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Android The Military Government Privacy Security Technology

Russians Used Malware On Android Devices To Track and Target Ukraine Artillery, Says Report (reuters.com) 101

Posted by BeauHD from the come-out-come-out-wherever-you-are dept.
schwit1 quotes a report from Reuters: A hacking group linked to the Russian government and high-profile cyber attacks against Democrats during the U.S. presidential election likely used a malware implant on Android devices to track and target Ukrainian artillery units from late 2014 through 2016, according to a new report released Thursday. The malware was able to retrieve communications and some locational data from infected devices, intelligence that would have likely been used to strike against the artillery in support of pro-Russian separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine, the report from cyber security firm CrowdStrike found. The hacking group, known commonly as Fancy Bear or APT 28, is believed by U.S. intelligence officials to work primarily on behalf of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency. The implant leveraged a legitimate Android application developed by a Ukrainian artillery officer to process targeting data more quickly, CrowdStrike said. Its deployment "extends Russian cyber capabilities to the front lines of the battlefield," the report said, and "could have facilitated anticipatory awareness of Ukrainian artillery force troop movement, thus providing Russian forces with useful strategic planning information."
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Russians Used Malware On Android Devices To Track and Target Ukraine Artillery, Says Report More

Russians Used Malware On Android Devices To Track and Target Ukraine Artillery, Says Report

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  • I hope that the US is not stupid enough to use consumer vetted software and hardware for mission critical applications. You would think that the military in the Ukraine would be a little more savvy and lock stuff down but I guess it just goes to show how ridiculous using systems that are not meant to be secure really is. Then again one could create all sorts of easy hack honey pot decoy devices and use them to spread disinformation just as easily. So Microsoft has its place in the armed forces I guess.

  • Man! It just doesn't stop! (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    A hacking group linked to the Russian government and high-profile cyber attacks against Democrats during the U.S. presidential election

    The only thing that's high are the idiots who keep pushing this bullshit. The democrats lost because they suck. Get over it! Let's hope they lose even more in '18. Fuck them, and you morons who keep printing this crybaby stuff. Suck it up, bitches!

    • Parent is a troll (Score:2, Informative)

      by waspleg ( 316038 )

      and a fucking pathetic one at that. It's even more fucking pathetic that this got modded insightful and shows how fucking bad /. has gotten.

      Maybe read some news sometimes. Both the FBI and CIA say it was fucking Russians. What do they have to gain by saying that but animosity from the president-elect? FFS.

  • Huh? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by smooth wombat ( 796938 )
    If Russia isn't invading and attacking Ukraine, as Putin has been saying for over two years now, why would Russian artillery be targeting Ukrainian artillery in Ukraine [google.com]?

    I guess when you've lost over 2,000 soldiers [forbes.com] during your invasion, and the weekly shipments of cargo 200 [bbc.com] keep crossing into your country [informnapalm.org], it becomes time to drop the facade of the charade and just admit the truth you've been denying.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Playing devil's advocate, I guess they would be defending Crimea and other Russia territory from attacks over the border.

      Putin has had an incredible couple of years. Got Crimea back, got involved in Syria and seems to have resolved it to a greater extent than the west was able to (even if he is doing it with Assad), and installed his choice of leader in the White House. That least one is going to really pay off in the coming years. Trump's administration will reduce US involvement overseas, while removing s

    • Despite all the bravado the idea of a war in Ukraine for whatever reason seems to be unpopular in Russia and around the World.

      Maintaining pretense of non-involvement is good for his domestic agenda and for the agitprop abroad, offering an exit road and to dupe the gullible westerners into lifting sanctions (imposed by the evil Obama and Merkel) and avoid responsibility.

      So, despite everything, he will just keep on lying, about his war in Ukraine, about sectarian-ethnic cleansing facilitated by Russian mi

  • Next: There Was No Tea Tax! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Mikkeles ( 698461 ) on Thursday December 22, 2016 @08:21PM (#53540689)

    In 1773, the Russians hacked the mail ships and inserted the message that there was to be a Tea Tax.

    The American revolution was an error!

  • to pump out a totally cloud-based artillery targeting app for your smartwatch that sends your exact coordinates in a GET request to jquery.com.

    Yeesh.

    When I was in the NSA museum, they had a little placard in their Enigma exhibit that said that the US and British kept the details of Turing's work classified well into the 60's because a lot of countries were still using Enigma. For some reason I thought of that now.

