Leak Suggests NSA Was Deep in Middle East Banking System

Re:Leak Suggests NSA Was Deep in Middle East Banking System by sigmar on Sunday April 16, 2017 @08:36PM (#14128465)

I strongly disagree with much of that. Hacking capability is not nearly as specialized as nuclear or ICBM technology. Computer science is taught in almost every university, and knowledge on it can be acquired in many non-formal settings. A 0day can be purchased in the range of $100,000, which is well within the budget of many countries. Additionally, there are many "advanced persistent threats" that are thought not to be state sponsored.

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Re:Leak Suggests NSA Was Deep in Middle East Banking System by bigbugbag on Sunday April 16, 2017 @09:57PM (#14128767)

So basically what you say is that students can get diplomas in computer science and several countries can afford to spend $100,000. This hardly makes a case for any country being able to match the US capability and exposed acts of hacking.

I sincerely doubt that a country could pull out a stuxnet with a couple $100,000 0day and a hundreds of people with computer science diplomas. There's a reason stuxnet was almost instantly pinned on the US and that reason is that apart from maybe China and Russia (who seem to have fun hacking the US and not getting caught or exposed) no other country can match the US.

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Re:Leak Suggests NSA Was Deep in Middle East Banking System by sigmar on Sunday April 16, 2017 @10:01PM (#14128779)

>This hardly makes a case for any country being able to match the US capability and exposed acts of hacking.

No one is making that case

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Re:Leak Suggests NSA Was Deep in Middle East Banking System by ionised on Wednesday April 19, 2017 @05:42AM (#14146569)

> his hardly makes a case for any country being able to match the US capability and exposed acts of hacking

This is bizarre to witness.

It's amost like as an American you need to be safe in the perception that the US is #1 always, even in truly terrible things.

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Re:Leak Suggests NSA Was Deep in Middle East Banking System by code_duck on Monday April 17, 2017 @02:18AM (#14129511)

The US also happens to be the home and origin of most of the global software industry.

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Re:Leak Suggests NSA Was Deep in Middle East Banking System by coldtea on Sunday April 16, 2017 @09:13PM (#14128601)

>I strongly disagree with much of that. Hacking capability is not nearly as specialized as nuclear or ICBM technology

No, but doing anything with the data, and being able to get away with doing it, is.

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Re:Leak Suggests NSA Was Deep in Middle East Banking System by Buge on Sunday April 16, 2017 @09:21PM (#14128639)

It's easy to get away with it if you don't have an extradition treaty with the US. But as soon as you go on vacation to a country that does have a treaty...

https://qz.com/954265/russian-hacker-pyotr-levashov-arrested...

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Re:Leak Suggests NSA Was Deep in Middle East Banking System by coldtea on Monday April 17, 2017 @01:05PM (#14132535)

>It's easy to get away with it if you don't have an extradition treaty with the US.

It's not about being extradited. It's about your country being bombed, economically pressured, embargoed, messed with diplomatically, through your neighbors given preferential treatment and arms, etc.

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Re:Leak Suggests NSA Was Deep in Middle East Banking System by sigmar on Sunday April 16, 2017 @11:41PM (#14129090)

Did the U.S. get away with it? Sort of, maybe? But we _are_ commenting on a wired article about it.

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Re:Leak Suggests NSA Was Deep in Middle East Banking System by coldtea on Monday April 17, 2017 @01:06PM (#14132546)

Getting away it and "having a wired article about doing it" are totally compatible things.

The kind of not getting away with it I mean involves the impact of the world's #1 military and economy fucking your country over in retribution.

It's not like the US would even feel a pinch if some middle eastern country embargoes its products. Now reverse that, or add even more extreme measures to it (doing to Iraq level measures) and you get the point.

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