White House Formally Blames China's Ministry of State Security for Microsoft Exchange Hack (therecord.media) 38
The U.S. and a coalition of allies on Monday formally attributed the sweeping campaign against Microsoft Exchange email servers to hackers affiliated with China's Ministry of State Security. From a report: The group assessed with "high confidence" that Beijing-linked digital operators carried out the attack that ensnared hundreds of thousands of systems worldwide, a senior Biden administration official told reporters on Sunday. In addition, the partners alleged the ministry -- which oversees the civilian arm of Beijing's intelligence gathering operations -- has utilized contract hackers to conduct other malicious cyber activities around the globe, including a ransomware attack on an American company, and other pursuits to line the pockets of MSS officials.
The use of such hired muscle "was really eye-opening and surprising for us," said the official, who was only authorized to speak anonymously. The coalition includes the U.S., the so-called "Five Eye" nations, Japan, the European Union and NATO. Monday's announcement marks the first time the transatlantic alliance has condemned Chinese digital activities, the official said. The massive Exchange hack was first disclosed in March -- at the same time the Biden administration was dealing with the SolarWinds breach that has since been formally attributed to Russia's foreign intelligence service.
The use of such hired muscle "was really eye-opening and surprising for us," said the official, who was only authorized to speak anonymously. The coalition includes the U.S., the so-called "Five Eye" nations, Japan, the European Union and NATO. Monday's announcement marks the first time the transatlantic alliance has condemned Chinese digital activities, the official said. The massive Exchange hack was first disclosed in March -- at the same time the Biden administration was dealing with the SolarWinds breach that has since been formally attributed to Russia's foreign intelligence service.
More sanctions, More sabre rattling (Score:5, Interesting)
Formally accusing China of state sponsored hacking is a step up from the previous policy of everyone knowing it and doing nothing really about it. Next will be sanctions against certain members of the Chinese Military industrial complex, so as to make it harder for when they retire to one of their vacant Toronto properties. China will threaten Taiwan more, sterilize and harvest a few more Uighurs this month, and the world will go on.
Wake me when the world admits China probably released Gain of Function'ed COVID into the world. Might get real then.
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Ignorance is Strength!
Re: More sanctions, More sabre rattling (Score:2)
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"never get involved in a land war in Asia"
Two points for those that correctly identify where it's from.
Back to the original issue, China is about China. Screw everyone else.
I, on the other hand, see strength is diversity. So I have no problems with other countries being good at something, and I routinely buy from them, (though I make an effort to avoid China. Even if it costs more.)
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Vizzini: The Princess Bride
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Yes and we are going to get hear the talking heads tell us what big deal this is because of how Chinese culture will consider the formal accusal as crossing some kind of line.
Yeah guess what that is crap. The CCP understand our culture at least as well as any of diplomatic core understands theirs, probably better. They know in our society a lot of people say a lot of stuff and unless its back with action it means squat. Until someone actually blocks an Chinese import to the tune of substantial $$$ or bombs
Bullet. Dodged. (Score:1)
For a second I thought they were also going to blame Microsoft for their crappy security and software development skills.
Hacking is bad, m'kay. (Score:5, Funny)
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Actually there is a simple fix: Joe can privately tell Xi that if they don't stop backing commercial hackers, Joe will visit Taiwan for week-long tour, giving them implied "Nation" status. Taiwan gets Xi's panties in a bunch like nothing else.
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You mean the same way Putie owns Don?
Re:what happened to "Russia Linked"?? (Score:4, Interesting)
narrative shifting?
I swear, anyone that believes a word that comes out of the mouths of the US administration or US media can't remember the 'credibility gap' from the Vietnam era.
I think you're confused on the attacks, the summary points out that there's more than one thing going on at a time, and to imply that the same people and policies are running things from the "Vietnam Era" is asinine:
The massive Exchange hack was first disclosed in March -- at the same time the Biden administration was dealing with the SolarWinds breach that has since been formally attributed to Russia's foreign intelligence service.
Emphasis for this thread should be placed on "and a coalition of allies". The immediate posters are complaining about how we're not steamrolling them so this doesn't really amount to anything. However, we're playing with others, instead of on our own, and that's a very significant change in foreign policy from the previous administration.
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However, we're playing with others, instead of on our own, and that's a very significant change in foreign policy from the previous administration.
Yes its a return to a bunch of over paid diplomats having public wank sessions while bad actors do whatever the fuck they want to us over and over again, and laugh while we 'talk' about it.
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Yes its a return to a bunch of over paid diplomats having public wank sessions while bad actors do whatever the fuck they want to us over and over again, and laugh while we 'talk' about it.
I'd prefer to think of it as a change away from redistributing a portion of the wealth of Americans ($16 billion or so last year alone?) to the farmers who economically bore the brunt of the tariff tactics of the previous administration. What was TFG doing, if not creating a new version of "Welfare Queen"? Also, super lolz @ "China is paying for it": the tariffs were collected from Americans.
Kick the CCP children out of US colleges (Score:3)
Remove 10000 students a month starting alphabetically. For the hacking and Fentanyl.
Xi will get blasted by his party members.
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Universities would lose lots of revenue and lobby against it. I'm not saying it's a bad move, but does have political and economic consequences.
Plus, fewer Chinese students would have exposure to western political thinking. The vast majority are actual students, not spies.
Mr. Robot (Score:2)
Silly notions (Score:4, Insightful)
I know it's a silly notion now, but back in the day when a specific vendor's product was breached, well, we used to blame and hold the vendor accountable. Many people said you couldn't trust or use "Linux" products or "open source", because, who were you going to "blame" and "hold responsible" for bugs and security breaches? How naive we were back then, for if we knew this in the day when confronting that question, we could have simply said "China" or "Russia" ;)....
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So, you're pining for the days when blaming the victim was all the rage?
The hacks in question aren't "someone forgot and set the S3 bucket permission to 'public'", they're coordinated, sophisticated operations backed by virtually unlimited resources.
Ask and ye shall.... (Score:1)
Instead of blaming ... (Score:3)
Locale (Score:2)
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Saying, "This nation is engaged in acts of war against the United States and our allies, and if they do not stop there will be consequences," is not sinophobic, especially if they are actually engaged in the behaviors they are accused of.
Blame Intel and Microsoft (Score:2)
Biden admin dealing with SolarWinds breach? (Score:1)
Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Ass Off