Another 'Russian Hacker' Story Debunks Itself
The British news agency Reuters is again distributing false claims about 'Russian hacking':
Classified U.S.-UK trade documents leaked ahead of Britain’s 2019 election were stolen from the email account of former trade minister Liam Fox by suspected Russian hackers, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because a law enforcement investigation is underway, said the hackers accessed the account multiple times between July 12 and Oct. 21 last year.
They declined to name which Russian group or organisation they believed was responsible, but said the attack bore the hallmarks of a state-backed operation.
The highlighted date of July 12 is interesting.
The Telegraph was the first to report from the leaked papers:
Leaked documents expose lack of progress in US-UK trade talks
bigger
That was on July 10 2019, two days before the 'Russians hackers' allegedly got their hands on the British-U.S. trade documents!
Back in December the same Reuters 'European Cybersecurity Correspondent', Jack Stubbs, authored another wild scare story that blamed some dubious Russian group for different leak of UK government papers.
Leak of papers before UK election raises 'spectre of foreign influence' - experts
It was as fact free as his current one.
Stubbs should ask his MI6 handlers to stop embarrassing him.
Posted by b on August 3, 2020 at 18:37 UTC | Permalink
In England, the truth of any assertions about Russian Hacking or Russian election meddling or any general Russian malfeasance is entirely irrelevant ... the only aim is constant repetition in the hope that the the public will automatically associate 'Russian' negatively.
Posted by: chet380 | Aug 3 2020 19:02 utc | 2
"hallmarks of a state-backed operation"
Bounce the IP over some zombie PC in a enemy state of your choosing and insert some random foreign name like Igor or Chen into some fake breadcrumbs; put in a few more Cyrillic letters for good measure.
There, now everyone can fake a foreign hack.
Didn't vault 7 have some tools that SPECIFICALLY do this to hide US hacks or pin something on others?
Posted by: A.L. | Aug 3 2020 19:04 utc | 3
Are Russians keeping Julian Assange in prison for the crime of journalism? No? Maybe the UK press could do some actual journalism now and then and expose how the UK courts have been hijacked by a cabal loyal to the white supremacist Trump administration? Are the journalists in the UK now Trump's brown shirts? Doesn't that make them Putin's brown shirts since Trump works for Putin innit? Putin controls Trump who controls the UK legal system whom the journalists in the UK fear to take on over their illegal detention of Assange because he did the vicious crime of exposing truth. Brilliant.
@2
It's succeeding. We're currently under attack from Spitfire, Elgar and Churchill propaganda. See NHS spitfire for example
We are being primed for war here in Britain
Posted by: Some Random Passerby | Aug 3 2020 19:07 utc | 5
the only aim is constant repetition in the hope that the the public will automatically associate 'Russian' negatively.
Posted by: chet380 | Aug 3 2020 19:02 utc | 2
The brilliant / sad thing is the Western mainstream public with memory of a goldfish and a sheep's critical reasoning capacity are really buying it.
Sorry to the sheeps, the four legged kind...
Posted by: A.L. | Aug 3 2020 19:10 utc | 6
... two days before the 'Russians hackers' allegedly got their hands on the British-U.S. trade documents!
LOL!
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 3 2020 19:12 utc | 7
Nazism, the superior stage of imperialism:
Caitlin Johnstone: When corporate power is your real government, corporate media is state media
@ b.
“ Stubbs should ask his MI6 handlers to stop embarrasing him “.
No! The whole ‘ bloody ‘ Bristish establishment should stop embarrasing every U.K. citizen!
