Cyber Firms Warn on Suspected Russian Plan To Attack Ukraine (reuters.com) 76
Jim Finkle, reporting for Reuters: Cisco Systems on Wednesday warned that hackers have infected at least 500,000 routers and storage devices in dozens of countries with highly sophisticated malicious software, possibly in preparation for another massive cyber attack on Ukraine. Cisco's Talos cyber intelligence unit said it has high confidence that the Russian government is behind the campaign, dubbed VPNFilter, because the hacking software shares code with malware used in previous cyber attacks that the U.S. government has attributed to Moscow. Cisco said the malware could be used for espionage, to interfere with internet communications or launch destructive attacks on Ukraine, which has previously blamed Russia for massive hacks that took out parts of its energy grid and shuttered factories. Head of Ukraine's cyber police said on Wednesday that the agency is aware of new large malware campaign, and that it is working to protect Ukraine against possible new cyber threat.
Duh! (Score:1)
Ya think?
Actually, name one country that they aren't attacking.
Re:Duh! (Score:5, Funny)
Ya think?
Actually, name one country that they aren't attacking.
According to all the people named Ivan that post on Slashdot; Russia is a model democracy, a shining beacon of friendship in the world, and would never consider violating another country's rights on stability. Russia certainly are not cyber attacking any country.
Wait for the correct timezone to hit rushhour Slashdot traffic.
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According to all the people named Ivan that post on Slashdot; Russia is a model democracy, a shining beacon of friendship in the world, and would never consider violating another country's rights on stability. Russia certainly are not cyber attacking any country.
Wait for the correct timezone to hit rushhour Slashdot traffic.
I wish I had known years ago that all I had to do to become Russian was to disagree with someone on the internet.
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Hi Ivan!
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I wish I had known years ago that all I had to do to become Russian was to disagree with someone on the internet.
I'm pretty sure they'd give offer you at least a work visa for that. Citizenship comes after that.
San Marino (Score:3)
I haven't seen any evidence that they are attacking San Marino.
How massive? (Score:3)
So just how much damage was done in those "massive" previous attacks, and how long did it take to restore the power grid and factories? Was it worse than squirrels or a hurricane?
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Re: How massive? (Score:2)
Can you explain why that matters, in terms of the economics of what I should be hysterical about?
Re: (Score:2)
in terms of the economics
Terms of economics are not the only terms out there. If in the USA terrorist organization per year killed as much people as smoking, policy makers would not debate if they should tackle terrorism or smoking first.
Wrong question. (Score:2, Insightful)
If not, let's imply that it's ok to be kicked in the crotch.
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So just how much damage was done in those "massive" previous attacks, and how long did it take to restore the power grid and factories? Was it worse than squirrels or a hurricane?
I have to say: Amazing. The Moscow school of altering, twisting and diminishing facts is pretty good.
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Thank you. A 3 hour outage is run-of-the-mill for for wind storms 2 or three times every winter in my location. Storms regularly cause much longer outages that actually kill people, most recently on the U.S. East Coast this past winter. Money spent on chasing "cyber" (a disgusting use of the term) terrorists would be better spent on tree-trimming.
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He'd give you the shirt of his back.
Black List (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't throw stones inside a glass house. Stuxnet was perpetrated by the USA and Israel. If some other country did the same thing to the USA, it would be counted as an act of war and the USA has stated it would retaliate with any means it sees fit and not limit the response to "cyber" warfare.
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We can put them on Facebook perhaps. That ought to do them in.
Looks good for CISCO (Score:1)
Russia failing to make friends (Score:5, Insightful)
If Russia is trying to convince Ukraine to ally with Russia instead of the European Union, they are going about it in exactly the wrong way.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Russia failing to make friends (Score:5, Informative)
And the US position on Crimea's right to self determination is exactly the opposite of the US position on Kosovo's right to self determination.
It's hardly "Self determination" when Russia buses in a bunch of Russian citizens and gives them the right to vote in the Crimea right before the election. Next you'll tell me the "separatists" in the Donbass just happened to find a bunch of Russian tanks and air defense systems lying around in barns.
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What sort of alternative reality are you living in? The majority of Crimean population are ethnic Russians. The Russian federation did not need to bus anyone to win the referendum there. And this is why neither Ukraine or USA would ever agree to a pieaceful resolution of the Crimean dispute through a internationally recognized referendum because it's simple as 1-2-3-4 that the Crimeans will vote for union with Russia again and again.
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Re: (Score:2, Informative)
And cyberwarfare seems to be a smart way of fighting since it does not
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Re:Russia failing to make friends (Score:4, Insightful)
On the contrary, an ongoing territorial dispute may be the best way to lock Ukraine in a stalemale, the way Cyprus had the EU stalled and like China and Taiwan are today. Russia has been losing allies since the 90s, back then the dividing line ran through Germany now they've lost pretty much all of Eastern Europe from the Baltics in the north to the Slavic countries in the south and the western sphere of influence has been crawling eastwards into ex-Soviet territory. Maybe the country was divided when the unrest started but I think in a few years Russia would be holding the short end of that stick anyway.
A full membership in EU/NATO would put them right at Putin's doorstep. Not just the proximity to Moscow, Ukraine is big both in terms of territory and manpower while Crimea is absolutely essential to Russia's navy. Maybe this will push the people in a pro-western direction but formally this makes Ukraine a hot potato because either you acknowledge their full territory which would make you a party to the conflict or you de facto recognize that Russia has taken it and isn't going to give it back, both of which are politically untenable. Even if it's not a hot conflict it can potentially stall things for decades and if anyone gets too cozy I'm sure the unrest will flare up for reasons "unknown".
I think Putin got all he could reasonably hope for, maybe he was hoping for a massive overreaction so he could send Russian tanks all the way to Kiev to protect the Russian minority but I doubt it as it would have been really messy. The Ukrainian response was also clearly limited to avoid provoking an all-out war with Russia, they certainly could have struck back harder. As for Putin, how many allies does he have left to lose? There's Belarus that he got in his pocket, he's supporting a few whack jobs down in the Middle East but as a military and economic bloc he's pretty lonely unless he gets friendly with China. I think he just wants it to stop before Russia has their own Euromaidan...
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I think it's just how many allies does Putin have left to gain? Russia had nowhere near the reputation that the USSR had as a world power and foil to the USA. Now, after all the SSRs decided to flee, I think Putin sees a greater reputation in being foil to the USA once again and is building up on that, and constructing a sphere of influence based on being the center of anti-US interests once again. They have Belarus, joined up with Iran, playing off Turkish interests to include them and Syria. I'm surprised
Interesting (Score:2)
While Cisco and others are warning the sky is about to fall, I didn't see in the article as to which vendor the routers / storage devices belong to.
Nor any mention of how said malware got there in the first place.
Cisco ? Juniper ? What ?
Don't tell me the digital world is about to end, then leave off the details. :|
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Re:"Head of Ukraine's cyber police" LOL! (Score:4, Informative)
In English, the translation is "Department of cyber police." Serhiy Demedyuk is its head.
In the USA, Douglas Maughan is Director, National Cyber Security Division of the Office of Cyber Security & Communications. Try saying that fast five times.
Re: Confidence level is high! (Score:1)
I see you aren't well versed in the topic of cyber security.
In a field full of abstractions, routing, rerouting, and what not, it isn't very easy to have conclusive proof of anything. All you really have is "this matches the fingerprint of what we have seen before from this group" and "the motivations exist for this group to be the main potential actor".
But keep requiring an impossible burden of proof if it helps sow doubt, Ivan.
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Full technical Talos VPNFilter post (Score:5, Informative)
Ukraine? (Score:2)