NYTimes.com: Did One Guy Just Stop a Huge Cyberattack?

[John Clark]

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription.

Did One Guy Just Stop a Huge Cyberattack?

A Microsoft engineer noticed something was off on a piece of software he worked on. He soon discovered someone was probably trying to gain access to computers all over the world.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/03/technology/prevent-cyberattack-linux.html?unlocked_article_code=1.h00.SM26.A41shONSS_wE&smid=em-share

[John Clark]

On Thu, Apr 4, 2024 at 10:59 PM Keith Henson <hkeith...@gmail.com> wrote:

"That's one of the most amazing stories I have ever heard."

Anyone should feel free to forward it to the Extropy List. I can't. 

 John K Clark

 

Open-source software is normally secure, but not against this kind of
attack.  Whoever did it spent years working their way into a position
of trust.

Keith

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[Russell Standish]

I'd be surprised if it hadn't been done so already. This story has
been in the mainstream media news for the past weekend at least.

I agree its an amazing story - we collectively dodged a bullet, but
worryingly have little to prevent its reoccurrence.

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[John Clark]

On Thu, Apr 4, 2024 at 10:59 PM Keith Henson <hkeith...@gmail.com> wrote:

> "Open-source software is normally secure, but not against this kind of  attack.  Whoever did it spent years working their way into a position of trust."

 

It doesn't look like the workings of an individual to me, I think it needed the resources of a nation state. The principal suspects are China, Iran and Russia. If it had not been caught in time an attack like this probably wouldn't have killed as many people as 9/11 did but would've caused hundreds of billions of dollars in damage and deeply embarrassed whoever was president at the time of the attack. So I don't think it was China or Iran because Trump becoming president would not significantly help them, but it certainly would help Vladimir Putin. So my guess would be Russia. Months before this there had  been speculation that Putin would try to do something to embarrass Biden just before the November election because that would help his friend become president and guarantee a Russian victory in the Ukrainian war and a free hand to do whatever he wanted to the rest of Europe; And the beauty of a well executed cyber attack is that, although you may have your suspicions, it's very difficult to prove where it came from. I wonder if Vladimir has another October surprise up his sleeve.  

John K Clark