Stolen N.S.A. Tool Wreaks Havoc

[Cattledog]

This happened here in Atlanta last year and cost $20 million to fix.


For nearly three weeks, Baltimore has struggled with a cyberattack by digital extortionists that has frozen thousands of computers, shut down email and disrupted real estate sales, water bills, health alerts and many other services.

But here is what frustrated city employees and residents do not know: A key component of the malware that cybercriminals used in the attack was developed at taxpayer expense a short drive down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway at the National Security Agency, according to security experts briefed on the case.

Since 2017, when the N.S.A. lost control of the tool, EternalBlue, it has been picked up by state hackers in North Korea, Russia and, more recently, China, to cut a path of destruction around the world, leaving billions of dollars in damage. But over the past year, the cyberweapon has boomeranged back and is now showing up in the N.S.A.’s own backyard.

It is not just in Baltimore. Security experts say EternalBlue attacks have reached a high, and cybercriminals are zeroing in on vulnerable American towns and cities, from Pennsylvania to Texas, paralyzing local governments and driving up costs.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/25/us/nsa-hacking-tool-baltimore.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Windows, of course they all use Windows.

Sigh.

[Historic NY]

2. How can they make a tool that the can't kill.......

morons.

[ret5hd]

4. Well, it's more that they found a flaw that...

they could exploit. Then didn't tell those that could fix the flaw. So only they would know if the flaw.

So how's that working out now?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. Sounds like a cyber version of Ice-Nine.

Freezing computers worldwide.

[earthshine]

5. Adm. Michael S. Rogers ... said the agency should not be blamed for the trail of damage.

In contrast ...

Some F.B.I. and Homeland Security officials, speaking privately, said more accountability at the N.S.A. was needed.

Here's some more nonsense ...

“If Toyota makes pickup trucks and someone takes a pickup truck, welds an explosive device onto the front, crashes it through a perimeter and into a crowd of people, is that Toyota’s responsibility?” he asked. “The N.S.A. wrote an exploit that was never designed to do what was done.”

At Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash., where thousands of security engineers have found themselves on the front lines of these attacks, executives reject that analogy.

“I disagree completely,” said Tom Burt, the corporate vice president of consumer trust, insisting that cyberweapons could not be compared to pickup trucks. “These exploits are developed and kept secret by governments for the express purpose of using them as weapons or espionage tools. They’re inherently dangerous. When someone takes that, they’re not strapping a bomb to it. It’s already a bomb.”

I, personally, believe that the NSA creates a lot of its own reason to be.