The internet is getting to be a very dangerous place

Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 04/27/2021 - 5:43pm

The internet has been dangerous since the Morris worm was released 32 years ago. However, it's gotten to be much more dangerous in the last couple years, and authorities have responded in exactly the way that you would expect.

The FBI has the authority right now to access privately owned computers without their owners’ knowledge or consent, and to delete software. It’s part of a government effort to contain the continuing attacks on corporate networks running Microsoft Exchange software, and it’s an unprecedented intrusion that’s raising legal questions about just how far the government can go.
On April 9, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas approved a search warrant allowing the U.S. Department of Justice to carry out the operation.

The software the FBI is deleting is malicious code installed by hackers to take control of a victim’s computer. Hackers have used the code to access vast amounts of private email messages and to launch ransomware attacks. The authority the Justice Department relied on and the way the FBI carried out the operation set important precedents. They also raise questions about the power of courts to regulate cybersecurity without the consent of the owners of the targeted computers.

It doesn't "raise" any questions. It completely eliminates them. As in, it eliminates your 4th Amendment rights.
Being a former Systems Admin, I understand the need to have this power on my network. However, that was my network. Not the entire internet.

This is a nation state acting with impunity, and the internet doesn't respect international borders. The U.S. has been attacking other nations at least since 2005, and it's been publicly known since 2010. Just last year our intelligence agencies conducted an offensive cyber attack against Iran, in the name of defending ourselves (hint: the internet doesn't work that way).
It appears that all of these cyber attacks has caused Iran to start responding in-kind.

A late April incident in Israel appears to have upped the ante. An attack on Israeli water and sewer facilities created some temporary disruptions in certain local water systems. The Israeli government initially reported it as a technical malfunction, but later blamed an attack from Iran routed through United States and European servers.
Israel appears to have retaliated in early May. A cyber attack on Shahid Rajaee Port targeted the operating systems of private shipping companies, disrupting operations and causing a chain reaction of road and waterway congestion that lasted for several days. Anonymous Iranian officials later told the Washington Post that the attack was believed to have come from Tel Aviv.

When you are constantly trying to pick a fight, eventually someone will take you up on the offer.

Lost in all of this is the fact that the lion's share of nefarious deeds are done simply by criminals, and that they are more active than ever before.

Tags:

cybercrime

cyberwar

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Comments

Submitted by The Voice In th... on Tue, 04/27/2021 - 6:02pm

People install Microsoft crapware

signing away all their rights (did you actually read the EULA?) and this is the result.
What's next? Searching computers to destroy documents instead of software?
Will someone at the FBI decide my custom Linux kernel is a security risk?

There is zero concern in the wider world. "I'm glad the FBI is searching my computer to remove malware." said one of my friends. I guess he thinks they are all Efrem Zimbalist jr.

—

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 04/27/2021 - 6:51pm

Maybe

@The Voice In the Wilderness

Will someone at the FBI decide my custom Linux kernel is a security risk?

the government is considering outlawing strong encryption which is common in Linux.
Signal app on my Android phone, Say goodbye?
My protonmail account, say goodbye?

Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Wed, 04/28/2021 - 4:49pm

Perhaps what's next is stealing people's passwords.

@The Voice In the Wilderness

—

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Submitted by Granma on Tue, 04/27/2021 - 7:57pm

Do you mean they can just search any computer

Looking for the malicious software? Do they have that much access to just anyone's computer? Or am I being stupid?

Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 04/27/2021 - 8:11pm

that is the million dollar question

@Granma
The answers to your questions appear to be "yes" then "no".

And then "don't use Windows. Install Linux."

Submitted by JtC on Tue, 04/27/2021 - 8:40pm

The hardware...

@gjohnsit
in your linux box may contain backdoors as well. Just ask Edward Snowden.

Nothing is to be trusted including air gapped computers.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 04/29/2021 - 1:45pm

True, but...

@JtC
hacking hardware is a highly-skilled talent, and rare.
Nothing is going to be 100%, except not having a computer at all.

So if you make the decision to have a computer and go online, the you should try to "make it hard" on the hackers. To discourage them.
That means using Linux.

Submitted by Granma on Wed, 04/28/2021 - 9:35am

I have a laptop now

@gjohnsit which came with Windows 10 installed. I don't think I could get it off and switch to Linux. I won't try. Since Snowden, I don't count on anything being safe from government prying eyes.

Submitted by The Voice In th... on Wed, 04/28/2021 - 10:25am

Did you read the EULA?

@Granma
In one part it says you agree that Microsoft can inspect your files and delete any file that they, in their sole opinion, regard as violating someone's copyright. Which is to say any file they want.

Yes, you can install Linux and it will completely overwrite the existing files.

