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U.S. and key allies accuse China of Microsoft Exchange cyberattacks

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Re: U.S. and key allies accuse China of Microsoft Exchange cyberattacks

#151
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An indication that the EU does not believe the probably American intelligence assessment that these hackers operate on behalf of the Chinese government.

When the US was angry with Russia everything was suddenly Russians. Now they're being difficult at China, and suddenly China is the country doing everything wrong. That anyone still takes them seriously is to my mind an incredible miracle.

Not the same thing. Solarwinds saga (the one Russians are blamed for) was 1) extremely targeted and 2) extremely sophisticated. Exchange attacks on the other hand were indiscriminate (not targeting any single country or infrastructure, just unpatched Exchange servers) and very simple (they used 0day chain, but it was three months old and likely somehow leaked as multiple groups got access to it at the same time).

Re: U.S. and key allies accuse China of Microsoft Exchange cyberattacks

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, the US worked to fabricate evidence in collaboration with the UK too. The UK had an expert produce the so called "dodgy dossier", that was used as Blair's justification to follow the US into their illegal war. The media called it out as obvious bullshit, then the guy that produced the report allegedly committed a timely suicide.

Source please.

The first hit for "dodgy dossier suicide" is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kelly_(weapons_expert)

Edit: I can't reply to the child but here are some salient quotes from the wiki...

"I will wait until the end of the week before judging – many dark actors playing games. Thanks for your support." - Dr Kelly

"it was subsequently established that neither the knife nor the blister packs showed Kelly's fingerprints on their surfaces"

"The former leader of the Conservative Party, Michael Howard, and the former Liberal Democrat MP, Norman Baker, both think Kelly was murdered.[173] In 2007 Baker published The Strange Death of David Kelly in which he argued that Kelly did not commit suicide."

Re: U.S. and key allies accuse China of Microsoft Exchange cyberattacks

#153
post #92

There is so much doubt in this comment section around the validity of the accusations. We have a number of countries putting forward the knowledge they have mutually agreed upon. What is shared is known to a high degree of certainty. Any details that are questionable would not have been shared prematurely.

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." — Dick Cheney, before the US and coalition of the willing invaded Iraq.

I always see this is trotted out as to say that Iraq did not possess WMDs, however technically it is wrong, as WMDs (chemical weapons in this case) were found after the invasion, (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destr...). While there was no evidence of nuclear weapons or an active program I believe that a better quote should be used since the pretences that it is quoted for are technically wrong.

Re: U.S. and key allies accuse China of Microsoft Exchange cyberattacks

#154
post #2

Will someone accuse Microsoft of publishing vulnerable software?

The issue is not that a random guy on the internet hacks the software, but a _state_ actor.

Eh, the issue was found by a random (Chinese) guy on the internet. And it was reported to Microsoft in the beginning of January. It got leaked and once you have the exploit chain - yeah, pretty much any random guy on the internet could use it for hacking. A few days after MS disclosure there were in fact independently produced exploits by other random guys.

Re: U.S. and key allies accuse China of Microsoft Exchange cyberattacks

#155
post #135
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to say I don’t believe that China is actively attacking networks and services (if they don’t then they’re lagging behind and it’s embarassing), but I can understand the skepticism of grand claims when the latest was that tiktok was impacting national security.

If you don’t believe Tiktok is a national security threat you are hopelessly naive. MyFitnessPal, Strava, etc are threats to national security and they’re US based, but you think that Tiktok isn’t because someone you don’t like said it is? That’s playground logic.

> If you don’t believe Tiktok is a national security threat you are hopelessly naive.

Yeah, it's pretty much a bomb waiting to be used. It might not have been used yet, but that's no reason to claim it's harmless and sleep next to it.

Though, Facebook and Twitter are not much better, and only somewhat less exploitable by the same adversary (there's capitalism for you).

Re: U.S. and key allies accuse China of Microsoft Exchange cyberattacks

#156
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." — Dick Cheney, before the US and coalition of the willing invaded Iraq.

I'd ask that we be more thoughtful on this and evaluate separate allegations on their own merits. Why do you think invoking Cheney's statement is relevant to this discussion? As an aside, I'm not sure what's more frustrating: Witnessing the Bush administration circa 2001-2004 be called out on these lies, by numerous entities, and still march inexorably toward armed conflict, or... having to witness these lies being u…

There is more than the most recent Iraq war. There is Vietnam (Gulf of Tonkin) and the Spanish-American War (USS Maine sabotage). Several others.

It's not disingenous and it's not discrediting _any_ future allegation, but to appropriately raise the threshold before belief.

Re: U.S. and key allies accuse China of Microsoft Exchange cyberattacks

#157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source please.

The first hit for "dodgy dossier suicide" is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kelly_(weapons_expert) Edit: I can't reply to the child but here are some salient quotes from the wiki... "I will wait until the end of the week before judging – many dark actors playing games. Thanks for your support." - Dr Kelly "it was subsequently established that neither the knife nor the blister packs showed Kelly's fingerprints on…

That's a source that a man killed himself. It was suggested he was actually murdered by the Brit govt. Source for that claim?

Re: U.S. and key allies accuse China of Microsoft Exchange cyberattacks

#158
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." — Dick Cheney, before the US and coalition of the willing invaded Iraq.

I always see this is trotted out as to say that Iraq did not possess WMDs, however technically it is wrong, as WMDs (chemical weapons in this case) were found after the invasion, (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destr... ). While there was no evidence of nuclear weapons or an active program I believe that a better quote should be used since the pretences that it is quoted for are technicall…

Of course, because WMD is a manufacturered phrase with tautological utility. A kitchen knife wielded in a sinister way is capable of mass destruction.

Re: U.S. and key allies accuse China of Microsoft Exchange cyberattacks

#159
Is anyone else sick of all this forced "connected cloud" crap?

My wife just got a new Windows laptop and the amount of dark patterns they use to push people towards the Windows cloud is insane. I haven't used Windows in years, but it's glaringly clear that the entire modern Windows OS is designed around recurring monetization of users. Nowadays, Windows machines are essentially one big trojan horse waiting to either be hacked or tapped into by 3-letter agencies.

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