CIA Co-Developed 'Athena' Windows Malware With US Cyber Security Company, WikiLeaks Reveals (bleepingcomputer.com) 108
An anonymous reader writes: Today, WikiLeaks leaked documentation about a tool called Athena. According to leaked documents, which WikiLeaks previously claimed it received from hackers and CIA insiders, Athena is an implant -- a CIA technical term for "malware" -- that can target and infect any Windows system, from Windows XP to Windows 10, Microsoft's latest OS version. Documents leaked today are dated between September 2015 and February 2016, showing that the CIA had the ability to hack Windows 10 months after its launch, despite Microsoft boasting about how hard it would be to hack its new OS. [...] The documents reveal that CIA had received help from a non-government contractor in developing the malware. The company is Siege Technologies, a cyber-security company based in New Hampshire, which was acquired on November 15, 2016, by Nehemiah Security, another US company, based in Tysons, Virginia, on the outskirts of Washington and near CIA's headquarters, in a zone peppered with various military and defense contractors.
CIA Fronts (Score:5, Insightful)
"Siege Technologies, a cyber-security company based in New Hampshire, which was acquired on November 15, 2016, by Nehemiah Security, another US company, based in Tysons, Virginia, on the outskirts of Washington and near CIA's headquarters, in a zone peppered with various military and defense contractors."
Many of which are CIA front companies. Essentially the CIA contracts with companies it controls moving the money away from any elected meddling - aka oversight. The money is then used to fund "special projects" that don't need to be reported to anyone.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
And many of these TLA front-companies turn a profit which goes straight into the TLA's off-record 'black fund' which has no controls or oversight. We're talking billions here. Whistleblowers and journalists who have tried to expose it have been killed.
Re: (Score:2)
But they don't have sovereign immunity do they?
Anybody who got hit by this toolkit now has a lawsuit against the company that developed it. Even if the code had escaped into the wild.
No doubt there is no money there to recover, but it can embarrass the fuck out of the CIA, so settlements are likely, provided the settlement remains lower than the total cost of wetwork (CIA would have to include a 'risk cost', related to how public the person/shyster was).
Re: (Score:1)
but it can embarrass the fuck out of the CIA
It's been done hundreds of times, but c'mon... How do you 'embarrass' or shame a psychopath? They laugh at the outrage. *They fart in our general direction* And minuscule 'settlements' are already factored in, under petty cash. And if something goes wrong, tank the economy and/or start a war to divert attention. Works every single time. Like, right now...
Re: (Score:2)
This is why I only run Multics.
Expect the foreign lawsuits to start soon (Score:1)
Expect non-US victims whose countries allow it to sue these companies and their officers in local courts.
Of course, there won't be any trial and they won't be able to collect any judgements, but the officers may find themselves unable to travel to those countries without risking being hit with a subpoena or possibly worse.
If "successful" in restricting travel, it may deter other US companies from cooperating with the CIA or buying companies that have cooperated with the CIA in the past.
Re: (Score:1)
>having these tools available doesn't prima facie mean they will be used unlawfully.
but it does though
operation mockingbird (Score:1)
has infiltrated and mind controlled the shit out of you, look it up
Re:Cool (Score:4, Insightful)
I've seen firsthand the enemy your talking about, and the great majority of them that *I* came into contact with could not even read their own language, let alone operate sophisticated computer systems. While I'm sure there are upper echelons that DO leverage technology in a way that would justify tools such as these, I doubt they are rocking Samsung smart TVs, ordering takeout on the latest iphone, or operating stable and reliably connected windows based personal computers.
Your argument has been employed in the defense of terrible weapons and processes for centuries. Sometimes, it's correct as much as it's ugly. Other times, it's just mouth frothing for more powers/power/abilities, and justification for the boot that grinds.
The ability to (maybe) compromise the enemy commanders smartphone via the mobileapps he's using, or own his smart TV for surveillance purposes is next to useless against the real high value targets. On the flip side, these tools are incredibly effective for illegal use against our own people, our allies, and other western cultures. Add the risk of catastrophic damage to systems throughout the world being incredibly high when these tools inevitably leak to the public and the scale starts to tip to the side of WTF-land.
