Security Companies Accused of Exaggerating Iran's Cyberthreats Against the US

An anonymous reader writes: A widely-read report accusing Iran of hundreds of thousands of cyberattacks against the U.S. is being criticized as hugely inaccurate as well as motivated by marketing and politics, according to a new whitepaper and critics around the security industry. The original report, solicited by a conservative think tank and published by Norse in the lead up to the RSA Security Conference, hit the front page of the New York Times by calling handshakes and network scans "sophisticated cyberattacks."

Well Duhhhhhh

[BlindRobin]

It's called marketing... Geeez

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Worse than that. Exaggeration is most of what the computer security industry consists of. It's filled with s'kiddies bored to tears of the tedium of their existence, calling themselves "hackers" to nicen up the blogposts detailing with loving care all the tiny aspects of something new-ish that lightened up their day.

Hollywood didn't help, nor did journos barely understanding what they were supposed to be reporting on. And now governments got involved, so government money is up for grabs. You wouldn't believ

Re:

[shione]

....or propaganda to show Iran in a bad light.

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[gtall]

Propaganda? By companies against Iran? I give up, why would they do that? They're worried about Iran's cybersecurity companies' prowess?

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[dcw3]

Yeah, because Iran is working on nukes for energy purposes, and sending it's navy to Yemen for humanitarian aide. I'm sure it's all propaganda.

Re:

[mvdwege]

Iran's actions with regards Yemen are purely regional politics, nothing to do with any threats they may pose towards the West. Funny as it may seem, people and nations sometimes have multiple motivations to act.

In case of Yemen, it is a matter of Saudi-Arabia, Iran's most prominent opponent in the region, flexing its muscles against mostly Shia militias in Yemen. Iran seeing itself as the voice of the Shia minority in the ME, it is no surprise it should intervene.

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[HybridST]

A quick google search led me to Dice Holdings Inc.

  www.dhigroupinc.com/home-page/default.aspx

Re:

[davester666]

you had me at "exaggerating"

Election time

[GrumpySteen]

Candidates are being announced for the primaries and the conservative party needs a big bad strawman to wave around and claim that the current government is ignoring in order to rally their supporters.

Re:

[meglon]

You're right in a way... the problem it trivializes is that there's a faction of people in this country who lie anytime they need to dupe idiots into a frenzy about some made up threat, and those fucking asswipes NEVER face repercussions from their lies. Grumpy pretty much hit it on the head.... it's worthless lying sacks of shit trying to influence politics (and make money). Life isn't always simple... but sometimes it is.

One DDOS

[Trachman]

Must have been one lousy DDOS attack, one hundred thousand hits. Cyberattacks. According to the US law each and every computer generated hit is a crime and will be prosecuted to the most aggressive interpretation of the law.

So what happened to North Korea?

[sjwest]

Once they where the bogeyman.

Not surprised

[dkatana]

Not only security companies, but also the US government. There is a clear interest to make sure the new Cybersecurity bill will not be stopped in Congress, and they'll do anything to make it happen. Same as with the NSA massive spying they want strong laws protecting their ability to control anyone, anywhere.

Re:

[dave420]

And your reply said a lot - namely that you are a tiny-minded, scared bigot. Bravo.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[pr0fessor]

WW1 and WW2 happened in a little over a 30 years span and cost 65-100 million lives. It was follow by an economic almost golden age. I sometimes think that perhaps we really don't understand the motives of war.

Why Would Anybody Suspect

[BECoole]

that cyberattacks came from a country whose leaders yell "Death to America"?

Let's be honest here...

[endus]

I'm all for accurate information not driven by hype/politics/marketing, but the state of U.S. cybersecurity is pretty dismal. Whatever you want to believe about the number and sophistication of the attacks, the preparedness in both the private and public sectors has a long way to go.

what is it good for

[101percent]

These people are just trying to sell you another war folks. They don't give a shit about the security of the internet.