDIT: I'm certainly not claiming he did anything, I read this as just sour grapes, but look for yourself at a sample - http://imgur.com/a/zv174 EDIT 2: This is more like it - https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/art…

I don't know why OP is being down voted. Kim Dotcom tweeted he had early access to the leaks. It feels like a more plausible theory to me than the one the Obama administration is pushing. He announced his attention to be "an Internet Freedom fighter" and "Hillary's worse nightmare in 2016" back in 2014.

Look at this tweet from 10 hours ago: "My old hacker firm Data Protect hacked 100% of its clients." https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/815373371001028608

Another tweet from a few days ago claiming: "I know with 100% certainty that @Russia & @PutinRF_Eng had nothing to do with Clinton related election hacks!" https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/814593453963083776

It surely seems like Kim Dotcom wants people to think he is involved.

Re: US Govt Data Shows Russia Used Outdated Ukrainian PHP Malware

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody said Russia rigged the election. The issue was the attempts to influence the election which Russia has a long, documented history of doing so. And the US had an obligation to respond which they did with minimal effect. So claiming all of this was about propaganda really makes no sense given the facts on the ground. And please remember why Russia's relations with almost all of the world deteriorated in the firs…

> So claiming all of this was about propaganda really makes no sense given the facts on the ground. Where are those facts? please show hard evidence. So far I haven't seen any hard evidence that proves it was the state of Russia who orchestrated the hacks. > And please remember why Russia's relations with almost all of the world deteriorated in the first place. It's because they annexed Crimea (unprecedented for our…

"You don't understand, George, that Ukraine is not even a state. What is Ukraine? Part of its territories is Eastern Europe, but the greater part is a gift from us." Said by Putin in 2008, Boekarest -> 2014, Crimea annexation and Ukraine in war.

Polish president in 2008 was saying "Today Gorgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after Baltic States and then maybe even Poland". He died in Russia in airplane accident in 2010 when going for anniversary of the Katyn massacre, a mass murder of Polish intellectuals, politicians, and military officers by the Soviets during World War II. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre

I'm from Poland and I can tell you that having USA military bases in Poland is a big win for every political force in my country. Left, right, liberal, socialists agree - we want to keep Russians as far as possible. Last Russian tanks left Poland in 1993 and I don't want to see them back. Not in my life time nor after I'm gone. I'm happy to go with Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush or whoever will be elected by the American nation, just to stay as far as possible from Russians. And it's not that we are that big fans of Americans, we just know the history way too well - we are affected by it till this day.

If you want to see what happens when a person like Putin starts to say that the last peace agreements are bad and borders need to be changed then look at the second world war and the Polish history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeasement

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