The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
We hacked a German election software. Exploits on Github. Total disaster. You're welcome. #BTW17 #Election #PCWahl https://t.co/r4jJ94HeHp
— THS (@__ths__) September 7, 2017
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FYI.
– Mysterious Hacker Leaks Emails Of Top US State Department Expert On Russia:
Coming at a “sensitive” moment for US-Russian hacking diplomatic relations, on Friday Foreign Policy reported that emails belonging to a senior US State Department intelligence official involved in Russian affairs have been leaked by a hacker known as “Johnnie Walker.” The official, whose work is focused on Russian domestic affairs and who was described to FT as “probably the top intelligence guy in the entire U.S. government on Russia [who] knows more than anybody about what’s going on there,” is said to have been particularly interested in Russian media and government reshuffling.
The emails which were sourced from a hacked nongovernmental account over a two-year period, were sent to “an unknown number of recipients” and while the leaks were first released on July 10, they did not gain widespread attention until Friday when both FP and Newsweek commented on the hack.
Read moreMysterious Hacker Leaks Emails Of Top US State Department Expert On Russia
– John McAfee: ‘I Can Guarantee You, It Was Not the Russians’:
In case some of you were duped into believing this was evidence that proved Russia hacked the US elections, John McAfee would like to remind you that you’re probably a high tier retard and would believe virtually anything your government told you.
Crazy, but brilliant, John said “if it looks like the Russians did it, then I can guarantee you it was not the Russians.”
Read moreJohn McAfee: ‘I Can Guarantee You, It Was Not the Russians’
– US Officially Accuses Russia Of Hacking Democratic Party, State Election Systems:
After months of speculation whether the US would officially accuse Russia of being responsible for various intrusions and hacks, primarily involving the Democratic party, moments ago we finally got the long-anticipated confirmation when the US named Russia as the actor behind the hacking attempts on political organizations and, more importantly, state election systems and accused Putin of carrying out a wide-ranging campaign to interfere with the 2016 elections, including by hacking the computers of the Democratic National Committee and other political officials.
Read moreAND NOW: US Officially Accuses Russia Of Hacking Democratic Party, State Election Systems
– Bitcoin’s Largest Competitor Hacked: Over $59 Million “Ethers” Stolen In Ongoing Attack:
One month ago, Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase in a sweeping, 2,500-word blog post, took aim at what he called a “stagnant” bitcoin community that he characterized as being outperformed by innovators working on the Ethereum network. In the post, Ehrsam sought to position Ethereum as a possible competitor to bitcoin, indicating his belief that the competing protocol could “blow past bitcoin entirely” (perhaps he was merely peeved at the lack of commission fees Coinbase was generating). In his post, Eshram said: “There is nothing that bitcoin can do which Ethereum can’t. While Ethereum is less battle tested, it is moving faster, has better leadership and has more developer mindshare. First mover advantage is challenging to overcome, but at current pace, it’s conceivable.”
Read moreBitcoin’s Largest Competitor Hacked: Over $59 Million “Ethers” Stolen In Ongoing Attack
https://youtu.be/H3-bQa8DNoQ
COULD GUCCIFER’S DEAL HELP TAKE DOWN HILLARY?
Romanian hacker Guccifer struck a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty in Federal court recently. What does that mean for the FBI’s case on Hillary Clinton? And what information does Guccifer hold that allowed him to strike such a quick agreement?
Here’s Guccifer’s Plea Deal… (PDF)
At least two different sets of sealed documents were filed in the case against Romanian hacker Marcel Lehel Lazar, who goes by the moniker Guccifer.
You can’t make this up: Chinese hackers stole $100 million from the Bangladesh Central Bank’s account at the New York Fed and then laundered it through Philippine casinos.
– Chinese Hackers Break Into NY Fed, Steal $100 Million From Bangladesh Central Bank:
Reports indicate that some of the stolen funds were traced to the Philippines, but given what we know about the “Cyber Axis of Evil,” we can only suspect it was Iranians, Chinese, or the criminal/military mastermind Kim Jong-Un who was behind the scam, but whatever the case, someone, somewhere, hacked into Bangladesh’s central bank on February 5.
According to Reuters, “some of the funds” have been recovered, but the bank didn’t initially say how much or how much was initially stolen. We suppose that theoretically it could have been a rather large sum, as the country has around $26 billion in FX reserves on hand:
But just moments ago we learned from the AFP that the amount lost was around $100 million. “Some of the money was then illegally transferred online to the Philippines and Sri Lanka, a central bank official told AFP on condition of anonymity.”
Read moreChinese Hackers Break Into NY Fed, Steal $100 Million From Bangladesh Central Bank
I’ve said before that I am not a friend of bitcoin.
