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The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

washingtonpost.com

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Re: The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

#131

Post by mirimir »

mazamats wrote: post #119
mirimir wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mixing $140,000 in Bitcoin would be trivial. For example, bitmixer.io holds ~1000 BTC reserve for mixing, which is currently worth ~$2.5 million. So ~60 BTC could be safely mixed over a few days. Decent mixers: bitmixer.io (bitmixer2whesjgj.onion) Bitcoin Fog (foggedddxlunnaaa.onion) Helix (grams7enufi7jmdl.onion/helix/light) I'm not aware that exchanges have blacklisted any mixers. There has been talk of blacklistin…

Just a warning to anyone new to the BTC scene. DO NOT USE BitcoinFog

Why?

I've used them for years. They've been slow a few times, but I've never lost anything.

There are persistent hater threads on Bitcoin Forum, however. And they've gotten some bad PR from some major Bitcoin thefts. Also, the Sheep Marketplace owner did screw up by mixing 96000 BTC in one go. But that still wasn't how he got pwned.

Re: The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

#132

Post by mc32 »

losteric wrote: post #120
mc32 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I don't know. People tend to believe the narrative story they want to believe. When someone claims "the Russians" hacked the DNC and other operatives, there is very little "false flag" ("how do you know it really was the Russians?") claims (and for good reason), but when something does not fit their belief systems then it's "oh, false flag" despite reputable researchers putting their reputation on the line.

It's about broader context, or a lack thereof. The DNC hack is self-consistent and aligned with known motives of suspected actors, so the public sees a false flag as possible but improbable. WannaCry came seemingly out of nowhere using a mixed bag of tricks from unfamiliar actors... absent context, the public will entertain any explanation.

That's a logical and plausible explanation for rational thinkers --I don't think I'm going out on a limb saying if it fit people's narrative preference, they'd say that "it fit too well", how can the Russians, so capable, leave so obvious trails, it must have been the Ukranians (or some other realistically unlikely but fitting a narrative).

The N Korea thing was the same even under Obama (the Sony hack) people wanted to believe the US was just trying to make the N Koreans "look bad" or create excuses for something (as if N KOrea needed any help in that regard).

Re: The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

#133

Post by jpatokal »

tyingq wrote: post #124
losteric wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They would have earned at least an order of magnitude more if the WannaCry killswitch hadn't been discovered.

Is ~$10M that interesting to a nation state, even a cash strapped one though? This is almost certainly not about the money.

This is a country whose diplomats sell bootleg liquor and use diplomatic pouches to smuggle crystal meth, so, yes:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/11...

Re: The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

#134

Post by abecedarius »

anigbrowl wrote: post #113
sumedh wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well the NSA chief lied to US congress. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/...

Well that's it then, one lie ends everything. I had a program crash on me once, never used it again. I'm being flippant but while I wouldn't advise you to trust the NSA it's equally foolish to assume an antagonistic posture towards it forever more in everything. Military forces sometimes kill innocent people which is terrible, and even worse than lying, but you don't see any country deciding not to have one, for reas…

When a known liar says X, it means they've calculated that saying X is a good move in whatever game they're playing. This tells us little about whether X is the case. I mean, if they've since made a credible effort to restore their reputation somehow, we may start to give their pronouncements some direct weight in our own models of the world, but until then, why would you? This is beside any matter of morality.

Re: The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

#135

Post by Buge »

elevensies wrote: post #91
iffe_closure wrote: post #11

Maybe I'm old fashioned but I take any hacking blame from gov to gov as likely propaganda.

Similarly, I don't doubt that the NSA has the ability to attribute an attack to an attacker. What I doubt is that the NSA has the ability to tell the truth in public.

You are correct that it seems the NSA is unable to tell the truth to the public. The NSA never stated publicly that WannaCry is from North Korea.

>The NSA declined to comment.

Re: The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

#136

Post by sdfjlkjsdf7 »

rsync wrote: post #129

The only rational response to this is deep, deep skepticism. In the old days of the USSR, while very difficult, it was at least conceivable that you could just fly to moscow and see if they were eating their children there or burning priests or god knows whatever else. There was a natural limit to the deception that could occur and further a normal person could make conclusions about the things they saw with their ow…

Agreed. Right off the bat, which I applaud in a way, they describe the strength of their argument.

It's not very convincing.

"...according to U.S. intelligence officials.

The assessment, which was issued internally last week and has not been made public, is based on an analysis of tactics, techniques and targets that point with “moderate confidence” to North Korea’s spy agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau, according to an individual familiar with the report."

Which US IO?

Not released publicly? That's handy.

Which tactics, techniques and targets? Oh right, not public.

Can we get examples of "moderate confidence?" What's high and low look like?

Which individual?

Much truth has come from leaks like this, but also a lot of smoke and mirrors. This could be a WH ploy to gin up reasons to target NK, for example.

Re: The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

#137

Post by Sacho »

openasocket wrote: post #88
quakeguy wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we are unsure.

Out of curiosity, what evidence would convince you?

I don't know - isn't this an issue with the erosion of trust towards the administration and "domain experts", something they can only blame themselves for?

More importantly, why do you want people to be convinced of this? What difference does it make? If it is used as some sort of justification for (more?) economic sanctions or an attack, then I don't think any realistic hacking attempt is going to be enough. If you just want this attributed to NK, what is the point? If people don't know enough about the situation to be sure, and they have no trust in any authority on the subject, then the way forward would be for an authority to build up trust with those people and then claim it is attributed to NK.

Re: The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

#138

Post by random314 »

threeseed wrote: post #41
zabana wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what has the US been doing for the last 50 years exactly ? If not dropping missiles and bombs on civilian populations abroad under the pretence of "spreading democracy" and "stopping terrorism"

Your comment is just nonsense on so many levels. 1) The US does not actively target civilians. That's a war crime. There are incidental deaths absolutely but if the US was intentionally trying to cause mass deaths they would simply drop a nuclear bomb a few more times. 2) What does this have to do with spreading propaganda, cyberattacks or North Korea ?

> 1) The US does not actively target civilians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Menu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Rolling_Thunder http://abcnews.go.com/International/bombing-laos-numbers/sto...

Re: The NSA has linked the WannaCry computer worm to North Korea

#140

Post by Buge »

marcosdumay wrote: post #30

I wonder why it's always North Korea. Is there no other private or governmental hacker group on the world?

You clearly haven't been following the front page of hacker news.

From yesterday: Russia hacking US elections https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14547091

From 2 days ago: Russian government hacking Ukranian power grid https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14537138

From 7 days ago: Russian government Turla group using satellites to hack other governments and pharmaceutical companies https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14503230

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