This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
IRS Blames Taxpayer Data Breach On Russian "Crime Syndicates"
On Tuesday, we reported that the IRS has admitted that as many as 100,000 tax returns may have been compromised by “thieves” who gained “unauthorized access” to tax information on file with the government.
Here’s what we said regarding who would likely be blamed:
In an unprecedented move against a government agency, which we are just waiting to hear blamed on Russia, The IRS has admitted that its data has been compromised…
We said this because the US has recently embarked on a campaign to justify the use of “offensive” cyber attacks against a list of so-called “cyberadversaries” which, unsurprisingly, looks at lot like a list of Washington's regular “adversaries” and includes Russia, Iran, North Korea, and of course China, with the latter being recently blamed for the digital takeover of Penn State’s engineering department.
If that accusation constituted a hilariously ridiculous step up the cyber attack accusation ladder compared to Washington’s 2014 attempt to blame North Korea for cyber-sabotaging James Franco and Seth Rogen, then the IRS ‘breach’ is set to mark yet another unprecedented escalation because as CNN reports, the hackers responsible for virtually infiltrating the IRS were apparently of Russian origin.
Via CNN:
The IRS believes that a major cyber breach that allowed criminals to steal the tax returns of more than 100,000 people originated in Russia, two sources briefed on the data theft tell CNN.
On Tuesday, the Internal Revenue Service announced that organized crime syndicates used personal data obtained from elsewhere to access tax information, which they then used to file $50 million in fraudulent returns.
The IRS said the agency's Criminal Investigation Unit and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration are investigating. The agency also alerted the Homeland Security Department of the breach, a DHS official confirmed.
Yes, Russian “organized crime syndicates.”
This is certainly comparable — in terms of hyperbole level — to the suggestion by Bloomberg eleven days ago that in connection with a concerted effort to employ state-sponsored hacker spies to steal engineering blueprints for unmanned military vehicles, Beijing had enlisted “legions” of fake US graduate students in an effort to obtain military secrets that apparently reside in America’s ivory towers.
We'll leave you with the following statement from Defense Secretary Ash Carter who will ensure you that a Pentagon "crack team" will determine the appropriate response to this latest example of Russian aggression:
“The sensors that guard DoD’s unclassified networks detected Russian hackers accessing one of our networks [due to] an old vulnerability in one of our legacy networks that hadn’t been patched, [but a] crack team of incident responders quickly kicked them off the network.”
»
- 7136 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Someone here called it the other day. Who gets the credit?
Ok -- it was Tyler Durden. Apologies Mr. Durden -- you told us you would say that.
MASSIVE FREQUENCY LIST UPDATED!!!
With all the talk of "fun camps for adults" and troops runnng around people's back yard, we thought now might be a smart time to make sure our SIGINT is all up to date and good. Here is a massive list of frequencies for y'all to plug into your scanner or shortwave receiver. Make sure you have lots of extra batteries too!
A few notes about the list:
* This was compiled from recent and trusted sources, not lists floating around the internet since 1994 for radio systems long since sent to the landfill.
* Many government agencies share frequencies and INTEROP channels, so the list may not be 100% on who is doing the talking.
* The list is for national frequencies, obviously we cannot list for every LEA in every county and town.
* Many frequencies listed as business are also used by GOV.
* A P25 capable scanner is best, assume that the frequencies are APCO-P25 but you may be able to pick up analog FM conversations.
* Most of the important P25 traffic will be encrypted. Most INTEROP will not be and chatter is still chatter.
* Canadian frequencies have been included for those in Canada and close to the border.
* Even though analog TV and analog paging has largely been phased out, frequencies have been included both for historical reference and because old gear can be turned on post-SHTF.
* You can achieve faster scan rates by entering frequencies from lowest to highest and not randomly (eg. 154.100, 154.200, 154.300, etc)
* If you only have a scanner, just pay attention to the left-most column. The second column is for repeater inputs and the third is for tones.
* Remember when to practice radio silence and remember that Charlie is listening!
http://www.filedropper.com/frequencies
I respect and venerate you as my new teacher of paranoia. You're WAY past me in that area.
I have 2 scanners in the house. One new, one very old. Does it matter?
Any of this stuff going to be rebroadcast on the Scanner Radio App, like police and fire department chatter? (Guessing not)
Generally older scanners (before 2003 or so) will not do digital P25, so you will be limited with what you can hear. But older is better than nothing at all. Scanner Radio App is cool but if the internet, power, cell tower goes down in your area you won't be listening to much and that's a big plus for hardware radios.
For some reason I just can't find the patriotism to believe one word...
Isn't the IRS itself a crime syndicate?
Everything that happens bad is now Russia's fault.
Obama's dog gets sick? Russia's fault.
Government credit cards used by bureaucrats for hookers and booze? Russia's fault.
F-35 is a piece of shit? Russia's fault.
