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)
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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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10) That could have significant foreign policy consequences. Particularly if any of those operations targeted US allies.
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11) Particularly if any of those operations targeted elections.
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12) Accordingly, this may be an effort to influence the calculus of decision-makers wondering how sharply to respond to the DNC hacks.
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13) TL;DR: This leak looks like a somebody sending a message that an escalation in the attribution game could get messy fast.
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Bonus: When I came forward, NSA would have migrated offensive operations to new servers as a precaution - it's cheap and easy. So? So...
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The undetected hacker squatting on this NSA server lost access in June 2013. Rare public data point on the positive results of the leak.
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You're welcome,
@NSAGov. Lots of love. - 6 more replies
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I have a kickball game today.
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@Snowden we lost :( - 1 more reply
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@Snowden "We"? Are you admitting you are committing or planning further crimes?@PutinRF_Eng Asylum given on condition he didn't harm west!Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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That sounds like something I read in Practical Malware Analysis recently.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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NSA sits quietly & watches what others get up to to enable us to recognize the fingerprint when we see it later. @JanieBlakely
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Understood.
End of conversation
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