Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dutch intelligence first to alert U.S. about Russian hack of Democratic Party

nos.nl

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–75 of 75 posts

Re: Dutch intelligence first to alert U.S. about Russian hack of Democratic Party

#71

Post by nl »

n0tme wrote: post #66
gandhium wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> US, as a return favor, shared their intel on the MH17 incident too. As I can remember US told the world that it MH-17 was shot by a missile (not Ukrainian jet, as Russia tried to imply for months) and most probably Russian missile - and all of it almost immediately after the tragedy.

As much as I hate Russian government, I can't believe the mh17 was shot on purpose. It was probably a mistake. Probably some people were in power where they should never be. Unfortunately, it looks like the next 6 years there wouldn't be any significant change in Russian government.

No one thinks the Russian government shot it down. It was the Russian backed rebels in the Ukraine who were supplied and supported by Russia. And yes, they somehow thought it was a fighter jet they were shooting at.

Re: Dutch intelligence first to alert U.S. about Russian hack of Democratic Party

#72

Post by nl »

ThomPete wrote: post #26
empath75 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They started investigating the group in 2014 but the hacking continued up through the election.

But if they knew it was going on it can hardly have been relevant for the election.

It’s a fair point because most of the story wasn’t about the DNC. But they also saw the DNC hack later on:

Together with another group of Russian hackers (Fancy Bear, also known as APT28), Cozy Bear is also held responsible for the cyberintrusion of the DNC. In April 2016, Fancy Bear accessed the Washington servers of the Democrats; Cozy Bear had done so as early as the summer of 2015. Once more, the group was caught red-handed by the Dutch, who again alerted their U.S. counterparts.

Re: Dutch intelligence first to alert U.S. about Russian hack of Democratic Party

#73

Post by BrandoElFollito »

Maarten88 wrote: post #6
apexalpha wrote: post #2

Apparently Dutch intel had pretty deep access into the Russian systems. Going so far as even screenshotting people's faces as they appear on their security cameras. Read this article; an in depth analasys directly from source.: https://www.volkskrant.nl/media/dutch-agencies-provide-cruci... Seriously, everyone here will find this a fascinating read. It's almost like a thriller. From the article: Using so-called comma…

I'm actually impressed by our AIVD. Being Dutch, I always assumed our intelligence service were sheep in a world of wild animals; SAP consultants among elite hackers. This shows I was wrong, they seem to be actually competent and doing good work. Maybe I'll even rethink my opinion on the dragnet surveillance law that we will be voting on...

This is almost a rule in Europe.

The visible part of these organizations (head, management and recommendations) are pitiful or plain outrageous (recommendations are usually years behind the reality, which contrasts with recent NIST posture).

At the same time, the regular folks are usually surprisingly good, open and forward - thinking. They either work in the dark or have propositions which never reach the top.

When I say "surprisingly", it is because that are statistically better than their counterparts in the private sector, and are payed way less.

Re: Dutch intelligence first to alert U.S. about Russian hack of Democratic Party

#74

Post by cies »

jacquesm wrote: post #69
cies wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Which words in particular do you not believe? For instance this: > Rob Bertholee, head of AIVD, said that he had no doubt that the Kremlin was directly responsible for the Russian cyber campaign against U.S. government agencies. I believe non of it. Intel big shot sais "said that he had no doubt", I think: "your a professional and tax paid liar, I do not believe you sir!"

Well, that gives the Kremlin a free pass to do whatever they want in your book because no statement from anybody - especially not those who are in a position to evaluate the evidence - would be acceptable. That's a rather high standard you are upholding there, so high that it is unusable. To turn this around: what other state actor would you posit has stakes as high as Russia in order to attempt to get US government…

I'll never be convinced anything has actually happened in this area (intelligence). And to be honest I could not care less. Totally corrupt branches of gov't.

Re: Dutch intelligence first to alert U.S. about Russian hack of Democratic Party

#75

Post by Doxin »

rollulus wrote: post #23
Maarten88 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually impressed by our AIVD. Being Dutch, I always assumed our intelligence service were sheep in a world of wild animals; SAP consultants among elite hackers. This shows I was wrong, they seem to be actually competent and doing good work. Maybe I'll even rethink my opinion on the dragnet surveillance law that we will be voting on...

A few years ago I participated in the AIVD's cyber challenge. It involved reverse engineering an executable, spotting a flaw in the (custom) crypto algorithm which made it brute-forcable and then finally going to some train station where a final clue was hidden. After that, we, the people who solved the puzzle (5 or 6 iirc) were invited to the AIVD offices for a chat with the authors and a bit of PR and a tour throug…

Have you had a look at the AIVD christmas puzzle as well? You can still download them for previous years.

It's about what you'd expect if you ask a group of cryptographers to come up with crossword-style puzzles. It's all very challenging.

Post reply on HN