{"id":2022,"date":"2016-09-25T13:55:09","date_gmt":"2016-09-25T12:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ofcourseimright.com\/?p=2022"},"modified":"2016-09-26T17:28:45","modified_gmt":"2016-09-26T16:28:45","slug":"whats-a-state-sponsored-actor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ofcourseimright.com\/?p=2022","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s a \u201cState-Sponsored Actor\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Yahoo!\"[Updated thanks to an old friend.]<\/p>\n

In Yahoo!\u2019s announcement<\/a> of the theft of 500 million accounts, the Chief Information Security Officer Bob Lord wrote that the company believes a \u201cstate-sponsored actor\u201d was behind the attack.\u00a0 What does that mean and how would Yahoo! come to this conclusion?<\/p>\n

The term \u201cstate-sponsored\u201d is vague.\u00a0 It could means someone who works for a government, or it could mean someone who has in effect been contracted out by a government.\u00a0 Both Russia and China have been accused of this sort of behavior in the past.\u00a0 In the case of Russia, there are two well known hacking organizations, Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear that the Washington Post previously reported<\/a> were involved in the cyberattack against the Democratic National Committee\u2019s systems.\u00a0 In the case of China, the Elderwood Group<\/a> was accused of taking part in a successful phishing attack against His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.<\/p>\n

But why does Yahoo! believe that the culprit is one of these groups and not any other hacker?\u00a0 There are several possibilities:<\/p>\n