  • This is why the bring-your-own commercial device idea doesn't work for many Defense and Government activities. I realize it sounds really cool to be able to direct artillery fire with your smartphone. But think about all the buggy applications you have on your smartphone... do you really want to be sending fires data with something that's just going to crash or hang because Candy Crush installed wrong?

    Some other posters seem to be trying to connect this to Hillary Clinton's recent campaign. Really, the e

  • The artillery wasn't even the worst of it. The malware actually sent all searches to Yahoo.

  • Today, President Elect Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin both announced that they plan to expand their nuclear arsenals. Of course, Trump made his announcement on Twitter.

    Duck and cover, motherfuckers.

    https://youtu.be/snTaSJk0n_Y [youtu.be]

    • Don't be silly. The newlyweds are simply combining their assets, so each will have access to more than they did when they were single.

      • Don't be silly. The newlyweds are simply combining their assets, so each will have access to more than they did when they were single.

        Well, we know for sure which one is the top and which one is the bottom in that relationship.

  • Phones (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tsotha ( 720379 ) on Thursday December 22, 2016 @09:13PM (#53540911)
    Why would anyone allow soldiers in his command to use cell phones in an active war zone? That seems daft.

    • Re:Phones (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 22, 2016 @09:38PM (#53541037)
      The Ukrainian army was systematically undermined (i.e. weapons, planes, navy ships, communications hardware was sold off) during previous administrations, which had all been corrupt to varying degrees. The Yanukovych administration (whose shocking corruption and increasingly authoritarian tendencies would cause a popular revolution) in particular, was systematically disassembling Ukraine's army, probably under Russian guidance. When Russia invaded Crimea, Ukraine was essentially unable to front any sort of response. By the time Russia invaded Donbas, Ukraine's civil society had gotten a makeshift army together, which consisted partly of volunteers (the volunteer units would eventually be integrated into the official army). To compensate for shortfalls in funding and equipment, army staff and engineers had to use ingenuity, which often resulted in less than ideal solutions, especially when considering that they were up against the Russian army, which has some of the best artillery and communications equipment in the world. Basically, the choice was often to use a suboptimal solution, or to use nothing at all, so they used the suboptimal solution - this included using mobile phones for communications, as well as other purposes.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      I suppose if you are comparing them to rich Western armies, then yes it is daft. The Ukrainian army is not one of those. I've been there, it is a very poor country. The Soviet system was not kind to it.

  • At least that trick is not going to inflict damages on civilians, and it may even reduce them.

    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It's not clear that Russia has any intention to minimize civilian casualties. For one thing, their proxy forces (the DNR and LNR) get paid to fire off a certain amount of salvos, and when they shoot these artillery shells, they often fire pretty indiscriminately. This guy [twitter.com] is located in Lugansk, and his Twitter timeline is dedicated to keeping track of the artillery shelling, in case anyone's curious about it. Second, Russia controls all of the media in the occupied territories, and their MO has been to get

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by qaz123 ( 2841887 )
        You are such an obvious Ukrainian doing his job. Ukrainian forces are not 20km from Donetsk. They are on its very edge. And don't tell me Ukrainians use only AK-rifles. They use artillery as well mortars. During the war they were shelling separatists who were in the cities among civilians. You are constantly calling separatists "Russians". They are not Russians, they are Ukrainian citizens.
        " until everyone realized". This is a good example of Argumentum ad populum or "appeal to the majority" - a fallaciou

        • You are such an obvious Ukrainian doing his job.

          I am sorry, but Russian Federation (not to be confused with "Russia") has lost all credibility after its invasion of Crimea. First, it was occupied by "volunteers" (Putin's own words). And then a "referendum" was held. So the world was asked to believe that a well-organized army units capable of providing logistics and having a well-organized chain of command was able to pull off a "fair election" (print ballots, inform the populus about pros and cons of voting for either side of the vote, verify that ea

  • To quote a famous YouTube'r (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Evidence or STFU and GTFO.

    "A hacking group linked to the Russian government and high-profile cyber attacks against Democrats during the U.S. presidential election likely used a malware implant on Android devices to track and target Ukrainian artillery units..."

    If you RTFA, it is full of "linked to"s, "likely"'s, "support"s, "believed to be"s, etc.

    Put up or shut up -- provide evidence or forever hold your peace.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      Yep, the U.S. should air out all of its secret spy sources and abilities so people like you can get on Slashdot and be satisfied. But you wouldn't believe them even then, would you?

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