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Microsoft: Russia behind 58% of detected state-backed hacks

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By FRANK BAJAK

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Here is a link to the MS blog (executive summary): https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2021/10/07/digital-defense-report-2021/ .

And a link to the report: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/business/microsoft-digital-defense-report?rtc=1 .

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And the 134 page PDF is at this URL: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=2173952&clcid=0x409&culture=en-us&country=US .

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It's a national industry and whole-of-government effort. North Korea is the same - hacking and ransomware bring in resources. China and Iran's hackers aren't in it for the money.

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Thanks for the link, Skeptical.

I'm wondering how they determine what is a "nation state" action as opposed to a private action of some kind. I couldn't find that info in the document, but I may have missed it as I only skimmed through it. Does anyone know?

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China and Iran's hackers aren't in it for the money.

China's are. After they get the information the government wants their hackers are allowed to mount ransomware and other types of attacks for their personal profit. This is a recent change.

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I'm wondering how they determine what is a "nation state" action as opposed to a private action of some kind. I couldn't find that info in the document, but I may have missed it as I only skimmed through it. Does anyone know?

The good cyber security organizations such as Fireeye (formerly known as Mandiant) can often identify individual hackers by name and who they work for. An example is a Fireeye report on what they called APT-1, for Advanced Persistent Threat 1. They were able to determine APT-1 is a particular unit of the Peoples Liberation Army and their workplace in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai. They were able to positively identify one of the hackers by name and seemed to know a lot about his habits. They identify another couple of hackers too. People are creatures of habit and have knowable hacking styles that identify them. The best cyber security organizations can often hack the hackers and infiltrate their systems to learn about them, even use their computer camera's and microphones while they are hacking. That report on APT-1 has video screen shots showing the Chinese hacking their customer's system in real time.

https://www.mandiant.com/resources/mandiant-exposes-apt1-chinas-cyber-espionage-units

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People gotta remember - the security experts who track these hacks are as smart as the hackers

It's an arms race - there are very smart people on both sides

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Using Polonium 210 pellets is so passé! Today's candidate for "Hero of the Motherland" must be a tech-enabled hacker to get promoted!

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