If these tools had been developed on Mars, and stored on the moon, they would still be used against innocents, and leaked to the public eventually.
Sometimes the only way to win is not to play.
Re: (Score:3)
Standard US person ideology. "It's great we can murder foreigners. Only our law and our people's rights matter."
You finance ISIS and other terrorist groups and then proceed to feel good about killing the assholes. Pretend to save innocent lives. No one but yourselves is buying this BS anymore.
Read your own intelligence reports, read your previous secretary of state emails (“Al-Qaeda is on our side in Syria.” [almasdarnews.com]). Stop being a murder supporter.
Journalistic integrity (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
With every new version of Windows, MS boasts (quite loudly) about how it's the most secure Windows ever... you're calling out the article author for citing that fact? Part of it is marketing to sell the upgrade, and part of it is necessary due to their lackluster security track record.
There are persistent rumors that the CIA pays MS to leave backdoors open and/or deliberately implement them, so I rather doubt that the agency had to actually find the exploit.
Security Company (Score:2)
The company is Siege Technologies, a cyber-security company
I think they've forfeited that title.
Government hires contractors to do work. (Score:1)
Story at 11.
Windows XP to Windows 10, (Score:2)
Time for BeOS and Windows 3.1 resurgence.
Re: (Score:2)
REALLY surprising RT is interested in this story (Score:1)
It is really interesting to me that if you Google "Siege Technologies" and click News all of the current articles about Athena are from RT... including RT en Español!
Re: (Score:2)
To be fair it really is damn near a full time job keeping up with his idiocy...
What to do (Score:3)
Build a walk in secure vault and hold meetings well away from any devices, Microsoft, Apple or other products.
Consider access your vault area? Elevator, common areas, areas open to the public, areas open to clearers, other contractors, other workers in the same building or secure complex.
Building doors, office doors can be held open, waited until opened.
Take notes on paper, use a typewriter. Secure all paperwork after an important meeting.
Do not have a photocopier near the vault. Ensure all photocopies are secure under CCTV, have a camera to image all copied pages and track paper counts.
No user digital devices should be near your most vital work so secure anything in an office setting that can make a copy.
Air gap any networks that deal with users, your nations courts wanting user details, all US brands, services. Keep your company secrets away from any US brands or users, networks that are open to other requests.
When a product or service is ready for the public, use US brands for later global integration but keep all emerging and work in progress away from any US products, hardware, software, experts and services.
Dont hire workers that are not trustworthy. That foreigner left their own nation to work for any good wage, who else are they working for?
If the clandestine services cant get into your secure and air gapped networks, expect staff to be approached. Have your security ready for once trusted staff to be turned by offers of cash or US paperwork.
Look back over the education of your staff, are they local, smart, loyal, happy, have issues, addictions, faith or cult? Did they tell the truth in their resume? Are they political, have any hidden issues in their past that could be used to make them spy for another nation? Find out before other nations clandestine services make a cash offer. Would they respond to their own faith more than protecting your nation or company?
Start looking over your logs, past average "malware" intrusion attempts, hire good experts to look at network security and improve it given the Microsoft OS issues.
Hide your brands real secrets, and then use Microsoft products to create a fiction on your brands networks.
Get a few staff members to write up fictional projects, busy work, ideas, support, project names, patents, new crypto, software, hardware, amazing advancements.
Put that disinformation strategy on Microsoft computers and have it face your open networks. See who comes looking given the attractive keyword fiction created. Use very unique project names.
Use US approved crypto, OS, network standards for the creative fictional digital files. Keep up with anti virus software and log everything.
Also read up on past projects (1920-2000) against brands and nations that create products, services and that advanced crypto, science, technology of interest to the USA.
What offer got made to staff or methods used to walk out documents.
Wait and see if perfect new applicants seem to be a prefect fit for the fictional projects in the skill sets they present.
