A diatom - this has nothing to do with the Russian hack
About a week ago, reports of a Russian hack appeared (discussed here). The Russians hacked both US government agencies and the top level security company FireEye. The scope of the hack is becoming clearer. This one was a whopper. Russian dictator and president for life Putin cynically speculated that rogue Russian patriots must have done it because his government would never do such dastardly deeds.
Yeah, righ. And I saw a big flock of flying pigs yesterday. Honest. Meanwhile, the president remains rightly focused on subverting the election using a novel crackpot ploy called idiocy. That effort is paying handsome rewards as money flows into the president's pockets.
The scope of a hack engineered by one of Russia’s premier intelligence agencies became clearer on Monday, when some Trump administration officials acknowledged that other federal agencies — the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and parts of the Pentagon — had been compromised. Investigators were struggling to determine the extent to which the military, intelligence community and nuclear laboratories were affected by the highly sophisticated attack.
United States officials did not detect the attack until recent weeks, and then only when a private cybersecurity firm, FireEye, alerted American intelligence that the hackers had evaded layers of defenses.
It was evident that the Treasury and Commerce Departments, the first agencies reported to be breached, were only part of a far larger operation whose sophistication stunned even experts who have been following a quarter-century of Russian hacks on the Pentagon and American civilian agencies.
About 18,000 private and government users downloaded a Russian tainted software update — a Trojan horse of sorts — that gave its hackers a foothold into victims’ systems, according to SolarWinds, the company whose software was compromised.
The National Security Agency — the premier U.S. intelligence organization that both hacks into foreign networks and defends national security agencies from attacks — apparently did not know of the breach in the network-monitoring software made by SolarWinds until it was notified last week by FireEye. The N.S.A. itself uses SolarWinds software.
A government official, who requested anonymity to speak about the investigation, made clear that the Homeland Security Department, which is charged with securing civilian government agencies and the private sector, was itself a victim of the complex attack. But the department, which often urges companies to come clean to their customers when their systems are victims of successful attacks, issued an obfuscating official statement that said only: “The Department of Homeland Security is aware of reports of a breach. We are currently investigating the matter.”
Ah, yes, the good old tried and true "mistakes were made" defense by the DHS. People are reassured for sure. No doubt.
Did I mention that the president remains focused on subverting the election? Well, he is. That's where his only concern lies. Ditto for our incompetent nincompoop, radical right GOP.
Anyway, US experts are now trying to assess who got information stolen, how much and what it was. For some US agencies, this was a repeat performance. For example, this was the second time in recent years that Russian intelligence agencies had hacked the State Department.[1]
Those Russkis are sneaky. You let your guard down and the next thing you know they're rummaging through your porn stash and your instagram posts of your junk to your underage girlfriend. Those playful Russki elves. (sorry elves, no disrespect intended)
An expert at FireEye commented: “We think the number who were actually compromised were in the dozens. But they were all the highest-value targets.” That is reassuring by golly. Only the highest value targets were ripped off. Wonderful.
Footnote:
1. Radical right cabinet member, Mike (the Christian Crusading Crook) Pompeo, commented to the hard hitting far right propaganda and lies source Breitbart Radio Propaganda Services, Ltd. that there had “been a consistent effort of the Russians to try and get into American servers, not only those of government agencies, but of businesses. We see this even more strongly from the Chinese Communist Party, from the North Koreans, as well.” As the NYT wryly pointed out (fact check alert), it is the Russkis who have been the most effective hackers, not the Chinese or North Koreans. Good 'ole pompous Pompeo. He's the polydactyl porcine promulgator of prevarication, peroxide 'n poison, and the foremost nincompoop in the federal government. Huzzah!! We've just been lied to. Again.
Another diatom
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