Schneier on Security

1&1~=Umm • April 15, 2019 3:40 PM

@641A:

“I’m genuinely curious who these people who have that opinion are.”

I’m always curious when people make allegations as to the origin of malware, especially alleged ‘state level’ cyber-espionage code.

However I suspect the reasoning is that in various ways both the US and Israel ‘fessed up’ to stuxnet. Although the Israelis gave the impression that they were responsible for the actual ICS code not the delivery / dropper code (I hate that expression 😉

It was noted aftet stuxnet that there were two earlier state level malware types that had similarities with stuxnet. One of these was Flame, as the targets it had been aimed at appeared to some to be “Of US interest” rather than Israeli it has kind of cemented it in some minds that Flame and all it’s derivatives ‘must be NSA code’.

Thus there appears to be a bit of a cult or belief system built up around it. The trouble with both cults and belief systems are mostly recognized for their lack of rationality in their conclusions and the ‘nerr nerrr not listening’ attitude in their adherants.

It’s been pointed out on this blog long before the CIA emulator code turned uo that a ‘false flag’ operation could easily exploit such cults / beliefs simply by copying the code and making a few minor code changes. Those ‘true believers’ and those who’s income “depends on them being seen to be believers” are going to blow the horn and bang the drum irrespective of if there is any fact behind it… Which is very useful to those wishing to ‘stir it up’ one way or another.

Oh as for stuxnet, as was later confirmed the real target was not Iran, they were just collateral damage on the real target which was North Korea. If you study the ‘before and after beliefs’ you will see how easily not only they can be wrong but how tenaciously ‘true adherents’ can cling in beyond reason or fact…

That is just part of the human condition so don’t worry about it. Remember ‘guessing is easy finding supporting facts is hard very hard’ when it comes to attributing malware, some but not many are begining to realise this, but then their income is not dependent on following a political narative.