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US Government Admits 2nd "Chinese" Cyberhack Exposed Military Intel
In what Rep Mike Rogers called "the mother of all spear-phishing attacks," AP reports a second cyberattack linked to China appears to have gained access to the sensitive background information submitted by intelligence and military personnel for security clearances, according to several U.S. officials. Coming on the same day as the US Senate failed to pass a cyber-security shield bill and China's urhging US to reduce military activities in The South China Sea, 'anonymous' official sources noted this second cyberbreach of federal records could dramatically compound the potential damage.
First China this morning warned US to reduce military activities in South China Sea...
China urges U.S. not to take a position on South China Sea issue, reduce military activities in the area to keep peace and stability, Fan Changlong, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, told U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter during a meeting in U.S., according to a statement on the defense ministry says.
The two countries should focus more on major intl and regional issues: Fan
China urges U.S. to stick to “One China” principle and not to send wrong signals to Taiwan pro-independence groups
And then, the Senate failed to pass a cybersecurity bill...
- *U.S. SENATE FAILS TO ADVANCE CYBERSECURITY AMENDMENT
And now, as AP reports, hackers linked to China appear to have gained access to the sensitive background information submitted by intelligence and military personnel for security clearances, several U.S. officials said Friday, describing a second cyberbreach of federal records that could dramatically compound the potential damage.
The forms authorities believed to have been accessed, known as Standard Form 86, require applicants to fill out deeply personal information about mental illnesses, drug and alcohol use, past arrests and bankruptcies. They also require the listing of contacts and relatives, potentially exposing any foreign relatives of U.S. intelligence employees to coercion. Both the applicant's Social Security number and that of his or her cohabitant is required.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the security clearance material is classified.
The security-clearance records provide "a very complete overview of a person," said Evan Lesser, managing director of ClearanceJobs.com, a website that matches security-clearance holders to available slots. "You don't need these records to blackmail or exploit someone, but it would sure make the job easier."
The Office of Personnel Management, which was the target of the hack, has not officially notified military or intelligence personnel whose security clearance data was breached, but news of the second hack was starting to circulate in both the Pentagon and the CIA.
The officials said they believe the hack into the security clearance database was separate from the breach of federal personnel data announced last week — a breach that is itself appearing far worse than first believed. It could not be learned whether the security database breach happened when an OPM contractor was hacked in 2013, an attack that was discovered last year. Members of Congress received classified briefings about that breach in September, but there was no mention of security clearance information being exposed.
The OPM had no immediate comment Friday.
* * *
The question now is twofold: a) is this war? and b) how does US respond?
Please, please, please - Give Us Back Our NSA - make us safe!!
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c) is this a false flag ?
First question: is this real?
Check China's frenemies.
Too obvious. Timing is perfect.....just give the banksters another 700 billion while your at it.
"In the hack of standard personnel records announced last week, two people briefed on the investigation disclosed Friday that as many as 14 million current and former civilian U.S. government employees have had their information exposed to hackers, a far higher figure than the 4 million the Obama administration initially disclosed."
Fed.Gov pensions disappeared just like that...
http://news.yahoo.com/union-says-federal-workers-fell-victim-hackers-071...
BuHaHaHaHa...
'It was the goddamn Chinese that did it! They hate us for our freedumbs! Trust us, name one time we've been wrong'
I don't believe a fucking thing these people say anymore. It's funny too, you will here the conservative talking heads like hannity go on and on about how you can't believe a word out of this admin, they are always wrong, they mislead us, blah blah blah. But as soon as something like this happens where the 'lying and untrustworthy' regime in the WH blames china or Russia for anything, they become trust worthy and are taken at their word about JUST ONE thing. Rally 'round the flag. Fucking pathetic.
Ingroups exist as sets and subsets.
And why would highly sensitive information even be accessible online via a system connected to the Internet?
We need to tell the hackers that the state and muni pensions are a threat to them too!
.gov seems eager as hell to bust the chops of China for all this supposed hacking.
Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, gets 30 pages of redacted text about their involvement in 9/11 in the OIG's "CIA Accountability" report. All thirty radacted pages here for your viewing pleasure:
HERE'S THE CIA'S JUST-RELEASED TOP SECRET FILE ON SAUDI TIES TO 9/11
The most precious document though has to be that whiney little fucker George Tenet's Mea Culpa, "911? It's not MY fault!":
RESPONSE TO INSPECTOR GENERAL'S 9/11 ACCOUNTABILITY FINAL DRAFT REPORT
It probably wasn't Tenet's fault. We all know the U.S. has satellite photos proving it was Putin. Damn you, time-travelling Vlad!
