Russian state sponsored actors targeting network infrastructure devices | Hacker News Reader

Russian state sponsored actors targeting network infrastructure devices

us-cert.gov

24 pointswglb12 comments

This is just a general security advisory on possible attack vectors, there's nothing specific to Russia in that report. Seems like they just threw the word "Russian" in there just because...

There's nothing pertaining to any specific instances. Just common sense security.

These are my thoughts exactly. In fact, nothing exclusive to Russia is mentioned in that article at all. It describes old known attack vectors that can be exploited by China as much as Russia, or any other bad actor for that matter. Very strange that the word "Russia" is mentioned without substance so many times throughout the article.

Perhaps they wanted it to be taken seriously, a reference to Russia seems like one of the more effective approaches to instill fear and gain trustworthiness.

Instilling fear is a poor way to gain trustworthiness.

Well, it is about time we got some diversity in the world of actors, it wasn't that long ago when all actors targeting network infrastructure devices seemed to come from a host of well-known three-letter agencies. Finally globalisation has arrived on our home routers and printers.

How can you even know "where" an attack is truly coming from anymore? Would be trivial to make it "look" like any nation was behind an attack, would it not?

One way is if you have embedded agents and they are specifically getting instructions.

see the analysis of guccifer 2 and the dnc hack. i don't think there's a substitute for old-fashioned detective work. and luck of course.

Seems like hunting hackers is a lot like hunting witches.

What is considered as evidence/proof is extremely superficial and can easily be faked.

The convenient enemy of the day is the one who gets blamed, whether or not they actually had anything to do with it.

Cold War 2.0, with all the bullshit that comes with it. Having lived through the insanity of constant hyped up threat of nuclear attack the last time around, I really think we should do what we can to avoid it this time. It wasn't a pleasant way to grow up.

Having grown up in the West my schools, media, and government worked very hard to paint a specific picture of life in the USSR. Now, knowing many Russians, I understand that the picture was in many ways different and more nuanced.

The last few years I have seen a steady increase in general hysteria creation against Russia and Putin. Not that Putin isn't a despot, just that level of threat he and Russia represent is just seriously overblown, and their motives are grossly misrepresented.

Looks like the War on Terror isn't generating the financial returns those in power had hoped for, so we need to go back to that good old standby - the red menace.

The quickest way to put all this shit to bed is to build a framework that completely outlaws profiting from war in any way.

> their motives are grossly misrepresented

Can you please elaborate on their motives?

well Shodan paints a disappointing picture.

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