Schneier on Security

Clive Robinson • December 20, 2022 8:29 AM

@ Bruce, ALL,

Side Note : Although not directly connected to this “supply chain” attack, it’s been noted that 2022 has been the year of “Signed Driver” supply chain attacks,

https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2022/12/13/signed-driver-malware-moves-up-the-software-trust-chain/

Oh and an update on “Azov” the fake Ransomware loosly designed to look like it came from the Ukraine but did not (it has the hallmarks of some “old School” Russian virus writer going back decades).

https://research.checkpoint.com/2022/pulling-the-curtains-on-azov-ransomware-not-a-skidsware-but-polymorphic-wiper/

Clive Robinson • December 21, 2022 9:10 AM

@ Ismar,

“reading the article”

Which one?

@Bruce posted links to one article (Mandiant), and I posted two links to related stories (from Sophos and Checkpoint).

Clive Robinson • January 15, 2023 9:25 AM

@ Dex,

Re : Ukraine

“to nations which aren’t even are allies”

You might want to have a think on that claim.

The Ukraine was a nation with a lot of Russian nuclear technology including weapons it had inherited, that they did not want. As although they had the technical abilities to maintain them they did not want the problems associated with the badly designed and rapidly aging Russian technology, and after the Russian stupidity that gave them the Chernobyl who could blaim them.

The only reason Ukrain had for keeping the Russian nukes was to keep Russia away from the door. When the UK and US were running around on their “War against Terrorism” buying up old Russian nukes in old ex soviet states and wanted the Ukrainians to give the nuclear weapons back to Russia, both the UK and US entered into legaly ratified international agreament to defend the Ukraine from Russia. Which they failed to honour with the Crimea etc invasions thus actively acted against the Ukranians.

Those agreaments de jour made the Ukraine alies of the UK and US. It’s well known that the Ukraine was trying to not just join the EU, but NATO as well, and were moving down the path as quickly as they were alowed to.

It was however US Politicians in the Republican Party who were struting around to Putin’s “Strong Man” Rhetoric and likewise UK Tory Politicians along with the idiocy of Germans falling for Putin’s fake history stories that put the breaks on the Ukraine becoming fully fledged members of both the EU and NATO.

So the question you should ask yourself is not if the Ukrainians were US alies but did the UK and US honour their promises to the Ukranians?

The answer is of course that Putin had with his faux histories and strong man nonsense so enamoured politicians in the US and UK they were more than happy to just let Putin unlawfully use Russia forces to invade the Ukraine…

Oh by the way if you check you will also find that Putin and his cleaque had said that the Ukrain was just the start of their teritorial desires, he wants most if not all of Europe under his control, and those UK and US politicians just happily nodded along to the strong man rhetoric. Whilst the Germans were busily warming themselves against the fires very cheap Russian gas being “illegally” brought into the EU were giving them, which had very significant negative economic impact against the Ukraine.

Oh and have a think about why Turkey is not going to give up those nukes the US loaned them. Because they’ve known very clearly that they are about the only thing stopping Putin and Co attacking Turkey to grab the territory that Russia once held (see history of the Otaman and why Cyprus and other areas fell under British “protectorate” status).

Basically Putin’s argument, is if a Russian foot ever trod anywhere or he can pretend it did then that makes it Russian territory for ever and he is going to take it back by force. Which if you think about it includes Alaska and quite a large part of Canada. And this was the “strong man” that UK and US politicians qued up to so admire… Whilst ignoring or evading the de jur obligations they had entered into with the Ukraine.

Clive Robinson • January 15, 2023 6:57 PM

@ Winter,

“You seem to have forgotten that Ukraine was a very unstable country with a level of corruption that would make Bulgarians blush.”

It was a subject I had not forgotton, but wanted to avoid, as it has like the brown stuff that hits the fan the ability to attract flys (as can be seen currently on another thread).

To try to limit the stink, lets just say that as with Belarus the corruption was “at the top” and was assisted by another corrupt uper crust.

The difference was what happened when the ordinary people pushed back. In Belarus they failed as their “strong man” went blubering to his backer across the boarder, who then propped him up with “support”.

In the Ukraine it went differently, as their “strong man” scurried across the boarder boo-hooing rather than wait for support.

Lets just say even in the far East of the Ukraine the “grass roots support” for the “strong men” was not thick on the ground, thus crack military units invaded pretending to be “grass roots” but were effectively their to form puppet faux governments to do the “strong mans” bidding.

We can now start our stop-watches to see how long it takes for the flies to buz.