CIA malware and hacking tools • Hacker News Board

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#511

Post by craftkiller » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 8:35 PM UTC

sushisource wrote: post #505

jMyles wrote: post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What exactly in the admittedly shortened list am I supposed to be upset about? That, with taxpayer dollars, the government of the United States is undermining the security of consumer devices around the world. Part of the difference between your worldview and the view of those of us who find this behavior childish and unacceptable is that you "expect a spy agency would be doing [this;] if they were not then [you] w…

You don't actually say why they shouldn't be doing this, though. Everyone with this opinion seems to base it on moral grounds around privacy, but in practical terms, is this really harming citizens? So far there's zero evidence these things being used illegally domestically. IE: Without a warrant. There is some evidence that they've prevented some wrongdoing with it, though. I get the theoretical moral argument. I ju…

Considering the government is letting pedophiles walk[1] because they don't want to release their exploits, do you really think we would know if they were abusing their power?

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13798924

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#512

Post by vanattab » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 8:36 PM UTC

huffmsa wrote: post #312

wildmusings wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classified or not, works of the federal government are all in the public domain. And classification is not legally relevant to anyone except to those entrusted with protecting classified data.

This is often overlooked, but very correct. "Classification" only pertains to how the material should be treated within the government. Once its out, the only penalty can fall on the person who let it out into the wild.

I would be careful also if you think you might need to get a clearance in the future. I was in college during the initial Wikileaks Manning dump and I remember getting a email from the DoD forwarded through the Physics department that viewing or sharing classified wikileaks info could prevent us from getting a clearance in the future even of we did not have a clearance at the time.

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#513

Post by astrange » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 8:36 PM UTC

ryanisnan wrote: post #409

Since the inception of Smart TV's, I've often wondered, is it still possible to buy a modern "stupid" TV?

You can just not tell it your wifi password.

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#514

Post by monochromatic » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 8:36 PM UTC

metamet wrote: post #494

monochromatic wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What public evidence is there that the DNC leaks were related to Russia?

Mostly this intelligence report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/06/us/politics/d...

"We assess that X happened" isn't really public evidence for X. It's an argument from authority at best.

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#515

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 8:37 PM UTC

abandonliberty wrote: post #485

It's interesting to note that Julian Assange didn't demonstrate control of the wikileaks private key during his Reddit AMA 1 month ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5n58sm/i_am_julian_as... Considering the political situation unfolding in the US and who this leak weakens, there is some evidence that wikileaks is not in the hands of a neutral party. There is clear motive right now for undermining the CIA. Th…

[deleted]

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#516

Post by goodroot » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 8:37 PM UTC

myegorov wrote: post #507

Looks like the CIA is screwing the public by mutual consent. The public is demanding more of the same, just as long as it's directed at whoever is out their favor. Here're the two topmost comments on NYT at the moment[0]: karma2013 New Jersey 3 hours ago If anyone still has doubts that Wikileaks and the Russians are working together to undermine and destabilize our government institutions, erode public confidence in…

The assumption here is that those people are part of the public and are not shilling a 'more correct record'.

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#517

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 8:37 PM UTC

abandonliberty wrote: post #485

It's interesting to note that Julian Assange didn't demonstrate control of the wikileaks private key during his Reddit AMA 1 month ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5n58sm/i_am_julian_as... Considering the political situation unfolding in the US and who this leak weakens, there is some evidence that wikileaks is not in the hands of a neutral party. There is clear motive right now for undermining the CIA. Th…

[deleted]

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#518

Post by SadWebDeveloper » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 8:38 PM UTC

meh CIA tools still require "intervention" or well "manually infecting things", on the other hand NSA tools don't... so the day, all the NSA tools gets available then it will be doomsday for all sysadmins in the world.

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#519

Post by wamsachel » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 8:39 PM UTC

abandonliberty wrote: post #485

It's interesting to note that Julian Assange didn't demonstrate control of the wikileaks private key during his Reddit AMA 1 month ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5n58sm/i_am_julian_as... Considering the political situation unfolding in the US and who this leak weakens, there is some evidence that wikileaks is not in the hands of a neutral party. There is clear motive right now for undermining the CIA. Th…

But part of these leaks implicate the Russians, as their toy chest has been exposed too.

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#520

Post by staunch » Tue, Mar 07, 2017, 8:39 PM UTC

sparkling wrote: post #248

dmix wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There also still hasn't been any public evidence that Wikileaks got their Podesta email data from Russians yet. So far we only know the DNC leaks were very likely Russian. That means until today only about ~50% of the 'election hacks' have been attributed to Russia with public evidence. Now this leak calls into question some of the evidence about the DNC hack [1]. This evidence being the malware was Russian. But ther…

There is no hard evidence where the DNC/Podesta leaks came from. However, Julian Assange has repeatedly said that the source is not the russian goverment or a affiliated state party [1] and in a other interview has hinted that the source may be Seth Rich [2], a former DNC staff member that was murdered in Washington DC. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyCOy25GdjQ [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp7FkLBRpKg

> Assange has repeatedly said that the source is not the russian goverment or a affiliated state party

False!

He does not answer the question about someone affiliated with Russia handing him the information.

He always repeats this carefully worded answer: "our source is not the Russian government and it is not [a] state party."

Why so carefully worded -- why can't he say "no one affiliated Russia gave me the data"?

Because he knows it came through an intermediary for Russia and wants to be able to lie, but still have a weaselly excuse if he's caught.

The fact that he's spent a lot of time spreading the Seth Rich idea is even more suspect. It's a conspiracy theory straight out of the KGB's cold war book.

Seth Rich was murdered and his watch was yanked at. He fought back at his attacker(s). "Nothing was stolen!"

The professional assassin got into a fight with the victim and then shot him, but forgot to actually steal something? Not very likely.