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Hackers Acting in Turkey's Interests Believed To Be Behind Recent Cyberattacks (reuters.com) 40

Sweeping cyberattacks targeting governments and other organizations in Europe and the Middle East are believed to be the work of hackers acting in the interests of the Turkish government, Reuters reported Monday, citing three senior Western security officials said. From the report: The hackers have attacked at least 30 organizations, including government ministries, embassies and security services as well as companies and other groups, according to a Reuters review of public internet records. Victims have included Cypriot and Greek government email services and the Iraqi government's national security advisor, the records show. The attacks involve intercepting internet traffic to victim websites, potentially enabling hackers to obtain illicit access to the networks of government bodies and other organizations. According to two British officials and one U.S. official, the activity bears the hallmarks of a state-backed cyber espionage operation conducted to advance Turkish interests. The officials said that conclusion was based on three elements: the identities and locations of the victims, which included governments of countries that are geopolitically significant to Turkey; similarities to previous attacks that they say used infrastructure registered from Turkey; and information contained in confidential intelligence assessments that they declined to detail.
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Hackers Acting in Turkey's Interests Believed To Be Behind Recent Cyberattacks

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  • Turkey has been working with Israel to crack the S-300 AA system (which shot down the passenger jet in Iran) since at least 2009.

    https://www.jpost.com/Defense/... [jpost.com]

    Draw your own conclusions.

    • by hey! ( 33014 ) on Monday January 27, 2020 @04:49PM (#59662026) Homepage Journal

      Except it wasn't an S300 that brought down the flight. It was an SA-15 low altitude surface to air missile.

      Almost the exact same thing happened when the USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655. You had an Iranian strike against a US target (the USS Stark), followed by US reprisals, followed by a tense situation in which US ships expected further tit-for-tat attacks. This skewed expectations so that highly trained US sailors, operating state of the art combat information center, mistook regularly scheduled Airbus A300 flight that was *ascending* as an Iranian F-14 that was *descending*.

      While I don't think we should underestimate the IRGC too much, you can't expect them to outperform US sailors who failed in an almost parallel situation.

      • I've been offline on a beach for like a week and so hadn't seen that it was an SA-15. Sorry for the confusion.

      • Wait a second tho... SA-15 is just the Nato designation for the Tor-M1, which is the older system that was already p0wned in 2009 according to the J-post article. If it really was a SA-15 strike it's much more likely that it was hacked than if it had been an S-300 strike, as that system is still only theoretically cracked.

        • It had been disconnected from their command and control system, and was being operated entirely by the local operator looking at the radar.

          That's why.

          • How long had it been disconnected from CoC? Ten other flights took off and flew the same flight path fine before that one. Why did the plane full of Canadians suddenly startle the guy who hadn't pulled the trigger on the first 10 flights?

        • by hey! ( 33014 )

          It's a pop-up, road mobile missile system. It may be hackable, but you can't deploy the system and and erect it remotely. So if it was hacked, it was the equivalent of remotely pulling a handgun trigger after the guy holding it took it out, chambered around and cocked the hammer. The fact that the gun was ready to fire indicates something about the state of mind of the person holding it.

          So it's a matter of Bayesian belief. Given the missiles were deployed and ready to fire, is it more likely that the U

      • The fact that this event was manufactured to look like the IAF655 shootdown is part of what makes it suspicious. It's great psyops to make the RG look as incompetent as the Americans.

      • Don't forget that the US actually bragged that it was really in control of Iran's AA in june of last year:

        https://www.theguardian.com/wo... [theguardian.com]

        • If you're going to make shit up, maybe it's better not to link to articles that say you're full of shit. Don't mention the date or anything specific and it'll make it harder for people to look up what actually happened.

          What happened was the US briefly made the system inaccessible. Which can be done, to any network-connected system, by simply sending a large amount of connection requests, more than the system can handle. It's a favorite tactic of 13 year old haxors.

  • NATO "allies?" (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Aighearach ( 97333 ) on Monday January 27, 2020 @04:15PM (#59661910)

    Time to kick these clowns to the curb and return Kurdistan to the Kurds, Western Armenia to the Armenians, and Trabzon to Marconia. Unless the Marcones want to be part of Georgia, which might be a reasonable choice, historically.

    • Are you proposing another war? If not then how do suggest carving out a chunk of Turkey for the Kurds?

      • Re:NATO "allies?" (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Monday January 27, 2020 @04:29PM (#59661948)

        Are you proposing another war? If not then how do suggest carving out a chunk of Turkey for the Kurds?

        Safe to say that the Kurds are already fighting that war with Turkey and Syria. Only reason they aren't also fighting that war in Iraq is the Iraqi government gives them at least a somewhat decent level of autonomy. And they were very instrumental in defeating Daesh.

      • All the Kurds need to win the war is political support.

        If you want to understand why, read Anabasis by Xenophon.

    • by gtall ( 79522 )

      You want to return Trabzon to that quaint little village in Italy? That's mighty big of you, I"m sure the Marconians would love owning a piece of Turkey.

