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

washingtonpost.com

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

#281

Post by CaptSpify »

zzzcpan wrote: post #216
nasredin wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. Russia IS the enemy. Secret warrants by a secret court is also the enemy. One is just more important and dangerous than the other (look out of the window). Perfect example of whataboutism BTW.

Russia is the enemy of the state, not your enemy. The state also thinks of you as an enemy. You really shouldn't be afraid of a foreign state, your state is the only real threat to you here.

But Russia can and would turn against you if they thought you could be useful to them. You should be afraid of both.

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

#282

Post by nl »

pintxo wrote: post #224
nl wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NATO is a military alliance, not a intelligence sharing agreement. We know that five-eyes intel doesn't go to NATO, and it is pretty doubtful that eg Turkey and Germany share their intel.

It's been shown somewhat recently[1], that German intelligence not just exchanged data with the US, but also collected data for the US services in Germany and worldwide. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/28/germany-curb-s...

Indeed. But this isn't some NATO thing, it's a US/German agreement.

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

#283

Post by willstrafach »

mikevm wrote: post #195
erdojo wrote: post #138

This is what I read between the lines: An NSA spook was working on his home laptop and playing around with some special NSA malware. Kaspersky AV detected it - AS IT SHOULD - based on heuristic or behavior-based technology that just about every modern AV has. The data was sent back to Kaspersky servers. This is also how everyone else does it, because this is how A/V companies create signatures that are pushed out to…

According to the NYT article[0]: > Israeli intelligence officers informed the N.S.A. that in the course of their Kaspersky hack, they uncovered evidence that Russian government hackers were using Kaspersky’s access to aggressively scan for American government classified programs, and pulling any findings back to Russian intelligence systems. They provided their N.S.A. counterparts with solid evidence of the Kremlin c…

More specific detail regarding this was revealed today[0]:

> Wednesday's report, citing unnamed current and former US officials, said the help came in the form of modifications made to the Kaspersky antivirus software that's used by more than 400 million people around the world. Normally, the programs scan computer files for malware. "But in an adjustment to its normal operations that the officials say could only have been made with the company's knowledge, the program searched for terms as broad as 'top secret,' which may be written on classified government documents, as well as the classified code names of US government programs, these people said."

[0] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/10/kaspe...

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

#284

Post by astura »

jmkni wrote: post #278
kevinmchugh wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Born on an Army base to an American father. John McCain was born under similar circumstances, Ted Cruz and George Romney were both born abroad and neither was seriously considered disqualified. The only difference between McCain and McAfee afaict is both McCain's parents were US citizens at the time of his birth. That may be relevant, that part of the law can change, but simply being born oversees doesn't stop a pers…

Didn’t know that, cool! I’m not American so not that clued up on the specifics.

Its a common misunderstanding among Americans "you have to be born in the US to become president." I'm not sure where that came from but it's not exactly true. The Constitution says you have to be a "natural born citizen" to become president. "Natural born citizen," however, is not defined.

IMO, I think the reason it wasn't defined is because the meaning is obvious, there's two ways to be a citizen, - by birth ("natural") or by naturalization.

Tons of discussion on the topic here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause

As mentioned above, Ted Cruz was a serious contender for POTUS yet was born in Canada as well as George Romney, who was born in Mexico. Those two about as close as we got to "settling" the issue.

John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone which, at the time, was an unincorporated territory of the United States. Does that "count" as being "the United States" if you're going to interpret "natural born citizen" that way? People may disagree. They also may disagree if military bases "count" the same way as the Panama Canal Zone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal_Zone#Citizenship

US Senate passed a non-binding resolution that McCain was a "natural born Citizen" of the United States.

There have been several Presidents who have one non-citizen parent, the most recent being Barrack Obama.

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

#286

Post by JBSay »

CaptSpify wrote: post #281
zzzcpan wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia is the enemy of the state, not your enemy. The state also thinks of you as an enemy. You really shouldn't be afraid of a foreign state, your state is the only real threat to you here.

But Russia can and would turn against you if they thought you could be useful to them. You should be afraid of both.

Except Russia doesn't give a rat's ass about little you. The NSA on the other hand...

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

#287

Post by MertsA »

tim333 wrote: post #262
MertsA wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would switching to macOS provide any protection against an APT? Against Malware in general yeah sure but against the NSA or FSB in a targeted attack I don't see how that benefits you at all. If the NSA can put the screws on Microsoft then Apple should be no different. Apple refusing the FBI is one thing but faced with a gag order and an NSL their only recourse is to appeal to a secret court that basically always…

Well, nothing's totally secure. You can but reduce the odds of having problems and Macs seem to be hit less. For example in the N Korea hack on Sony the Macs survived https://9to5mac.com/2014/12/18/sony-hack/ >“Some people had to send faxes. They were dragging old printers out of storage to cut checks,” she said. “It was crazy.” ... "People using Macs were fine,” she said. She said most work is done on iPads and iPho…

>Macs seem to be hit less.

Yes but my point is that this is completely irrelevant to an APT. When an attacker moves from opportunistic to targeted having an OS with a lower adoption rate isn't going to matter. They aren't going after the most amount of victims possible, they're going after you specifically.

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

#288

Post by JBSay »

nasredin wrote: post #208
apexalpha wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>One is just more important and dangerous than the other Not if you're not American. The American government has shown it doesn't care at all or stop at anything to promote its self interest through American made software outside the US.

I wrote on this before. Somebody is going to be on top. Would you rather have US, Russia or China be the superpower?

How about none of them? Your premise is wrong.

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

#289

Post by JBSay »

pas wrote: post #177
jstanley wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Russia IS the enemy In what sense?

In a very direct sense. It's a de facto totalitarian dictatorship. Its proliferation harms human rights, poses real danger to Ukraine, claims lives. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Ukrainian_cr... , corruption also claims lives https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eO8ZHfV4fk )

You could say a lot worse about many US allies. Saudi Arabia anyone? Human rights are irrelevant when the US government decides who is an enemy and who is an ally.

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

#290

Post by JBSay »

nasredin wrote: post #207
jstanley wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Russia IS the enemy In what sense?

You are right. It's not so black and white. One fact you can't argue with is Russian government is telling their people US is the enemy. Follow @JuliaDavisNews . She posts gists of Russian state-controlled TV. If it's not US, it's EU/NATO/gays/"democracy" (I'm not kidding you about democracy)

When has the Russian government ever said the US was the enemy? The only saber rattling sound is coming from Washington.
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