The FBI and Department of Homeland Security released a joint report Thursday on Russian “malicious cyber activity” that included a thorough list of the peculiar secret code names used by Russian hackers.
The joint analysis report — which refers to the Russian activity headlined by its efforts hack into US government and political organizations as “GRIZZLY STEPPE” — included a list of code names used by reported actors associated with the Russian military and civilian intelligence service who engaged in various phishing schemes aimed at foreign targets.
Some of those absurd names included “SEADADDY,” “HAMMERTOSS,” “Energetic Bear,” and “Carberp.” Many of the names include “duke” or “bear,” such as the more well-known alias “Fancy Bear.”
Read the whole story from Business Insider.
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The WaPo was really grasping at straws. It's important to consider that for the past few decades, the general public have seen "hacking" portrayed in the movies through all kinds of ridiculous animations and flying text. It has been enhanced for dramatic purpose because the reality is that to watch it would be mind-numbingly dull. So it's not a surprise to see how easy it has been for those with an agenda to convince the public that there was some technical mastery at foot here. I'm going to date myself, but when I was testifying in court regarding Solar Sunrise, the guy on trial turned a special shade of red when I kept referring to him as a "script kiddie".
To say there are "issues" with the GRIZZLY STEPPE report is like saying water is wet. :-). Why would our government put out a report that a intern in network technologies would know that the report is bogus, is the the 2 cent question?
Righto, Steve, that was the whole reason for that article. To go a further step here is the fake news which first came out - the MSM at it again - fear mongering. Fake news? The Russians did not hack the U.S. power grid December 31, 2016 The Washington Post caused a mild social media stir Friday when they posted a story alleging that the Russians had hacked the U.S. power grid via a utility company in Vermont. http://tinyurl.com/j28756o and the vid will really entertain you - Obama at his best skulduggery expelling 35 Russian spys (?) over this. Tech experts find flaws in US report on Russian hacking Jan. 01, 2017 http://video.foxnews.com/v/5267494058001/?#sp=show-clips
Amen, Txazz...Amen, indeed!!!
I agree with you regarding the scary potential consequences of an attack on our power grid. At the same time, we should be careful in how we interpret information. The malware was found on a single laptop that was not connected to the control system network. Was the laptop targeted because of where the owner worked, or could they randomly be one of thousands infected? If it was random, was there an attempt to leverage this vector to go after the grid once the perpetrators realized where the owner worked? Is the group behind the DNC hack the only group using this malware? To go from "we found a laptop with malware on it" to "this was an attempted attack on the grid" requires connecting a number of dots. It may exist at classified levels, but I haven't seen information that backs up connecting those dots.