# Utter wankers.
Posted by: Beibdnn | Aug 3 2020 20:27 utc | 9
A poster shared this John Helmer story a few days ago - it is very relevant here:
JOE BIDEN ADVANCE TEAM RECOMMENDS BRITISH APPROACH TO FIGHTING RUSSIA – START THE DISINFORMATION BEFORE THE FACT, THE FAKE BEFORE THE TRUTH — DOUBT IS RUSSIAN MIND CONTROL
http://johnhelmer.net/joe-biden-advance-team-recommends-british-approach-to-fighting-russia-start-the-disinformation-before-the-fact-the-fake-before-the-truth-doubt-is-russian-mind-control/#more-34229
This is the purpose of the Russia-is-responsible-for-all-malign-events disinformation campaigns as stated by a junior deep-stater:
“An analysis of the UK experience offers some indicators as to what deters Russia….Taken together, this swift, coordinated national response backed by the weight of the international community and imposition of punitive measures exposed Russian malign influence activities and incompetence, embarrassing Russia in the eyes of its citizens. Over time, such reputational damage could cause more serious problems for the Russian government vis-à-vis the Russian people."
Posted by: jayc | Aug 3 2020 20:35 utc | 10
@ jayc | Aug 3 2020 20:35 utc | 10
Last time, Putin was seen weaponizing humor. What devious plan is up next in his perverted sadistic mastermind? Weaponizing critical thought?
Posted by: Lurk | Aug 3 2020 20:55 utc | 11
As 5-Eyes nations fall further behind Russia & China, the outright lies and disinformation will increase as they'll no longer be capable of honest competition--and that's just the business sphere. In the social sphere, as living standards continue to fall for 5-Eyes residents relative to Russia and China, the shrillness and mendacity of the lying will escalate to cover for the vast political failure that's responsible for the decline. As some have noted, there's been a reversal of positions with the Outlaw US Empire becoming ever more degraded like the USSR previously. Both UK and USA continually behave as spoilt brats, taking their ball home when no longer allowed to win. Self-examination is Taboo. Those watching rightly question how it was that such people rose to dominant positions--completely accidental is the answer.
Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 3 2020 21:09 utc | 13
What is missing in this business is a consistent, principled opposition to a very crude campaign of warmongering.
As jayc@10 reminds us there is no such voice in the United States. And none is expected. There is certainly none in the trilateral commission guided British Labour Party.
I have no doubt that one of the key reasons for the failures of the Corbyn and Sanders projects was their refusal to add another unpopular(to the ruling class and deep state) policy, namely opposition to NATO and a commitment to Peace, to the mild socialist reforms they suggested.
The fight against the imperialist monster has to be conducted on all fronts, simultaneously. Saying little about Russia as Corbyn, who clearly knew much better, did or supporting the Clintonite nonsense of Russiagate, as Sanders, idiotically, did does not appease the ruling class it merely reassures them that they are dealing with a weak, unfocused and eminently corruptible opposition.
The truth is indivisible: you cannot tell the truth about Israel while going along with the imperialists on Syria, nor can you oppose notional prisons in Xinkiang while promoting an actual Gulag (without redeeming features) across the imperial metropolis.
As the system's crisis deepens opposition, to engage the support of the people, has to be absolutely honest, and that includes trusting everyone to be able to recognise, for example, the obvious inconsistencies and lies involved in cases like that of the Skripals which dramatically exemplify the cynicism and violence of a class which will do anything to preserve the wealth that it acquired without working.
Posted by: bevin | Aug 3 2020 21:35 utc | 14
@ jayc 10
If the British establishment think that they can undermine the authority of the Russian govt. in the eyes of their citizens by their puerile attemps at propaganda then all that illustrates is their utter incompetence and complete lack of understanding of Russia and it’s culture.
Posted by: Beibdnn | Aug 3 2020 21:47 utc | 15
Karlof1@13
“ Both UK and USA continually behave as spoilt brats, taking their ball home when no longer allowed to win. Self-examination is Taboo. Those watching rightly question how it was that such people rose to dominant positions--completely accidental is the answer/“
Disagree on your “answer”. In their heyday they acted ruthlessly and with foresight while expanding their empires. What we’re seeing now is well expressed in Oliver Goldsmith’s lines: “Ill fares the land, where wealth accumulates, and men decay”. Not unlike the later Romans who sent proxies to fight their battles while they luxuriated on their estates.
