How a Dutch intelligence agency secretly hacked into the Kremlin’s most notorious hacking group

[spaceoctopus]

Reports claim Netherlands alerted Washington of influence in 2016 presidential elections after officials watched Russian group bypass Democratic National Committee and other operations

Dutch domestic intelligence service AIVD had access to the infamous Russian hacking group Cozy Bear for at least a year starting in mid-2014, local media outlets said on Thursday.

According to the reports, the Dutch government alerted the United states to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections after Netherlands-based officials watched the hacking of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and other operations by the Russians, including a 2014 State Department hack.

 

[Aleeyen]

In the past governments used to send spies to other countries. Now a days they are hacking into their networks, its much safer and easier to get information now.

 

[Deleted member 65228]

In the past governments used to send spies to other countries. Now a days they are hacking into their networks, its much safer and easier to get information now.

You're right. I'm sure that spies are still sent to other countries but hacking within the region of your own country for your own government provides less risk, because you'd be permitted to do it and thus if the government gets baited for the operation, there isn't a spy trapped in the foreign country being hunted down for charges.

So when Korea are accused of hacking country XXXX, individuals working with the Korean government -> don't become extradited to the attacked country because they were working with the government of their country which permit/deny such extraditions. So it's either a government battle, a hack-back for revenge or no further escalation / tension building

 

[RoboMan]

You're right. I'm sure that spies are still sent to other countries but hacking within the region of your own country for your own government provides less risk, because you'd be permitted to do it and thus if the government gets baited for the operation, there isn't a spy trapped in the foreign country being hunted down for charges.

Plus, sometimes, hacking is much more easier and efficient if you've got somebody inside the enemy perimeter

 

[spaceoctopus]

Plus, sometimes, hacking is much more easier and efficient if you've got somebody inside the enemy perimeter

Very true. And cheaper too! It's like sending a drone, while the person is sitting behind a screen thousands of km away from the scene itself.

 

[spaceoctopus]

You're right. I'm sure that spies are still sent to other countries but hacking within the region of your own country for your own government provides less risk, because you'd be permitted to do it and thus if the government gets baited for the operation, there isn't a spy trapped in the foreign country being hunted down for charges.

So when Korea are accused of hacking country XXXX, individuals working with the Korean government -> don't become extradited to the attacked country because they were working with the government of their country which permit/deny such extraditions. So it's either a government battle, a hack-back for revenge or no further escalation / tension building

Yeah, it becomes a big advantage when you combine it with geopolitical stuffs

 

[upnorth]

In the past governments used to send spies to other countries.

Still goes on today and it can be a very nasty and dangerous field of work but also very interesting to read about.

Quote : " It was a life-or-death call. The Chinese government had been systematically picking off American spies in China, dismantling a network that had taken the C.I.A. years to build. A mole hunt was underway, and the former officer, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, was the prime suspect.

The F.B.I. could have arrested him on the spot for possessing classified information. But inside a secretive government task force, investigators argued against it, former American officials recalled. If Mr. Lee was a turncoat, arresting him on an unrelated charge would tip off the Chinese and allow them to cover their tracks. If he was not the mole — and some argued strenuously that he was not — an arrest might allow the real traitor to escape. "

Source : Hunting a C.I.A. Mole, Agents Gambled and Let a Suspect Return to China