Russian Ransomware Hackers Worked With Kremlin Spies, UK Says (bloomberg.com) 63
A Russian criminal gang secretly conducted cyberattacks and espionage operations against NATO allies on the orders of the Kremlin's intelligence services, according to the UK's National Crime Agency. From a report: Evil Corp., which includes a man who gained notoriety for driving a Lamborghini luxury sports car, launched the hacks prior to 2019, the NCA said in statement on Tuesday.
The gang has been accused of using malicious software to extort millions of dollars from hundreds of banks and financial institutions in more than 40 countries. In December 2019, the US government sanctioned Evil and accused its alleged leader, Maksim Yakubets, of providing "direct assistance" to the Russian state, including by "acquiring confidential documents." The NCA's statement on Tuesday provides new detail on the work Yakubets and other members allegedly carried out to aid the Kremlin's geopolitical aims. The exact nature of the hacks against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies wasn't immediately clear.
Is it that easy to gain notoriety? (Score:4, Funny)
"gained notoriety for driving a Lamborghini luxury sports car"
Wow, notorious indeed.
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simple, we must drone strike everyone driving a Lamborghini.
Re:Is it that easy to gain notoriety? (Score:5, Funny)
I should be more uncomfortable with this idea, but I'm not.
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Me and my fellow Ferrari owners have no objection. Although we're a bit worried if the AI in the drones can distinguish Italian sports car models or not...
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Full disclosure, I've been having significant difficulty training my AI image detection to distinguish between most makers of supercars.
Also wheelchairs are hard too.
Re: Is it that easy to gain notoriety? (Score:2)
As soon as there's a connection to a three letter agency it makes news. Even more so if the agency is famous for secret agents.
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It's a head fake, all of the really secret stuff has been moved to four-letter agencies
Not really news (Score:3)
The Kremlin has been aggressively using cyber warfare for as long as it's been a thing. Relatively low cost, low risk of blowback, significant effect.
And we let them because ... I dunno.
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That's very funny that you think Russia is ahead of us in "cyber warfare".
And we "let them" because we get a feel of their methods, etc. and they and we both share the information anyway. We share a common enemy, the poor...
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sure vlad, you still pushing Kaspersky Lab tools as well?
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And you know this... how?
Re:Not really news (Score:4, Insightful)
If you want to play that game, presumably the next step is where I tell you I read the news and then you dismiss the news as a giant conspiracy.
I'm not playing that game.
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Because it's in the news and has been investigated by the justice department who had a report on it, even if Trump denies that Russia ever did anything wrong.
Re:Not really news (Score:4, Informative)
>> we let them because ... I dunno
"LockBit was itself targeted earlier this year by a coalition of Western law enforcement agencies. In February, its website was dismantled, and authorities disclosed the identity of its alleged leader. The NCA said on Tuesday that people linked to LockBit were recently arrested in the UK, France and Spain, where nine servers were also seized."
Non-paywall link;
https://archive.ph/zSDKH#selec... [archive.ph]
So what ? (Score:4, Insightful)
We have hackers in the United States that either work with or work FOR the various intelligence agencies also.
This isn't exactly some ground breaking revelation.
In other news, water is wet and grass is green :|
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No, the US doesn't commit these cyber attacks, it's the loosely organized hacker group "Anonymous" which conveniently is untraceable
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No, the US doesn't commit these cyber attacks, it's the loosely organized hacker group "Anonymous" which conveniently is untraceable
Except that apparently it takes its orders from "the Kremlin's intelligence services", according to the UK's National Crime Agency. So although "Anonymous" itself is supposedly untraceable, our clever spooks know exactly who controls it.
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Initially the US was happy for other groups to take the blame for Olympic games though. It's well established now of course.
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Russia is a criminal state, the US is not we still prosecute criminals. not employ them
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Trump is the result of the constant propaganda from fox news, and its effect on people ability to discern truth from fiction
You need to understand that Richard Nixon and his aides wanted to create their own news station [theweek.com] and the result of that was fox news, header by Robert Ailes a former Nixon aide [slashdot.org]
Fox worked contracts that get fox news included in most cable packages [techdirt.com], there by getting their propaganda show into tens of millions of homes while funding their propaganda activities at the same time
So, tens of m
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Whoops, meant tp link:
and the result of that was fox news, headed by Robert Ailes a former Nixon aide [washingtonpost.com]
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We have hackers in the United States that either work with or work FOR the various intelligence agencies also.
This isn't exactly some ground breaking revelation.
In other news, water is wet and grass is green :|
Not ransomware gangs though. I wish people like you would stop thinking of the gang of oligarchs that runs Russia as a goverment, even a corrupt government, and start thinking of them as what they actually are, a ruthless mafia cartel that runs a country. It would clear up a lot of misconceptions that a whole lot of people in the west have about Russia.
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Politically, the goal is to cause chaos. Making some money from it just helps with the budget for chaos making.
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It's not Russia that has an obsession of spying on everyone and everything on the entire planet.
That would be the US. Or did you forget it's in the business of spying even on close allied heads of state?
https://www.reuters.com/articl... [reuters.com]
No, REALLY? (Score:1)
"Russian Ransomware Hackers Worked With Kremlin Spies, UK Says"
From the "No shit, Sherlock" dept.
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No shit, Shostakovich!
No poop, Pushkin!
No duh, Dostoevsky!
Evil Corp (Score:1)
A wholly-owned subsidiary of XiPutin, LLC.
Unsurprising (Score:3)
War is hell.
Not that I’m defending Russia’s actions in any way. Just saying that this is neither surprising or unconventional.
nah they just paid for one of their 'friends' (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: nah they just paid for one of their 'friends' (Score:4, Informative)
Yawn, not really news (Score:4, Interesting)
Wne you get down to it, are not all governments a form of protection racket?
You're describing US and Israel, not Russia (Score:1)
US has killed 4.5 million people and made refugees out of 60 million in just the last two decades. Israel, percentage wise, has killed 3x as many Palestinians since October as Europeans died in the Holocaust.
Whereas Russia has only been responding to US sponsored provocations going back to Afghanistan. If Russia overthrew Mexico in 2014 to set up as a military base on America's border as America did to Ukraine, the US wouldn't try peace for eight years before putting their military foot down.