White House Computers Hacked, Viral Trojan Horse Bug

originally posted by: hounddoghowlie
you know i'm no super it tech, but it seems to me that they could take clean computers, set them up and have the required software to run the systems ready to go, just not on line. take the old ones off and place the new ones online. i'm sure the systems have backup and emergency measures in case of a computer failure. so a few seconds to a few minutes shouldn't cause any problems.


it's time like these that i bet they wish they had the hack proof computers that are in some of our missile silos. not even connected to the internet

The problem comes in the ability to network and do file transfers. Clean computers are great but they still have the same hardware and software vulnerabilities as infected computers. Those vulnerabilities can be reaccessed to place software on them. This is partially a problem of our own making as we have the NSA actively come up with ways to compromise existing equipment. Every time they discover something, rival nations with spies also get that information. This is a big part of why computer security experts are very much against what the NSA does. The practice of finding and secretly hoarding exploits means the general public or even government sectors never learn of those exploits in order to fix them.

As far as hack proof computers go it's not quite that simple. They're non networked and have no ports to plug in a device that transfers files. After the computers go up there is no mechanism to transfer files on or off of the machine. This does not work for every application, for most computer tasks including managing the power grid, financial sectors, and water treatment plants you need the ability for multiple computers to speak to each other which requires a network. In most of these cases it requires internet rather than just an intranet.

Also, it would be much more than "a few minutes" to take down an entire batch of compromised computers and physically replace them.

Oh, to add to what I said about cyber weapons in my previous post. These things if used will collapse a government/military almost overnight. They are more powerful than nuclear weapons and they equalize everyone. It doesn't take long for a nation that has no electricity, no access to financial markets, no money (due to the previous two), and no mechanism to deliver fresh food/water to collapse. All without needing to fire a single shot, commit boots on the ground, or even kill a bunch of people.

originally posted by: hounddoghowlie
you know i'm no super it tech, but it seems to me that they could take clean computers, set them up and have the required software to run the systems ready to go, just not on line. take the old ones off and place the new ones online. i'm sure the systems have backup and emergency measures in case of a computer failure. so a few seconds to a few minutes shouldn't cause any problems.


it's time like these that i bet they wish they had the hack proof computers that are in some of our missile silos. not even connected to the internet

Edward Snowden said the NSA had the ability to 'jump' onto computers that weren't even hooked up to the internet. Maybe someone else can post the technique and terminology involved; I'm not tech enough to even remember the words.

Oh, to add to what I said about cyber weapons in my previous post. These things if used will collapse a government/military almost overnight. They are more powerful than nuclear weapons and they equalize everyone. It doesn't take long for a nation that has no electricity, no access to financial markets, no money (due to the previous two), and no mechanism to deliver fresh food/water to collapse. All without needing to fire a single shot, commit boots on the ground, or even kill a bunch of people.

Well, that's sobering... in other words, they don't even need to fire off an EMP burst, and we'll never know if it was self-inflicted, a false flag to implicate someone else, or an accident of some kind.

a reply to: signalfire

maybe not 'logged-in' but connected

originally posted by: blacktie
a reply to: signalfire

maybe not 'logged-in' but connected

No, I'm pretty sure in Glenn Greenwald's book about when they first met in Hong Kong that Snowden was so paranoid about NSA capabilities that he even said they could get onto a computer that was not even hooked up to the internet. I'll see if I can find the reference because my jaw dropped at that one...

a reply to: signalfire

well if there is no kind of com device i really don't see how.
now there maybe a way to scan what being done on a computer from a a set distance like out in the parking lot. there's been claims of that before snowden. but they're not going to be able sit in the NSA building in utah and see unless they use a remote link.

a reply to: signalfire

Yup; NY Times article: NSA Radio Hack

a reply to: signalfire

It's called an airgap, and I believe this may be to what you are referring.

Meet “badBIOS,” the mysterious Mac and PC malware that jumps airgaps Like a super strain of bacteria, the rootkit plaguing Dragos Ruiu is omnipotent. by Dan Goodin - Oct 31, 2013 2:07 pm UTC Three years ago, security consultant Dragos Ruiu was in his lab when he noticed something highly unusual: his MacBook Air, on which he had just installed a fresh copy of OS X, spontaneously updated the firmware that helps it boot. Stranger still, when Ruiu then tried to boot the machine off a CD ROM, it refused. He also found that the machine could delete data and undo configuration changes with no prompting. He didn't know it then, but that odd firmware update would become a high-stakes malware mystery that would consume most of his waking hours. 

