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back to article #Shadowbrokers hack could be Russia's DNC counter-threat to NSA

One of the most interesting hacks in recent memory is almost certain to be a compromise of infrastructure operated by an ultra-elite hacking group thought to be the United States' National Security Agency. The breach involves the public release of more than 300 files that showcase a host of exploits against companies including …

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  1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    So this is 'Cold War 4.0' (or something along those lines anyway)? Could be, could be ... certainly feels that way.

    And as with the old school cold war operations it will be difficult-to-impossible to sort out what is information, what is disinformation, what is real, what is a ruse, what is a false flag operation and what isn't, and so on.

    Interesting entertainment when watched from the sidelines - only there really aren't sidelines anymore.

    8 0 Reply
    1. ecofeco Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Yep. Here we go again.

      3 0 Reply
  2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Holmes

    A long and hot cybersummer

    I'm rather confused by all of this.

    This assumes that the DNC hack was actually P.U.T.I.N.?

    I would like to know more about the "suddenly shot dead" DNC staffer.

    And the George Soros hack.

    Now that the dirt digging on Melanie Trump seems to haved fizzled out, I need to restock my array of strong emotions....

    2 0 Reply
    1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: A long and hot cybersummer

      Explain why the DNC hack couldn't have been as simple as Russia buying a staffer for access (or a direct data dump) and then disposing of them? Seems an entry level exercise for the FSB. *shrug*

      You and I will never know the truth, and I am sure it is stranger than fiction...

      3 0 Reply
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    The press is already misinterpreting this

    I've seen headlines suggesting that Russia hacked the NSA as a warning shot against the US retaliating for the DNC hacks. Where's that shaking head emoticon when I need it?

    2 0 Reply
    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: The press is already misinterpreting this

      Gimp!

      0 0 Reply
    2. MacroRodent
      Reply Icon
      Happy

      OT: emojis as icons (Re: The press is already misinterpreting this)

      Where's that shaking head emoticon when I need it?

      It would in fact be a neat extension, if The Register allowed one to insert any emoji character as the forum posting icon, which would then be blown up to the usual icon size.

      0 0 Reply
  4. RIBrsiq
    Black Helicopters

    So... we're sure that it's not the NSA deliberately leaking a subset of obsolete tools to create deniability?

    Assuming we're sure it has anything to do with the NSA in the first place, that is!!

    6 0 Reply
    1. phuzz Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Denialbility for what? From the file dates it looks like this hack is three years old, and I don't see any possible upside for the NSA.

      As for anyone else, well I can see the arguments for it being Russia, but it could be another government (probably not five eyes though), and it's still possible that it is a random hacking crew (less likely to my mind).

      1 0 Reply
      1. RIBrsiq
        Reply Icon

        >> [Deniability] for what?

        Suppose someone the NSA are not supposed to mess with was messed with using one of these tools/vulnerabilities during the period this compromise of their systems is supposed to have taken place. Further, suppose that this messing is about to be exposed -- or even has already been exposed, in less public circles. Do you still not see the deniability this #Shadowbrokers business creates?

        0 0 Reply
    2. Mark 65
      Reply Icon

      I'm not sure you get deniability from linking a C&C server to yourselves and, by extension, any hacking undertaken using it. Unless of course you are implying a spy novel like double bluff whereby they did do shit, and it was recently, and it was from this server, so they now want to make it look like it was hacked in 2013 so that there's doubt said activity was really done by them and not the Russians doing it and trying to make it look like them?

      I need some paper and crayons at this stage.

      0 0 Reply
  5. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Need to Know Stuff and Sensitive Compartmented Information for Sublime IntelAIgent Services

    And what of GCHQ/MI5/MI6 ESPecial Forces and CyberIntelAIgent Divisions?

    Are they so terribly quiet because they are so far behind the PostMODern MkUltra curve, or stuck in a deep sucking rut right in the middle of all of the reaction, or way out in a remote virtual front anonymously leading the fray with some stealthy sterling Stirling type proaction.

    One does have to ask though ........ Whatever are you playing at whenever there is so little real live effect? Is there no Greater IntelAIgent Game MasterPlan to be BroadBandCast?

    4 1 Reply
    1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Need to Know Stuff and Sensitive Compartmented Information for Sublime IntelAIgent Services

      Spookily enough, I came across this, .... James Bond delusion: Britain’s military power an illusion made from myth, says scholar..... very soon after I posted the above questions, and it would appear to offer an answer which may be all too uncomfortably true nowadays, and that is definitely all due when true to a definite lack of serial leadership in virtually every specialised compartment where novel and noble leadership is required.

      Time for some new blood and guts/brains and ideas, gentlemen, medefinitelythinks, for these crazy new spaces/mined hearts and mastered minds fields.

      3 1 Reply
  6. Mark 65

    OpSec

    The former NSA analyst explains that the agency may have cycled servers used in offensive operations after he fled out of caution, an act that would have cut off any attacker with a foothold in command and control boxes.

    I'd have thought you'd try to regularly cycle through those for exactly this reason, unless of course you're convinced of your own invincibility so much that you believe "it couldn't happen to me".

    0 0 Reply
    1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: OpSec

      Hi, Mark 65,

      With particular and peculiar regard to .... "I'd have thought you'd try to regularly cycle through those for exactly this reason, unless of course you're convinced of your own invincibility so much that you believe "it couldn't happen to me"." ....... it is not convincing invincibility which provides all pathways into any and all elite executive operating systems/SCADA Command and Control centres/Global Command Head Quarters.

      And there is no end to the provision available because of the latter former identified by Albert Einstein ....... "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

      And that is an abiding systemic weakness which never stops giving whatever IntelAIgents wants ‽ .

      0 1 Reply

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