Ha, Ha, Ha!
You know something about capacitors?
Capacitors are those cylindrical parts that are in any computer motherboard, 99.0% is produced in China.
Capacitor consists of aluminum cylinder, two wires, cardboard soaked in acid.
It serves to stabilize energy.
Perhaps the next step is to say that it is the fault of chinezes capacitors.
Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!
Will be the next excuse for a false flag.
Do not blame the (in) competence!
hehe.
After each and every one of these so-called hacks more jobs, more technology and more investment is offshored to China.
WTF??????????????????
So, the obvious next question is --- since the Einstein IDS system was compromised, and it was supposed to have been coded by US-CERT team (the original program coded by NSA(?)) and since it was first implemented by CenturyLink, which has sites in China and Hong Kong, just how many Chinese programmers were at US-CERT, or CenturyLink?
Or, did either one of those two outfits happen to offshore that work?
"China urges U.S. not to take a position on South China Sea issue,"
Barry's best position is his ass straight up in the air...
Is that not good enough anymore??
If its not the Chinese, or whoever, by now have access to every Govt. computer system not matter how
secure. which Govt. employee is not going to open a link about a grade promotion and pay increase ?
They prolly have Reggies love letters as well.
Threat Journal covered this extensively last week.
The ramifications of this breach are significant.
http://www.threatjournal.com/archive/tj06062015.html
I think you have your head rammed up your asshole, if you really believe thie bullshit story.
IT'S COMPLETELY FUCKING MADE UP. JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER LIE THAT ROLLS OFF THESE LIARS' LIPS.
But why? What would be the ultimate gain?
Unless..... access was intentionally given to them on sly...
Now THAT would be an interesting angle
Or, they need something to rally the plebs around. Like the idea that the evil slant eyed chinamen hacked our systems in a direct attack on our freedumbs....they lie. All the time. About everything, as a reader of this site, surely you know that. But not about the Chinese hackers. They would lie about that right?
"What would be the ultimate gain?" Are you fucking serious? I know there are supposed to be 'no stupid questions' and all that shit, but that was a fucking stupid question.
The problem is that instead of uniting the plebes it divides the praetorian guard. Everyone who has done Uncle Sam's dirty work, or has access to Uncle Sam's dirty laundry, or is a high ranking member of the revolving door club has filled out one of those forms... It's apparently now over 100 pages. Sheeple like to joke that no one gets their ticket punched without Uncle Sam having "leverage"... this (and the accompanying interviews they do with family, friends, co-workers, and "interesting" acquaintances) is that "leverage"
Exactly, and only the idiots and nimrods have downgraded your comment.
The money masters at the top within US and China most likely conspired to promote the exchange of said data.
Future problems, intel penetrations, etc., can be blamed on China, etc.
Since both the FBI and CIA have been deeply penetrated by Chinese intel (what, nobody knows this, nobody bothers to read the news over the past 14 years?????), we have to wonder just how much work has been offshored there by US-CERT and CenturyLink?
You cannot be that daft. 9/11 gave us the Patriot Act, for example. What do you think this will get us?
There you go. It's all about more power in the hands of the government so they can 'protect' you from... well, ain't nobody gonna protect you from them.
No, the Patriot Act was just another iteration of the "war on drugs" legislation.
Threat Journal, the MSM goto outlet for manfactured threats
Catchline : Attacked on the same day as the US Senate failed to pass a cyber-security shield bill .
More surveillance propaganda being fed to justify their agenda.
'Post World War I: The most terrible conflict in human history had been fought not for democracy, liberty or freedom, but to protect the British Empire from its powerful German rival. To this end, millions of lives had been sacrificed.'
https://thebloodneverdried.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/excerpts-from-john-newsingers-the-blood-never-dried-a-peoples-history-of-the-british-empire/
Balfour: We are probably fools not to find a reason for declaring war on Germany before she builds too many ships and takes away our trade.
The English are the most horrible cunts on the planet and I am so happy to see their children raped in the thousands by Muslim immigrants. Nobody deserves to have their nation literally raped into extinction more than the English.
Or is it from within our borders........ NSA gaining even more info on us without a search warrant.
Funny how they never get that kind of thing. None of Obama's records or Hillary's. None of the JFK files or 9-11. The government can protect what it wants to protect, they don't care about what was taken. The enemy is within.
