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Russian Hackers Read Obama’s Unclassified Emails, Officials Say

nytimes.com

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Re: Russian Hackers Read Obama’s Unclassified Emails, Officials Say

#11

Post by PhantomGremlin »

kkl wrote: post #3

I am under the impression that attribution is a very difficult and often impossible process. If that is true, what is the point of including "Russian" in this headline? I would guess the most probable response would be something involving "fulfilling a narrative." Even if that is true, what makes "Russian" hackers more exciting then just "Hackers?" I am not trying to pose some profound question. I am genuinely confus…

> what makes "Russian" hackers more exciting then just "Hackers?"

It's all about what ultimately happens to the information harvested. If it's some kids in mom's basement doing it for lulz, that's not very concerning.

But, presumably, Russian hackers, even if not actual Russian government employees, would pass on useful information to their government. Even if non-classified, that could be very damaging to national security.

From the article, the attacks were relatively sophisticated. Which makes it more likely that "state actors" were involved. The article also claims that the two most common state actors are Chinese and Russian, and the fingerprints of this operation pointed more to Russia than China.

YMMV. As you say, "attribution is a very difficult and often impossible process".

Re: Russian Hackers Read Obama’s Unclassified Emails, Officials Say

#13

Post by NN88 »

kkl wrote: post #3

I am under the impression that attribution is a very difficult and often impossible process. If that is true, what is the point of including "Russian" in this headline? I would guess the most probable response would be something involving "fulfilling a narrative." Even if that is true, what makes "Russian" hackers more exciting then just "Hackers?" I am not trying to pose some profound question. I am genuinely confus…

Did you ever think the government knows more than it can tell you?

Re: Russian Hackers Read Obama’s Unclassified Emails, Officials Say

#16

Post by mikecb »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #2

Hello, National Security Agency: Preventing this sort of thing is your job. Once you're done snarfing up my personal data, perhaps you could attend to it.

These networks would be under the white house communications agency, a subset of the defense information systems agency which is not affiliated with NSA. Supposedly his blackberry is run through NSA (See, e.g., the fishbowl project), and was not implicated in this breach.

Re: Russian Hackers Read Obama’s Unclassified Emails, Officials Say

#17

Post by vinhboy »

derefr wrote: post #5

Sounds perfectly alright to me. Remember that there are levels of classification. Unclassified (the lowest level) could be running through Gmail in plain text for all anyone at the White House cares. Anything of even minute importance will get a classification status. (Also, Re: the NSA—they do the government's COMSEC , securing the classified data. OPSEC, the risk/reward policies regarding what data should be classi…

In today's political climate, it doesn't really have to be "classified" for it to damaging. All they need is an email of the president making some sort of offbeat joke about conservatives or something, and that would be a major crisis for him once the media gets their hand on it.

It's stupid, but that's just how it is.

Re: Russian Hackers Read Obama’s Unclassified Emails, Officials Say

#18

Post by waterlesscloud »

derefr wrote: post #5

Sounds perfectly alright to me. Remember that there are levels of classification. Unclassified (the lowest level) could be running through Gmail in plain text for all anyone at the White House cares. Anything of even minute importance will get a classification status. (Also, Re: the NSA—they do the government's COMSEC , securing the classified data. OPSEC, the risk/reward policies regarding what data should be classi…

I don't consider it perfectly alright for hackers to be reading my dad's email, much less the President's.

Re: Russian Hackers Read Obama’s Unclassified Emails, Officials Say

#19

Post by derefr »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #18
derefr wrote: post #5

Sounds perfectly alright to me. Remember that there are levels of classification. Unclassified (the lowest level) could be running through Gmail in plain text for all anyone at the White House cares. Anything of even minute importance will get a classification status. (Also, Re: the NSA—they do the government's COMSEC , securing the classified data. OPSEC, the risk/reward policies regarding what data should be classi…

I don't consider it perfectly alright for hackers to be reading my dad's email, much less the President's.

Perfectly alright to the functioning of the government, I mean. It might ruin the President's personal life—and thus get him kicked out of office, maybe—but that's a far less damaging thing than ruining his professional life and thus damaging e.g. peace talks with some foreign power.

To put it another way, there are two Presidents: one is a man, and the other is a role. The point of OPSEC is to ensure that the continued execution of the role is not compromised by attacks on the man.

Or, in short: long live the king.

Re: Russian Hackers Read Obama’s Unclassified Emails, Officials Say

#20

Post by a3n »

vinhboy wrote: post #15

I always wonder how these hackers know which IP range to attack. Is it just like a hit and miss kinda thing? Or do they have insiders who leak those info to them.

Chicken and egg, but that Romanian guy that broke into Clinton's email (and thereby had a hand in exposing that she was using her own server) probably saw email to and from the White House. Metadata, after all, is the gift that keeps on giving. An innocent IP leads to an interesting IP leads to blackmail, extortion, spying and all kinds of other fun.
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