—

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 04/29/2021 - 1:47pm

My laptop at home came with Win10

@The Voice In the Wilderness
The first thing I did was format the drive and install Linux.

Submitted by Dr. John Carpenter on Wed, 04/28/2021 - 6:57am

If it connects to the Internet, it's ALWAYS a possibility

@Granma I know people seem to ring that bell to the point where it feels like tinfoil hat territory, but I can speak as someone who has worked in IT/security a long time. If I want to secure a server completely, the only 100% guaranteed way I can do that is to take it off-line and make sure it connects to nothing else that is on-line (and limit who has physical access, etc. etc.). If someone wants access to your system, be they "bad guy" hackers or "good guy" government, the best you can do is stay a step or two ahead of them.

That's before we get into speculation of what the government has the legal ability to do. I think it's safe to say, legality isn't going to stop them anyway.

—

Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Submitted by Granma on Wed, 04/28/2021 - 9:43am

I've known they spy on all of us

@Dr. John Carpenter all the time. Using algorithms to keep an eye on lookout for key words or phrases is bad enough. But this business of searching computers for certain software is new territory. I don't see how this judge's ruling can stand up to a challenge.

Submitted by usefewersyllables on Wed, 04/28/2021 - 11:04am

Ahh, but there's the magic of it:

@Granma

who will have standing to file such a challenge? That's some catch, that catch-22...

I remember how much of a flap there was way back in 1999 when the CEO of Sun Microsystems famously said "You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it."

It was true then, and is truer now. The horse has left the barn, the barn burned, the site was paved over, and we now all live in cardboard boxes in the CIA's parking lot.

And yet I still hear people voluntarily, and proudly, saying "Hey Siri" or "Hey Alexa" in the privacy of their own homes. Amazing.

—

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Submitted by The Voice In th... on Wed, 04/28/2021 - 12:24pm

I do have an Alexa firestick

@usefewersyllables
I didn't choose it, it's what they sent.
I leave the battery out normally.
Since I use it in the bedroom, there is not a lot of conversation, but I do watch what i say.

—

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Submitted by MrWebster on Wed, 04/28/2021 - 3:22pm

Probably anything that also looks like an electronic device

@Dr. John Carpenter I have as CPAP machine which has WIFI and records and sends through WIFI sleep info. Also, just got a Libre blood sugar reader. It seems to be connected through radio to the patch on my arm and warns me ahead of time if blood sugars low or high. It complains loudly when I am out of range.

Submitted by The Liberal Moonbat on Tue, 04/27/2021 - 9:05pm

Cyberserfdom

Now they can just sneak in TO OUR OWN HOMES (provided it's via the Internet) and claim prima nocte, is that what you're saying?

So much for private property; that was the only certain right we had left....maybe it's time to look into that "sovereign citizen" thing?

—

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Submitted by The Voice In th... on Tue, 04/27/2021 - 9:45pm

"SEcure in their papers and effects"

@The Liberal Moonbat
Except electronic papers, it seems.

—

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Submitted by janis b on Wed, 04/28/2021 - 12:25am

So this is the way business is done,

through ever-increasing trial and development of skill in criminal cyber attacking.

As you say, "When you are constantly trying to pick a fight, eventually someone will take you up on the offer."

From one of your links …

The worm was created by Morris simply to see if it could be done.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_worm

'Simply seeing if it could be done' motivates all endeavours. Unfortunately too many of those endeavours are to the detriment of humanity .

Submitted by RantingRooster on Wed, 04/28/2021 - 8:46am

Rights, what rights?

Our citizens don't need no stinking rights.

Which seems to be the view of our government.

I remember reading a book, by Clifford Stoll, "The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage", back in the late 80's, and I have to tell ya I realized then that through technology, our government, or any government, could/ would have all access to our all of our very lives.

From Amazon (won't link to them)

Cliff Stoll was an astronomer turned systems manager at Lawrence Berkeley Lab when a 75-cent accounting error alerted him to the presence of an unauthorized user on his system. The hacker's code name was "Hunter" -- a mysterious invader who managed to break into U.S. computer systems and steal sensitive military and security information. Stoll began a one-man hunt of his own: spying on the spy. It was a dangerous game of deception, broken codes, satellites, and missile bases -- a one-man sting operation that finally gained the attention of the CIA...and ultimately trapped an international spy ring fueled by cash, cocaine, and the KGB.

Well, the KGB were only the end recipient's of the hacked data, not the instigators.

From Wikipedia (ymmv)

The hacker's name was Markus Hess, and he had been engaged for some years in selling the results of his hacking to the Soviet Union’s intelligence agency, the KGB. There was ancillary proof of this when a Hungarian agent contacted the fictitious SDInet at LBL by mail, based on information he could only have obtained through Hess. Apparently this was the KGB's method of double-checking to see if Hess was just making up the information he was selling.

