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Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#61

Post by astura »

thephyber wrote: post #54
astura wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about McAfee? He divested from the software/company shortly after it was created. He has a colorful personal life, but I doubt that has much of anything to do with the software that he hasn't been involved with for a around 2 decades. (Other than the software made him rich/a minor celebrity.)

> He has a colorful personal life I think the gp was referring to what accusations people have made of McAfee since he sold the company. Showtime aired up a documentary[1] about him. I think "colorful personal life" can only be interpreted as a euphemism since he was accused of murder, rape, running a local armed gang, fleeing the country from the police, etc. I have no reason to believe Kaspersky will have similar i…

No euphemisms here. Perhaps you are unfamiliar with this definition of colorful?

>Involving variously disreputable activities.

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#62

Post by Natsu »

tptacek wrote: post #26
DiabloD3 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically. I've seen what now looks like state sponsored bullshit blogs posing as tin foil hatters being posted to HN saying Kaspersky is part of the Russian intelligence apparatus, and that's why the US government pressured stores to remove Kaspersky AV from store shelves, etc etc etc. Most likely, they did their job, and they did it correctly. The NSA can't really defeat competent AV researchers who aren't even loo…

Whatever the "bullshit blogs" might be (I haven't noticed these stories, but maybe you can provide links?), they're in good company now, because that's more or less the story the NYT, WSJ, and WaPo have developed.

There's not a lot of attribution going on here, though. Take the WaPo story, they just tell us what's possible and leave us to draw conclusions ourselves -

“That’s the crux of the matter,” said one industry official who received the briefing. “Whether Kaspersky is working directly for the Russian government or not doesn’t matter; their Internet service providers are subject to monitoring. So virtually anything shared with Kaspersky could become the property of the Russian government.”

Late last month, the National Intelligence Council completed a classified report that it shared with NATO allies concluding that the FSB had “probable access” to Kaspersky customer databases and source code. That access, it concluded, could help enable cyberattacks against U.S. government, commercial and industrial control networks.

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#63

Post by likelynew »

tptacek wrote: post #27

It would be really surprising if Kaspersky survived this.

Yeah, and Israel too in Russia.

I mean what could happen from here. Even if NSA get evidence that their networks were hacked without doubt, which is a hard thing in itself as there are thousands of vectors and even harder is to say that it had been directly done or funded by Kaspersky, they are likely not going to expose themselves in court. Israel has even bigger reason, considering Kaspersky has at least some relation to Russia.

Also, there is evidence that NSA attacked Kaspersky first, which gives them a very good reason to carry out a counter attack to secure themselves.

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#64

Post by paulie_a »

throwaway613834 wrote: post #36
adamnemecek wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good riddance.

What was so bad about Kaspersky that you consider it good riddance? I recall reading about legitimate good security work and breach investigations from them just a few years ago. It's not like anybody forced you to use their software.

I agree on the high quality research etc but personally I dropped Kaspersky products for the same reason as the original Norton Antivirus products, they became obnoxiously loud with unnecessary notifications. Kaspersky ramped up their annoying notifications that I went from recommending it in small corporate environments to not even mentioning it.

Antivirus/antimalware is incredibly important, but it should generally be silent and protect a system.

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#65

Post by theylon »

wallace_f wrote: post #51
rwz wrote: post #45

At this point you just assume that any sufficiently large company based in Russia with capabilities of misusing their power in a way to profit Russian state government will be coerced into doing so or go out of business at some point. Russian thugs have no issues applying pressure till the victim collapses or agrees to cooperate even against their interests. I lived in Russia for 25 years and I saw that happen many t…

Unfortunately, it does happen here as well(1,2). 1- https://theintercept.com/2017/10/10/recordings-capture-bruta... 2- https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/08/lavabit-e... 3- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Heemeyer

If your company is in Russia, China or the US, and the government in that country has any interest in the data you collect, you will have to give it away. In Russia and China they just do it, in the US it's a matter of "National Security". I'm not sure why this would surprise anyone - maybe because most of us are on the side of the latter.

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#67

Post by MichaelMoser123 »

tptacek wrote: post #27

It would be really surprising if Kaspersky survived this.

If he is forced out of the antivirus business then he and his staff could potentially do blackhat stuff. I suspect that everybody would loose from such a development - because a very competent guy he is. (one is supposed to think in terms of capabilities when thinking about security related stuff ;-)

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#68

Post by adamnemecek »

throwaway613834 wrote: post #36
adamnemecek wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good riddance.

What was so bad about Kaspersky that you consider it good riddance? I recall reading about legitimate good security work and breach investigations from them just a few years ago. It's not like anybody forced you to use their software.

The fact that they collaborate with the Russian gov't secret services.

Re: Israel Hacked Kaspersky, Then Tipped NSA Its Tools Had Been Breached

#69

Post by rtpg »

theylon wrote: post #65
wallace_f wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, it does happen here as well(1,2). 1- https://theintercept.com/2017/10/10/recordings-capture-bruta... 2- https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/08/lavabit-e... 3- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Heemeyer

If your company is in Russia, China or the US, and the government in that country has any interest in the data you collect, you will have to give it away. In Russia and China they just do it, in the US it's a matter of "National Security". I'm not sure why this would surprise anyone - maybe because most of us are on the side of the latter.

Russian and China coercion are on a completely different scale, and we all know it. Especially after the Snowden backlash.

Imagine any major Chinese IT company pushing back against government requests like Dreamhost did. Even the biggest ones can't/won't. It helps that the government is a huge investor in most of them, of course.

"Chinese IT company rebuffs government demand for user information on its website". This headline does not exist.

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