Understand that if your brand is able to out smart US brands and bring new, better, cheaper, faster, more secure products to the world your brand is been watched.
Fix the software, network, OS and hardware issues, understand what could motivate trusted staff to sell, give away, copy or trade your brands secrets. Dont allow a stranger or best "new" "friend" of a staff member to just wonder around your company. No all long term collection methods need internet access. Never hire people your security team cant find information on. Make sure all staff resumes match reality not just a quick look over other altered digital databases.
Hire only local quality workers for all work. Buying networked hardware on the open market in your brands own name and then having it imported is a risk for hardware alteration.
Re: (Score:2)
Have new designs, patent work, staff lists and prototypes walked out by other agencies and the clandestine services.
Re:Need to curtail the CIA and NSA (Score:5, Insightful)
No, everyone is responsible. All the spy agencies are involved, and corporations are clearly involved. It was done under Bush/Cheney and Obama, and so far the American public has failed to complain enough, and the media have failed their role as watchdogs. It is everybody's fault. If people don't start complaining a lot more to their representatives, and vote in more honest representatives, it will only get worse.
Re: (Score:2)
Everyone is responsible, except left wing Democrats, but there are no left wing Democrats in power, because of collusion? So Democrats are the answer but the democratic party is corrupt so they aren't the answer? Got it.
Re: (Score:2)
You said it not me. I'm sure you think you made a point.
I said the least responsible people for the spying and the endless wars are the left wing progressives who don't want any spying or wars of regime change. Right wing people push for war, not the lefties. Clinton is a right wing Democrat, Obama isa right wing Democrat. Bernie Sanders is an independent for a reason. Because progressives like him are not welcome in the corporate owned DNC.
Re: (Score:2)
That's more reasonable than my first response had first appreciated. I apologize for my obnoxious comment earlier. My marginal comment was meant to imply I think both parties are corrupt, and equally criminal. I think Bernie is one of the few with integrity intact. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be much accountability for their actions. The only politician suffering legal consequence is for sexting dick picks to a minor.
Re: (Score:2)
Why is anybody at fault at all? The CIA has been doing this stuff since it has existed. Whether it's planting a bug in an office or tapping somebody's line, it has always happened. The fact that they're using newer technology isn't a bad thing, it just means they're staying technologically relevant.
The NSA stuff was bad because they were spying domestically, and Snowden was right for exposing that, and did the US a service. Unless the CIA is doing domestic spying, I don't see the problem here, and these lea
Re: (Score:3)
Wikileaks won an award for some stuff about Kenya not long before the Manning leak.
You only think Wikileaks is US-centric because your local media is (understandably) US-centric.
Re: (Score:2)
Wikileaks won an award for some stuff about Kenya not long before the Manning leak.
You only think Wikileaks is US-centric because your local media is (understandably) US-centric.
Ok, let's play a game of "name that tune": Name the second most targeted country by wikileaks, and list the number of times it has had anything leaked. Now compare that number to the US.
Let me know what you find, and then explain to me why you think the US isn't disproportionately targeted.
Goalpost shift! (Score:2)
Also something like Wikileaks only really has an impact in places with a democracy. A massive scandal in Russia, Iran or China isn't going to result in a government being in danger of getting voted out is it? So stuff from those places isn't going to be common or maybe even coming in at all.
Also think about what is IS and what it PUBLISHES. If a lot of their readers are in the USA isn't it very l
Re: (Score:2)
Your take is worthless nationalistic tripe.
Re: (Score:2)
I think your understanding of nationalism is different from mine.
In Europe, nationalism means "I live here, and fuck everybody else" hence it is perceived as bad. This is understandable because of Europe's love of fascism and its history of starting world wars.
In the US, nationalism means "I live here, and I think it's nice", so we don't view it the same as you do. Hence it's a bit more common to wave the flag here while also being critical of some of the things the US does. And that is healthy.
