A Voice Cuts Through, and Adds to, the Intrigue of Russia’s Cyberattacks | Hacker News Reader

A Voice Cuts Through, and Adds to, the Intrigue of Russia’s Cyberattacks

nytimes.com

“Russian hacker” = Colloquial (US): 1. Gremlin; boogeyman; mischievous imaginary troll; 2. A rhetorical device used to misdirect attention from embarrassing acts of political or ethical malfeasance.

Are you implying that the Russian government isn't competent at computer network exploitation as your beloved American NSA is? Are you one of those "American exceptionalists" I keep hearing about?

I thought he implied that blaming Russia for leaking data was in his opinion irrelevant when the leaked data implied that someone at home did something nasty.

I did not feel that he disrespected the ability of the KGB alumni running Russia to do the kinds of things which they were originally trained and paid to do.

I read it as that too. However, it's not irrelevant, it's orthogonal. If someone at home did something nasty, they should be held accountable. That said, Russia engaging in the act of hacking and leaking the data is a major problem in its own right. I agree that we shouldn't let that excuse the actions of Americans, at the same time.

I don't think the parent was implying anything negative about the Russian Government's abilities.

It is however the case that the Russian Government is in fact not as competent or substantial in scope as the NSA at what they do. The NSA is easily the leader at network exploitation globally. It's not remotely a close competition and Russia knows it, which is why Putin railed so heavily against the Internet after the Snowden leaks. The NSA has a true global intelligence scouring capability that Russia could only dream of. Russia has a small fraction of the systems of data vacuuming in place across the globe that the NSA can make use of without any effort (courtesy of countless major nations that feed the NSA, including the other four eyes). In terms of sheer skill, I'd like to see the argument that the best of the NSA are beneath that of the best of any other nation. Based on what Snowden revealed, the NSA was at least ten years out in front of Russia and China in what they were doing.

You're behind the times. "Russian hacker" is depracated for the meaning you cite; all users should migrate to saying "400 pound man on his bed" going forward

"400 pound man" says the exact opposite, actually. "Russian hacker" says focus on the hacker. "400 pound man" says focus on what was leaked.

why aren't we finding and funding squads of 400 lb men to carry out our cyber will?

if Russia and China have squads of state-sponsored hackers, we ought to fight fire with 400 lbs of fire.

400 lbs of FREEDOM you mean!

We have massive national programs to grow all of our male citizens to this size!

Actually, you're right. I admit my above comment was just lighthearted and not so meaningful

>..imaginary..

um, no

A hostile foreign power hacking a government related server containing potential sensitive data and then spewing that data such as to disrupt a US election is vastly more significant than putting that data on the server in the first place.

One casts light on a candidates decision making process, the other is pretty close to an act of war.

Hacking elections is a declaration of war? Then the US should be at war with dozens of countless!

Oh, wait... It is!

While you statement is hyperbole and your logic is Tu Quoque, it's clear the US does some very bad things.

But you can be absolutely certain that anything that Putin is trying to do is absolutely guaranteed to vastly worsen that both inside and outside the country.

If you are going to be throwing out big words, it's not Tu Quoque, it's sarcastic.

The comment wasn't sarcastic at all. It was implying that the US hacks elections and that that is somehow a mitigating factor into how wrong it is for Russia to do it to us.

That's tu quoque. Not sarcasm.

>A hostile foreign power hacking a government related server containing potential sensitive data and then spewing that data such as to disrupt a US election is vastly more significant than putting that data on the server in the first place.

Not when that hostile foreign power hacks the Democrats in an election year. Then they're just doing the world a favor. Allegedly.

There's no indication that Russia is involved. It could just as easily - in fact more easily - be an internal whistle blower.

There are indications, just not ironclad evidence. Unfortunately, there's also a lot of aggressive propagandizing on both sides that makes the subject difficult to discuss objectively.

> “Russian hacker” = Colloquial (US): 1. Gremlin; boogeyman; mischievous imaginary troll; 2. A rhetorical device used to misdirect attention from embarrassing acts of political or ethical malfeasance.

pretty much the definition of "American(meaning 'US') imperialists" in USSR back then and Russia today.

"“If the F.B.I. asks, we are ready to supply the I.P. addresses, the logs,” he said, referring to internet protocols, which identify a particular web page or device."

They should create a GUI interface using visual basic to track this so called "internet protocol" that will identify the perpetrators.

This is bogus. If the US really thinks that Russia did the hack, then it's not because of an originating IP or company in Russia.

The US probably has hacked Russian communications from somewhere else that actually points the finger. However, they would never give that information up.

Either that or they have hacked a huge chain of these proxy operations, but that seems like a tall order.

Most of what I've heard of being used as support for attribution are "fingerprints" left behind on compromised devices. Things like characteristics of how variables were named in interpeted code, how binaries were compiled, specific attack vectors used, etc. I can't recall anyone recently pointing to first-hop originating IPs as being definitive evidence, in this age of cheaply traded botnets.

Code and tools can be bought and sold.

Arms dealers are still implicated into the crimes committed with said arms. Both the CIA and KGB/FSB should know that by now.

>He says he does not know who they are, but that they are certainly not the Russian security agencies.

How that can be possible?

I don't think that's the relevant point here. That's merely his opinion, and being a Russian, certainly he is more willing to give his government the benefit of the doubt.

What's more interesting is that he is willing to work with the FBI and is offering clues into uncovering the hackers, but simply nobody has contacted him or expressed interest in pursuing the hackers.

I've been following the recent FBI Congressional hearings and to be honest, they're either very incompetent or very good at acting incompetent.

Or competence struggles to shine through bureaucracy. I think every one of us has probably experienced this personally, and it's kind of lame to act like it couldn't happen to our govt (which undoubtedly has at least some smart people).

Because it would be silly for nation X to hack nation Y using private servers in nation X. At least route it through A,B,X,C.

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