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Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

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Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#21

Post by pgtruesdell »

Fluid_Mechanics wrote: post #9
geofft wrote: post #2

So, if I understand this right... some NSA TAO employee was doing work on their home computer (???), where they installed Kaspersky AV (reasonable), and Kaspersky promptly identified the malware they were working on as malware and uploaded it? And then Israel hacked Kaspersky 'cause that's what they do or something, found the NSA development malware, and was like "Hey NSA, you should figure out how this got here"? Th…

I can think of at least 1 reason why Israel would hack Kaspersky... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet#Discovery

I can't believe nobody else brought this up sooner. This was my first thought.

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#23

Post by tptacek »

olivermarks wrote: post #20
peteretep wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no realistic spin for Kaspersky for anyone who wants to protect their data from the Russian government. True or not, the reputational damage is complete.

"Israeli government hackers saw something suspicious in the computers of a Moscow-based cybersecurity firm: hacking tools that could only have come from the National Security Agency". The Israelis seem to be able to poke around on other people's servers whenever they want....

If you think American firms don't get nervous about running Israeli security software, you don't pay close attention to the security industry.

But part of the decision framework here involves the fact that most American companies don't feel threatened by Israeli espionage (they probably should!). Most American companies do have a real problem with Russia and China.

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#24

Post by devoply »

joewee wrote: post #5

Perhaps he/she had the data on a SAN while performing development from a more “secure” computer and one of his personal computers with AV installed was connected to the same SAN. A likely scenario as far as scenarios go.

One other possibility is that Kaspersky stole nothing, that it found the malware on computers it was tasked with protecting. And one should wonder did they add signatures to their A/V product to find and protect against this malware or not?

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#25

Post by openasocket »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #7
revelation wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They probably didn't hack anything, they just have people who receive these AV samples as malware researchers. Any intelligence agency worth their money should. And yes, this is the gist of what's behind all the Kaspersky hysteria. The NSA trying to obscure another extremely embarrassing leak. Every AV software uploads new detections for analysis. It just so happened that this fool used Kaspersky. It's abundantly cle…

Basically. I've seen what now looks like state sponsored bullshit blogs posing as tin foil hatters being posted to HN saying Kaspersky is part of the Russian intelligence apparatus, and that's why the US government pressured stores to remove Kaspersky AV from store shelves, etc etc etc. Most likely, they did their job, and they did it correctly. The NSA can't really defeat competent AV researchers who aren't even loo…

Kaspersky is pretty well known to have a close relationship with the Russian government, though. Hell, Kaspersky himself used to work for Soviet military intelligence. There's several articles cited here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaspersky_Lab#Allegations_of_t...

I'm not saying Kaspersky is a part of the Russian intelligence apparatus, but I wouldn't trust them to report on Fancy Bear campaigns, nor would I trust their AV software if I were a particularly juicy target.

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#26

Post by tptacek »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #7
revelation wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They probably didn't hack anything, they just have people who receive these AV samples as malware researchers. Any intelligence agency worth their money should. And yes, this is the gist of what's behind all the Kaspersky hysteria. The NSA trying to obscure another extremely embarrassing leak. Every AV software uploads new detections for analysis. It just so happened that this fool used Kaspersky. It's abundantly cle…

Basically. I've seen what now looks like state sponsored bullshit blogs posing as tin foil hatters being posted to HN saying Kaspersky is part of the Russian intelligence apparatus, and that's why the US government pressured stores to remove Kaspersky AV from store shelves, etc etc etc. Most likely, they did their job, and they did it correctly. The NSA can't really defeat competent AV researchers who aren't even loo…

Whatever the "bullshit blogs" might be (I haven't noticed these stories, but maybe you can provide links?), they're in good company now, because that's more or less the story the NYT, WSJ, and WaPo have developed.

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#29

Post by bitmapbrother »

olivermarks wrote: post #20
peteretep wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no realistic spin for Kaspersky for anyone who wants to protect their data from the Russian government. True or not, the reputational damage is complete.

"Israeli government hackers saw something suspicious in the computers of a Moscow-based cybersecurity firm: hacking tools that could only have come from the National Security Agency". The Israelis seem to be able to poke around on other people's servers whenever they want....

The Chinese really need to teach those Israelis a lesson.
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