Posted by: Senelis | Aug 3 2020 22:04 utc | 16
pro tip for anyone following "hacker" stories: if someone uses "cyber-" as a prefix they're probably full of shit.
Posted by: the pair | Aug 3 2020 22:25 utc | 17
Senelis @16--
Thanks for your reply! Yes, I should have been more expansive than merely using the word accidental. That word relates to the specific historical fate of circumstances that are related in Guns, Germs, and Steel, whereas by the 15th Century CE neither the Asian or Islamic worlds were intent on militaristic expansion, although both were capable had they made that choice. That era is now coming to a close with the rise of Asia led by China. As I wrote on the other current thread, China's vision is markedly different from the Outlaw US Empire's, which has indeed decayed as you describe.
Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 3 2020 22:27 utc | 18
"...the attack bore the hallmarks of a state-backed operation."
I'd like to know what those hallmarks are. I bet they would tell a great deal. And do different states bear different hallmarks?
Posted by: Chas | Aug 3 2020 23:10 utc | 19
When Reuters issues a report making claims of Russian hacking but omits to correct the date from 12 July 2019 to one before 10 July 2019, the date when British newspapers started referring to the leaked trade documents, and includes in its report the usual cliches like "They [the sources that speak only on conditions of anonymity] declined to name which Russian group or organisation they believed was responsible, but said the attack bore the hallmarks of a state-backed operation", that whole operation - the report itself, the use of more than one Reuters reporter to make that report and overlooking apparently piffling details like the date when Russian hackers supposedly got hold of the leaked documents (and not bothering to check whether someone else - like The London Daily Telegraph - had got to them first) - bears the hallmarks of a state-backed operation.
One narrative (itself a hallmark of a state-backed operation) missing is that these Russian hackers are GRU spies who always, always, always work in pairs. They never seem able to do anything on their own.
Probably the biggest hallmark of a state-backed operation is the sheer lack of imagination needed to make the same old dreary cliches sound fresh and at least faux-authentic.
Posted by: Jen | Aug 4 2020 0:23 utc | 20
The Guardian is running a more sophisticated version of the story. It claims the Russians hacked the papers and gave them to Jeremy Corbyn so he could win the General Elections of December 2019:
Russians hacked Liam Fox's personal email to get US-UK trade dossier
The stolen documents – a 451-page dossier of emails – ultimately ended up in the hands of Jeremy Corbyn during last winter’s election campaign after Russian actors tried to disseminate the material online.They had been posted on the social media platform Reddit and brought to the attention of the then Labour leader’s team. Corbyn said the documents revealed the NHS “was on the table” in trade talks with the US.
Details of Russia’s targeting of Fox’s emails were first revealed on Monday by Reuters, which said his account was accessed several times between 12 July and 21 October last year. It was unclear if the documents were obtained when the staunch leave supporter was still trade secretary; he was dropped by Boris Johnson on 24 July.
However, it still is keeping the earliest date as July 12th, thus reproducing the entire Reuters' version.
My guess is that The Guardian adapted the story to its center-left (i.e. Blairite) audience, in a way both Corbyn and the Conservative and Unionist Party could be melded together as a single evil force. If that's the case, then it is circumstantial evidence for a highly and centrally coordinated propaganda machine in the UK, possibly ran directly from the MI5/6, which directly involves all the important British newspapers, TV channels and more.
It's interesting to see how The Guardian sophisticated the clearly fake story. In the excerpt I quoted above, it is clear the source of the leak could've only been secretary Fox (or Fox served as the sacrificial lamb, it doesn't matter for the sake of the argument here).
Then, it connected Fox's leak with Raab's public accusation of Russia (that story where he accused Russia in the name of the British government, but didn't reveal the evidence).
To end with a high note, the Guardian then revived a story of hacked e-mails from 2012 and 2017.