Bill Clinton's underage submissive slut on his best friend's Molestation Island getting acne? Russia's fault.
Michelle Obama speaking Wookie by accident during a speech? Russia's fault.
I wonder if there is any important politically sensitive information accidentally included in those returns.
Don't want those clever Russians to blackmail any conservatives this election cycle. That's the administration's job.
it is nice to see a return to the old ideas (e.g. everything is Russia's fault) instead of blaming global warming. i was wondering how they would peg the IRS data loss on the climate.....
in any case, the Russian's were merely expanding their marketing database with a well managed customer list. no huhu....
People running around huffing and guffawing about how the "Russians" hacked into the IRS when they don't ask themselves the most important question of all:
"If this stuff is so sensitive, then what good reason is there to have this computer system accessible to the internet?"
The only reason I can think of is hubris, in that they think they are better than all the other "hackers" on the planet. But what do I know, right? Do we really want to inconvenience government employees their ability to browse various porn sites or something?
Gut mornink, Komrad Childrun ov ze Revoluzion. Velkom to Komputer Programming 101.
Your homevork assignment, due at ze end ov ze veek, iz to hack into ze US IRS komputers and obtain US taxpayer names, addresses, taxfile numbers and lists ov ze inkoms and ze deductions.
But virst, ve must translate zese North Korean komputer manualz.
Because, Russia. At least Bush is no longer the Straw Man.
When I have computer problems, my first suspect is the Anti-Virus software: It has the MEANS (including special privileges), it has the MOTIVE and it has PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY.
Oh yeah, and it also has NO TRANSPARENCY. I can NOT AUDIT it's actions and I can NOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY anything it does or does not tell me.
Actually, the insistence on opacity means I don't trust the computer industry as a whole. You don't want to tell me how things work? What are you hiding?
Luckily for the computer industry, most sheeps don't care how their software works, as long as it does work. Yeah sheeps, that great, big house is there to look after you in your retirement. You will be happy there because you can see "...laughter House" written on the side of it.
Hackers = A (cyber) dog ate my homework.
= ten year old kid saying, "Mummy, that two-year old kid hit me"
= "I left the keys and the motor running in my Ferrari in the middle of Detroit while I went on a round-the-world holiday, and blow-me-down, when I got home it was Gone!"
= "Yes, we really are that stupid / incompetent / careless."
Tell me again, what makes electronic money safer than electronic anything-else?
"I electronically pay all my taxes. Russian hackers must have taken it."
"The cheque's in the e-mail."
another boogie man, the russkies, ha, lol...
pretty soon they will be blamed for cornering the gold market...
those damn russians, why don't they just "conform".
I feel we missed a chance to provoke North Korea.
Let's just blame the real culprit... someone/some entity wrote the software and left gaping security holes in it.
Meanwhile, all the GOOD computer programmers are unemployed and sleeping on park benches ...
Nope. The real culprit is the existence of government IDs and serial numbers in the first place.
Nope...that takes them out of the driver's seat as to the when, where, who, how, and why of the narrative...
Meet the new boogeyman, same as the old one, ISIS just doesn't cut it, besides, they are CIA sons of bitches anyway. That, and Xenia Onatopp is way sexier than Fatma covered from head to toe in a towel.
The Russian mafia is still Bolshevik.
Always has been.
Actually, no. The historical roots of the Russian mafia tie back to Chechens.
And who funded the Chechens again? ;)
One crime syndicate blaming another. How... quaint.
A Jew of convenience.
A sham religion.
Pot. Meet Kettle.
Long James Bond movies. Yes, we're gonna do it all again.
"accessing one of our networks [due to] an old vulnerability in one of our legacy networks that hadn’t been patched"
May I ask a stupid question? If you knew of the vulnerability long ago why didn't you patch it? Oh, I know. Lack of funding. Not enough money to keep the IRS's computer systems safe. I feel a tax increase coming on.
Right! Everyone or somebody else is always the boogeyman who did it. How did they manage in the first place? Was it an inside job? How about those guys who did the World Trade Center Job? They weren't Russian. Nobody responsible on this end no sireee! In fact, the IRS is so busy busting "folks" who are on Obama's enemy list they probably left the security up to the FBI or CIA. Then again an insider from the NRA or even Iran, the posibilities are endless to acount for the incompetence of our great government disorganization.
?????????????, ????????
OK, no Cyrillic letters then. Really, comrade Tyler?
Thought everything was Bush's fault...
Now everythings Russia's fault...
Why are there no mirrors on the walls of the Congress building?
Are there any on the walls in the Black House? er White House?
Depraved mass-murderer Putin is also a thieving hacker:
Since the beginning of the week, the three most influential mass circulation newsmagazines of the United States, Britain, and Germany—Time, The Economist, and Der Spiegel—have published cover stories that combine wild accusations against Vladimir Putin with demands for a showdown with Russia.