I do not recommend bitcoin, because it is a virtual currency and once the system goes down all those bitcoins may just go “puff” and disappear in the ether, unlike physical gold and silver.
I also find it kind of suspicious that Bilderberg members are promoting it and that the alternative media is going so (positively) hysterical about it.
However, I may be proven to be completely wrong.
Paul Vernon, also known as Big Vern, is the founder of Cryptsy—the international cyber currency company (bitcoins). More than a year ago, Cryptsy was hacked by the developer of Lucky7Coin. During this time, the company was recovering it’s respect and reputation i.e. paying back money to user’s wallet.
How did the hacker (developer of Lucky7Coin) manage to access Cryptsy and steal bitcoins? The hacker injected Trojan malware into Cryptsy, which helps hackers gain access to the confidential data, allowing the hacker to grab the cyber currencies i.e. bitcoins.
FYI.
– Russian Government Hacked White House Computer System, CNN Reports (ZeroHedge, April 7, 2015):
Update: even the White House appears embarrassed by this “report.” According to Bloomberg, the CNN report that Russia breached the White House computer system is “speculating on the attribution of the activity of concern on the unclassified” White House network that was “disclosed last year,” NSC spokesperson Mark Stroh says.”This report is not referring to a new incident.” Stroh says in e-mail statement.
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A few months ago, Sony used a ridiculous “hacking” publicity stunt to generate some $40 million more in revenues for what would otherwise have been the latest Seth Rogen “comic” flop, in which the film agency blamed North Korea – which has about ten ultramodern 80386 computers in the entire country – for hacking its firewall, a hack which was subsequently revealed to be the result of disgruntled former employee. Fast forward to today, when moments ago CNN reported that Russian hackers which according to left “tell-tale codes and other markers that they believe point to hackers working for the Russian government”, had penetrated the White House computer system.
Read moreRussian Government Hacked White House Computer System, CNN Reports
– ?Anonymous ‘knocks out’ Mossad website over Israel’s Gaza offensive (RT, July 31, 2014):
Hacker group Anonymous has reportedly taken down the website of the Israeli secret service Mossad in protest of Israel’s military incursion in Gaza. The ‘hacktivists’ have already targeted a number of organizations in their mission to stop the “genocide.”
Mossad’s website went offline at around 00:40 GMT and is still down at the time of writing. The Israeli government has yet to make any comment on the supposed hack attack.
Read moreAnonymous ‘knocks out’ Mossad website over Israel’s Gaza offensive
– China summons US envoy over cyber-spying charges, vows retaliation (RT, May 20, 2014):
China has dismissed all US accusations of industrial cyber-espionage against five of its military officials and published proof that Washington is actually stealing data from China. Beijing also summoned the US ambassador for an explanation.
Beijing reacted to Washington’s recent round of industrial espionage accusations by publishing its latest data on US cyber-attacks against China.
China’s National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team Coordination Center of China (NCNERTTCC) reported that during just two months, from March 19 to May 18, the US directly controlled 1.18 million host computers in China using 2,077 Trojan horse networks or botnet servers.
Read moreChina Summons US Envoy Over Cyber-Spying Charges, Vows Retaliation
– Critical crypto bug leaves Linux, hundreds of apps open to eavesdropping (Ars Technica, March 4, 2014):
This GnuTLS bug is worse than the big Apple “goto fail” bug patched last week.
Hundreds of open source packages, including the Red Hat, Ubuntu, and Debian distributions of Linux, are susceptible to attacks that circumvent the most widely used technology to prevent eavesdropping on the Internet, thanks to an extremely critical vulnerability in a widely used cryptographic code library.
The bug in the GnuTLS library makes it trivial for attackers to bypass secure sockets layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protections available on websites that depend on the open source package. Initial estimates included in Internet discussions such as this one indicate that more than 200 different operating systems or applications rely on GnuTLS to implement crucial SSL and TLS operations, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the actual number is much higher. Web applications, e-mail programs, and other code that use the library are vulnerable to exploits that allow attackers monitoring connections to silently decode encrypted traffic passing between end users and servers.
The bug is the result of commands in a section of the GnuTLS code that verify the authenticity of TLS certificates, which are often known simply as X509 certificates. The coding error, which may have been present in the code since 2005, causes critical verification checks to be terminated, drawing ironic parallels to the extremely critical “goto fail” flaw that for months put users of Apple’s iOS and OS X operating systems at risk of surreptitious eavesdropping attacks. Apple developers have since patched the bug.
