“Russian hackers hacked Christmas”: RT made a holiday video about Santa and Father Frost. Russian hackers hacked Obama's brain and the ice on Lake Peipsi Russian hackers hacked

According to American intelligence, military spies from Russia are involved in the hacking of the computer systems of the Winter Palace. Olympic Games in Pyeongchang. Two US officials, who wished to remain anonymous, said The Washington Post that cybercriminals tried to impersonate North Koreans so that suspicion would fall on the DPRK.

Pretended to be Koreans

PyeongChang authorities admitted that there was a hacker attack during the Olympic opening ceremony on February 9, 2018, but refused to name the possible culprit.

Due to interference in the system, there were problems with the Internet broadcast, access to the official Games website, and some guests of the event even complained about the inability to print their entrance tickets.

Information security experts from CrowdStrike, FireEye and Talos gave the name to the virus that was used by the attackers - Olympic Destroyer. According to preliminary analysis, this malware is not intended to steal data, but causes frequent system crashes.

In general, there are no destructive consequences of the hack, and all problems associated with it can be described as “temporary inconvenience.”

Western analysts quickly attributed the hacker attack to the Kremlin - according to their calculations, this was a kind of revenge for the exclusion of some Russian athletes from the Olympics, as well as for the ban on the use of the national flag.

According to the report American intelligence agencies, at the beginning of February, “Russian hackers” already had access to 300 computers, one way or another connected with the Olympics. They also hacked into routers to sabotage internal networks.

US intelligence agencies noted that cybercriminals used special tactics to “blame” the hack on the regime -

for example, hackers launched attacks from North Korean IP addresses to divert suspicion from Russia.

It is worth noting that Russia, China and North Korea were initially on the list of suspected states whose cyber spies might try to interfere with the Olympic Games.

On the eve of the opening of the Olympics, the official statement, which warned of a wave of misinformation in foreign media.

“We know that the Western media are planning to spread pseudo-investigations on the topic of the “Russian trace” in hacker attacks on information resources related to the Winter Olympic Games in the Republic of Korea. Naturally, no evidence will be presented to the world, as before,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

In the list of information resources that may be involved in Russophobic propaganda, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted and, which the ministry called “biased media.”

Organizers of the Pyeongchang Olympics expressed concerns that the closing ceremony could also be targeted by hackers, but this time cyber incidents were avoided. Probably, the criminals decided to lie low so as not to attract undue attention to themselves.

There's no proof, but you hold on

The Washington Post states that the hackers who hacked the 2018 Olympic Games work for the Main Directorate. Earlier, those cybercriminals who allegedly launched the NotPetya virus were also accused of working for and waging an information war against the West.

The NotPetya virus attack, from which Ukraine suffered the most, occurred in the summer of 2017, and until recently was considered the work of anonymous hackers.

However, in February a number Western countries unexpectedly blamed Russia for the cyber attack.

The UK was the first to make an official statement on this matter, calling the attack “disrespect for Ukrainian sovereignty” and blaming Russia for the multimillion-dollar financial losses caused by NotPetya. The position of the United Kingdom was supported first by America and then by Australia.

However, all of the above-mentioned states limited themselves to verbal accusations without specifics or evidence. The Russian President's press secretary called them "a continuation of the Russophobic campaign, which is not based on any evidence."

Fancy Bear hackers, often credited with collaborating with the Kremlin, attacked the US defense industry - using a phishing email they allegedly gained access to the email accounts of defense industry employees. Experts believe that the stolen secrets will allow Russia to catch up with America in the field of high-tech weapons.

Allegedly, Russian hackers from the Fancy Bear group, who are credited with interfering in the 2016 US elections, have once again put the security of the United States at risk. As the Associated Press has learned, attackers fraudulently gained access to the email addresses of 87 people working in the defense industry and developing secret types of weapons - military drones, warheads, missiles, stealth fighters, etc.

It is not yet known for certain what exactly was stolen by the hackers, but this case revealed one of the most important vulnerabilities of US government agencies and records - the insufficient level of protection for electronic correspondence of officials with access to confidential information.

Among the victims of “Russian hackers” are employees of such large military-industrial and aviation corporations as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Airbus Group and General Atomics.

Former Office of the Director of National Intelligence official Charles Sowell confirmed to The Associated Press that Fancy Bear targeted precisely those people who work on the most advanced and high-tech programs.

“If participants in these programs are compromised, our competitive advantage in the defense sector will suffer. And it’s really scary,” warned Sowell, who was also on Fancy Bear’s target list.

The hackers had been running the email phishing campaign since March 2015 and are believed to have ended it in May 2016. Of the 87 targets who received the malicious email, 40% did not suspect a trick and followed the infected link. This was the first step, after which the attackers could potentially open their email accounts and read classified correspondence.

One of the victims said that he received a notification letter on his smartphone about a security threat from Google. He clicked on the link, but fortunately realized that he had become the target of a hacker attack even before he entered his personal data in the appropriate window.

Fancy Bear reportedly hacked the targets' personal Gmail accounts, as well as several corporate profiles. But personal mailboxes can also become excellent prey for attackers, as they can store letters that are not intended for the general public. In addition, such accounts can contain information about the victim’s personal life, which is later used for blackmail.

Drone specialist Kevin Humbold, who was on the target list, believes that the information obtained by the hackers could potentially help Russia “catch up” with the Americans in the defense industry.

“This will allow them to take a powerful leap forward, undoing years of our hard work,” the expert commented.

The press was able to talk to 31 of the victims of the hacker attack. As it turned out, only one of them received a warning about Fancy Bear activity after the incident. Bill Davidson told the AP that one of the investigators checked his computer after the cyber hack. Air Force USA, but found no evidence that the attack was successful.

Meanwhile, three sources familiar with the case said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) knew about the Fancy Bear phishing campaign for at least a year before the massive hack, but took no action to report or prevent the threat.

RT TV channel the day before Catholic Christmas published a comic video of Santa Claus defeating Santa Claus, reports.

The action takes place on Christmas Eve, somewhere in the United States. An American boy wakes up and rushes to the Christmas tree to get his gifts. However, he finds Santa in the room with his hands tied and gagged.

Towering over the American wizard is the Russian Santa Claus. He congratulates the boy on the New Year and asks him to read a poem.

At the end of the video, a child with a strong accent reads Vladimir Orlov’s poem “About the Motherland” (“I learned that I have a huge family...”).

Moscow has been repeatedly accused of trying to influence the US presidential election and other electoral processes in different countries. A number of Western politicians claimed that “Russian hackers” are closely connected with the Kremlin and are its agents.

However, so far no evidence has been presented to support Russian interference. Moscow called such accusations absolutely unfounded.

 

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