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Irish health service hit by cyber attack

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Irish health service hit by cyber attack

#151

Post by gregsadetsky »

tomjen3 wrote: post #150
gregsadetsky wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I typically work in situations where the entire data to be backed up (file storage, database) is on the order of 10-100Gb. The projects I’m working on don’t fit the high profile of a Colonial but I’d rather err on the side of safety. Is there a service that could regularly fetch data from s3 or even connect to postgres, and regularly send a physical copy of the data by mail? Does it make sense to offer airgapped back…

Why not just buy a tape drive and a few tapes? They are offline and air gapped the moment they are out of the machine and, if you have a small company, they can be stored in the owners house. That gives you quick retrieval of of-site backups. The only reason I haven't done something like that for all my personal data is that tape machines are terribly expensive. Tape drives are pretty cheap.

Yeah, that definitely sounds reasonable.

I was hoping for something SaaS-like that would be automated (so that an external company would be responsible to not forget to do the backups) and no entry cost. As you say, tape drives are expensive.

I was starting to imagine how automable it would be to have machines that downloaded and encrypted data, and small robots popping 128/256Gb (up to 1Tb) SD cards in and out, and even dropping them in envelopes with labels automatically printed out. Then the envelopes would be dropped into a chute as the outgoing mail :)

One obvious issue is that an 128gb card is about $30, so sending one every day would be too expensive. And if you sent one once a week that would mean up to 6 days of lost data.

Then there’s the issue of having access to so much customer data — this imaginary backup company would itself become a potential liability if it was hacked.

Would small companies even be interested?

Re: Irish health service hit by cyber attack

#153

Post by evgen »

jessaustin wrote: post #146
evgen wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not talking about the Irish attack, but rather the Colonial Pipeline one. The ransomware group in that case are a well-known Russian gang who ended up putting out a press release apologizing for the inconvenience to everyone and that they just wanted money. Sometimes that specter isn't a phantom but actually exists; the only spell to be broken here was your own delusion.

So, do you believe the press release? They clearly disavow connection to any of the dozens of national governments on earth who are subject to USA sanctions: " We are apolitical, we do not participate in geopolitics, do not need to tie us with a defined goverment and look for other our motives. " Do you only believe part of that press release? How did you decide which part to believe? Maybe just the parts that threat…

I believe the actual professionals who do assessments on these actors and who specialize in analysis and attribution. Then again, I happen to know some of them and know the field. You apparently know little about this subject but seem desperate to turn this into some sort of political fight. Your intentions and objectives are quite clear: it is more important for you to deflect blame from Russia or Russian hackers (even those who may only be acting with the protection of some wing of the government and not being directed by same) and truth is of little consequence.

What a complete waste of time it is discussing anything on HN that you touch.

Re: Irish health service hit by cyber attack

#155

Post by tomjen3 »

gregsadetsky wrote: post #151
tomjen3 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just buy a tape drive and a few tapes? They are offline and air gapped the moment they are out of the machine and, if you have a small company, they can be stored in the owners house. That gives you quick retrieval of of-site backups. The only reason I haven't done something like that for all my personal data is that tape machines are terribly expensive. Tape drives are pretty cheap.

Yeah, that definitely sounds reasonable. I was hoping for something SaaS-like that would be automated (so that an external company would be responsible to not forget to do the backups) and no entry cost. As you say, tape drives are expensive. I was starting to imagine how automable it would be to have machines that downloaded and encrypted data, and small robots popping 128/256Gb (up to 1Tb) SD cards in and out, and…

To clarify. a tape reader is about 5k, a tape is cheaper than a hard drive at the same storage capacity and can be stored for a long time without issue.

Re: Irish health service hit by cyber attack

#156

Post by jessaustin »

evgen wrote: post #153
jessaustin wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, do you believe the press release? They clearly disavow connection to any of the dozens of national governments on earth who are subject to USA sanctions: " We are apolitical, we do not participate in geopolitics, do not need to tie us with a defined goverment and look for other our motives. " Do you only believe part of that press release? How did you decide which part to believe? Maybe just the parts that threat…

I believe the actual professionals who do assessments on these actors and who specialize in analysis and attribution. Then again, I happen to know some of them and know the field. You apparently know little about this subject but seem desperate to turn this into some sort of political fight. Your intentions and objectives are quite clear: it is more important for you to deflect blame from Russia or Russian hackers (e…

Wow it seems a lot of thought has been devoted to my "intentions and objectives". Let's dial the discussion back a bit and strive for a bit more objectivity.

You might want to ask the "actual" [?] "professionals" who "specialize in attribution" whether attribution has anything to do with this episode. (Not the episode in TFA, remember, but rather the one you decided [for political reasons?] to talk about instead.) You concede that Darkside are the authors of the hack, and credit at least some of their communication about it. What attribution remains to be done? The actual expertise in attribution among computer security professionals is in identifying and profiling tools and techniques. The amateur psychology and geopolitical analysis we sometimes see quoted in the war media as "attribution" is just bullshit.

If you're in this thread discussing TFA which does not contain the string "Russia" for the obvious reasons, then you are indeed wasting your time. If you're just trying to clear up some intellectually debilitating confusion, then please continue the discussion.

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