Microsoft Catches Russian State Hackers Using IoT Devices To Breach Networks (arstechnica.com) 99
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Hackers working for the Russian government have been using printers, video decoders, and other so-called Internet-of-things devices as a beachhead to penetrate targeted computer networks, Microsoft officials warned on Monday. "These devices became points of ingress from which the actor established a presence on the network and continued looking for further access," officials with the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center wrote in a post. "Once the actor had successfully established access to the network, a simple network scan to look for other insecure devices allowed them to discover and move across the network in search of higher-privileged accounts that would grant access to higher-value data."
Microsoft researchers discovered the attacks in April, when a voice-over-IP phone, an office printer, and a video decoder in multiple customer locations were communicating with servers belonging to "Strontium," a Russian government hacking group better known as Fancy Bear or APT28. In two cases, the passwords for the devices were the easily guessable default ones they shipped with. In the third instance, the device was running an old firmware version with a known vulnerability. While Microsoft officials concluded that Strontium was behind the attacks, they said they weren't able to determine what the group's ultimate objectives were. Microsoft says they have notified the makers of the targeted IoT devices so they can add new protections. "Monday's report also provided IP addresses and scripts organizations can use to detect if they have also been targeted or infected," adds Ars Technica. "Beyond that, Monday's report reminded people that, despite Strontium's above-average hacking abilities, an IoT device is often all it needs to gain access to a targeted network."
Microsoft researchers discovered the attacks in April, when a voice-over-IP phone, an office printer, and a video decoder in multiple customer locations were communicating with servers belonging to "Strontium," a Russian government hacking group better known as Fancy Bear or APT28. In two cases, the passwords for the devices were the easily guessable default ones they shipped with. In the third instance, the device was running an old firmware version with a known vulnerability. While Microsoft officials concluded that Strontium was behind the attacks, they said they weren't able to determine what the group's ultimate objectives were. Microsoft says they have notified the makers of the targeted IoT devices so they can add new protections. "Monday's report also provided IP addresses and scripts organizations can use to detect if they have also been targeted or infected," adds Ars Technica. "Beyond that, Monday's report reminded people that, despite Strontium's above-average hacking abilities, an IoT device is often all it needs to gain access to a targeted network."
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What if I told you that you'd have to be an idiot to allow insecure IOT devices inside access to your home network?
Why... (Score:1)
...does my egg timer need a Token Net connection?
Re:Why... (Score:5, Funny)
How else could the manufacturer monetize your egg eating habits?
Re:Why... (Score:4, Interesting)
...does my egg timer need a Token Net connection?
Because the fundamental usage of your egg timer is to measure a fixed period of time. The designers of your egg timer decided that rather than rely on their inaccurate hardware, they would instead use NTP to query a reliable time source. Thus allowing them to time your eggs with the accuracy of an atomic clock.
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It keeps your egg timer from blinking 12:00.
How do they know they are Russian state hackers? (Score:3, Funny)
Did they set the Russian spy bit in the IP header? The evil bit would be insufficient to determine they were Russian as there are also evil Iranians, North Koreans and Chinese...
Read the Mueller indictment (Score:1, Informative)
Intelligence. Read about those 12 Russians indicted by name for the DNC hack to get a brief idea about how much intelligence they have.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/13/politics/russia-investigation-indictments/index.html
"Defendant VIKTOR BORISOVICH NETYKSHO () was the Russian military officer in command of Unit 26165, located at 20 Komsomolskiy Prospekt, Moscow, Russia. Unit 26165 had primary responsibility for hacking the DCCC and DNC, as well as the email accounts of individuals affiliated
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Fact: Mueller stated that the DOJ policy DID NOT prevent him from indicting Trump
Fact: It is not the job of a persecutor to exonerate an individual, i.e., it is not their job to find someone innocent.
Fact: No indictments on collusion.
Fact: No indictments on obstruction.
Fact: wasted tax payer money for 4+ years
Re:How do they know they are Russian state hackers (Score:5, Informative)
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Americans are doing it too (Score:1)
Re:Americans are doing it too (Score:5, Insightful)
Spying with the knowledge and permission of the rube involved is entirely different.
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The majority probably lack both that knowledge and the understanding of them having given the permission.
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You know, Darwin is still a thing.
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Facebook, Google, Amazon etc are all spying on people and collecting insane amounts of data. They do it with your personal computer, phones and tablets. Aka trojan horses designed to gather as much information as they can about your mind, habits and lifestyle.
Yeah, if you think that what you just equated is equal, you have some fascinating synapses.
So anyhow, good old Slashdot, where deflection and howaboutism is part of some people's jobs.
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Howabout you contribute something outside of trying to make yourself (unsuccessfully) seem smart?
My contribution is pissing people like you off. Dropping to AC just proves you aren't much of a person. Whataboutism is such a silly thing, Using your vapid argument is like me saying - Well a lot of AC's here have severe psychosexual problems, you must also
And that, you poor pathetic waste of natural resources, is how whataboutism works.
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True. But at least they provide a service when doing so AND I can choose to not be spied on by them.
Try again when it's something we buy from Russia that's spying on us, and not if we don't buy it.
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So that explains the one at my work that always flushes prematurely.
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It's a product of space research, now available here on home order television!
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Yeah. So, who gave Microsoft permission to go poking around in their customers networks and IoT devices to find this stuff?
"While we were sniffing around in your network, we found some Russians sniffing around in your network."
Nice PR (Score:3)
Russian Hackers vs Microsoft (Score:3)
Thank God Micorosoft has the technology in place to know when Russian Hackers are at work. [[rolls eyes]]
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> [[rolls eyes]]
A Natural 1! Critical failure! Your eyes fall out.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
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There are laws about that for other things, like food, cars and toys. So why not for things that require a password.
Because then you have to hire/build government department(s) to watch/enforce/prosecute those laws, forever.
It sounds like more (inefficient) expense to this taxpayer.
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Hyperbole is pronounced 'Hy per bo lee'. It's an understandable mistake if you're more literate than your social network.
Told Trump they didn't!!! Didn't happen (Score:1)
https://ru.reuters.com/article... [reuters.com]
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IoT (Score:1)
Who's laughing now? (Score:1)