Microsoft Launches A Counterattack Against Russia's 'Fancy Bear' Hackers (thedailybeast.com) 97
Kevin Poulsen writes on the Daily Beast:
It turns out Microsoft has something even more formidable than Moscow's malware: Lawyers. Last year attorneys for the software maker quietly sued the hacker group known as Fancy Bear in a federal court outside Washington DC, accusing it of computer intrusion, cybersquatting, and infringing on Microsoft's trademarks... Since August, Microsoft has used the lawsuit to wrest control of 70 different command-and-control points from Fancy Bear... Rather than getting physical custody of the servers, which Fancy Bear rents from data centers around the world, Microsoft has been taking over the Internet domain names that route to them. These are addresses like "livemicrosoft[.]net" or "rsshotmail[.]com" that Fancy Bear registers under aliases for about $10 each. Once under Microsoft's control, the domains get redirected from Russia's servers to the company's, cutting off the hackers from their victims, and giving Microsoft a omniscient view of that servers' network of automated spies.
"In other words," Microsoft outside counsel Sten Jenson explained in a court filing last year, "any time an infected computer attempts to contact a command-and-control server through one of the domains, it will instead be connected to a Microsoft-controlled, secure server."
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
If it weren't for Russia we'd be Germans.
And it would had been great!
Re: (Score:1)
Joke's. Short for "Joke is".
Really? So why did I do it as a separate subject in school? Why are there Pimsleur courses on it?
Re: If It Weren't For Russia (Score:1)
Pointing out typos in the age of autocorrect. His phone could have just as easily removed the apostrophe as he could have forgotten to add it. Also, his point was that English was born of German; not that they're currently identical.
Re: If It Weren't For Russia (Score:2)
The expression used is, 'practically German.'
English is practically German like my chickens are practically brontosaurus.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:If It Weren't For Russia (Score:4, Informative)
Nope, you are looking at WWII without Russia, but failed to account for the 10,000 years before that. If there were no Russia, the Mongols would have conquered the land in that area long ago, then the question of who would have been holding it for WWI. If Russia didn't participate in WWI, the results may have been different. And since WWII was a result of WWI, that would cause a great difference in WWII, if it ever happened. So no, it's unlikely we'd be speaking German, though it has been proposed as the official language of the USA, back when there were almost as many German speakers as English speakers, Before WWI, we've fought the English, but not the Germans. Another reason there was a big push to join WWI with the Germans against the English. Had we not soured on Germany from WWII, we'd still be talking about whether we entered WWI on the wrong side. But with Germany earning villain status in WWII, we retcon'ed justification for fighting against them in WWI.
Based on what I read, the theory that the US was close to joining the German side in WW1 seems to be a bit of revisionist history.
US banks had lent money to the allies, a large number of American citizens had joined the Allies, and the Germans were sinking unarmed American ships in WW1 prior to the US entering the conflict. It seems highly unlikely that the US would have ever joined the German side. There was propaganda from both sides lobbying the US form their initial neutral stance. However, there were a large number of factors against joining Germany.
It's possible that I missed something. If so, provide some sources please.
US & WWI (Score:4, Informative)
In WWI, the US really had no business getting involved or picking sides, and its involvement was a part of Woodrow Wilson's interventionist policies, which was the ancestor of yesterday's neocon policies of Clinton/Bush/Obama. WWI was really the activation of alliances in Europe drawn up along a combination of ethnic and political lines - Serbia + Russia + France + Belgium + UK + myriad other countries along its fringes vs Austria-Hungary + Germany + Bulgaria + Turkey. The US had the lend-lease policy w/ UK and Wilson was busy selling armaments to one of the parties in the war - the Allies, so if you were Germany, that was obviously an act of war. The trigger that had the US join in was the German sinking of US ships carrying weapons to the allies, but it takes a completely subjective view of that to state that the US was provoked into joining the war. The US joined a war it had no business being involved in: there were no national interests involved, nor for that matter, even humanitarian interests: Kaiser Wilhelm II was not remotely similar to Hitler!
What you are describing is more WWII - the US was in no mood to join the war, and didn't. There was an anti-war movement within the US that saw to it. However, once Pearl Harbor happened, and both Germany & Japan declared war on the US, it wasn't up to FDR at all.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
No, it just proves that if country A is at war w/ country B, and country C is supplying country A w/ weapons, it's perfectly legitimate for country B to sabotage that effort. Including going to war w/ country C.