Re: (Score:2)
Anyone who thinks that whistle blowers that inform the public of the illegal, immoral and dangerously counterproductive acts of our government does needs to be prosecuted is clearly favoring the deep state over the people. Any free society that is not allowed to know what its government is doing, is not a free society by definition. You may think it is "nice here", and maybe you have a cushy job in the deep state, or IT. But that is not how this country is working out for the poor people, the people without
Re: (Score:2)
Anyone who thinks that whistle blowers that inform the public of the illegal, immoral and dangerously counterproductive acts of our government does needs to be prosecuted is clearly favoring the deep state over the people.
And who are you speaking of here? Because I'm pretty sure I spoke in favor of Ed Snowden, so you can't be speaking about me.
Which by the way, Snowden is a whistleblower, while Assange is just a self-aggrandizing prick who does anything to make a name for himself, even if it means putting other people in harm's way (something he has done.) Even other people within wikileaks say as much, and anybody who supports him (yourself included) is a fucking asshole that just wants to watch civilization burn.
Re: (Score:2)
Whistleblowers use Wikileaks to get the information to the public you moron. GFU.
Re: (Score:2)
Snowden didn't use wikileaks, rather he did the responsible thing and passed it off to journalists so that they could properly control information that would put people at risk. Wikileaks doesn't do that. While wikileaks gave him travel assistance, he didn't use them as a medium.
Besides, my beef isn't with wikileaks as much as it is Assange and to a lessser extent, Manning. Oh, and want more evidence that Assange is full of shit about why he's holed up in that embassy? Well, it turns out that if he goes to
Re: (Score:2)
So you are saying that the CIA and other muck up the world agencies are really bad, so that makes Assange full of shit because he is helping whistle blowers out their dirty deeds? Your thinking on this is far beyond muddy. Indeed, you haven't made a single point about Assange that makes me think anything other than he is a hero, and you are the one who is full of shit. You have an extremely warped sense of right and wrong on this topic. Snowden good, Assange, bad, very bad as our imperious leader would say.
Re: (Score:2)
And in case you missed it:
http://www.truthdig.com/report... [truthdig.com]
Re: (Score:2)
So you are saying that the CIA and other muck up the world agencies are really bad
You fail at reading.
Re: (Score:2)
You fail at thinking, so I guess we are even. It''s difficult to read and understand nonsense. Clearly there is something wrong with your logic that Snowden did good but Wikileaks is bad. All I can assume is that you have a political agenda that forces you to ignore the obvious, and come to some absurd conclusion divorced from reality. If what Snowden did was good for the public's understanding, then Wikileaks is even more important because it is ongoing and continues to inform the public, something Snowden
Re:Need to curtail the CIA and NSA (Score:5, Insightful)
And by the way, Obama is not the left. He may be the center-right, but he has nothing to do with the Bernie Left. The spy agencies are all right wing. The military is right wing, the wars are done by right wing Democrats and Republicans colluding together. The people least responsible for the spying and the wars are all those lefty anti-war and-spying protesters. But I still maintain that just about everyone is to blame, including the public who barely pays attention to anything other than their phone.
Re:Need to curtail the CIA and NSA (Score:4, Insightful)
The "resistance" from the left is identical to all the pop-up Communist groups the CIA funded in South America. Everything hit topic from the intersectional corner of bad ideas is designed to form rifts in the community to prevent a unified voter base. You can't occupy wallstreet when part of the crowd calls you racist for daring to speak for them, and the entire movement has to spend all their time checking their privilege.
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
Bernie isn't left. Bernie is past left field, past the back bleachers, out in the parking lot just next to the hot dog cart.
Re: (Score:2)
Bernie isn't left. Bernie is past left field, past the back bleachers, out in the parking lot just next to the hot dog cart.
Hebrew Nationals, baby!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, healthcare for all is such a crazy idea, only the US is smart enough to not have fallen for it.
Re: (Score:2)
Something for nothing is a crazy idea.
Tax-payer funded healthcare for all may or may not be a good idea, depending on how it's implemented. (I'm firmly in the camp that says it would be a bad idea because I know there's no fucking chance that it will end up helping anyone but the mega wealthy and the very poor.)