Exactly. "China urges U.S. to stick to “One China” principle and not to send wrong signals to Taiwan pro-independence groups" According to this logic then surely China would be looking to bolster the anti-gov movements in the US with some 9-11 info etc.
But instead the story is rally around the flag bs.
If isis ever attacks in the US it will be because someone in the US wanted it to happen.
so the chinese or anyone hacks 9-11 or jfk etc. it's not like a NATIONAL entity is going to come out and say 'look what we found'.
the "ultimate gain" is that we are 300 million with 7.5 billion others out there. We own and owe those 7.5 billion about 60% of the worlds debt. Is there anybody on ZH who honestly does not think those 7.5 billion aren't gonna tatoo our asses to assure repayment? They're gonna find out EVRYTHING they can about each of us and our progeny and our ancestry. They will own each of us several times over.
Pay attention good and hard to the undercurrent of worldwide slavery out there. And be very afraid about being forced into it.
tnx US Congress and Fed Res
They're just going to burn Murikistan off like wart. Best alternative to ww3 that anyone can think of.
The U.S. will respond by passing TPP and renewing China's Most Favored Trade Status.
I think the only solution to this is RFID chips on every American. That will keep America safe.
Don't forget to include remote detenation capabilities. For the American, not the RFID.
Nah. The corruption and incompetence is DC is of stagering proportions. Its amazing the country is still functioning. I guess the Elites want that for a little while longer.
All it would take is a bunch of towel heads in a fishing boat launching a drone over NYC with a emp to take down the country in about 20 minutes
blahblahblah. Who TF cares? These ass-clowns play cowboys and indians with nuclear six-shooters and we all supposed to stand around and cheer?!!!
With neocon tool Mike Rogers out front? Probably so.
No just another politically timed press release by Obama to further his agenda for his masters.
are sure Bush didn't do this? Good lord it's the blame China / Russia mantra ad nauseum when in reality the USSA gov (via the bought / controlled msm) makes these guys look like children!
It was not the Chinese, it was Israel. They plan on using this information to blackmail, and take hostage families workers in the US defence and other departments.
killary did it to mine "speech" donaters
Sure, blame Israel. What evil has Israel ever done to anyone, and when have they ever fucked the USA over?
Oh wait..nevermind.
Down votes because you didn't read the entire thing or did I catch some HASBARA there?
PutinHasbarinas? Da
CIA operatives in China 'hack' U.S. Government in effort to gain passage of Cyber Security bill.......
Works every time on the lemmings.
There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and the gullibility & apathy of the lemmings
Totally off topic, but I really need to say this....I so much enjoy coming to zerohedge. Especially all the comments in the comment section. I dont always agree, and some are downright weird, but for the most part, its good to see so many people who are at least somewhat awake...Its a breath of fresh air. Not saying I know everything, but I do know enough to know about zionists, israel, rothchilds, bankers, evil, puppet presidents, keynesian shyte, taking our rights away so they can control wanting us to be sheeple, etc etc etc.... Anyway, thanks to all of you, ya'all give me some hope. :-)
@ Coast
Hope you came back to review your greenies.
Welcome aboard.
bullshit
Obviously these guys are very good. These are just the ones that have been acknowledged – it's my understanding that when a hack is first detected nothing is published about it in order to provide cover to investigate it.
The progressives that run our government now are letting them in.
Progressives do not run the CIA, NSA, FBI, the Pentagon, or any other intelligence agency. Obama is not a progressive either. Who in your opinion is a progressive in his admininstration anyway? Maybe it would be a good idea to turn off Fox News for a while.
Yes, they're a cabal of free wheeling Jeffersonian anarchists. Is that your cogitation? Mooo!
...But, have no fear 'Merica, your Obamacare digital medical records will NEVER be hacked! - Ministry Of Truthiness
China "copies" everything so they learnt this from Uncle Sam. What goes around comes around.
Suck it up Merika.
The obvious problem is there is never any proof provided to back any of these Chinese hacking claims up. Another thing that makes me suspicious it's the government's equipment, if the reports are true, that needs the serious upgrades to its security systems. I don't understand why they would use this to interfere with regular users like us using the internet unless this is what was planned all along. I guess we'll see what the overlords have planned for us.
"They lie about everything. Why would they lie about this?"
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission.
The Chinee were given Los Alamos.
What else do we have to offer?
We should doubt the government claims because this could have easily been an inside job and it is just convenient to blame China. Consider the all federal government departments and/or corporations that would like to have unfettered access to all the data with no over sight.
The Adam Lanza conundrum.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..
