back to article The Russians are at it again: Zebrocy backdoor malware is evolving, Uncle Sam warns close to eve of presidential election

The US government, in full pre-presidential election high alert, has issued a warning about an evolved strain of backdoor malware from a Russian offensive cyber unit. The Zebrocy backdoor, warned the CISA infosec agency, has evolved – and while the agency didn't explicitly link it to Russia, previous research from the private …

  1. First Light

    Why . . .

    . . . did they bother?

    Voting for this election is already a massive s**tshow with missing ballots, ballots declared invalid by courts, PO boxes removed, services downgraded, &c &c. Their guy in the Oval Office has made sure even a Biden landslide will be contested. Putz.

    1. sanmigueelbeer Silver badge

      Re: Why . . .

      Their guy in the Oval Office Putin has made sure even a Biden landslide will be contested.

      There, FTFY.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Why the blue wave?

      The blue wave: mail-in ballots tend to be more Democrat than Republican, hence on election day, the Republican votes come in early and as the blue ballots are counted, the Democrats take over.

      Mail-in ballots have a paper audit trail, the mailed in ballot paper itself, plus the post office use to track the progress of ballots through its system, a thing DeJoy removed, that the court ordered be reinstated.

      Vote-in-person ballots are more problematic. Even now, a decade and a half later some Republican states do not have paper audit trails. You have to trust the computer to accurately report the votes it received in those states.

      The mail-in ballot is trustable, verifiable, the electronic vote without the paper trail is not trustable or verifiable.

      So why is there a blue wave? Older, more Republican voters, do not go to the polls, they send in mail-in ballots. So how come there is a blue wave and not a red wave? It should be a red wave.

      The whole blue wave concept is bogus.

      I do not trust Republican Governors to run real elections, I do not trust them to count votes. They are acting in bad faith at all points in this election, trying to block the voting and block the counting of votes.

      It is clear from the Klown Kavanaugh Kangeroo court that they view counting people's ballots as optional in a democracy. Those people whose ballots Republican Supremes refuse to count, they have taxation without representation, they literally ignored their votes because a Republican donor, DeJoy, delayed delivery of their ballot papers at the post office.

      Republicans appoint judges by illegitimate tricks and then hope that people will treat their choices as if it was legitimate. Why should they? The basis of law in a democracy is the will of the people, not the will of the money.

      We the people, not we the money.

      Texas, one ballot drop location for 2.2 million registered voters, physically impossible for people to hand in their vote that way in Democrat areas, thanks to the Republican governor and his Republican judicial appointees. Somehow this is 'legitimate' says the Klowns, *no* it isn't, they should be able to drop off their ballots and have it counted.

      Illegitimate court appointments to stack courts, elected judges turned into appointed judges by dint of a Republican Secretary of State refusing to run the election for the judges. Tricks, games, undermining of the judiciary.

      All rules are off here. If its like 2000, you'll see Republican rent-a-mobs trying to shut down ballot counting, and Republican courts trying to pretend their acting in good faith. A trio of bad-faith actors, Kavanaugh, Coney Barrett, Roberts, all involved in suppressing the vote count in 2000, stuck into the Supreme court, and refusing to recluse themselves.

      Deliver the ballots anyway. Count the votes anyway. You don't give a fk if Kavanaugh says "don't count those Democrat votes", or "don't deliver those votes", he can go boof himself. The democracy must outlive these Ruble funded Republicans, and their attempt to end democracy.

  2. sanmigueelbeer Silver badge

    Americans are so "smart" they never realized they've been "played".

    As of 31 October 2020, there are >229,000 Americans who have died of COVID-19. Americans are "fighting it out" for "top honours" with India, Brazil & the rest of Europe. For once, this is a number where the Americans will be "proud" to be on top of and equally wear it with pride.

    Once the election is over, reality will set in.

  3. Danny 2

    Zebrocy's operators "took inspiration" from a NATO event to devise a new lure for "one of their downloaders written in [the programming language] Nim".

    We know they did it because we boasted about doing it to them!

    The biggest threat to US democracy lies in the Whitehouse not the Kremlin.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Russia wants war...

      https://1389blog.com/pix/Russia-wants-war-look-how-close-they-put-their-country-to-our-military-bases.jpg

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Russia wants war...

        I know what you're saying, it's absolutely shocking how misunderstood the Russian state is.

        Many lies are printed in Western newspapers by capitalist imperialist aggressors and their lackeys about beautiful mother Russia country and our history. You say Russia was once ally of Hitler - all lies. You say Russia invaded Finland and Poland and Hungary and the Crimea and Georgia and Czechoslovakia and the Ukraine - all lies! You say we put nuclear missiles in Cuba - all lies! Russia is peaceful country - never invade or threaten anybody. Uncle Joe Stalin was very peaceful man who would not hurt fly and all Russian leaders since Uncle Joe are peaceful men including Comrade Putin who loves kittens and will be president for life.

        You say we interfere in Americanski elections, but is not true - is all lies! We never interfere in anything. Donald Trump won, how you say, 'fair and rectangular' with no interference from anyone. Ask him yourself, he is moral man of great wisdom, truth and honour, like all Russian people and our leaders - a true friend and oligarch with many roubles and he knows much about Russia and its kindness and generosity. If you put Uncle Joe's hat and moustache on Mr. Trump then he is, how you say, 'expectorating image' of Uncle Joe - it brings tears of joy to our eyes. We help him stay Americanski leader for long time!

        You say we make cyber war against the West - is all lies! You say Russians working from so-called 'troll factory' in St. Petersburg post lies and propaganda in your news media - is all lies! The building you say is "troll factory" is civilian factory making baby milk for beautiful rosy cheeked Russian babies in their mother's arms and Russians are devoted to make sure that internet is safe and used only for honest purpose and never for spying and never used by money laundering criminals, that is why we never give up Russian citizen to West for foreign trumped up charges as always is all lies!

        Signed:- General Orlovu Sodovski

        Director:- St. Petersburg Baby Milk Factory

        1. Robert D Bank

          Re: Russia wants war...

          America sees in Russia what is true of themselves.

    2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      I beg to differ

      The biggest threat to US democracy obviously lies in the Republican party, and all those fucking liars that spew on Fox News.

    3. bobbear

      "The biggest threat to US democracy lies in the Whitehouse not the Kremlin." - Not a lot of difference with the clear support for Trump by both the Russian Kleptocratic Dictatorship and the Chinese Hegemonic Dictatorship. Both China and Russia want whatever is in the worst interest of the West..

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Russian Backdoor?

    Is Zebrocy a subspecies of Trumpocracy?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You see what you are shown

    "The Russians are at it again"...

    Or not.

  6. sitta_europea Silver badge

    Just imagine how much louder we'd be shouting about Russian attacks on western democracies and values if Windows had been developed by a company based in Moscow.

    1. Version 1.0 Silver badge
      Facepalm

      El Reg - new icon please.

      If Windows had been developed by a company based in Moscow then countries (not just the West) would have been hacking it for years. We're doing the same things that they are - the only way to secure the Internet is to use a pair of wire cutters.

  7. Claptrap314 Silver badge
    Facepalm

    And yet

    We JUST had an opinion piece published here stating that we should move to all-internet voting.

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