If
you are to trust NBC, your privacy concerns while visiting the impending
Socchi 2014 Winter Olympics don't end with having to use the
now-infamous double toilets. This report, aired in prime time on Feb 4,
begins with a statement that American tourists "should have no
expectation of privacy, even in their hotel rooms" - those are the actual big, scary words.
It proceeds to show how a MacBook and an Android phone download "malicious malware" the moment they get connected to Russian Wi-Fi; goes on to have a Kaspersky Labs representative confirm (out of context) that Socchi's "huge infrastructure" is a "hacker minefield", and cuts to someone running "specialized hacking software" - a Ubuntu terminal. Suddenly, prime-time TV viewers are sucked into watching one of those laughable 90's "hacker movies", amply garnished with a spoonful of Cold War-era Russian phobia!
As our technology media comrades put it, this report is so misleading that one almost doesn't know where to begin with discussing it. Unfortunately, the computer and media-illiterate people of the general public could easily fall for the nonsense in NBC's news piece. Thankfully, Robert Graham of Errata Security, a collective always willing to disrupt a bogus hacking story and provide an honest perspective on cybersecurity, stepped in with a quick, cold breakdown of the report.
It proceeds to show how a MacBook and an Android phone download "malicious malware" the moment they get connected to Russian Wi-Fi; goes on to have a Kaspersky Labs representative confirm (out of context) that Socchi's "huge infrastructure" is a "hacker minefield", and cuts to someone running "specialized hacking software" - a Ubuntu terminal. Suddenly, prime-time TV viewers are sucked into watching one of those laughable 90's "hacker movies", amply garnished with a spoonful of Cold War-era Russian phobia!
As our technology media comrades put it, this report is so misleading that one almost doesn't know where to begin with discussing it. Unfortunately, the computer and media-illiterate people of the general public could easily fall for the nonsense in NBC's news piece. Thankfully, Robert Graham of Errata Security, a collective always willing to disrupt a bogus hacking story and provide an honest perspective on cybersecurity, stepped in with a quick, cold breakdown of the report.
All of what you saw represented as a
threat to foreigners who dare browse the Internet in Socchi, is
deliberate and "100% fraudulent". The "hacking"
in the story boils down to visiting sketchy Olympic-themed websites
infected with malware - sites visible from all corners of the world. Moreover, in the report, which is entirely centered
on cybersecurity risks present in Sochi, the devices are actually
operated in a Moscow cafe - and that's made clear in the very
beginning. What is going on? Terrible storytelling is the short
answer.
The scene in which the Android phone
gets "hacked", is acted out in the same way - by allowing a
download of an infected .apk from a malicious Sochi-themed website.
This is something any user can do everywhere, willingly, if he's
feeling adventurous.
Kyle Wilhoit, the "top American
security expert" from the report, is a Trend Micro threat
researcher who is being impressively professional about his
involvement in the compromised news piece. He
took to Twitter and explained that all the editing and TV-magic
"got the best of the story". It appears all the important
technical discussion was cut away to make an "interesting news
report".
The final summation is that NBC tried
to engineer a public scare by sweeping the relevant background
information under the rug, while presenting the most "impressionable"
quotes from security experts out of context. What it ended up doing
is a prosaic example of dated media brainwashing.
source: Errata
Security via Android
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