"Is it real, or is it Zion?"
You get to choose now.
Chinee or Zion?
How many times was Zion destroyed in the Matrix?
Wouldn't it be a kick in the ass if the route was through Hillary's "secure" email server...Tee Hee Hee!
a second cyberattack linked to China appears to have gained access to the sensitive background information submitted by intelligence and military personnel for security clearances
We apparently went to the moon in 69 however we can't protect SENSITIVE security clearances....
The Chinese had nothing to do with this amateur attempted false fucking flag...
We are pathetic!!!
You may want to get a different benchmark outside of "the Moon in '69," as that will prove to be another great and grand lie by the DC US.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..
Mankind's greatest triumph is a lie. But then not surprising as the folks that said they went were at the time wrapping up their rape, pillage, and murder of an entire nation, and committing tyranny on a daily basis at home. Those same folks would then go on to even more monstrous lies like "19 guys, and a bearded man from a cave half-way around the world, and "looking for WMDs, so it's okay to kill a few million innocents."
I said,,
We apparently went to the moon in 69
Read the fucking thing...
Keeping in mind how much the Zionist controlled DC US owes China, and the rest of Asia, think of this as China pulling the DC US' credit reports.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..
China:
We can't afford Fed.Gov retirement programs.
Have them altered!
"Said the Lion, slowly Dyin', cause of Zion"
I said it b4 & I'll say it again, Kabuki.
Just like (don't remember who's posted it) the media being a global coordinated effort, same meme, it's all bullshit. They're all team playa's. Ain't no pooty messiah.
Joel Skousen's last audio with Rense gives major pause for thought on targets/safe locations.
We're gonna take a hit, as planned unless the top brass stop it.
FMR
Let's hope and change whether it's EMP.
Tomorrow's headline: 3rd cyber attack carried out by China. The government must take over the Internet to save the civilians. Trust us
Perhaps China will give us Hillary's emails... Just a thought.
USA- out bananaing the banana republics
and out goebbeling goebbels
does anybody outside the Pentagon and their paid servants know that anything happened?
since when do we have to trust the word of the known liar?
WMD. Lie.
Gas attack outside Damascus. Lie.
MH17. Lie.
No one editing, writing or commenting here at zh has any idea what happened to the Pentagon's computers, yet many here believe that the Pentagon's charges are as righteous as the four President's pusses carved on Mt Rushmore.
The once honorable US Military, thanks to the infestation of neocon cunts, is now slurping the dram of evil like George W Bush in Crawford Texas.
What a typical ZH BrainStem. Was LBJ a NeoCon and 550,000 troops? How about JFK and his 17,000 "advisors" to SVN before LBJ, and his approved assassination of Ngô ?ình Di?m in 1963?
Neocon, Joooos, neocons....blah blah blah...Huffington post in drag.
Ho Ho ff
Try this on about JFK
So the CIA never goes rogue in falconflightistan.
That's prolly
why you're so jolly.
Whatever you do, ff, pay no attention to reality.
It'll just bite you on the butt. And butt sore isn't jolly.
that's one version. And certainly Aurthur Schlesinger had unfailing loyality to JFK. The problem is that apparently at this site, every action is rouge CIA, no pol (Pres) is ever responsible, well unless they're a declared neocon. Not sure what the point is for including the Forrester reference. Hey was DoDSec McNamara tapped by JFK? Ford CEO then World Bank Pres. Sounds like uber neocon cred...quintessential boardroom CEO running a huge war against one of the most impoverished nations in existence. I don't want to make any judgments though...
Ho - Ho - Ho Chi Minh No butt sore here how bout you?
I had to go to google to remember the name of JFK's DCI: John McCone. While I was there I couldn't help but notice that McCone was the first of 5 DCIs during the Vietnam War. 5.
I find that number excessive and it tells you something about the agency, no?
What it tells me is that not only is the CIA a rogue agency, but the Director isn't even in on the loop. That there is some unappointed officer who runs things. and the important agent's loyalties are to him and not to the DCI. lesser agents do what they're told.
The 'C' in CIA stands for cryptocracy. A secret organization, known only among themselves.
TWENTY (20) directors in a period of 54 years. Some of them respected by their colleagues; some not. Makes one nostalgic for the likes of Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria. No insy-outsy there. You stayed long enough to know the territory.
And of course, last but not least. Kennedy fired Allan Dulles. The architect of the modern 'better-dead-than-red' agency. And fired by a liberal, catholic, Democrat -- son of Joseph P. Kennedy. "Get Oswald to Dallas. Pronto."
