Chill, it's not WikiLeaks 2: Pile of EU diplomatic cables nicked by hackers The New York Times has published what it says are excerpts from hacked EU diplomatic cables that a cybersecurity company apparently made available to reporters. The US newspaper said 1,100 diplomatic cables were handed to it by infosec startup Area 1, which it described as "a firm founded by three former officials of the …
"...the hack "also revealed the huge appetite by hackers to sweep up even the most obscure details..."
Um, yes. It's the nature of the beast. They sniff around, slurping up pretty much anything, and then decide what to do with it later. And, they'll sell them selves on the claim that they can get all kinds of information--even stuff that most would not consider all that sensitive--because massive gobs of data has more value than most think.
Yep, that's why data slurping in general operates on quantity over quality. Despite Hollywood's depictions of a hacker being able to knife their way through a system and get right to "IllegalMilitaryOperations.txt", it's much more efficient to just take everything at once and filter out (and then sell) what you don't need later.
Perhaps the reason for the red faces is that the hackers did what the news org is supposed to be doing - easily, and at low cost. It's been a long time since I've seen any decent investigative reporting, it stopped sometime around when the news became a profit center and was most easily produced by relaying press releases (free) leaks from "unidentified but trust us, high level" sources (free and half made up), and government diktat (Mockingbird, also free).
You can see why no one wants to do it anymore - you can get paid to repeat plenty of juicy stuff free, and if you tell truth that contradicts the narrative - you wind up stuck in a cold country or some embassy.
This, for example, they didn't even attempt to hide: https://phys.org/news/2011-10-darpa-master-propaganda-narrative-networks.html
Shortly before the NDAA made it legal for government to lie - and force the press to join them...
I'm not an expert but I believe the UK was actually leading the way there (but US and OZ do fine too), though they seem to have lost their touch creating believable narratives of late...
There's quite a lot more in the public domain....maybe where Mr Snowden and Assange messed up is by not just using that - it's plenty damning enough.
The internet - "and we'd have gotten away with it except for you pesky kids".
But they did and do get away with it - as long as they have the use of force and can take out the obvious leaders easily without ruffling too many feathers. Which is why all the surveillance - find those guys and nip things in the bud while it's just that odd guy living down the road, well before the need for force becomes obvious and creates pushback.
State-sponsored hackers, however, have grown adept at borrowing each other's techniques to deflect blame.
Hmmmm? A New Fangled Cloaking Device? That's clever
Now, the question is ... Is That Heralding a SMARTR AI Start Program for Stately Hoods?
A little something for Integrity Initiatives and Institutes for Statecraft to Cogitate On for Such is Immediately Readily Available for Trial and Trail Blazing/Beta AI Test Run.
cc RSVP Any and all present in the above. It's a Great Program to Trial and Master.
And seeing as how El Reg is sure to be of Surreal Space Interest, how long do you think one awaits Tailored Access Reply ...... for All Keys to Pass for Right Royal MAGIC? :-)
"Hmmmm? A New Fangled Cloaking Device? That's clever"
No, amfM, not new-fangled at all. People have been dressing in the adversary's uniform for data gathering purposes for ... oh, I don't know, probably for as long as there has been an "us" and a "them". Certainly for all of recorded history, anyway.
Oh ‽ OK.
What's the excuse then, jake, for so very little of greater purpose having been achieved? It is certainly currently nothing worth settling for, and conceiving as all that there possibly is, given that so much more can now so very easily be done with these new fangled and entangling virtual tools with SMARTR Operating AI Systems which be Successfully Tested Beta AI Penetrations Testing Programs for Secure Preventative Attack and Virtual AIDynamic Defence Posturing/Pimping/Pumping/Priming/Presenting.
"What's the excuse then, jake, for so very little of greater purpose having been achieved?"
Pure, unadulterated Grade-A click-bait would be my guess. Thus securing funding to produce more material for more useless headlines, of course. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Pure, unadulterated Grade-A click-bait would be my guess. Thus securing funding to produce more material for more useless headlines, of course. Lather, rinse, repeat. .... jake
So, in that case, synthetic sub-prime bullshit for idiotic fools to shovel to ignorant tools, jake, ... and it has to be said, that's how far present-day naked wannabe emperors and their camp followers have fallen.
What a disgraceful state of affairs to be supporting!
The US newspaper said 1,100 diplomatic cables were handed to it by infosec startup Area 1, which it described as "a firm founded by three former officials of the National Security Agency".
If I'm parsing this correctly, the InfoSec firm gave the NYT the data? If correct, this doesn't bode well for Area1's business of cyber security. And, if correct, why the hell would they release the data from the breach?
> why the hell would they release the data from the breach?
Very true. There must be a reason those (former) NSA guys released those cables.
To put pressure on somebody (who?)? Hint at things (to whom?)? Or (since it's a startup) just to prove they can get stuff done, and thus deserve funding and contracts?
Given the apparent low value of the hoard, IMHO this reason is the only interesting part. It's unlikely they got bored and decided to collect some stolen diplomatic cables to send to the NYT just for the fun, so why?
Isn't it obvious? A cyber security firm hand journalists some boring info they found floating around on pastebin or somewhere. But it's exciting because... diplomatic cables...
It's basic PR. Get articles published in the press that mention your company. If they can also worry people about internet security, then maybe they'll get some sales out people who hope to prevent their stuff leaking online.
The External Action Service is bound to leak like a sieve at lower levels. It's got representatives of every EU government in it - and most of those governments have ties to other non-EU countries that those EAS reports may be about. Which is why important stuff still mostly gets down at national level. Although Catherine Ashton did improve the EAS's (and her own) poor reputation during the nuclear negotiations with Iran in the Obama era.
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