Hacker News Reader

Comment by zero_iq | Hacker News Reader

Alternative possibility: given the simple, traceable, almost begging-to-be-caught nature of the malware, and that it so easily led researchers to a name and address of a potential author, perhaps its goal is actually to frame someone... to take out a rival hacker, revenge, lulz, ...?

Not saying it's what's actually happening here, but it's something that has crossed my mind before about malware - that it would be comparatively easy to lead one or more false trails to shift blame for whatever reason, and I wonder how many pieces of malware have actually managed to pull this off, and pinned the blame on an obvious target, e.g. Chinese government, "russian hackers", etc.

View on HN

What's to say the Chinese Government didn't infect the machines and use it to pin the blame on someone they wanted neutralized?

Because they don't justification to take someone down. If the Party could take down high ranking Party members like Bo Xilai or massively popular celebs like Fan Bingbing or foreign citizens like that Swedish publisher or a group of people like the million Uighurs, they hardly need an elaborate scheme like this to take someone into custody.

You're overthinking it.

I guess it depends on the image they want to project and the message they want to send. Sometimes there is a political end to a Government's posturing. Sometimes it's more than the end they're looking for, sometimes they need to set the scene first to control the narrative in a way that sells the story they want for their own political gain.

It's the game of wits from Princess Bride. They might want to take someone out, so you can't choose the wine in front of you. But, they must know you know that, so you can't choose the wine in front of them. But they may be trying to protect their image, and if so, you can't choose the wine in front of them either.

I heard recently about the degree of rivalry between Chinese Hacker groups and how some get rid of competition by framing them for attacks. Which is absolutely brutal if you remember some hacking offenses face the death penalty.

That, or the creator is just stupid

Reads to me like someone writing viruses that doesn't know a thing about writing viruses

A person capable of writing even a simple virus is not an idiot. How can you live in China and not be aware how these things work?

> "Reads to me like someone writing viruses that doesn't know a thing about writing viruses"

someone who infected 100,000 machines knows at least 'a thing' about writing viruses

I mean yes, it is a remarkable technical achievement.

To use the analogy of an art thief, this is as if he had simply smashed some glass and made a run for it, without dealing with security systems and whatnot. He might make it out the door, but now the museum has him on video, they have his fingerprints, and they're probably going to get the stolen art back.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com