      That said, I think NATO is taking the long view. They figure that flea-bitten Erdogan won't be around forever and then Turkey will turn towards Europe. Turkey's alternative is a declining Russia (pop. declines, economy declines, etc.). They fear Iran becoming the reigning power in the mid-East and those crazy Shi'ites won't feel the love for their Sunni Mus

      • by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

        Erdogan and Putin realize they have a limited amount of time to show us how big their egos really are before their countries implode.

        On the contrary, I think both have been able to cement their power/influence in their respective states over the past few years. Erdogan's fake "coup" allowed him to purge academia, the judiciary, and, most importantly for Turkey, the military (the military has been the safeguard of secularism in modern Turkey). As for Russia, well, Putin is basically going to get to rewrite the constitution however he wants, reducing the power of the presidency after he leaves, but designating his successor and ensuring

        • by gtall ( 79522 )

          Those actions by both Erdogan and Putin will further drive their economies into the ditch. They have their feet in cement and cannot come with any agile policies that will reinvigorate their economies. In short, they are using the limited time they have remaining to show us how big their egos are, but those moves won't help their countries. Without a country behind the autocrat, he's just another ego thrashing about.

      • That said, I think NATO is taking the long view. They figure that flea-bitten Erdogan won't be around forever and then Turkey will turn towards Europe.

        Then they'd be wrong, because when Erdogan goes, he'll be replaced with someone like him. Turkey is becoming more Islamic, not less, and that's an inevitable collision course with the increasingly secular West.

        • by gtall ( 79522 )

          Couldn't tell that from the last elections. The Turks are not going to follow Erdogan down the Islamic rathole if it hits them in the pocketbook, as it is now doing.

      • You want to return Trabzon to that quaint little village in Italy?

        You're not comprehending who the people and places I mentioned are.

        There are two easy ways to get the information. Read Anabasis by Xenophon, (370 bce) or just look up the wikipedia page for Trabzon and look for the words.

    • NATO "allies?"

      This is yet but one more example of how NATO long ago outlived its mission, and should be disbanded. Russia isn't the Soviet Union, and while hostile to the West, isn't going to pour tanks through the Fulda Gap. The Russians are no real threat to anyone in NATO but the small Baltic countries, and no one in Paris or Berlin or Rome or Washington DC is going to war with Russia over the Baltics. Sorry, little Baltics.

      So you not only have a defense alliance still preparing for an obsolete threat, you now have me

      • by spun ( 1352 )

        Da, comrade. NATO is for outlive of usefulness, just like democracy. Stronk mans will protect little peoples, never to worrying. Voting makes worry, just let stronk ruler protect weak serfs! Only weak, girly countries need allies to protect. USA not weak, girly country! USA Stronk, Like Russia.

        Maybe we make new NATO, maybe Russia and USA friends now, rule over entire world with iron fist? Think over it yourself comrade. USA and Russia very, very same nowadays, maybe should for join forces? Screw weak rest o

      • No, we have to protect Europe.

        I refuse to listen to words like Woltage and Wariable.

        We will stop this travesty by any means necessary. That's why I support missile defense in Poland.

    • The whole point of Turkey being in NATO is so we can present Russia with two avenues of attack. One from Europe and the other up the Caucasus and Black Sea. You really want to give up an advantage like that? When a Biden presidency very likely means an Iraq style invasion and regime change in Moscow? Seems foolish. Putin is an enemy that we need to get rid of, yesterday.
      • Yes, it stopped being useful either when we removed the nukes from Turkey, or when we started building ICBMs, depending on your perspective.

        And anyways, give Constantinople back to Greece and they'd never get across the Bosphorus in a land war.

        Getting rid of Puttyput is a great idea, but news flash: Turkey isn't going to deliver you that.

        • Sure Turkey can help with that. Wait Trump out, President Biden orders US troop buildup, we execute Operation Barbarossa Part II: Only We Bring Winter Coats This Time. Putin flees to Siberia or gets killed by a drone. Problem solved.
      • by gtall ( 79522 )

        "When a Biden presidency very likely means an Iraq style invasion and regime change in Moscow?" I'll have what he's smoking.

        • Hillary Clinton wanted to declare a no fly zone over Syria, which would have lead to direct conflict with the Russian Air Force. They were ready to pin infrastructure attacks on Russia and use that as pretext for an invasion. Just before inauguration, that armored brigade arrived in Europe. Remember that? "Obama just sent tanks into Poland"? All the Democrats have done since is blame Russia for all their troubles. A Iraq style regime change would fit the bill perfectly. Why's it farfetched?
  • ... and all the accompanying evil that goes with it. Dismayed at how unethical so many people can be. :-(

  • Has anyone who commented read the article? It is so vague that I wonder how they came up with Turkish state as the source of the attacks. Almost all entities denied having been cyber attacked, and intelligence sources declined to comment. I am not a fan of Turkish government but your suggestions of stupid wars look out of subject, and hard to understand. And Kurds?? how did you connect seperatist terrorists to this thing? Did the Iraqi parliament pass a resolution to send all US troops out of Iraq? and wha

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