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Thread: Former UK trade minister Liam Fox was spear phished

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    Former UK trade minister Liam Fox was spear phished

    This is how a suspected Russian operation got classified US-UK trade documents in 2019.
    Read more.

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    Re: Former UK trade minister Liam Fox was spear phished

    Sounds painful.

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    Re: Former UK trade minister Liam Fox was spear phished

    I always thought he was referred to as 'disgraced former defence secretary, Dr Liam Fox' after his Adam Werritty scandal? Don't let him get off light. Between him, Priti Patel and failing Grayling this government knows how to promote failure.
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    Re: Former UK trade minister Liam Fox was spear phished

    Came here to comment exactly as cheesemp!

    Indeed, I think we can safely update that title to "idiot disgraced former defence secretary, Dr Liam Fox".

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    Re: Former UK trade minister Liam Fox was spear phished

    “idiot disgraced former defence secretary, Dr Liam Fox”
    Used personal email for confidential government business - strike one
    Didn't enable 2FA - strike two
    Either of this should be grounds for prosecution when it involves the running of our country. And now lets try and make him head of the WTO! Our government is utterly incompetent. Seriously people stop voting Tory, they will screw up and screw us over.

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    Re: Former UK trade minister Liam Fox was spear phished

    Still, the idiot handler of the stolen goods got what he deserved...

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    Re: Former UK trade minister Liam Fox was spear phished

    What is worrying for me,is the secrecy of all these trade negotiations. If the government was actual more upfront about stuff,none of these documents would need to leaked.

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    Re: Former UK trade minister Liam Fox was spear phished

    Quote Originally Posted by Darkedge View Post
    Seriously people stop voting Tory, they will screw up and screw us over.
    The main alternative is every bit as bad, though.
    As the saying goes, "**** on by Tories, shovelled up by Labour".

    Thing is, MPs of both sides are routinely hacked, by both GCHQ types and by external parties, along with plenty of secret documents accessible from Google.
    What I find somewhat Machiavellian is how it's always Corbyn who appears waving his own personal copy of these leaked top secret documents... Makes me think of the pads of triplicate forms - One for our records, one for the audit trail and one for the client!
    _______________________________________________________________________
    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Tyson
    like a chihuahua urinating on a towering inferno...

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    Re: Former UK trade minister Liam Fox was spear phished

    Quote Originally Posted by Bagpuss View Post
    Still, the idiot handler of the stolen goods got what he deserved...
    Quote Originally Posted by Ttaskmaster View Post
    What I find somewhat Machiavellian is how it's always Corbyn who appears waving his own personal copy of these leaked top secret documents...
    By all means hate on Corbyn, there are plenty of legitimate reasons for doing so after all.

    However, if Corbyn had incompetently passed top-secret trade documents to a foreign power and the Tories had sought to highlight this once they were already in the public domain, who would you be getting angry at?

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    Re: Former UK trade minister Liam Fox was spear phished

    Quote Originally Posted by Ttaskmaster View Post
    What I find somewhat Machiavellian is how it's always Corbyn
    He was leader of the opposition!

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    Re: Former UK trade minister Liam Fox was spear phished

    I thought the modus operandi of such operators to target and catch such big fish was known as Whale Phishing, not lowly Spear Phishing for this utterly stupid but still heavy weight politician.

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    Re: Former UK trade minister Liam Fox was spear phished

    The problem here is, when you make security too arduous, you make non-compliance more likely. From what is posted above, he absolutely should NOT have used his Google account for this stuff (although Google's Advanced Protection Program is pretty good and possibly the best out there) and he should have enabled 2FA. But if no one taught him what to do and WHY, is he going to know what he's doing is dangerous?

    This isn't a partisan issue, and to make it so shifts the focus away from the real issue. That those who are in positions of power are usually older and have little understanding of basic infosec principles. You train people in security when you give them access to privileged information. Just like you train people in not mowing down peds when you give them a driving licence. This sounds systemic - he's an MP using his own Google account for confidential stuff and none of the people he was emailing went "wait, what?"

    Spear phishing isn't hard in principle. Anyone here could spoof a from header and trick Google mail into putting the right name and photo atop an email.

    Security is about people, not politics or fancy equipment. If the people employing the security don't know why it's there, and the efficacy of the security hinges on their compliance, it will fail.

    "Do this very inconvenient thing whilst doing your job"
    "why?"
    "because the IT department said you have to"
    "well I'm trying to do a job which already rules my life enough, thanks. I'll do it my way".

    People will think they know better unless you teach them properly. Saying "just do this" isn't teaching them. It's giving them the keys to the car and going "don't kill anyone" without equipping them with the skills required to make that not happen.

    EDIT - why is there a picture of Corbyn here??

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    Re: Former UK trade minister Liam Fox was spear phished

    Quote Originally Posted by Lanky123 View Post
    However, if Corbyn had incompetently passed top-secret trade documents to a foreign power and the Tories had sought to highlight this once they were already in the public domain, who would you be getting angry at?
    That's my point - These are supposedly secret documents stolen by hackers with Russian State backing.
    One minute he's on about wanting closer ties with Russia, the next he's waving brown dossiers around and claiming they meddled in the UK election.

    Quote Originally Posted by edmundhonda View Post
    He was leader of the opposition!
    What about all the other parties? Are they not also the opposition? Why aren't any of them furnished with their own personal copy?
    _______________________________________________________________________
    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Tyson
    like a chihuahua urinating on a towering inferno...

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    Re: Former UK trade minister Liam Fox was spear phished

    Quote Originally Posted by Ttaskmaster View Post
    That's my point - These are supposedly secret documents stolen by hackers with Russian State backing.
    One minute he's on about wanting closer ties with Russia, the next he's waving brown dossiers around and claiming they meddled in the UK election.


    What about all the other parties? Are they not also the opposition? Why aren't any of them furnished with their own personal copy?
    You have an obsession with Corbyn...inhale deeply....he is not the leader of Labour anymore!

    Feel better now?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lanky123 View Post
    By all means hate on Corbyn, there are plenty of legitimate reasons for doing so after all.

    However, if Corbyn had incompetently passed top-secret trade documents to a foreign power and the Tories had sought to highlight this once they were already in the public domain, who would you be getting angry at?
    I find it weird all these documents are meant to be so secret. Surely the government has nothing to hide in its trade agreements with no proper parliamentary oversight??

    Quote Originally Posted by philehidiot View Post
    EDIT - why is there a picture of Corbyn here??
    People like his sexy socialist beard??
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 04-08-2020 at 09:28 PM.

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    Re: Former UK trade minister Liam Fox was spear phished

    Quote Originally Posted by Darkedge View Post
    “idiot disgraced former defence secretary, Dr Liam Fox”
    Used personal email for confidential government business - strike one
    Didn't enable 2FA - strike two
    Either of this should be grounds for prosecution when it involves the running of our country. And now lets try and make him head of the WTO! Our government is utterly incompetent. Seriously people stop voting Tory, they will screw up and screw us over.
    The problem is the alternatives are even worse. And I'm not defending the Conservatives

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    Re: Former UK trade minister Liam Fox was spear phished

    Quote Originally Posted by cheesemp View Post
    I always thought he was referred to as 'disgraced former defence secretary, Dr Liam Fox' after his Adam Werritty scandal? Don't let him get off light. Between him, Priti Patel and failing Grayling this government knows how to promote failure.
    Also dubbed Liam "turning up to Wimbledon with a ping-pong bat" Fox...

    ...by the US trade delegation.

    https://www.ft.com/content/68e4d7aa-...a-5521c713abf4

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