Stoll later flew to West Germany to testify at the trial of Hess and a confederate.

So "technically", it was not the KGB doing the actual "hacking".

On the other hand, would the US do anything less? Stuxnet anyone?

All these digital devices we have embedded into every aspect of our lives, are an extension of government reach into our private lives, via corporations. Just read any end user agreement.

WE GIVE UP OUR RIGHTS WILLINGLY, or we can choose to be left behind, technology speaking, as well as cut off from almost any and all "opportunities", especially for "money".

Just imagine how Iot (Internet of Things) is going to be so intrusive, we will not have any right to privacy, anywhere. Corporations can record you, audio / video, motion, GPS etc...

Privacy, what privacy, you don't need no stinking privacy...

Heck, the county Tax assessor uses Google Earth to count the number of "structures" out here to assess property taxes. The owner tore down a "portable" building, and brought it to court TO SET IT UP, to PROVE it was a portable building. (I love these people!)

Technology + humanity = disaster = Climate Crisis + every other crisis created by humans...

I'm just saying...

(I wonder of the tax assessor is watching while I'm skinny dipping out here in the country?)

—

C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

Submitted by The Voice In th... on Wed, 04/28/2021 - 12:30pm

(Shrug) Is it any different from the assessor driving by?

@RantingRooster
Except it puts less carbon into the atmosphere?

Our citizens don't need no stinking rights. Which seems to be the view of our government. I remember reading a book, by Clifford Stoll, "The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage", back in the late 80's, and I have to tell ya I realized then that through technology, our government, or any government, could/ would have all access to our all of our very lives. From Amazon (won't link to them) Cliff Stoll was an astronomer turned systems manager at Lawrence Berkeley Lab when a 75-cent accounting error alerted him to the presence of an unauthorized user on his system. The hacker's code name was "Hunter" -- a mysterious invader who managed to break into U.S. computer systems and steal sensitive military and security information. Stoll began a one-man hunt of his own: spying on the spy. It was a dangerous game of deception, broken codes, satellites, and missile bases -- a one-man sting operation that finally gained the attention of the CIA...and ultimately trapped an international spy ring fueled by cash, cocaine, and the KGB. Well, the KGB were only the end recipient's of the hacked data, not the instigators. From Wikipedia (ymmv) The hacker's name was Markus Hess, and he had been engaged for some years in selling the results of his hacking to the Soviet Union’s intelligence agency, the KGB. There was ancillary proof of this when a Hungarian agent contacted the fictitious SDInet at LBL by mail, based on information he could only have obtained through Hess. Apparently this was the KGB's method of double-checking to see if Hess was just making up the information he was selling. Stoll later flew to West Germany to testify at the trial of Hess and a confederate. So "technically", it was not the KGB doing the actual "hacking". On the other hand, would the US do anything less? Stuxnet anyone? All these digital devices we have embedded into every aspect of our lives, are an extension of government reach into our private lives, via corporations. Just read any end user agreement. WE GIVE UP OUR RIGHTS WILLINGLY, or we can choose to be left behind, technology speaking, as well as cut off from almost any and all "opportunities", especially for "money". Just imagine how Iot (Internet of Things) is going to be so intrusive, we will not have any right to privacy, anywhere. Corporations can record you, audio / video, motion, GPS etc... Privacy, what privacy, you don't need no stinking privacy... Heck, the county Tax assessor uses Google Earth to count the number of "structures" out here to assess property taxes. The owner tore down a "portable" building, and brought it to court TO SET IT UP, to PROVE it was a portable building. (I love these people!) Technology + humanity = disaster = Climate Crisis + every other crisis created by humans... I'm just saying... (I wonder of the tax assessor is watching while I'm skinny dipping out here in the country?)

—

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Submitted by Raggedy Ann on Wed, 04/28/2021 - 10:04am

Remember to put tape over

your cameras - both phone and computer. At least they can't watch you that way. Or - maybe they can.

—

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Submitted by Johnny Q on Wed, 04/28/2021 - 1:36pm

Sounds like we may have to invest in

something like Black ICE(intrusion countermeasures) \from the cyberpunk stories. Something that not only blocks hacking attempts but fucks up the hacker's shit as well(including in some stories their brains due to the interface, but there's no reason to go that far in real life.)

—

They say that there's a broken light for every heart on Broadway
They say that life's a game and then they take the board away
They give you masks and costumes and an outline of the story
And leave you all to improvise their vicious cabaret-- A. Moore

Submitted by Blue Republic on Fri, 04/30/2021 - 12:07am

Click 'Yes' to continue...

Ed Snowden had something to say recently that seems germane here...