You can then see how the British are capable of recycling old, failed propaganda attacks/fake news to transform then into a new "truth". Very curious and sophisticated methodology of building a long-term, sustained, false narrative. It almost mirrors the Christian method of typology, where a previous event is brought up from oblivion to serve as a prelude for the new event (i.e. the newest fake news).
"he attack bore the hallmarks of a state-backed operation."
There is no such thing.
Look at the Twitter hack last week. Everyone said "must be some sophisticated actor, possibly state-sponsored". Turns out it was a 17-year-old in Florida. That has happened repeatedly in the last ten years or more: hacks that looked "sophisticated" turned out to be done by a single individual. People forget that some organized crime hacker groups earn millions of dollars from their hacks and can afford to put quite an effort into the development of sophisticated hacking tools that are the equal of anything a state intelligence agency can produce.
People in infosec know the truth: it's not that hard to compromise any corporation or individual. And "attribution by target" - that is, the notion that because a particular person or organization is government or media, therefore it has to be a state-related hacker - is completely false. *Any* hacker will hit *any* target that provides 1) a challenge, and/or 2) personal identification information, and/or intellectual property that can be sold on the Dark Web.
Only situations where specialized knowledge that is not commonly available to individuals or civilian groups was used in the hack can clearly indicate a state actor. Stuxnet is the classic example, requiring access to and the ability to test the malware with specific pieces of hardware that aren't commonly available to persons outside of industrial or nuclear engineering.
Stealing some papers from a government individual off his phone or home or office desktop is almost trivial in comparison.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Aug 4 2020 1:08 utc | 22
thanks for the laugh b! i agree with the other posters here and liked to comment - utter wankers - in reference to the uk! what an embarrassment to uk people!!
if nothing else, it sheds more light on the skripal affair, abet not a very nice one... these uk news-intel folks are utter wankers!!
Posted by: james | Aug 4 2020 1:09 utc | 23
"his account was accessed several times between 12 July and 21 October"
So for three months they did nothing to fix his security? Good work, guys...you're fired. This is typical - hackers sitting in a corporation's network for months or even years without being detected. It's likely they didn't even notice the unauthorized access until they decided to look back. Not to mention that a government worker isn't supposed to be using "personal email" to host classified information. So the idiot involved should be fired.
Typical infosec clusterfuck. That's assuming it happened at all, of course, which is doubtful.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Aug 4 2020 1:12 utc | 24
Well, lost two post due to the VPN being on...sigh...
OK, to quote the old British comedy radio show, "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again"...
"...the attack bore the hallmarks of a state-backed operation."
There is no such thing. *Any* hacker will hack *any* target provided it provides 1) a challenge, and/or 2) personal identification information, and/or 3) intellectual property, the latter two being sold on the Dark Web. Trying to attribute the hacker based on his target is a fool's game - not that there is any lack of fools in the infosec space who use such attribution as marketing, such as CrowdStrike.
Then there's the fact that this guy's account was accessed several times over a three-month period - meaning no one was monitoring his email security, least of all him. Not to mention that he was passing classified papers over a personal email account - which should get him fired. Email is *insecure*, period, unless encrypted between the parties involved. And even then, you just compromise one party's desktop, laptop or phone, and bingo, encryption bypassed. And compromising an individual's or organization's email system is not particularly hard, as any penetration tester knows. One phishing email targeted to the right person usually does it.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Aug 4 2020 1:21 utc | 25
And then the two posts show up, of course... LOL
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Aug 4 2020 1:22 utc | 26
Like the previous fake Russian-Taliban bounty deal, so what even if they were real?
Bunch of sore losers pretending as if they are as helpless as Tuvalu.
Posted by: J W | Aug 4 2020 2:39 utc | 27
On the umpteenth reiteration one thing is certain: no one technically and/or cognitively capable on "their side" reads the news or they would never stop complaining about the "political PHBs" embarrassing the profession. Or maybe they just quit()? ;) No wonder they have recruitment issues and have to reach out to children (and children won't accept this kind of bullshit either, they'll usually see right through it: it's why almost all parents end up "hated" at some point at some or several ages, reasonably or not).
