For nearly three weeks, Baltimore has struggled with a cyberattack by digital extortionists that has frozen thousands of computers, shut down email and disrupted real estate sales, water bills, health alerts and many other services.
But here is what frustrated city employees and residents do not know: A key component of the malware that cybercriminals used in the attack was developed at taxpayer expense a short drive down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway at the National Security Agency, according to security experts briefed on the case.
Since 2017, when the N.S.A. lost control of the tool, EternalBlue, it has been picked up by state hackers in North Korea, Russia and, more recently, China, to cut a path of destruction around the world, leaving billions of dollars in damage. But over the past year, the cyberweapon has boomeranged back and is now showing up in the N.S.A.’s own backyard.
It is not just in Baltimore. Security experts say EternalBlue attacks have reached a high, and cybercriminals are zeroing in on vulnerable American towns and cities, from Pennsylvania to Texas, paralyzing local governments and driving up costs.
The N.S.A. connection to the attacks on American cities has not been previously reported, in part because the agency has refused to discuss or even acknowledge the loss of its cyberweapon, dumped online in April 2017 by a still-unidentified group calling itself the Shadow Brokers. Years later, the agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation still do not know whether the Shadow Brokers are foreign spies or disgruntled insiders.
Thomas Rid, a cybersecurity expert at Johns Hopkins University, called the Shadow Brokers episode “the most destructive and costly N.S.A. breach in history,” more damaging than the better-known leak in 2013 from Edward Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor.
“The government has refused to take responsibility, or even to answer the most basic questions,” Mr. Rid said. “Congressional oversight appears to be failing. The American people deserve an answer.”
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday May 28 2019, @05:52PM (14 children)
Corporate "hires" the NSA. Sorta like using a kid to drive the getaway car. He'll only get charged as a minor and spend a short time in juvenile.
And since corporate directs tax and other "dark" money towards the NSA, they(NSA) will comply.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 29 2019, @11:27AM (13 children)
Except, of course, when such compliance is not in the NSA's interest to do so. Funny how that works.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday May 29 2019, @02:48PM (12 children)
There might be a case or two like that, but they generally follow orders like everybody else. It's not really a thing, it's their job.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 30 2019, @12:44PM (11 children)
"Cases" involve things like threatening hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue without consequence aside from having to change the program names.
I'd be interested in any actual examples of that.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday May 30 2019, @03:42PM (10 children)
"Cases" involve things like threatening hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue without consequence aside from having to change the program names.
Yeah well, whose billions? It's all Hollywood accounting anyway.
I'd be interested in any actual examples of that.
Geeze! Everything they do is an order from above. They all can be fired. They are a single department, they receive orders, they don't give them.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday May 31 2019, @03:54AM (9 children)
It's all fun and games till it's your billions even if allegedly Hollywood accounting.
They could be, but nobody ever does. I can point to a multidecade history of the NSA and US intelligence in general screwing over the rich and powerful without consequence. And all you can do is handwave that it wasn't the rich peoples' money in the first place. Why?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday May 31 2019, @07:13AM (8 children)
They could be, but nobody ever does.
Well hell, that's because nobody can be bothered to make the effort. That would be our job.
I can point to a multidecade history of the NSA and US intelligence in general screwing over the rich and powerful without consequence.
Obviously nobody important, or there would indeed be consequences.
Yeah, sure they eat their own, but you're reading too many tabloids and spy novels. There's really nothing to see. Money makes the world go 'round... NSA, KGB, Genghis Khan, the Romans, and the Canaanites... That's just life.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday May 31 2019, @12:00PM (5 children)
As good a reason as anything.
You're begging the question.
I guess you ran out of things to say? None of that is irrelevant to our conversation. Genghis Khan isn't sabotaging multi-hundred billion dollar companies without consequence.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday May 31 2019, @04:53PM (4 children)
You're begging the question.
Of course not. They're still in business, right? Obviously they have done nothing against anybody that matters, or they would be dead or in jail.
Genghis Khan isn't sabotaging multi-hundred billion dollar companies without consequence.
Not anymore [youtube.com]... I'm pretty sure he's dead. And where do you get these insane ideas about *billions of dollars*? What's with all the dramatics? Try to get a feel for the people that find it all perfectly acceptable and vote for all this stuff.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday June 02 2019, @01:14PM (3 children)
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday June 02 2019, @04:29PM (2 children)
It shows itself by who's alive and who's not. The answers to all your questions are right in front of you. You're asking how the sky is blue.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday June 03 2019, @04:20AM (1 child)
Still begging the question.
The classic Christian rebuttal. You're choosing not to listen to God.
Which let us note is a serious scientific question, backed by observation and useful scientific models with nontrivial consequences.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday June 03 2019, @04:28AM
You're the one begging.
Which let us note is a serious scientific question, backed by observation and useful scientific models with nontrivial consequences.
Yes, so observe and learn... Free your mind... [youtube.com]
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday May 31 2019, @12:38PM (1 child)
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday May 31 2019, @04:44PM
Another thing that's interesting is how you can't accept the NSA (and more generally US intelligence) as a power center.
It is not. It is a tool, at the disposal of powerful people. You're looking at grunts (muscle) and middle management at best. You see them from a mass media tabloid's point of view, mainly because that is your main source of information, and you take them too seriously. If they really are their own agent, then they are gangsters practicing extortion in their own right. Either way, the ball is in our court.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..