Re: (Score:2)
So you don't pay attention to anything going on in the rest of the world, where universal health coverage works for everyone, and the costs are about half, and the outcomes better? Now I understand.
Corporations get something for nothing every day.
Re: (Score:2)
And by the way, Obama is not the left. He may be the center-right, but he has nothing to do with the Bernie Left. The spy agencies are all right wing.
Sure, Obama was "right wing" if you define "right wing" as everything bad, and "left wing" as everything good.
The authoritarian left is a thing. Unless you think Stalin and Mao were card-carrying Republicans?
Re: (Score:1)
The 'authoritarian left' is an oxymoron. There is no such thing. Leftists are antiauthoritarian. Once you become an authoritarian you are no longer a 'leftist'. It is impossible. Leftists are anarchists. Authoritarianism, state and corporate (in reality a distinction without a difference), is extremely right wing, designed to acquire and conserve power. It can't be anything else.
Re: (Score:1)
Insisting that Stalin and Mao were not leftists has got to be the worst No True Scotsman fallacy I've ever seen.
Re: (Score:2)
Insane and historically ignorant.
On the ground, leftism concentrates power, which then corrupts, game over. Can't be fixed, stick a fork in it.
Re: (Score:1)
Sorry, you all have it backwards. You're trying to distinguish state from corporate (which uses (corrupts) the state to flex its power) authority, when there is no difference between them. All authority and the desire for it, no matter where it comes from, is a right wing phenomenon. Historically and presently leftists are anarchists. Any desire for authority means you're not a leftist.
Re: (Score:2)
It sure is convenient for him though. 'Will to power' is rightwing, everybody, even a baby, has 'will to power', abracadabra, clean slate for leftists. I'm sure the millions of dead feel better.
Even seeking authority over oneself is 'right wing'. Fustakrakich hasn't thought the definition out, at all. Needs a test script for future tries.
Re: (Score:2)
Nope, Stalin was definitely not right wing on anything. Not only societal was he on the far left, so was his economic standpoint. There was no free market, personal liberties were non existent.
Re: (Score:1)
Exactly, he was a right wing authoritarian dictator, just not as crazy as Hitler. Nothing 'leftist' about him. And closing the markets makes it even less so.
Re: (Score:2)
The 'authoritarian left' is an oxymoron. There is no such thing. Leftists are antiauthoritarian. Once you become an authoritarian you are no longer a 'leftist'. It is impossible. Leftists are anarchists. Authoritarianism, state and corporate (in reality a distinction without a difference), is extremely right wing, designed to acquire and conserve power. It can't be anything else.
Bah. Have you forgotten about the revolution and the necessary "period of terror" to rob the establishment of their powers and means of production? A.k.a. proletarian dictatorship. This so-called interrim period tends to last and last and last, until the system collapses or morphs into a neo-fascist state like China.
The left is all about power and control. Read up, kiddo.
Re: (Score:1)
proletarian dictatorship
Says it all right there, dictatorship. It's not 'left' by any means. It's a dictatorship. It doesn't matter by whom. Sorry, but you are wrong. It doesn't matter who does it. It only matters what is being done. A leftist cannot be an authoritarian.
You are making the same mistake as all the others by trying to distinguish the source (kind of a 'kill the messenger' thing). As if some authoritarians are good.
Re: (Score:2)
proletarian dictatorship
Says it all right there, dictatorship. It's not 'left' by any means. It's a dictatorship. It doesn't matter by whom. Sorry, but you are wrong. It doesn't matter who does it. It only matters what is being done. A leftist cannot be an authoritarian.
You are making the same mistake as all the others by trying to distinguish the source (kind of a 'kill the messenger' thing). As if some authoritarians are good.
So Marx and Lenin, they weren't leftists? The inventor of Communism as an ideology, Karl Marx, he was not a communist? That sounds silly, doesn't it? Or maybe communism isn't leftism? Maybe Bakunin was the only true leftist?