The main point goes for both sides actually considering all the outright nonsense and make-believe surrounding the DNC emails on both sides. "Forensics" my ass, no imagination about Turing-completeness equals instant loss (and I'm not a hacker, nor a cracker, or even a coder beyond silly personal dabbling that the Pythonistas by their existence keep luring me back to every second year or so (hence the quit() joke above)).
I shouldn't even #: the all-round idiocy on display drives me up the wall and tempts me to make up and share abysmally stupid jokes about oxes (0x) and silly 0b0o0xes and and so Forth and go searching for old joke programs about 42 >:| No, I want as little as possible to do with it for my own mental well-being (and most likely yours too haha).
Life is too short but not too short to grumble :D
(I hope this doesn't double-post, I timed out and the page looked a little weird)
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Aug 4 2020 2:40 utc | 28
article i'd like to see
"several anonymous intelligence officials, speaking on deep background, say never to believe anonymous intelligence officials quoted in the press"
Posted by: pretzelattack | Aug 4 2020 3:17 utc | 29
As to who hacked the data, I'm with Craig Murray on this one.
"I am sceptical it was the Russians who hacked and leaked Liam Fox's plans to sell out the NHS in a UK/US trade deal.
But whether it was the Russians, Anonymous, the Irish, French, North Koreans or Uncle Tom Cobley, I have one thing to say.
Thank you. Craig Murray Twitter
And a thank you to Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange and the many others who expose the crimes of the evil empire.
Posted by: Tom | Aug 4 2020 4:26 utc | 30
"...the attack bore the hallmarks of a state-backed operation."
Such as the BBC?
Posted by: Norwegian | Aug 4 2020 5:00 utc | 31
VK @ 21:
The Fraudian employs a defence and security editor??? Are not the intrepid Luke Harding, the dill-hater Shaun Walker and the ever-vigilant Jonathan Freedland good enough for The Fraudian???
But wait ... this is what the Defence and Security Editor Dan Sabbagh reported nearly three weeks ago:
UK says Russia sought to interfere in 2019 election by spreading documents online
"Dominic Raab says Russia amplified an illicitly acquired NHS dossier on social media..."
Shock, horror!
But, but, but ... isn't it the job of mainstream news media to report that a potential free trade deal between the US and the UK included in its details a proposed privatisation or part-privatisation of the UK's National Health Service? Whether or not the dossier became available to the public legally or illegally, wouldn't the inclusion of a proposal to change significantly the nature of the NHS and its funding in such a deal mean that knowledge of the deal is in the public interest?
Posted by: Jen | Aug 4 2020 5:11 utc | 32
Just a random train of thought ——-
So here we are 9 months since the Tory’s // Johnson won the general election U.K.
How’s that all going ? ........
With Corbyn in the virus would have been minimal.
How now dose Britain stand regarding geopolitical power ?
Weak ? Strong ? Desperate ? Bankrupt of ideas and direction.
>> I told you so.<<
For the rest of the world it’s a good thing.
But with Corbyn in, it would have been even better.
Posted by: Mark2 | Aug 4 2020 9:08 utc | 33
I am not Jack Stubbs, though I will be changing my nic shortly to avoid confusion for his MI6 handlers.
I got my copy of the dossier from Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/worldpolitics/comments/dkzlfc/officialsensitive_great_britain_is_practically/
which would've been at abt the same time as Mr Corbyn, according to the Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/nov/27/jeremy-corbyn-reveals-dossier-proving-nhs-up-for-sale
OBTW. Anyone looking to download the zip file from that Reddit page is advised to decline the offers of "notifications". They get bothersome.
the pair #17
Thank you - Cyber! It sure indicates a total BS story coming up.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Aug 4 2020 11:14 utc | 35
@34 Stubbs
Take a look at the metadata of the 5th readout file.