When Dulles was given the gold watch, that's when the cryptocracy was born. Then the cryptocrats decided 'no one in the Oval Office would ever again know who was really running the CIA.'
(Smiley).
Anyway, ff thanks for getting me started on this. I needed the kick in the pants to go look.
HEY, THAT'S THE SORE BUTT
The AP story cites "Chinese hackers" based on comments by unnamed US "officials" who offered precisely no proof.
The idea that the Chinese could not mask the origin of any such attack is beyond absurd. They probably have a few thousand cyber agents in and around Silicon Valley alone. Why not hack from a Starbucks in Van Nuys?
The number one suspect in hacks [actual hacks] on the US government has been and remains some other part of the US government.
When I used to assist people in filling these damn things out, I often wondered why they weren't considered classified at least at the Confidential level. That would have required them to, at least, be put on a segregated network. All of this was done over open networks, although using a proprietary software program called EPSQ (pain in the ass to use)..
And then OPM took over the background checks from DSS in 2005, I knew a lot of investigators (contractors) who went to work there to asist in completing the investigations.. And they knew the quality of investigations had declined.
Lordy.. I'm glad I'm not in that business anymore..
But how to respond? What can we do? Not a hell of a lot.. The cow has left the barn..
It's our own fault..
Scrutinizer
The reports of investigations (ROI) are potentially far more sensitive than the PSQ's. Most aren't going to divulge their most damaging info on the PSQ, but wait until (Maybe) their Subject Interview. Yeah, the DIS melded into OPM/FIS where much of the BI's are contract work. To say the system is a sieve of security and a cornucopia of malfeasance is to over rate its utility exponentially.
A lot of the DIS folks went to the private side w/ US Investigations, if I remember correctly?
The quality was never very good...going all the way back to the Walker Family spy ring. It was 90% numbers/widget counts and only declined once the Cold War was officially defunct.
Any ATM's in the U.S. spitting out money yet?Sure could help out poor folk in Detroit.
All they have to do is send some random government officials an email web link purported to be of a snuff video of children being choked to death while being sexually abused. I guarantee some would click on the email web link.
Instant 0wn and jump off from there.
There is so much dark fiber in the ground they could make all government operations and public utilites private on the cheap if they wanted to. What do they think we're stupid. Start a revolution and arrest them. Find out who the propagandists are and exile them to Somalia. Go on get em outta here.
I tried to offer one quadrillion Zimbabwe Dollahs to get that jumpstarted - no takers.
if you understand the talmud you will understand why I think it was Israel
Israel??? Come on Omega_Man, don't be silly. Israel already has access to all military, phone and email messages. Why hack?
The more I have looked into the government claims of a Chinese hack attack the more those claims sound like total bullshit. Nobody would be surprised by the fact our government is full of mostly BS but it does seem to me that the blame game lends itself to a possible inside job and an excuse for the US government to launch a cyber attack against China. This could easily get out of control depending on the US gov response and if we do not overtly respsond to China then I would consider this hack and the hack of fed gov employee data to be almost certainly to be an inside job. imho.
Gasp! What if China IS the NSA? (Or is it the other way round?)
Show me some proof the hack didn't come out of Ft. Meade.
Military intel.
Yeah, riiigggghhhhtttt.
OK, HERE'S THE FINAL VERSION.
"WE ADMIT THE CHINESE DID IT AND BY THE WAY WE WERE WE WERE ATTACKED AND EVEN IF WE WEREN'T ATTACKED, IT WAS THE CHINESE WHO DIDN'T DO IT."
GOT THAT? OK, NEXT FALSE FLAG.
Hard to say how armed conflict would play out, US vs. PRC.
China's officer and NCO corps have no combat experience. Chinese weapons are unproven. Then again, they have numbers and home field advantage.
The US has the proven high tech weapons and is an experienced user in combat operations. But then again, owebomba has forced many of our better military leaders out, and replaced them with degenerates, perverts, and political appointees.
Let's continue:
- Apparently China has no Limits on Treasury
- China has Many Military Personnel
- China has Home Field advantage
- China has Short Logistic Tail
- China is building Strategic Hubs, Air, Sea, Fuel, Staging
- China is building Realistic Training, Doctrine, Weapons
- China is not Bound by conventional theaters of war
China may be Weak in terms of Refitting, Retrofitting, Maintenance of Weapons in wartime... and as others have pointed out China does not have a Blue Water Navy.
As always, you make excellent points.
Thanks.
And China doesn't have a history of...
