NSA hack an inside Job
or is the Russian Government using hackers to breach everything
A newly published article today accuses Russian hackers of breaching the Olympic drug testing agency…
Many assumed that Russia was behind the hack of the DNC.
Headlines last Friday suggest that Russia has hacked The Donald’s campaign.
Everyone assumes that Russia is behind the hack of the NSA and Edward Snowden has reportedly issued a statement that indicates Russia was most likely responsible for the hack at the NSA.
What the hell haven’t they hacked? Wait, they have not hacked Starbuck’s making it so that I have a lifetime supply of coffee.
It could have been Russia who by the way denies any involvement in these hacks.
What was the loot in the NSA hack?
Well as it so happens the hack exposed cyber-weapons intel. That intel reveals just how the NSA hacks suspects and enemies and further details a tracking code that just so happens to reveal the fingerprints of the NSA's malicious software.
So we really have to wonder what Russia might have to gain if they are truly behind the hack of the NSA? I mean the DNC might have been a just for fun type of thing if Russia was behind it, but what about the NSA? Does Russia feel the NSA had at one time infiltrated them and downloaded some type of malicious software?
To fully understand that, you need to get to know The Equation Group and TAO, two branches of the NSA.
Kaspersky labs describes The Equation Group as “one of the most sophisticated cyber attack groups in the world.” The Equation Group according to Kaspersky labs has operated alongside Stuxnet and Flame.
TAO identifies, monitors and has a nasty little habit of infiltrating and gathering intelligence on computer systems used by foreign entities to the US.
Anyone who has seen the Stuxnet documentary knows that it is widely believed that Stuxnet was created jointly by the US and Israel.
Which makes total sense because Israel is reportedly 15 years ahead of everyone else in terms of Cyber-Defense and Security.
Russia however, was one of the named 42 countries that the Equation Group infiltrated over the course of its 14 year project creating backdoors to foreign Government networks.
Not only did the Equation Group create backdoors, they also seemed to enjoy intercepting hardware from IT companies, globally.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Equation Group has a pretty good reputation for using strong ENCRYPTION methods. They just can’t seem to figure out a way around encryption when folks like Apple create it for consumers to use.
So who kicked in the door at the NSA?
A group called Shadow Brokers took the credit for hacking the NSA. Things got a little crazy when they came out because they boasted rather audaciously and offered to auction off the goods for $576 Bitcoins.
Bidders backed way off and the general consensus has been that those responsible for the breach were not just some run of the mill hackers but a foreign Government, hiding behind the idea the breach was caused by a group of nobody hackers.
From that, another theory sparked a lot of interest and that was, that someone inside of the NSA was in fact responsible for the leaked intel.
Out of all of the theories, this is actually what more than likely happened.
The NSA stores sensitive information on air-gapped networks, which are networks that are not connected to the internet, i.e. the outside world. They also have other security measures, not to mention despite being a pain in the ass to crack, it’s still doable.
They can be cracked through the use of undetected malware, cell phones, as Edward Snowden proved a flash drive, even a sim card can do the trick.
The point is, it’s pretty clear that the responsible party is within the ranks at the NSA.
Now, I am not saying that I am convinced that Edward Snowden had anything to do with it however…
A strange sequence of events happened shortly before the breach.
On 8/5, Edward Snowden reached out through Twitter, with an odd message to those that knew him or who ever worked with him asking them to contact him followed by 64 characters of code. That message lead many to believe that Edward had been captured or killed and failed to do a check-in prompting his account to send out a dead man’s switch. His account went silent after the odd tweets.
Shortly after that, at least 8 torrent sites had been taken down or slowed. The sites are well known to distribute large files.
News of the hack and leak at the NSA broke on 8/15
Edward Snowden began tweeting again on 8/15
Edward Snowden seems to think that the Russian Government is behind some of these hacks and has said as much through the media....initially it was almost as if he was handing out the idea like we hand out candy at Halloween.
And I, don’t believe in coincidence.
I also don’t believe that the Russian Government was behind the hacks. It’s too neatly wrapped with the bow neatly tied on top.
Blaming the Russian Government seems too easy, too perfect and too convenient.
The hack came from the inside and the NSA just got owned again.
Cristal M Clark