The thing is, left or right, it's all about power. It's about control. Communism is all about collective control over the individual (yes, anarchism is a pipe dream), just like nazism (or religions, but that's another discussion). It's all about power.
Someone has lured you into a logic t
Re: (Score:1)
Marx may have been (his goals of the withering state would indicate such), Lenin definitely not. You still got it wrong. Just like people who see humans as property, it is antiquated and wrong. Leftism and authoritarianism are direct polar opposites. Leftism ~ anarchism. You're letting mass media define your words for you. And your faith in them does not mean you are correct by any means, nor does your majority status.
Re: (Score:2)
Marx may have been (his goals of the withering state would indicate such), Lenin definitely not. You still got it wrong. Just like people who see humans as property, it is antiquated and wrong. Leftism and authoritarianism are direct polar opposites. Leftism ~ anarchism.
You're a funny guy. If you mean anarchism, say anarchism. Don't go around calling non-anarchist communists and socialists for non-authoritanian 'leftists' just becaust anarchists claim to be. It's called Fallacy of the Undistributed Middle, and is invalid arguing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
You're letting mass media define your words for you. And your faith in them does not mean you are correct by any means, nor does your majority status.
Troll alert, or brain-washed Berkeley student detected. Seriously, that last statement of yours is just beyond sense and logic. Normally, one has to go to chuch to hear something that far out. I'm guessing riseup
Re: (Score:1)
You are like the bureaucrat, having to categorize everything nice and neat to match the narrative you choose to believe (usually in order to 'fit in'). Conformity is not always a virtue.
Sorry if I 'triggered' you :-)
Re: (Score:2)
If Ad Hominem and strawman arguments is all you've got, you ain't got much, my trolling friend.
Re: (Score:1)
:-) I am not trolling, but I will be your friend
Re: (Score:1)
What you don't seem to accept is that this evil rank and file "right" you keep going on about, is for things like:
LIMITED SMALL government, more personal freedom (and responsibility), and conserving the original meaning of the constitution (not some government or other).
The fact that NEITHER party's representatives is doing what their base thinks they should be standing for, SHOULD give you some food for thought, and perhaps get you to start questioning a few narratives. Just as you complain about the bad
Re: (Score:2)
Wrong-- US conservatism leans toward preserving the liberty afforded by the liberal principals on which the US was founded. The Left in the US wish to fascistically centralize power, legislating and regulating and outright strangling the freedom of the individual, which they would gladly-- if given the means-- enforce via authoritarian methods. See "Soviet Union" for a quick and easy example of this in action. See also "Venezuela."
Why do you think the Left are the ones these days who overtly oppose free spe
Re: (Score:1)
Not much I can do when you let FOX and mass media define your words for you. There is no leftism in the battle amongst global empires fighting for dominance of hearts and minds. The 'left' you read about is a complete fantasy.
Re: (Score:2)
Ahhh, nope. Left can be authoritarian just like the right can. It depends on how you look at it. It is the social or economical spectrum.
Re: (Score:1)
Sorry, 'authoritarian left' is purely a political fantasy to create nonsensical arguments. It is nothing but a distraction. It is something that cannot exist outside the realm of human imagination. Authoritarianism can only be measured by degree, not by character.
Re: (Score:2)
Ahhh, there have been many articles on this that disputes your claim that Communism is a right wing, or Socialism is a right wing. Both of these type of government are on the LEFT side of the political spectrum.
Re: (Score:2)
Stalin was left wing in your dreams. Left wing is peace, protecting our environment, healthcare and education for everyone and greater equality. No progressive is an authoritarian. Trump is, Bernie isn't. .
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah yeah, we heard all about the CIA, etc back in '75. Nothing came of it then either. But that heart attack gun [firsttoknow.com] is pretty cool, doncha think?
As for the 'left' in the United States, there isn't one to speak of, certainly not in their government. And the voting records confirm that.
Re: (Score:1)
Oy vey, the goyim know, shut it down.