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Microsoft Security Bug Democrats Operating Systems Privacy United States Windows

Microsoft Says Russia-Linked Hackers Are Exploiting Newly Discovered Flaw In Windows OS (reuters.com) 111

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday that a hacking group previously linked to the Russian government and U.S. political hacks is behind recent cyber attacks that exploit a newly discovered flaw in its Windows operating system. Microsoft said that a patch to defend Windows users against this sort of attack will be released on Nov. 8. The software maker said in an advisory on its website there had been a small number of attacks using "spear phishing" emails from a hacking group known Strontium, which is more widely known as "Fancy Bear" or APT 28. A U.S. intelligence expert on Russian cyber activity said that Fancy Bear primarily works for or on behalf of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, which U.S. intelligence officials have concluded were responsible for hacks of Democratic Party databases and emails. Microsoft said the attacks exploited a vulnerability in Adobe Systems Inc's Flash software and one in the Windows operating system. Adobe released a patch for that vulnerability on Monday as security researchers with Google went public with details on the attack.
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Microsoft Says Russia-Linked Hackers Are Exploiting Newly Discovered Flaw In Windows OS

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  • I know that's a crazy idea, but why wait? Get that shit fixed!
    • by darkain ( 749283 )

      Welcome to "Patch Tuesday" syndrome, horribly amplified by the fact they're now doing a unified single update per month of everything all rolled up into one. You get an all-or-nothing patching system, regardless of how much it fucks up your computer in the process!

    • Microsoft makes more money if defects are found in Windows. The defects make people and organizations feel it is necessary to buy a newer version.

      Microsoft management apparently thinks, "Why release good software when defects make money?"

      There should be government regulations preventing abuse of computer software customers. We shouldn't be forced to install all fixes offered, for example.

      We need an open-source operating system that can run all Windows software. (Using Linux requires re-training eve
    • by zlives ( 2009072 )

      Nov. 8th: because only after all efforts to manipulate elections have been completed.

    • Some people like to test their fixes a bit before releasing them to production systems.

    • by epyT-R ( 613989 )

      Why are these hosts even on the public network in the first place?

  • Zee Germans! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by geek ( 5680 ) on Tuesday November 01, 2016 @05:06PM (#53194993)

    Is it just me or is everything linked to fucking Russians these days? Reminds of of the old chant "Zee Germans are coming!"

    • People are getting bored with ISIS this and that so now back to the 60's with Zee Commies!
    • by amiga3D ( 567632 )

      It's always someone. It seems we've always been at war with East Asia.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Possibly in part because Russia threatens (And regularly delivers) to expose the widespread computer illiteracy of American officials.

    • ZOMG, dang ruskies!!!

      Seriously, while it may be them, doesn't it seem that ALL flaws recently point to them exploiting. Heck, I would not be surprised if someone in China OR the NSA is saying "Watch this, we can make them think the Russians did it".

    • by Anonymous Coward

      What do you mean "everything"? It's always the same damn thing. Do you mean you hear the word "Russia" a lot? Blame dumbass Trump.

    • It's called propaganda. The people are becoming too uppity on both sides of the aisle. Time to remind America why they need Washington.

    • by bongey ( 974911 )

      No just BeauHD shilling for Hillary on ./. His twitter feed, "Trump is a saggy sack of shit. If any one of you is even remotely considering voting for him this November, please unfollow me. "
      Fucks sakes he posted a Trump bashing tech article the other day from SLATE, WTF?

    • by bongey ( 974911 )

      More from Hillary Shill BeauHD "That sack of shit next to Hillary is attracting flies! #debate"
      "Clinton wiped the floor with Trump tonight. Say hello to your next president, America!"
      " It's only a story because it has the 'Trump' buzzword. Stupid media is stupid."
      "I bet Trump hired the climber for publicity."

    • You can bring in more Africans and Indians if you so wish, though it looks like Orientals are no longer so willing to come to the USA. I wonder why? Maybe something Made in China reason? Or scared of finding people angry because the abandoned the Nintendo DS platform at the height of its capabilities? Who knows.
    • by Agripa ( 139780 )

      We have always been at war with Eastasia.

