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posted by martyb on Thursday August 17 2017, @04:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the hack-this dept.

The New York Times reports In Ukraine, a Malware Expert Who Could Blow the Whistle on Russian Hacking :

KIEV, Ukraine — The hacker, known only by his online alias "Profexer," kept a low profile. He wrote computer code alone in an apartment and quietly sold his handiwork on the anonymous portion of the internet known as the Dark Web. Last winter, he suddenly went dark entirely.

Profexer's posts, already accessible only to a small band of fellow hackers and cybercriminals looking for software tips, blinked out in January — just days after American intelligence agencies publicly identified a program he had written as one tool used in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.

But while Profexer's online persona vanished, a flesh-and-blood person has emerged: a fearful man who the Ukrainian police said turned himself in early this year, and has now become a witness for the F.B.I.

It's an in-depth review of several people, hacking groups, Russian organizations, and delves into hidden sites where malware can be bought and sold. In this case, it is claimed that Profexer wrote a program to exfiltrate information from a hacked machine, made a free copy available, but charged for updates/training. The claim is that Russia made use of his program, among others, and then practiced using it on Ukraine. Images of servers used in Ukraine voting are being reviewed.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @03:19PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @03:19PM (#555358)

    Unless you have indications that the persons responsible for infiltrating the DNC email server ALSO infiltrated the RNC, there is no "telling of half of the truth" then.

    Uh, yes there is, that's the point. I'm saying they didn't hack the RNC (or if they did, they didn't release the information), and the entire problem is in the target selection. As in, why hack the DNC and not the RNC?

    I can think of two possibilities:
    1) It was just a coincidence, the hacker stumbled upon some info that enabled the hack, and they released the info out of the goodness of their hearts.
    2) The hacker wanted to bring the Democrats down to help Trump and/or Republicans, so they explicitly targeted the DNC to get dirt on them.

    If it was one person or a small group acting on their own, it could be either one of those. However, if it was a nation-state (Russia or whoever), I really don't see #1 as all that likely.

    (Also, just to be clear: I dislike both parties, but the Dems are closer to my position on most issues. I find the Dems clearly incompetent, and often hypocritical. However, I find Republicans completely despicable. For me, voting for Dems would be like stepping in shit barefoot; voting for GOP like bathing in it; and voting for Trump like diving in.)

  • (Score: 2) by Oakenshield on Thursday August 17 2017, @06:38PM

    by Oakenshield (4900) on Thursday August 17 2017, @06:38PM (#555490)

    I can think of two possibilities:

    1) It was just a coincidence, the hacker stumbled upon some info that enabled the hack, and they released the info out of the goodness of their hearts.

    2) The hacker wanted to bring the Democrats down to help Trump and/or Republicans, so they explicitly targeted the DNC to get dirt on them.

    3) They attempted to hack the RNC and were unsuccessful.

    4) Releasing only one side to pit both sides against each other (one blaming the other and the other indignantly defending against conjecture) preventing any united front forming against any perpetrators.

    5) For the Lulz

    There is no shortage of possibilities or guessing.