Read moreCritical Crypto Bug Leaves Linux, Hundreds Of Apps Open To Eavesdropping
The CAN Hacking Tool, or CHT
– This iPhone-Sized Device Can Hack A Car, Researchers Plan To Demonstrate (Forbes, Feb 5, 2014):
Auto makers have long downplayed the threat of hacker attacks on their cars and trucks, arguing that their vehicles’ increasingly-networked systems are protected from rogue wireless intrusion. Now two researchers plan to show that a few minutes alone with a car and a tiny, cheap device can give digital saboteurs all the wireless control they need.
– NSA seeks to build quantum computer that could crack most types of encryption (Washington Post, Jan 2, 2014):
In room-size metal boxes secure against electromagnetic leaks, the National Security Agency is racing to build a computer that could break nearly every kind of encryption used to protect banking, medical, business and government records around the world.
According to documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the effort to build “a cryptologically useful quantum computer” — a machine exponentially faster than classical computers — is part of a $79.7 million research program titled “Penetrating Hard Targets.” Much of the work is hosted under classified contracts at a laboratory in College Park, Md.
“If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics,” said the late Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, widely regarded as the pioneer in quantum computing. The science video blog Vertiasium tries to help make sense of it.
Protesters stand in front of the federal courthouse during the arraignment of Jeremy Hammond in Manhattan on May 14, 2012.
– Feeding the Flame of Revolt (truthdig, Nov 17, 2013):
By Chris Hedges
NEW YORK—I was in federal court here Friday for the sentencing of Jeremy Hammond to 10 years in prison for hacking into the computers of a private security firm that works on behalf of the government, including the Department of Homeland Security, and corporations such as Dow Chemical. In 2011 Hammond, now 28, released to the website WikiLeaks and Rolling Stone and other publications some 3 million emails from the Texas-based company Strategic Forecasting Inc., or Stratfor.
The sentence was one of the longest in U.S. history for hacking and the maximum the judge could impose under a plea agreement in the case. It was wildly disproportionate to the crime—an act of nonviolent civil disobedience that championed the public good by exposing abuses of power by the government and a security firm. But the excessive sentence was the point. The corporate state, rapidly losing credibility and legitimacy, is lashing out like a wounded animal. It is frightened. It feels the heat from a rising flame of revolt. It is especially afraid of those such as Hammond who have the technical skills to break down electronic walls and expose the corrupt workings of power.
Read morePulitzer Prize Journalist Chris Hedges: Feeding The Flame Of Revolt
See also:
– Linus Torvalds Talks Linux Development at LinuxCon (eWeek, Sep 18, 2013):
NSA Backdoor
Torvalds was also asked if he had ever been approached by the U.S. government to insert a backdoor into Linux. Torvalds responded “no” while nodding his head “yes,” as the audience broke into spontaneous laughter.
– Who rooted kernel.org servers two years ago, how did it happen, and why? (Ars Technica, Sep 24, 2013):
Maintainers of Linux still haven’t delivered promised autopsy of serious breach.
More than two years after unknown hackers gained unfettered access over multiple computers used to maintain and distribute the Linux operating system kernel, officials still haven’t released a promised autopsy about what happened.
The compromise, which began no later than August 12, 2011, wasn’t detected for at least 16 days, a public e-mail and interviews immediately following the intrusion revealed. During that time, attackers were able to monitor the activities of anyone using the kernel.org servers known as Hera and Odin1, as well as personal computers belonging to senior Linux developer H. Peter Anvin. The self-injecting rootkit known as Phalanx had access to a wealth of sensitive data, possibly including private keys used to sign and decrypt e-mails and remotely log in to servers. A follow-up advisory a few weeks later opened the possibility that still other developers may have fallen prey to the attackers.
Read moreLinux – Who Rooted Kernel.org Servers Two Years Ago, How Did It Happen, And Why?
– Syrian Electronic Army Hacks “Marines.com”; Calls Them “Brothers” In Arms (ZeroHedge, Sep 2, 2013):
Following President Obama’s decision to pass the blame buck to Congress (and its oh-so-great track record of making decisions), the Syrian Electronic Army has struck again. This time right at the heart of the matter – defacing the “Marines.com” website. As The Independent reports, the US Marines received a message calling for support from their “brothers, the Syrian army soldiers” – in the form of a web attack changing the homepage of the official Marines recruitment site to a page entitled ““Hacked by SEA.” The message also stated, “Obama is a traitor who wants to put your lives in danger to rescue al-Qaida insurgents,” which seems to fit with many of their perspectives as we have noted previously.
Full text and screenshot below…
Full text:
“This is a message written by your brothers in the Syrian Army, who have been fighting al-Qaida for the last 3 years. We understand your patriotism and love for your country so please understand our love for ours. Obama is a traitor who wants to put your lives in danger to rescue al- Qaida insurgents.
