Americans are being hacked by Russian hackers and autists. Russian hackers hacked Obama's brain and the ice on Lake Peipus There is no evidence, but you hold on
Everyone already knows that Russian hackers hacked everything possible in the United States, including voting boxes. This is actually why they now have President Trump, whom they cannot accept as one of their own. Everyone is used to justifying any mistake or mistake with Russian hacker attacks (remember the failure in the power grid?).
And then I read amazing news: it turns out that we are not the only ones who torment poor Americans with hacking and theft of especially valuable information.
An autistic boy also indulges in this, and here’s a surprise - he’s not Russian, but English...
The trial of 18-year-old Kane Gamble is currently underway in Britain. A year ago, he was found guilty of infiltrating the computers of senior officials of the American intelligence services, but the sentencing was delayed. The judges couldn't decide what to do with him. After all, Gamble, in the strict sense, did not hack anything - he obtained all passwords and secret information solely by force of persuasion, and at the same time, in six months, he caused damage to US national security comparable to the damage caused by the work of a medium-sized intelligence agency.
Kane Gamble Photo: Global Look Press/Tom Nicholson
Three years ago, the life of Jay Johnson, the US Secretary of Homeland Security, turned into hell. While he was at work, he felt safe; but as soon as he returned home, everything changed. Someone unknown easily bypassed all Internet security systems, and all attempts to identify the attacker ended in vain.
On July 18, 2015, Susan, his wife, received a call from an unknown number, leaving a voice message: “Hey, stupid, are you afraid of me?” The minister himself received a message with a photo of his daughter and a promise to “fuck her.” SMS messages were sent from Johnson's number that he did not write. And one evening, when the couple got ready to watch TV, the inscription “You are mine” appeared on the screen.
And such strange things happened not only to Johnson and his family. That same month, the wife of FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano, while relaxing at a spa hotel in Georgia, was unable to relax properly. Several times a day, worried hotel employees knocked on her room door, claiming that they had received emergency calls from her number asking for help. This happened at any time of the day. At the same time, the wife of a high-ranking FBI official had nothing to do with these calls.
The suffering of American officials ended only six months later, when the police snapped handcuffs onto the wrists of Briton Kane Gamble, a 15-year-old autistic man who managed to turn the lives of influential people into a nightmare without leaving the room.
Black and white man
“This guy’s understanding of what’s going on is clearly divided into “black” and “white.” It's a bit like a video game, where there are heroes and villains, good and bad. He is trying to correct what he considers an injustice.”
This is how expert psychiatrist, Dr. Stefan Davis, explained to the court the motives for Gamble's actions.
Little is known about Kane's life and family. Three years before her son was born, in 1997, his mother won £1.7 million (€1.92 million) in the national lottery, then invested it in real estate. However, at that moment the British market was in a frenzy, and as a result the Gambles lost their sudden wealth. Kane, as far as can be judged from press publications, was born and raised in the town of Coalville in central England.
Since childhood, he was different from his peers due to autism spectrum disorder; he grew up as a withdrawn child and rarely left his room. By the age of 15, he had the mental development of a 12-year-old. However, this was enough to draw up a plan to eradicate world evil - “the injustices committed by the US authorities.” He didn't need money - he fought for the truth.
Something needs to be done
“I began to become more and more irritated by the degree of corruption, coldness and calculation of the American government. I decided that something needed to be done about it,” Kane Gamble said in an interview with journalist in 2015. He gave interviews from an empty Twitter account: whatever, he knew how to maintain anonymity.
Everything that happened next was more reminiscent of a cyberpunk novel. A 15-year-old autistic man, driven by the idea of fighting for justice, easily bypassed the most complex security systems and literally entered the homes of his victims.
Their list is impressive: in addition to the already mentioned Johnson and Giuliano, Gamble reached the head of the CIA John Brennan, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Avril Hines - Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security, Science and Technology Advisor John Holdren (they even had to place a group in his house special forces), Amy Hess, an FBI special agent (Gamble downloaded pro-Palestinian videos onto her computer, which were launched while Hess was working on documents) and Vonna Weir Heaton, a former operative of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
Gamble's haul exceeded all expectations: in particular, he managed to copy a number of top-secret documents from Brennan's personal mail. And after he penetrated intelligence databases, important papers relating to operations in Iraq and Afghanistan appeared on the Internet. He posted on the Internet the data of 20 thousand FBI employees and 9 thousand MVD operatives. The data he leaked was published, in particular, on the WikiLeaks website.
The Department of Homeland Security spent about $40 thousand on the search for the elusive hacker. They managed to catch him only after Gamble, having lost caution, penetrated the network of the American Department of Justice and learned the details of a number of top secret cases - including the case of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon platform in Mexico Gulf in 2010. Only after this were the American intelligence services able to figure out where the hacker was working from and transfer all the necessary information to their British colleagues, demanding the urgent arrest of Gamble.
