BigBeerBellyMan t1_jeapljo wrote on March 30, 2023 at 5:21 PM

Reply to comment by Phriend_of_Phoenix in Pro-Russian hackers target elected US officials supporting Ukraine by konorM

My point is, that anyone can trick a naive person to give up their password. They don't need to be a "Hacker" and they often aren't. The article's title is misleading and sensationalized.

Phriend_of_Phoenix t1_jeaq4fm wrote on March 30, 2023 at 5:24 PM

You at right in the technical sense, but I think you are just nitpicking. If someone convinces grandma to give them her Facebook login, grandma says she got hacked, and would probably call that person a hacker. GPT isn’t really an AI, but we call it that anyways because how society uses words doesn’t stick to a single dictionary definition.

[deleted] t1_jeaxt7m wrote on March 30, 2023 at 6:13 PM

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BigBeerBellyMan t1_jeb2tk0 wrote on March 30, 2023 at 6:45 PM

The title is sensationalized and misleading though:

There's no way to know the culprits were Pro-Russian.

There's no indication they were Hackers.

They didn't only target US government employees.

No mention if other (not pro-Ukraine) politicians were also targeted, or if it was only those who support the war.

It could just be that US officials were caught in a large drag-net operation.

Phriend_of_Phoenix t1_jebrk9j wrote on March 30, 2023 at 9:22 PM

You have clearly read at least part of the article since you started this thread by claiming phishing is not hacking. The article also states that the group Proofpoint was tracking was at the very least Russia aligned. The scripts they were using were customized to target NATO and NATO aligned organizations. We know they were targeting pro NATO and pro Ukraine officials because they have attacked multiple countries, and all their targets fit that bill. This is in the first two paragraphs of the article.