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N.S.A. Tapped into North Korean Networks Before Sony Attack, Officials Say

nytimes.com

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Re: N.S.A. Tapped into North Korean Networks Before Sony Attack, Officials Say

#141

Post by gambiting »

wheezy wrote: post #140
gambiting wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. My country(Poland) used to be communist for nearly 50 years, and you know what we called ourselves? Democratic Republic of Poland, just like North Korea calls itself democratic. There were elections, party members were elected - but it was all corrupt through and through. The same party would win with 99.9% of the votes, party members were chosen by who gave the largest bribe or who was closest family member. A…

I love how american and european chauvinism continues to conquer reason in the 21th century. Why mention Africa when most of the world's malnourished people are in Asia? With the great variance that can occur on a continent why mention continents at all? If one must it is irresponsible to omit that both continents were forced into producing cash crops for export to Western Europe. Does that mean that the Western Euro…

Ok, most of world's malnourished people are in Asia, so now I can't say that people are starving in Africa without being accused of European chauvinism. Got it.

Re: N.S.A. Tapped into North Korean Networks Before Sony Attack, Officials Say

#142

Post by fapjacks »

happyscrappy wrote: post #124
psykovsky wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an European I say we should stop the US from learning. They're getting dangerous, with their knowledge.

>As an European I say we should stop the US from learning. They're getting dangerous, with their knowledge. Getting dangerous? The game is over, Europe has outsourced their intelligence gathering and show no indication of even wanting to try to catch up.

False.

Re: N.S.A. Tapped into North Korean Networks Before Sony Attack, Officials Say

#143

Post by handovertheball »

xnull1guest wrote: post #33
wavefunction wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hold Sony primarily responsible for the release of private data, due to their ignoring basic security practices. Why are health records stored on Sony Pictures servers along with everything else? Why were data silos and graduated access not in place? I never see any of these corporate officers held to account for their decisions to not spend resources for security. The only people I have any measure of sympathy for…

I seem to be in the minority on Hacker News, but as someone in the professional computer security field I know that any company or state/department/organization can be hacked by a motivated attacker. In the case of SONY, the attackers were able to enter the network through spearphishing emails - something that essentially no investment in security is going to prevent. The malware similarly could not have been detecte…

Ditto keep in mind that so called "hacking isn't just digital. Social engineering in many instances is involved in hacks. Boil it down to not only discovering vulnerabilities in code, but people as well.

Re: N.S.A. Tapped into North Korean Networks Before Sony Attack, Officials Say

#144

Post by finid »

enlightenedfool wrote: post #138
finid wrote: post #122

So we hacked them first, now we've imposed a sanction on them for hacking one of our companies. Unbelievable!

We can have nukes. You can't. We can violate human rights. You can't. We can kill your people. You can't kill ours. It's an accepted pattern.

Meanwhile, we're training "moderate islamist" to fight ISIS. Not too long ago, groups of earlier "moderate islamist" that we trained joined ISIS.

Someday I hope I wake up from this dream.

Re: N.S.A. Tapped into North Korean Networks Before Sony Attack, Officials Say

#145

Post by unprepare »

kimjonsegfault wrote: post #100
iliis wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know that North Korea has actual concentration camps, right? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoeryong_concentration_camp

Unfortunately, every country has prison colonies. USA has more than anyone, including abroad. You choose to believe 'Database Center for North Korean Human Rights' from which this article is sourced, that it seeks to publicize the truth and isn't funded by CIA. I believe otherwise, after comparing activities of human rights organizations in countries all over the world. It makes me quite sad that the human rights cau…

>after comparing activities of human rights organizations in countries all over the world.

Is this comparison available for us to view?

