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Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

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Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#231

Post by astronautjones »

int_19h wrote: post #213
tyingq wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They went even harder at it in an earlier medium post: "TheShadowBrokers is having special trick or treat for Amerikanskis tonight." https://medium.com/@shadowbrokerss/message-5-trick-or-treat-... I suppose though, that "Amerikanski" might be used outside Russia. Serbia, Bulgaria? Misdirection seems more likely though.

This is actually a tell-tale sign that whoever wrote this doesn't speak Russian. Let me explain why. In English, the noun describing the nationality is also an adjective describing belonging to, or affiliation with, that nationality. E.g. "An American is driving an American car". In Russian, this is not the case - they are different words, sharing the same root. Some examples (noun - adjective): US: Amerikanets - Ame…

this is a wildly informative post, very glad you chimed in

Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#232

Post by hnaparst »

hnaparst wrote: post #127
throwaway71958 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Russian myself, I can tell you with certainty that there are mistakes in that text that a Russian ESL speaker would never make, and verb tenses are a bit too good for an unskilled speaker. Due to the combination of these two factors, I bet this was written by a native English speaker who thinks he/she knows the mistakes a Russian would make. They're wrong.

If you have a copy of the linguistic analysis written by Shlomo Argamon, please post it.

http://multaverba.blogspot.com/2017/04/initial-linguistic-an...

Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#233

Post by hnaparst »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #26

It's pretty fascinating to read the Shadow Broker's posts. They have to write something, since they can't just say "I work for Russia and we're reminding America that they're not invulnerable." So they have to come up with all sorts of contrived reasons about why they're doing this, complete with broken english to fool stylometry detection that walks the fine line between being believable and preposterous. Someone sp…

Shlomo Argamon has reposted his linguistic analysis http://multaverba.blogspot.com/2017/04/initial-linguistic-an...

Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#234

Post by pharrington »

Implicated wrote: post #156
bluecreator wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NONE of you guys read poetry? This is a bend on "America", by Ginsberg. All coding and no poetry makes Jack a dull boy. Read it.

Care to elaborate on this? (No, I don't read poetry but I'm curious about the connection)

To elaborate: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detai...

Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#235

Post by iandanforth »

iandanforth wrote: post #14
perlgeek wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can someone remind me why Snowden would be in a position to comment on if this release comprises a full or partial set of hacking tools? I wouldn't interpret that that tweet as "lost control of its full arsenal". It seems that say that, but then it's a tweet and length-limited. Maybe let's just wait until a more nuanced analysis surfaces?

It's further down in the thread: "Quick review of the #ShadowBrokers leak of Top Secret NSA tools reveals it's nowhere near the full library ..."

Replying to self because I just got around to watching the movie.

In his final days before the leak Snowden was part of the counter espionage cyber division as an NSA contractor. He was actively hacking and preventing hacks from China. These might not be part of the toolset he used, but its reasonable to believe he would have been aware of them and had access to them.

Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#236

Post by hnaparst »

spydum wrote: post #191

Why is everybody posting/curious about the language of the blog post and not the contents of the file? I've looked through some of the contents.. Some look incredibly old, but others target odd things.. lots of cPanel. My only guess is take the low hanging fruit to build "jump box" type systems? Some odd examples: ElegantEagle/toffeehammer.. focuses on cgiecho for RCE. The thing is, a CVE was just released for this c…

Many people may not be technically savvy enough to understand the contents of the file, but everyone is interested in who the author is. In fact, these exploits are rather old, but the identity of ShadowBrokers is fresh.

And the idea that you can figure out where someone is from by analyzing their written text is as fascinating as doing the same to their code.

Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#237

Post by zedred »

throwaway71958 wrote: post #40
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #26

It's pretty fascinating to read the Shadow Broker's posts. They have to write something, since they can't just say "I work for Russia and we're reminding America that they're not invulnerable." So they have to come up with all sorts of contrived reasons about why they're doing this, complete with broken english to fool stylometry detection that walks the fine line between being believable and preposterous. Someone sp…

As a Russian myself, I can tell you with certainty that there are mistakes in that text that a Russian ESL speaker would never make, and verb tenses are a bit too good for an unskilled speaker. Due to the combination of these two factors, I bet this was written by a native English speaker who thinks he/she knows the mistakes a Russian would make. They're wrong.

Can you give us some examples?

Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#238

Post by throwaway71958 »

draw_down wrote: post #221
rdtsc wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I speak 3 languages including Russian. I agree with the throwaway's post that it sounds like someone was trying to write like a Russian but didn't do a very good job.

Well, they certainly seem to have succeeded in fooling plenty of people around here.

To quote a Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin: "Oh it is not hard to fool me, for I am willing to be fooled."

Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#239

Post by throwaway71958 »

rev wrote: post #70
DanBC wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia uses online trolling as a tool. It's widely documented. This use of trolling leaves Russia open to accusations even when they're not involved. For a well documented case: http://www.stratcomcoe.org/internet-trolling-hybrid-warfare-...

Well documented analysis of a corpus of comments on some Latvian sites, yes. Anything in 100+ pages serving as a proof of Kremlin connections with the "hybrid trolls" (gotta love the newspeak)? Not so much. I don't know whether Russians are xenophobic aggressive bastards or knights in shining armor exposing the wrongdoings of others, it's just that claims along the lines like "Russia uses online trolling" seem exagge…

Russian here: Russia very definitely does use online trolling domestically (same as the US I guess). They also use paid "pro-government" rally attendees. That's very well documented, including direct video evidence on Youtube.

I very much doubt they're competent enough to pull something like this convincingly here in the US and avoid early detection and counter-intelligence response. Thus far no evidence whatsoever was presented that any of this was Russian, let alone state sponsored. That's either some truly elite level GRU work, to the standard we have not ever seen before, or there is, in fact, no "paid Russian trolls" on The_Donald. My opinion: there's no way in hell they could pull this off without getting noticed _well before_ the anointed Democratic candidate lost the election.

Re: Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal of digital weapons

#240

Post by 3131s »

xenadu02 wrote: post #151
RodericDay wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that a "meme"? I don't know any conservatives but every single leftist I know thinks that russophobia is at absolutely deranged levels, as a vehicle for Clinton apologism. The idea that "Russia decided the election" is absurd, but repeated often enough, is starting to be taken as truth by those who find it palatable.

If Hillary Clinton didn't have such high unfavorables it wouldn't have been a contest. If Bernie hadn't siphoned off some of her support it wouldn't have been a contest. Russian meddling and Comey's last-minute maneuver definitely cost her the election, but only by swinging the vote less than 1% in a few key states. I don't think Putin seriously believes he can control US elections and probably recognizes this as a o…

> If Hillary Clinton didn't have such high unfavorables it wouldn't have been a contest. If Bernie hadn't siphoned off some of her support it wouldn't have been a contest.

How about if Hillary simply picked Bernie as VP? Is there anyone here that thinks she wouldn't have won on that decision alone? Don't blame Bernie supporters (I am not one, to be clear), why should they walk a mile to Clinton's positions when Clinton herself won't even make the most modest concessions to their side?

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