The most striking and obvious characteristic of these cover stories is that they are virtually identical. The CIA has scripted them all. The stories employ the same insults and the same fabrications. They denounce Putin’s “web of lies.” The Russian president is portrayed as a “depraved” mass murderer.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/07/30/pers-j30.html
yeah and I can tell you that any time Russians read those stories, they feel themselves more and more ready to kick the USA's ass.....so keep doing this Washington, you are nicely improving Putin's preferences at home....and also Germans, Austrians, French etc. like Putin more and more because the USA propaganda is getting so ridiculous that here in many EU countries it is waking people up wide-eyed - and people are starting to think: oh my, the USA has gone insane, we must start pushing on our politicians to get away from those lunatics in Washington....so keep doing this, you are doing us a big favour....Most Europeans (and Germans especially) seem to respond to the USA propaganda in quite the opposite way than the USA intended:-) For example, recently a Russian song won second place in Eurovision (although they paid some fools to boo the song) and the Russian song received most points from - Germany. Since the song was officialy widely criticised and booed etc., Germans just showed that the USA propaganda ceased to work on them entirely. You can also watch more and more TV programs in Germany, where Germans are making fun from retarded American propaganda and having a great laugh. Like this, dont you just love those Germans? They have a grest sense of humour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6qBnu7Oja4
or this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkldaRRPAw4
I blame it on SONY...No, wait...North Korea...er maybe it was Lois Lerner!
I saw a dude on the Grassy Knoll with a Laptop and a sinister look in his eye.....
...wearing a hoodie.
Dear me those pesky Russians trying to find out how much Joe Sixpack is getting screwed by the US State. Unlike America operating Black Ops in Ukraine killing Novorussians including Alexey Mozgovoy.
Well fair enough he did kick ten shades of shit out of Ukrainian Army. But the US involved in cutting peoples fingers off or my personal favorite hanging them on makeshift gallows, just like WW2 on the Eastern Front.
Well the dirty Russian dogs are spying on the IRS so its all fair.
They got the "Crime Syndicate" part right.
Just its geographic epicenter (country) wrong.
They simply forgot to look in the mirror.
not contended with chinese ? blame the russians . in coming w years you can also blame the indians . Empire exceptionalism at its best .
OK, so show us the proof.
Nothing the government says is worth believing until there is indisputable proof.
Only one man with a special skill set can take out the Russians...Liam Neeson
Why the fuck, would any Foreign Country, give a flying crap about the Taxpayer? Do they want data on how far you can flog a donkey before they drop? Or calculating how much we're getting raped for? Or better yet, what we (the Taxpayer) are getting out of it? Gawd, Thank God, for that 'crack team' of Incident Responders. From what I hear, they had to bang on the door for days, while those guys were searching for Lois Lerner's Emails.
The IRS "believes", which means they do not know. Like saying "experts think", which means they do not know or "medical professions may have discovered", which means they do not know and on and on...always look for those key words as use for critical thinking 101.
we call them "weasel words" in our field.
The Russians woudn't get out of bed for 100,00 records. WTF!!!
Next up, the IRS sent billions of dollars to Russian addresses, as many as 100 US tax returns were sent to a single Russian address....when asked by the Cartoon News Network why the IRS would not recognize this problem, the IRS spokeswoman, Ms. Lerner, said we are working on a solution & are investigating, but I cannot comment any further - ever again.
Dear Russia and China,
Please send a nuke during the next full session of Congress; we will pay in gold since our currency is but toilet paper; as an added incentive, if you can do it when the President and Supreme Court are in attendance, then we will allow you to have all of the Wall Street Banking Cabal to do whatever you wish.
Thanks - concerned citizen.
Maybe Lois, having been in the IRS ( and maybe still a consultant) would know all about this .
OK, have the IRS send me $100,000 refund, and I'll cut you in for 20%.
Actually, why don't you have the check sent to you and you can cut me in for 20%, probably safer that way.
Thanks.
The Russian crime syndicate is hacking the US crime syndicate. There is no honor among thieves!
Really? Russia? China? N. Korea? How about you block those countries at firewall ip-range level you idiots at IRS(I know you tards read this) instead of blaming rest of the world for your stupidity?
Noodleman: I say blame it on Russia.
Carter: No, we've got to blame it on China. We have plenty of assets around Russia. But practically nothing around China.
Noodleman: The vote to extend sanctions will be taken in a month. We can't afford to lose it. We've got to demonize Russia every day till then.
Obysmal: Noodles is right. We're blaming it on Russia.
Setting up the narrative of the dual-pronged 'axis-of-evil' (Russia & China) seems to dovetail quite well with the Pentagram's dual-pronged approach scenario of taking on two separate fronts/theatres/enemies simultaneously, does it not...?
First FIFA now this. Despair is running high in the capital of warmongering.
These modern day "Russian crime syndicates" are about as "Russian" as the Russian revolution. Same Boleshevik crowd then as now.