Re: (Score:2)
Over history, you are picking one point. Russia wouldn't have saved us from Germany if Russia didn't exist. If Russia wasn't there in the 1800s, then the Ottoman Empire may have ruled it at the start of WWI, ma
Re: If It Weren't For Russia (Score:2)
Weren't the Mongols stopped in Hungary?
Re: (Score:3)
The mongol invasion of Europe happened in 13th century, so well before Russia even formed (there were only lots of small Russian states).
The argument here is that if not for Russia forming we would have more invasions from the asian nomad hordes. Before unification small states in that area had serious problems with stopping the horde especially with Muscovite-Novgorod rivalry. While somewhat true, the hordes were never a long term problem as they usually fell apart after some brilliant leader died and pret
Re: (Score:2)
They weren't stopped there by force. They stopped on their own and returned to their capitol due to internal reasons. I can't remember what that was but is detailed in Dan Carlin's Hardcore History Wrath of the Khans.
Re: (Score:1)
If it weren't for Russia we'd be Germans.
You mean the same Russia that started that war? The same Russia that in 1944 shot at American planes and supported Germans, just so they have a slightly stronger propaganda stance if the Warsaw Uprising fails?
Re:If It Weren't For Soviets (Score:1)
Or for that matter, started on the same side as the Third Reich, and only 'switched' due to Operation Barbarossa.
Re: (Score:2)
If the Germans wouldnt attack, the Russians would a bit later. They joined attack on Poland to get back some territory they considered theirs (remember that they only lost it 20 years earlier). Notice that they didnt join the rest of the war as there was nothing interesting for them there - they just reverted to neutral status. They would just wait for German exhaustion and attack then to gain even more territory. Obviously this plan didnt work.
Re: (Score:2)
Possibly! But one of the major surprises for Stalin was that despite several warnings of an impeding German invasion, he refused to prepare. Had he been the head of a democratic country & done that, he'd have been impeached. The only thing that saved the Soviet Union was their strategic depth - their troops could retreat thousands of miles into Siberia, which in fact formed their industrial heartland, since Ukraine & Byelorussia were battlefields & wastelands. And of course, the winter was
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, Russia did prepare well in case of a German invasion, and built not one [wikipedia.org] but two [wikipedia.org] lines of fortifications. Then, Stalin decided to blow up these fortifications when preparing an attack.
Barbarossa was not a planned backstab but a desperate pre-emptive strike. In most places Germans entered over barbed wire cleared by Russians just a week if not the day before. Barbarossa succeeded (temporarily) only because of extreme incompetence of Russian leadership -- routinely purging anyone with a shred of s
Re: (Score:2)
If it weren't for Russia we'd be Germans. And it would had been great!
Where are you from - America or Europe? If the latter, you are right. If the former, then no: it would have been impossible for the Wehrmacht to invade the mainland US, particularly w/ them being under constant pressure to keep Europe reined in.
Re: (Score:1)
I'm Swede :)
Sweden was never invaded by Germany but Germany was already the most influencing country and may still be the market we export to the most. Even if Germany would only had ruled "Spain to Austria" so to speak or whatever (not UK and Russia) then it would of course have had an incredible influence upon us here in Sweden and that would had been the norm.
If they had also beat UK and possibly even Russia.. Well.. go figure.. Then it would had been the major ideology of the world. I guess.
To live in a
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
This may seem a quibble over semantics, but can we avoid using the term 'Russia', which in this thread, conflates Tsarist Russia, the Soviet Union and today's Russian Federation? That would be like conflating Kaiser Wilhelm II, Adolf Hitler and Angela Merkel
The Soviet Union that is often credited w/ being key to winning WWII was the same country that started off in the war on the same side as Hitler - ref: the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact. It doesn't deserve credit for being on the right side just b'cos Hitl
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
I have no idea what the second part of your post was about.
Identifying victims (Score:2, Funny)
With a court order they can look up who is behind the compromised IP.
Then they can call them up from "Microsoft Techsupport" to inform them that they've been infected with a virus!
Now that's service!
So... (Score:1)
This is just Microsoft taking over random phishing domains, yes?
I'm still amazed that the Russian state's superhackers have no state-level tools like the NSA's TAO program revealed to us all and are forced to phish everyone in the hopes of getting a day or two worth of access to an interesting email account and rob rubes of rubles. It's almost like the APT is just some low-level nobodies instead of a state-run organ of a major geopolitical power.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
Hillary lost--we get it.
Proving Russian interference doesn't reverse the outcome of the election. And whether it would or not is utterly beside the point.
