Edward Snowden
The hack of an NSA malware staging server is not unprecedented, but the publication of the take is. Here's what you need to know: (1/x)
1) NSA traces and targets malware C2 servers in a practice called Counter Computer Network Exploitation, or CCNE. So do our rivals.
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2) NSA is often lurking undetected for years on the C2 and ORBs (proxy hops) of state hackers. This is how we follow their operations.
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3) This is how we steal their rivals' hacking tools and reverse-engineer them to create "fingerprints" to help us detect them in the future.
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4) Here's where it gets interesting: the NSA is not made of magic. Our rivals do the same thing to us -- and occasionally succeed.
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5) Knowing this, NSA's hackers (TAO) are told not to leave their hack tools ("binaries") on the server after an op. But people get lazy.
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6) What's new? NSA malware staging servers getting hacked by a rival is not new. A rival publicly demonstrating they have done so is.
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7) Why did they do it? No one knows, but I suspect this is more diplomacy than intelligence, related to the escalation around the DNC hack.
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8) Circumstantial evidence and conventional wisdom indicates Russian responsibility. Here's why that is significant:
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9) This leak is likely a warning that someone can prove US responsibility for any attacks that originated from this malware server.
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@Snowden Please open a blog and stop tweeting like that -
@Vainzou@Snowden Quite a common practice to tweet like this, especially experts in fields.#nothingnew -
@KareemHarper@Snowden doesn't mean it makes sense or it's a good way to communicate clearly -
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@Vainzou@Snowden Because you are doing it wrong or don't know what you're doing. It is ok, here to help. Cheers.pic.twitter.com/CIY0dtUEx1
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@Snowden @JanieBlakely The staging server - meaning the NSA's own hackers' various malware located on this server. -
@Deir_in_DC@Snowden Is the staging server hardware? -
@JanieBlakely
@Snowden The server is the hardware the malware lived on, yeah.
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Vincent Dubois
Kareem A. Harper
Taylor
Deirdre 
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