In the following months, Ruiu observed more odd phenomena that seemed straight out of a science-fiction thriller. A computer running the Open BSD operating system also began to modify its settings and delete its data without explanation or prompting. His network transmitted data specific to the Internet's next-generation IPv6 networking protocol, even from computers that were supposed to have IPv6 completely disabled. Strangest of all was the ability of infected machines to transmit small amounts of network data with other infected machines even when their power cords and Ethernet cables were unplugged and their Wi-Fi and Bluetooth cards were removed. Further investigation soon showed that the list of affected operating systems also included multiple variants of Windows and Linux. 

"We were like, 'Okay, we're totally owned,'" Ruiu told Ars. "'We have to erase all our systems and start from scratch,' which we did. It was a very painful exercise. I've been suspicious of stuff around here ever since." In the intervening three years, Ruiu said, the infections have persisted, almost like a strain of bacteria that's able to survive extreme antibiotic therapies. Within hours or weeks of wiping an infected computer clean, the odd behavior would return. The most visible sign of contamination is a machine's inability to boot off a CD, but other, more subtle behaviors can be observed when using tools such as Process Monitor, which is designed for troubleshooting and forensic investigations. 

Another intriguing characteristic: in addition to jumping "airgaps" designed to isolate infected or sensitive machines from all other networked computers, the malware seems to have self-healing capabilities. "We had an air-gapped computer that just had its [firmware] BIOS reflashed, a fresh disk drive installed, and zero data on it, installed from a Windows system CD," Ruiu said. "At one point, we were editing some of the components and our registry editor got disabled. It was like: wait a minute, how can that happen? How can the machine react and attack the software that we're using to attack it? This is an air-gapped machine and all of a sudden the search function in the registry editor stopped working when we were using it to search for their keys."

Look up the meaning of the term "firesale" in regards to the internet.

Scary stuff man.

a reply to: jadedANDcynical

some thought the report was a hoax and it might be
theres a lot of disinfo not sure why

Yea... hacked into the whitehouse computers and gave them a trojan ...

I'd say more truthfully someone was at porn sites. They should just admit it.

a reply to: sheepslayer247

You know as far as security goes, why did they let this out to the public? In any corporation or business you just don't go around telling people you got hacked because your system had a vulnerability. (that is except for large corporations which have had a data breach they have to report to customers like ChoicePoint )
It's just very odd that they would be so forthcoming on this.

a reply to: ThirdEyeofHorus

well there were those merchant accounts that got broken into, lots of people were worried their personal info was stolen

originally posted by: blacktie
a reply to: ThirdEyeofHorus

well there were those merchant accounts that got broken into, lots of people were worried their personal info was stolen

Yes, as you can see I edited my post to reflect that. But I can assure you that most businesses and universities are more guarded with their network systems, so why would our government be that open about it? I mean don't you think there is a national security risk besides what is already exposed? Come to think of it, that's another reason why the federal government should not be a provider of health insurance products.

*Quietly hums "America the Beautiful" as he checks off items on the list.*

Massive conservative power influx in immeadiate future: check

Net Neutrality rules being finalized, screwing Americans again: check

Corporate profits and pay at record highs: check

Mysterious Russian Satellites manuevering for secret rendevous on Nov. 12th: check

Super virus capable of crippling America by remote: check

AAAhhhhhh there's nothing better than blaming those old russian evils....

I don't know much about hacking (or computers, for that matter) but could this be in relation to the Emergency Broadcast Alert that was sent out to ATT Uverse tv subscribers back on October 24th? People woke up to having their shows interrupted and their tv channel changed to a specific station with an emergency alert, not a test. They couldn't change the channel or control the volume on their tv. Scared a lot of people.

Supposedly only the White House can send this alert. ATT said it was an 'error' and were investigating it as to why it happened.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

If they really wanted attention, they should have hacked Wall St. Start screwing with the NYSE and stuff, and watch what happens. This is because those with the purse strings are the ones that really call the shots, as most gov't here is bought and paid for.

a reply to: PhoenixOD

But doing it quietly and professionally would waste an obvious propaganda opportunity and it would also mean that an attack actually took place instead of being made up.

Oh no this is the land of the evil taking over the world cabal. Surely they're smart enough to have a plan b... Or at the very least Avast free virus protection.
Seems that the conspiracy theorists didn't think it through....again....
You know...It's not even entertaining any more. Just pathetic.

What's even funnier is that people think these computers are all connected to each other and run by the government. My phone , my water, my electric, my cable, the gas line, the drains... everything is private enterprise not run by the government. But some people will believe anything. If it sounds good. Or even if it doesn't. reply to: Shadoefax


PS I love your screen name.