Better President Pence than President Putin's Puppet.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Actually it would be kind of scary to have Dominionist Pence as president. At least Trump is somewhat crippled by his narcissism. Pence might actually be able to rally the crazy religious folks.
If it weren't for Microsoft (Score:1, Funny)
We would all be trying to browse the internet with Netscape Navigator... on a Macintosh... using 5 1/4" floppy disks... and Linux and Unix would be nonexistent... and Hillary Clinton would be the president of the USA... in 2017.
Re: (Score:1)
No.
Linux was created on an Intel 386. Linux exists because of the AT&T lawsuit against BSD. Without that, it would more likely be a BSD world (or a fork of BSD, as BSD developers reject so many enhancements).
UNIX has existed longer than Microsoft, and very likely will exist long after Microsoft is gone - so no problems there.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
If Bill Gates mommy and daddy hadn't cooked the contracts with the aid of IBM lawyers, M$ would not even exist today, we would be complaining about IBM. If the Lotus eaters had not stuck to the dream of a thousand dollar spreadsheet and been smart with word perfect, M$ Office would not exist today and we would be cursing the Lotus Eaters. Greed has a very definite habit of taking down American companies to let new companies into the market, that and real arrogance, believing the tripe main stream media puts
Re: If it weren't for Microsoft (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: If it weren't for Microsoft (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: How nice from Microsoft... (Score:1)
Project Monarch is Real (Score:1)
"In other words," Microsoft outside counsel Sten Jenson explained in a court filing last year, "any time an infected computer attempts to contact a command-and-control server through one of the domains, it will instead be connected to a Microsoft-controlled, secure server."
So, sorta like M$ $kype?
Re: (Score:2)
His words were 'check'. Your words were 'officially assign preemptive blame'. Why not just argue against someone's real position? Grow a fucking pair and stop playing with straw men.
To address the original claim: Putin kills Russians. Mainly journalists. I've yet to see evidence that he kills foreign politicians. It's almost certainly not worth the risk for him. I'd feel fucking foolish if i suggested it, to be honest.
Re: (Score:3)
When they use a microsoft or google trademark on one of their operations and the operation leaks.
Just preserving the Windows 10 monopoly (Score:2)
This is just Microsoft trying to make sure they're the only people putting malware on your computer. Old monopolies die hard. ;)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
No! Just stop it! You are being so unfair to President Trump!
If you just started accepting alternative facts into your life, you'd see how in the alternative reality in which I Trump supporter live, President Trump is the greatestest, most honestest, competentest President this country has ever had! You have just been brainwashed by the FAKE NEWS mainstream media!
Leave President Pussygraber alone! ;ÂÂ(
Re: (Score:2)
https://www.bloomberg.com/view... [bloomberg.com]
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-196... [bbc.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Of course, the next minor enhancement... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Some of enjoined domains are listed in Appendix A of this order [noticeofpleadings.com].
When the articles refer to a domain name with brackets, mentally insert a pattern. So, instead of livemicrosoft.com, how about livemicrosoftstatistics912.com? Something that doesn't link to the correct server, but looks "legit".
Re: This article is BS (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
"Putin's hackers" (Score:4, Insightful)
The paper calls the hacker group "Putin's hackers", and many comments here follow the trend. But Microsoft is a bit more prudent, as noted in TFA:
Microsoft doesn’t name Russia in its suit, instead describing Fancy Bear as a “sophisticated and well-resourced organization” that remains unidentified.
Indeed the hackers are probably Russians, and they seem to follow our perceived Russia government's interests, but reducing everything to the enemy's leader, which has to be evil, is basic war propaganda. That does not help thinking, and it drives us away from interesting questions: what are Russia's interests? Does Fancy Bear help serving them?
Re: (Score:2)
Don't bring the facts here. The Daily Beast needs the sensation for more of those ad-click dollars.
might as well test anti-aircraft to fight Santa (Score:2)
Anyone who talks about "Fancy Bear" or "Cozy Bear" without irony is as much of an idiot at this point as those who still question Obama's birth certificate. It's all based on a CrowdStrike study paid for by the DNC (who wouldn't let the FBI touch it, another giant tell people choose
Re: (Score:2)
Well, that's at least a change from the "well u must love Putin!". Same shit, different pile - same as anyone who questioned the Iraq war was labeled a "Saddam lover" back in 2003.
But back to the subject at hand: put up or STFU on Russiagate evidence. Until you guys do, you're in the same boat as the Birthers or the people who still insist that Bill Clinton ordered a hit on Vince Foster.