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
you think this is going to be a land war, boots on the ground?
which proven hi-tech weapons are you talking about?
fighters that don't fly or shoot?
carriers and aegius class ships that are electronically jammed?
proven weapons against goat herders and sheep farmers. lol
WTF is this a Neocon Shill piece?
"...Coming on the same day as the US Senate failed to pass a cyber-security shield bill..."
Federal Mis-management is Rife. The problem is not a "Spending Bill", New Federal Powers, Further Curtailment of Individual Rights, or More Aggressive Foreign Policy!!
Dumb ass.
- Trillions in Federal Spending is not enough?
- Millions of Federal Contracts not enough?
- 400 -700 Military Bases worldwide not enough?
- Eavesdropping in 4 continents not enough?
- Satellite Eavesdropping not enough?
- Greatest Intelligence Networks in the World Not Enough?
WTF?
Oh, we need a bill to help manage cyber security. S/
Bahahahahahahaha!!
US is Dying. 'Muricans will believe anything. MSM is full of Spies and Shills. The Temporary Inflation in Food Prices and rise in Fuel Prices will be permanent to ensure Corporate Executive Compensation. TPP & TTIP Monopolies, Downward Sticky Prices Mother Fuckers(sorry, crude language is now appropriate).
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/price_stickiness.asp (oh, no Internet references to this Econ 101 concept? No surprise!)
Corporations don't lower prices they add line items, create classes of service, and offer smaller packages.
Federal Government is doing it to Taxpayers. We don't know where the Hell the money went. But the Bill keeps going up each year. (Systemically increased number of Federal Contracts, and... Dollars on those contracts in certain approved categories like Health Care insurance and IT, computer consulting, server maintenance, and Computer or Database Logistics)
One party System = High Prices, High Spending, More Power given away to President & Corporations & Banks, and Prices will stay high (downward sticky Prices).
One party System = Fact = Fascism = Status Quo =
= Psy-Ops as substitute for Free Press & Information & Liberty & Freedom
How hard can it be to pay a few Chinese state hackers to confirm they did it? Or is there really no evidence to start with, just a suspicion?
"Coming on the same day as the US Senate failed to pass a cyber-security shield bill"
what has this got to do with the cyber attack?
do you mean if the bill was passed the attack would not have been successful or would not have happened.
BS collection of anecdotes.
basically the highly vaunted u.s. cyberwar offensive just lost another battle - if this drivel is true.
much like it's going to lose a carrier or two if it provokes the chinese.
just keep pissing people off with your exceptionalism, fools.
tick tock
So when US agencies hack any country and every individual , all is OK , When somebody does it to the USA , they don't like it ? Amazing rubbish . The overpaid idiots in charge must understand that if you do crap like that ( spying ) to others , the others have the right to do it to you . It doens't matter the law , the USA breaks the law every day , it is a matter of TIT for TAT .
If what they 'got' were SF86s, then they wasted their time. These documents include personal disclosures that have already been made to the US Federal government... so who exactly would be blackmailed with this information if the authorities already have it at their disposal. This is some dumb sensationalism.
The other day, Eugene Kaspersky noted:
"We discovered an advanced attack on our own internal networks. It was complex, stealthy, it exploded several zero-day vulnerabilities, and we’re quite confident that there’s a nation state behind it." The firm dubbed this attack Duqu 2.0, named after a specific series of malware called Duqu, considered to be related to the Stuxnet attack that targeted Iran in 2011.
It is, of course, now well-known that Stuxnet originated as a Israel/US venture; however this time it would appear that CIA/Mossad may have got a bit overconfident and shot themselves in the foot when they inserted very advanced spyware into Kaspersky's system…
Kaspersky is not just some simple-minded backward nation state; rather they are the unquestioned world leader in advanced cybersecurity systems, so when they found this malware in their own system, of course they figured it out, and of course got a bit pissed—so, since they are in the business of providing advanced cybersecurity to various nations---they very legitimately passed on the critical encryption information to their clients, and it is not at all inconceivable that some of the clients decided to take the system for a spin and see what it could do….
And, of course, a bit later at the opportune moment after they let the cat out of the bag, to rub a bit of salt in the wound Kaspersky mentioned: "And the attackers are now back to the drawing board since we exposed their platform to the whole IT security industry. "They’ve now lost a very expensive technologically-advanced framework they’d been developing for years,"
an interesting background article:
https://eugene.kaspersky.com/2011/11/02/the-man-who-found-stuxnet-sergey-ulasen-in-the-spotlight/