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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday July 05 2017, @01:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the just-a-victim-himself dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Police in Ukraine have seized the servers of one of the largest accounting software firms in the country, after it was suspected that a malware virus which hit dozens of global enterprises last week had spread via its malicious update.

As part of an investigation into one of the largest recent cyber attacks, the servers of Ukraine's most popular accounting software, M.E.Doc were seized by Ukrainian police Tuesday, Reuters reported, citing the head of Ukraine's Cyber Police, Sergey Demedyuk.

Cyber Police spokeswoman Yulia Kvitko confirmed an ongoing investigation into M.E.Doc's offices.

Ukrainian intelligence officials and security firms experts believe initial infections, which affected thousands of computers worldwide, might have been spread via the accounting firm's updates, Reuters reports.

While it is still unclear who inserted a vulnerability into the M.E.Doc program, the Kiev-based firm whose software is used by around 80 percent of companies in Ukraine is under investigation itself and will face criminal charges, AP reported citing Demedyuk.

M.E.Doc's employees had dismissed repeated warnings about the security of their information technology infrastructure, Demedyuk said in an interview with the news agency.

Source: https://www.rt.com/news/395305-ukrainian-firm-servers-seized-cyber-attack/


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Wootery on Wednesday July 05 2017, @03:17PM (12 children)

    by Wootery (2341) on Wednesday July 05 2017, @03:17PM (#535221)

    Are you kidding me?! We're still allowing submissions which cite rt.com and nothing else?

    Is the colour scheme more apropos than I realised?

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday July 05 2017, @03:54PM (11 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday July 05 2017, @03:54PM (#535233) Homepage Journal

    Why not? They're a fuckload more reliable than CNN, FNC, or the BBC as long as you go into it realizing that everything involving Russia is going to have a pro-state spin.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by zocalo on Wednesday July 05 2017, @04:46PM (6 children)

      by zocalo (302) on Wednesday July 05 2017, @04:46PM (#535262)
      How about because in this instance the story is *highly* likely to have that spin? Ukraine and Russia are at war, Russia is occupying a chunk of Eastern Ukraine, and Russia has been accused of being behind several cyberattacks on Ukraine, including this one. I don't have any objection to a source known for leaning in a certain direction being cited - as you say, you can adjust for that - but when it's the *only* source on a story where that slant is almost certainly going to be in full effect you're in somewhat murkier waters when it comes to getting an opposing point of view until the rest of the media catches up [google.com]. Even then, you're kind of relying on the other sources actually doing their own work and not just cribbing off the original media source, spin included.
      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday July 05 2017, @05:30PM

        by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday July 05 2017, @05:30PM (#535284)

        The important question is whether the news reported is actually true: Did the Ukrainian authorities seize the servers of the company accused of spreading the virus?
        Note that I didn't say "writing", nor other words implying their guilt beyond being hacked and used as a distributor.

        The question is "dd the authorities seize servers?" which is factual and carries no slant, and the follow-up is: "did they indicate whether they are looking for proof of virus writing, or trying to safeguard log information on who injected the virus?" which is where slant and mutual accusations can start.

      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday July 05 2017, @05:51PM (2 children)

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday July 05 2017, @05:51PM (#535296) Homepage Journal

        In this instance, because I actually RTFA before submitting and there wasn't anything much said that could have been spin. Outright lies, possibly, but not spin.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 2) by zocalo on Wednesday July 05 2017, @07:04PM (1 child)

          by zocalo (302) on Wednesday July 05 2017, @07:04PM (#535349)
          In this particular instance that does seem to be the case; I didn't find any particular spin in the RT article compared to a random sampling of other outlet's coverage in the Google search I linked either. At best you could say the title and story "conveniently" make it seem like the malware was somehow *entirely* the fault of the company behind MEDoc, deflecting blame from the real culprits which some suspect might be connected with Russia somehow, but for some that's enough to make RT a suspect source. In general however, given how touchy people can get over certain sources (seasoned according to personal biases as well, naturally), and how often these little side-discussions over certain sources crop up perhaps a tweak to story submission guidelines might help to get rid of some of the noise?

          To that end, given that Soylent doesn't generally post "breaking news" as it's actually breaking, it might be worthwhile doing a quick search before posting and adding one or more alternative sources with differing points of view if the original submission only includes one that might be suspected being likely to exhibit bias with the topic at hand. In the specific case of RT that goes far beyond your earlier "everything involving Russia" - RT are quite consistent in portraying the US' global political maneouvering as "warmongering", regardless of whether it involves Russia and/or if it's justified, for instance. Of course, that means more work for the editors, so perhaps a better approach would be to suggest that submissions ideally include a couple of alternative sources to provide a counter point. That's actually a potential win-win regardless of whether the original submitter or an editor provides the additional links - not only might it remove some of the noise, but by providing differing points of view in TFS might also provoke additional on-topic debate.
          --
          UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
          • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday July 05 2017, @10:57PM

            by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday July 05 2017, @10:57PM (#535446) Homepage Journal

            The Eds actually do that quite often if they can find another credible source. RT, however, is not Breitbart or one of gewg_'s socialist rags. They are one of the best international news organizations out there as long as you know they're going to have a pro-Russia slant.

            --
            My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 3, Informative) by legont on Wednesday July 05 2017, @09:10PM (1 child)

        by legont (4179) on Wednesday July 05 2017, @09:10PM (#535414)

        Here are some Ukrainian sources for you

        https://strana.ua/news/79672-policiya-arestovala-servery-ot-kotoryh-nachal-rasprostranenie-virus-petya-a.html [strana.ua]

        http://podrobnosti.ua/2186649-hakerskaja-ataka-politsija-arestovala-servery-medoc.html [podrobnosti.ua]

        The real question is why "free" "independent" "liberal" press does not report it. Perhaps it is because this press is at war with Trump using Russia as a weapon?

        --
        "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
        • (Score: 2) by zocalo on Wednesday July 05 2017, @10:10PM

          by zocalo (302) on Wednesday July 05 2017, @10:10PM (#535434)

          The real question is why "free" "independent" "liberal" press does not report it. Perhaps it is because this press is at war with Trump using Russia as a weapon?

          Some are - there are a few MSM outlets in the Google search results I linked in my OP (NBC, Reuters, MSN and Daily Mail are all in the first 3 pages of results) - and a lot of the western tech press has picked up on it in those results too. Presumably the rest didn't really think this phase of the investigation wasn't worth of news, and they may be right. Ultimately it boils down to Ukrainian law enforcement have seized a bunch of servers that might help them uncover those responsible, something that would happen pretty much anywhere in the world when a potential malware distribution vector or C&C server can be identified and the relevent authorities convinced to get involved. Issues between Russia and Ukraine aside, there's nothing particularly interesting to those not into the tech issues there - it's just a routine investigation they probably incorrectly assume happens with every single cybercrime.

          --
          UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    • (Score: 2) by Refugee from beyond on Thursday July 06 2017, @12:48AM (3 children)

      by Refugee from beyond (2699) on Thursday July 06 2017, @12:48AM (#535479)

      I have no idea in what state other letters are, but RT.com is absolutely not reliable. Whatever they say only benefits Russian government (I live here, btw). They can post someting that matches something truthful the same way a broken clock is right twice a day. If they have sources (which is not a given) just read those instead and maybe link that, if they make any sense. Although if you want to go lower on a scale of crazy lying bastards (or is that considered “higher”?) you can try Channel One. Those can speak about nuclear-bombing USA without blinking an eye.

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      Instantly better soylentnews: replace background on article and comment titles with #973131.