back to article FBI fingers North Korea for two malware strains

US CERT has issued a Technical Alert that says two strains of malware are tools of the North Korean government. The Alert says that the United States’ Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) “identified IP addresses and other indicators of compromise (IOCs) associated with two families …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Credibility

    Why would anyone believe the FBI attribution? They have not been shown to be the neutral fearless lawmen with integrity.

    Does anyone really believe that the Norks were responsible for the Sony leak? This looks like a gathering of negotiating collateral for the Kim-Trump talks in Singapore.

    1. veti Silver badge

      Re: Credibility

      Well, what's your evidence then?

      I'm not saying the FBI is above making all this up, but I don't see any reason to doubt them on this subject. The only aspect of this claim that looks even slightly far-fetched is the (implied, not stated) idea that these are the only threats the FBI has been analysing this week.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Credibility

        Please tell me how you can identify a country from a throw away email address and an IP address that could be hacked as a C&C server because hosting it on your own IP address would be very stupid?

        Do you believe North Korea wants to get caught? If so, why call the group "hidden" cobra?

        Whose narrative does blaming North Korea align perfectly?

        My money is on Vatican City as they have something to prove with being the smallest country in the world.

      2. Kabukiwookie

        Re: Credibility

        Compulsive liars, need to prove they're not lying this time.

        Interestingly, this was immediately attributed to North Korea, while if you check for Stuxnet on the same site, there's not a single link that implicates the US and/or Israel.

        For some reason it looks like 'technical' statements from US Cert are highly politicised, and that should already be a reason to take anything they say with a grain of salt.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Credibility

      I don't much care about the credibility of the FBI's attribution. It wouldn't surprise me if they were wrong or lying, but it's the accuracy of the analysis that is the really important thing.

      They can blame who they like as long as they correctly tell us how to identify the malware and deal with it. Attribution is more important for those charged with dealing retribution, I think.

    3. Mahhn

      Re: Credibility

      The Sony hack evidence was all made up by one Noris corp executive (see stories about the companies implosion) so that is very old news.

      I don't doubt this is NK, just because its been around since 2009 and hasn't amounted to squat for 9 years.

  2. Mark 85

    It's been in the wild for 9 years?

    And this is the first they've said about it? Seems strange to wait that long unless there's some exploitation being done by "friendly" agencies or the "friendly" agencies used it against someone else.

  3. _LC_
    Facepalm

    Mobsters handing out "information" for free

    To state that they have zero credibility would be an overstatement as they have been caught telling lies over and over and over and over and over and over ...

  4. x 7

    Active for nine years and only just spotted?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    OK got it....

    ...summit cancelled.

    NK back to being the bad guys.

    Got it.

    Russia next week?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Tools of the US deep state

    You're in danger of losing all credibility. Would you please leave this kind of politicized neo-con waffle to the main stream press, like Faux News. Maybe the current purpose of such cyber waffle is in retaliation for Trump firing the FBI director. Remember this is the same FBI that re-opened the Clinton investigation days before the election and in the process possible sabotaging her presidential ambitions.

    Maybe there are numerous agencies in Washington, all endeavoring to politically influence events through selective leaks to their tame reporters in the MSM. Sometimes having facilitated such incidents in the first place. For example leak a report implicating Russia in hacking the US presidential election, then within days, charge the leaker.

    They achieve two things, inject the 'Russian hackers' meme into the narrative and show just how on the ball they are at catching 'spies'. You would think an intelligence officer of all people, would know about those hidden yellow dots on printouts. But then again such stories are aimed at the domestic audience. ref

    In short, I believe, nothing - nothing - these people have to say.

  7. JaitcH
    Thumb Up

    The FBI, and Other US Government Agencies Should Get Their Stories Straight!

    Some US Agencies have claimed the DPRK (North Korea) are in the technical Dark Ages, whilst others claim the country is as advanced as many others, especially since Russia has provided additional InterNet access to the DPRK.

    As someone who works there four or five times a year, I know that much of the country's technological advances are home-based talent. Overseas technical resources, even YouTube, are widely distributed on the internal InterNet.

    Advanced components are readily available - imported through China and Russia.

    Whilst faculties aren't bright and shiny, what they do have is exploited to the maximum.

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