And only then did the intelligence services find out: in fact, Kane Gamble had never been a hacker.
Engineer of human souls
“Gamble's group is sometimes mistakenly called hackers. In fact, this group actually used social engineering methods, so to speak, including manipulating people working in call centers or technical assistance departments, and thus carried out their actions or obtained classified information,” explained prosecutor John Lloyd-Jones during hearings.
Gamble really wasn't a cracker and didn't understand much about codes. He acted solely by force of persuasion.
For example, when a Briton needed access to Brennan’s account on the Verizon website, he pretended to be an employee of the company. Gamble was so convincing that he got what he wanted. He then went all-in by posing as the head of the CIA himself and demanding that Verizon give him access to the computer. When the operator asked him a security question - the name of the first pet - Kane could not answer. But he was so assertive and so skillful in his conversation that eventually the call handler believed it was Brennan himself talking to him and agreed to change the security question and PIN. As a result, the teenager became familiar with the cloud storage of the CIA director. Since the devices in the house were connected into a single network, Kane also looked through Brennan’s wife’s iPad, where he also found a lot of interesting documents.
He followed the same pattern when confronted by the FBI. Gamble introduced himself as Deputy Director Giuliano, convinced technical support of this, and gained access to all the necessary databases. In a similar way, he took possession of the personal data of James Klepper - trusting employees of the Comcast operator gave him the password to the victim’s account. After that, whenever they tried to call somewhere from home, Klepper and his family members ended up in the office of the Free Palestine Movement.
In addition, the young Briton convinced the FBI technical support service that he was then Deputy Director of the FBI Mark Giuliano, and thus gained access to intelligence databases.
Friends on the Internet
Kane Gamble did not act alone. He was a member of the CWA group, Crackas With Attitude. Ее название можно вольно перевести как «Снежки с позицией» (cracka — жаргонное слово, которым обозначают белых, желая их оскорбить, аналогично тому, как черных именуют ниггерами). CWA is an allusion to the name of the cult and controversial hip-hop group Niggaz With Attitude.
How many people were part of the CWA - it is unknown who they are - it is also unclear. Gamble communicated with them online, encouraging his comrades and reminding them that all their actions are a response to the policies of the United States, which are killing innocent people around the world.
Apparently, Kane Gamble did not betray his comrades. Last October he was recognized British court guilty of illegal access to eight computers and illegal modification of data located on two more.
It is unclear what sentence he will be given. But it is already obvious that Gamble has written his name in the history of digital wars. Cyberpunk turned out to be much closer than many thought, and, as it turned out, it has a much more human face than science fiction writers predicted.
sources
According to US intelligence, military spies from Russia are involved in the hacking of the computer systems of the Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang. Two US officials, who wished to remain anonymous, said The Washington Post that cybercriminals tried to impersonate North Koreans so that suspicion would fall on the DPRK.
Pretended to be Koreans
PyeongChang authorities admitted that there was a hacker attack during the Olympic opening ceremony on February 9, 2018, but refused to name the possible culprit.
Due to interference in the system, there were problems with the Internet broadcast, access to the official Games website, and some guests of the event even complained about the inability to print their entrance tickets.
Information security experts from CrowdStrike, FireEye and Talos gave the name to the virus that was used by the attackers - Olympic Destroyer. According to preliminary analysis, this malware is not intended to steal data, but causes frequent system crashes.
In general, there are no destructive consequences of the hack, and all problems associated with it can be described as “temporary inconvenience.”
Western analysts quickly attributed the hacker attack to the Kremlin - according to their calculations, this was a kind of revenge for the exclusion of some Russian athletes from the Olympics, as well as for the ban on the use of the national flag.
According to the report American intelligence agencies, at the beginning of February, “Russian hackers” already had access to 300 computers, one way or another connected with the Olympics. They also hacked into routers to sabotage internal networks.
US intelligence agencies noted that cybercriminals used special tactics to “blame” the hack on the regime -
for example, hackers launched attacks from North Korean IP addresses to divert suspicion from Russia.
It is worth noting that Russia, China and North Korea were initially on the list of suspected states whose cyber spies might try to interfere with the Olympic Games.
On the eve of the opening of the Olympics, the official statement, which warned of a wave of misinformation in foreign media.
“We know that the Western media are planning to spread pseudo-investigations on the topic of the “Russian trace” in hacker attacks on information resources related to the Winter Olympic Games in the Republic of Korea. Naturally, no evidence will be presented to the world, as before,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
In the list of information resources that may be involved in Russophobic propaganda, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted and, which the ministry called “biased media.”