Marines, please take a look at what your comrades think about Obama’s alliance with al-Qaida against Syria. Your officer in charge probably has no qualms about sending you to die against soldiers just like you, fighting a vile common enemy. The Syrian army should be your ally not your enemy.
– Former NSA Head, Michael Hayden, Aggressively Attacks the Entire Hacking Community (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Aug 8, 2013):
There’s an interesting trend happening in America today. A trend characterized by old, authoritarian, formerly “highly respected” figures in society becoming so confused and concerned that the zeitgeist of the nation is moving away from them, that they are overcome by dementia and publicly lash out like spoiled children in increasingly irrational manner. Two of my favorite examples of such behavior are Senator John McCain and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Now we can add another character to the list, former CIA and NSA head Michael Hayden.
Amongst other things, here is what he said about Snowden supporters:
Nihilists, anarchists, activists, Lulzsec, Anonymous, twenty-somethings who haven’t talked to the opposite sex in five or six years.
First of all, this is a typical response from a person who cannot win an argument. Appeal to emotion or engage in bizarre personal attacks. We saw Chris Christie desperately do this the other day when he attacked libertarians for “thinking,” in a pathetic attempt to create some perverted neocon buzz about himself ahead of 2016. However, even more hilariously, here is a picture of Michael Hayden.
– Monsanto website downed as Anonymous claims hack (RT, MAy 30, 2013):
Hackers from the Anonymous collective claimed to have infiltrated the website for the biotech giant Monsanto, which has been the subject of recent international protests.
The cyber-attack was carried out as part of #OpMonsanto, an attempt to demonstrate against Monsanto’s reach into every aspect of the food industry, from nature to farmers to consumers. The corporation’s main website, Monstanto.com, appeared to have been briefly disabled Wednesday night.
Read more#OpMonsanto: Monsanto Website Downed As Anonymous Claims Hack
– A list of the U.S. weapons designs and technologies compromised by hackers (Washington Post, May 28, 2013):
Weapon designs and technologies compromised
The following is reproduced from the nonpublic version of the Defense Science Board report “Resilient Military Systems and the Advanced Cyber Threat”:
Table 2.2 Expanded partial list of DoD system designs and technologies compromised via cyber exploitation
SYSTEM DESIGNS
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense
Patriot Advanced Capability-3
Extended Area Protection and Survivability System (EAPS)
F-35
V-22
C-17
Read moreHere Is The Very Long List Of U.S. Weapons Designs And Technologies Compromised By Hackers
Update:
– Here Is The Very Long List Of U.S. Weapons Designs And Technologies Compromised By Chinese Hackers
Chinese hackers have allegedly compromised the designs of top weapons systems, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, The Washington Post reports. This photo from Northrop Grumman Corp., shows a pre-production model of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
– Confidential report lists U.S. weapons system designs compromised by Chinese cyberspies (Washington Post, May 28, 2013):
Designs for many of the nation’s most sensitive advanced weapons systems have been compromised by Chinese hackers, according to a report prepared for the Pentagon and to officials from government and the defense industry.Among more than two dozen major weapons systems whose designs were breached were programs critical to U.S. missile defenses and combat aircraft and ships, according to a previously undisclosed section of a confidential report prepared for Pentagon leaders by the Defense Science Board.
– Anonymous Hacked Bank of America (Vice, Feb 28, 2013):
You’ve probably already heard of Anonymous, the world’s most infamous group of cybertrolling hacktivists. They frequently make headlines for crashing websites and looting corporate and government servers. Usually these hacktivists come together in defense of others, such as Julian Assange, the people of Gaza, victims of police brutality, or even victims of rape. But now, Anonymous has turned its eyes on a personal rival. This enemy has its own cybersquad of secret spies who, according to Anonymous, spend the majority of their time in chat rooms collecting intelligence about them. With this latest release of stolen data, Anonymous has just pulled back the curtain on their foe: the Bank of America.
On February 25 @AnonymousIRC, an Anonymous Twitter account with over 280,000 followers, began posting “teasers” about a massive Bank of America data leak. The first post declared, “If you spy on us, we spy on you.” What followed was 14 gigabytes of private emails, spreadsheets, and a “text analysis and data mining” program called OneCalais. The emails in the release originated from “Cyber Threat Intelligence Analysts” who identified themselves as employees of a company called TEKsystems. The TEKsystems website appears to be nothing more than a staffing agency and seems wholesome enough. There’s definitely nothing that screams “we are cyberspies!” It’s safe to assume these analysts were hired by Bank of America, regardless of their TEKsystems titles, because according to the leaked emails that Anonymous released, each of them were using @bankofamerica.com email addresses while filing their reports.