Re: N.S.A. Tapped into North Korean Networks Before Sony Attack, Officials Say

#146

Post by unprepare »

wheezy wrote: post #140
gambiting wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. My country(Poland) used to be communist for nearly 50 years, and you know what we called ourselves? Democratic Republic of Poland, just like North Korea calls itself democratic. There were elections, party members were elected - but it was all corrupt through and through. The same party would win with 99.9% of the votes, party members were chosen by who gave the largest bribe or who was closest family member. A…

I love how american and european chauvinism continues to conquer reason in the 21th century. Why mention Africa when most of the world's malnourished people are in Asia? With the great variance that can occur on a continent why mention continents at all? If one must it is irresponsible to omit that both continents were forced into producing cash crops for export to Western Europe. Does that mean that the Western Euro…

>Why mention Africa when most of the world's malnourished people are in Asia?

Because in the US, at least in my experience, 'starving people in africa' is kind of a colloquial trope - it is more readily referenced than starving people in asia, since we don't see charity organizations constantly using asian faces to advertise their foundations.

>forced into producing cash crops for export to Western Europe

Who exactly went around the the countries in africa and asia and disallowed them from growing their own food instead of cash crops? My bet is that these places found economic incentive in growing these crops rather than what they would consume locally - whether the global economy is a net benefit or net loss for a poor country is an entirely different discussion

Re: N.S.A. Tapped into North Korean Networks Before Sony Attack, Officials Say

#147

Post by xnull2guest »

eru wrote: post #94
xnull2guest wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that all security is a cost-benefit tradeoff. This is of course folklore wisdom. The importance with regard to the SONY case is that SONY was not the victim of an opportunistic attack but was targeted specifically. In this case, it is highly likely that SONY did invest in training its employees in corporate policy and security awareness (at least as much as any other corporation). I have trouble thinking of a…

> The importance with regard to the SONY case is that SONY was not the victim of an opportunistic attack but was targeted specifically. Amazon, Google etc are specifically targeted all the time. What's different?

Nothing is different if they are also targeted specifically.

The context of the discussion is that SONY, even if it 'increased spending on defense' would have been compromised because it was targeted in an attack rather than an attack of opportunity.

Amazon and Google also get hacked. So does Adobe and Microsoft. So does the DoD and Whitehouse. So does JPMorgan and Wallstreet.

Re: N.S.A. Tapped into North Korean Networks Before Sony Attack, Officials Say

#148

Post by xnull2guest »

Estragon wrote: post #84
xnull1guest wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly false flag operations are a tactic that has seen reliable and regular use, especially in counterintelligence. But what purpose exactly would a false flag operation against SONY serve? Definitely not as a pretext to take action against North Korea - the US could much more easily justify actions against NK than it has many other nations in its history.

It's certainly being used as a pretext to lock down legal control of independent computation. The proposed updates to the CFAA and Obama's siding with Cameron on the intolerability of government-opaque communications have more credibility as a result of it. And it lends credibility to the steady reports from "a government official with knowledge of the matter" that US infrastructure is only an exploit away from being…

Can you link a reference? I haven't yet seen it being used to justify any such legislature.

Re: N.S.A. Tapped into North Korean Networks Before Sony Attack, Officials Say

#149

Post by junto »

lucb1e wrote: post #3

Might be me, but I'd be surprised if they hadn't. They hacked so many countries including China[1], Mexico[1], Belgium[1], Syria[3], Iran[4], etc. (after saying that a digital attack is an act of war[2]). I don't remember each and every leak and I don't feel like looking up everything, but they seem to have targeted loads of people in various countries. I doubt North Korea (which is not even an ally) is the exception…

Obama very specifically said that this was 'not an act of war': http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2014/dec/21/obama-n...

He has to say this, otherwise the NSA has started an act of war against pretty every country on earth, so it would be pretty hypocritical.

Obama knows this, so he can't go and classify the US as starting wars through their own cyber 'crimes'.

Re: N.S.A. Tapped into North Korean Networks Before Sony Attack, Officials Say

#150

Post by anonbanker »

meowface wrote: post #78
usbreply wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stuxnet. American kids should not be allowed to get a computer science education.

The problem is that a skilled programmer in North Korea may be forced into a government role where they will likely perform unethical work. In the US, the person must voluntarily choose to pursue such a role. (Though I would not consider Stuxnet unethical.)

How could stuxnet _not_ be unethical?
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