Organizers of the Pyeongchang Olympics expressed concerns that the closing ceremony could also be targeted by hackers, but this time cyber incidents were avoided. Probably, the criminals decided to lie low so as not to attract undue attention to themselves.
There's no proof, but you hold on
The Washington Post says the hackers who hacked the 2018 Olympics work for the General Directorate. Earlier, those cybercriminals who allegedly launched the NotPetya virus were also accused of working for and waging an information war against the West.
The NotPetya virus attack, from which Ukraine suffered the most, occurred in the summer of 2017, and until recently was considered the work of anonymous hackers.
However, in February a number Western countries unexpectedly blamed Russia for the cyber attack.
The UK was the first to make an official statement on this matter, calling the attack “disrespect for Ukrainian sovereignty” and blaming Russia for the multimillion-dollar financial losses caused by NotPetya. The position of the United Kingdom was supported first by America and then by Australia.
However, all of the above-mentioned states limited themselves to verbal accusations without specifics or evidence. The Russian President's press secretary called them "a continuation of the Russophobic campaign, which is not based on any evidence."
Fancy Bear hackers, often credited with collaborating with the Kremlin, attacked the US defense industry - using a phishing email they allegedly gained access to the email accounts of defense industry employees. Experts believe that the stolen secrets will allow Russia to catch up with America in the field of high-tech weapons.
Allegedly, Russian hackers from the Fancy Bear group, who are credited with interfering in the 2016 US elections, have once again put the security of the United States at risk. As the Associated Press has learned, attackers fraudulently gained access to the email addresses of 87 people working in the defense industry and developing secret types of weapons - military drones, warheads, missiles, stealth fighters, etc.
It is not yet known for certain what exactly was stolen by the hackers, but this case revealed one of the most important vulnerabilities of US government agencies and records - the insufficient level of protection for electronic correspondence of officials with access to confidential information.
Among the victims of “Russian hackers” are employees of such large military-industrial and aviation corporations as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing , Airbus Group and General Atomics.
Former Office of the Director of National Intelligence official Charles Sowell confirmed to The Associated Press that Fancy Bear targeted precisely those people who work on the most advanced and high-tech programs.
“If participants in these programs are compromised, our competitive advantage in the defense sector will suffer. And it’s really scary,” warned Sowell, who was also on Fancy Bear’s target list.
The hackers had been running the email phishing campaign since March 2015 and are believed to have ended it in May 2016. Of the 87 targets who received the malicious email, 40% did not suspect a trick and followed the infected link. This was the first step, after which the attackers could potentially open their email accounts and read classified correspondence.
One of the victims said that he received a notification letter on his smartphone about a security threat from Google. He clicked on the link, but fortunately realized that he had become the target of a hacker attack even before he entered his personal data in the appropriate window.
Fancy Bear reportedly hacked the targets' personal Gmail accounts, as well as several corporate profiles. But personal mailboxes can also become excellent prey for attackers, as they can contain letters that are not intended for the general public. In addition, such accounts can contain information about the victim’s personal life, which is later used for blackmail.
Drone specialist Kevin Humbold, who was on the target list, believes that the information obtained by the hackers could potentially help Russia “catch up” with the Americans in the defense industry.
“This will allow them to take a powerful leap forward, undoing years of our hard work,” the expert commented.
The press was able to talk to 31 of the victims of the hacker attack. As it turned out, only one of them received a warning about Fancy Bear activity after the incident. Bill Davidson told the AP that after the cyber hack, his computer was checked by an Air Force investigator but found no evidence that the attack was successful.
Meanwhile, three sources familiar with the case said that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) knew about the Fancy Bear phishing campaign for at least a year before the massive hack, but took no action to report or prevent the threat.
The Russia Today TV channel published a comic video featuring Santa Claus, Father Frost and an American boy waiting for Christmas. The video is available on the channel's official account on YouTube. The video takes place “somewhere in the USA.” According to the story, on Christmas Eve, an American boy wakes up and goes to look for gifts under the tree. His actions are accompanied by traditional Christmas music. However, a surprise awaits the boy under the Christmas tree - instead of the American Santa Claus, he is greeted by the Russian Father Frost. Santa Claus himself is nearby, bound and gagged. At this moment, the message “We hacked Christmas” appears on the screen. Russian hackers.”Father Frost congratulates the boy on New Year instead of Christmas and asks him to read a poem. At the end of the comic video, a child with a strong accent tries to read the famous poem “About the Motherland” in Russian, which begins with the words “I learned that I have a huge family.” The video received approval on the Internet, for a short time it has been viewed more than 200 thousand times. According to users, the work plays out with high quality and with due irony the image of Russia that the West created for itself.