Posted by: S.O. | Aug 4 2020 14:09 utc | 36
Those watching rightly question how it was that such people rose to dominant positions--completely accidental is the answer.
Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 3 2020 21:09 utc | 13
They rose to their positions not accidentally but through their susceptibility to blackmail - often using Epstein's network, which is what it is for. Politicians in the whole of the western world - especially successful ones - are mere puppets for their puppet masters. The puppet masters have to be sure they will obey orders even when caught between a rock ad a hard place. A look at history shows this has been the case for decades.
Posted by: BM | Aug 4 2020 14:30 utc | 37
BM @ 37
Yes yes ! It’s also clear that MI5 and MI6 don’t work for the benifit of the public , both work toward desevieing the public.
The same as the CIA and FBI in America.
In the U.K. as you know they carried out telephone surveillance and bugging on Harold Wilson. Whilst he was Prime Minister !
So with the intelligence service and the media on the side of the deep state what chance democracy ?
Britain is just a flag of convenience for corporate wealth. City of London / canary warf wealth ! Whilst the public can go to the dogs.
It’s a shame.
Posted by: Mark2 | Aug 4 2020 15:07 utc | 38
"the Russians escaped while we weren't watching them...like Russians do"--Jackson Browne lyrics in the song Lawyers in Love
Posted by: Gregory | Aug 4 2020 15:40 utc | 39
BM @37
I am sure you realize this, but Epstein's operation is just one out of many. Girls are not everybody's weakness, after all. As well, the CIA does a great deal of its recruitment of "assets" on university campuses.
There are different ways to blackmail people, and there are other ways to guaranteed loyalty besides blackmail. The CIA uses a variety.
Posted by: William Gruff | Aug 4 2020 15:57 utc | 40
In addition to being totally fact-free, this Russian hack story does not at all fit into one of the Deep State's themes about Russia, that it wants to weaken the EU (as part of weakening the West). The Deep State and its visible Remainers have been pushing the unproven story that Russia tipped the Brexit referendum because it wants a weaker EU. If that were the case, then Russia would have rooted for a Boris Johnson victory in the last general election and hence would not have made his election campaign more challenging by handing Labour's Corbyn documents that allegedly showed the "NHS was in play".
Posted by: SmellTheCoffee | Aug 4 2020 16:26 utc | 41
One narrative (itself a hallmark of a state-backed operation) missing is that these Russian hackers are GRU spies who always, always, always work in pairs. They never seem able to do anything on their own.
Probably the biggest hallmark of a state-backed operation is the sheer lack of imagination needed to make the same old dreary cliches sound fresh and at least faux-authentic.
Posted by: Jen | Aug 4 2020 0:23 utc | 20
You exaggerate. You forgot the most sinister Russian agent on American soil in recent years, Mariya Valeryevna Butina.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Aug 4 2020 17:08 utc | 42
at some point the question is not, "are they lying?" It is why do people still believe their lying crap since they do nothing but lie. it is an astonishing fantasy world wherein the dead piling up in mounds are China's and/or Russia's fault. China's relative success vs Covid AND that of many of its neighbors who are clearly "piggybacking" off of China's efforts (b/c they recognize their interdependence) is meaningless. What is happening in Vietnam vs say Japan means nothing.
"all day long we are led like sheep to the slaughter". being fleeced all along the way, too.
Posted by: jason | Aug 4 2020 17:56 utc | 43
lol piotr! thank god for humour in the face of so much madness..
Posted by: james | Aug 4 2020 18:19 utc | 44
The comments to this entry are closed.
"The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity ..."
At this point, any story about Russia or China that includes this qualifier for its support deserves to be entirely disbelieved. There should be absolutely NO deference, predisposition to trust or appeal to authority allowed; mainstream journalism has lost those privileges (if they ever had it) after the garbage strewn about the past 18 years (since pre-Iraq war) but especially the past four years.
Posted by: Caliman | Aug 3 2020 19:00 utc | 1