  • by freeze128 ( 544774 ) on Tuesday November 01, 2016 @05:13PM (#53195049)
    Should I be angry at Adobe for having a crappy flash API, or should I be angry at Microsoft for providing Adobe Flash BY DEFAULT in Windows 10?
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Time for MS to follow firefoxs lead. Click to view flash.

      • by Rakarra ( 112805 )

        Time for MS to follow firefoxs lead. Click to view flash.

        But the problem is that no one is going to click to view a flash ad. Or click to view a flash tracking cookie.

    • You should blame Donald Trump for hiring the Russians to do that using his secret server that connects directly to the Russian bank that something or other.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    ...how 'bout "FIX YOUR SHIT" instead doing press and/or blaming the russians for everything from hairloss to sunspots?!

  • Like librussia.so?

  • Russia's military intelligence agency, which U.S. intelligence officials have concluded were responsible for hacks of Democratic Party databases and emails.

    Which intelligence agencies would those be? Because the FBI has specifically denied [cnn.com] this. Of course you could just be shilling for Hillary the liar.

    • I've heard it wasn't Russians at all, but US Intel agencies that leaked it, because they (the low level agents) hated the idea of Clinton Presidency, especially once they saw the writing on the wall about the Comey investigation not going after Clinton.

      Granted, that is speculation and unnamed sources. But that seems to be all that is needed these days.

      • Granted, that is speculation and unnamed sources. But that seems to be all that is needed these days.

        You mean your comment? Yes, that would make sense. But the fact that Russians love Trump for some weird reason [bbc.com] is well known.

      • by Nehmo ( 757404 )

        I've heard it wasn't Russians at all, but US Intel agencies that leaked it, because they (the low level agents) hated the idea of Clinton Presidency, especially once they saw the writing on the wall about the Comey investigation not going after Clinton.

        Granted, that is speculation and unnamed sources. But that seems to be all that is needed these days.

        I don't know who it was that revealed those emails to the American public. It could have been DNC's Director of Voter Expansion Data, Seth Rich http://www.newsweek.com/seth-r... [newsweek.com] . Whoever-it-was did us a service. And whoever-it-was doesn't really matter. What matters is the content.

  • 2016 (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    2016 cant be over if russians arent also blamed for global warming and erectile disfunction

  • Patch Tuesday. In more ways that one.

  • NOV 8 to late for the windows based voteing systems.

  • Hire some really great staff again and fix your OS.
    Its not that hard, a few US universities still turn out the best graduates every year. The very best in the world.
    They have the skills to make Microsoft products secure again.
    What are we seeing in this report?
    "A U.S. intelligence expert on Russian cyber activity " seems to have easy and constant press access.
    The "tell' is the lack of internal security on the part of the "U.S. intelligence expert" and been allowed to rush to tell the media.
    If this
  • Reading the story it does sound like M$ are blaming Russia for their shitty work. M$ did not do a good job and as a result the product is bad. Nothing new there. A hacking group exploited the bad code. Nothing new there. For no valid reason they are linked to Russia. This is just propaganda. Of course Russia uses hackers whereas the US has whole divisions of in house hackers. The US is still the number one cyber terrorist and Russia has much less interest in the US than the US imagines. The US want

  • by Revek ( 133289 )

    Same shit different day.

  • Is this why Microsoft and Hillary are so flawed ?

    I always knew Donald Trump approved of making Windows worse, and now he is using Putin to do it !!
  • The last dump from the shadow brokers contained the servers the NSA uses to hack others, it included compromised Russian servers (Mustafa Al-Bassam tweet) [twitter.com].

  • If a major world power were to go to war with another, what is a multinationals responsibility? Especially if one of those nations demand access to their resources. In this instance, Microsoft was initially a American company. And they have been known to work with American agencies in the past. But they also market to Russia. Really, the question would apply to Wal-mart or any other company that has large databases.

There is no opinion so absurd that some philosopher will not express it. -- Marcus Tullius Cicero, "Ad familiares"

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