Comment by Lambdanaut
6 hours ago
Does anyone know why Ubuntu would be targeted by pro-Iranian activists? I'm perplexed by the connection.
6 hours ago
Does anyone know why Ubuntu would be targeted by pro-Iranian activists? I'm perplexed by the connection.
Canonical partners with organizations like the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and Platform One to provide secure software and AI/ML capabilities. They have an entire DOD team.
I can't find much info about that (especially with their website down). Is Canonical's work with the DOD more like Raytheon or Pizza Hut?
Raytheon: providing products specifically for the DOD
Pizza Hut: selling their usual product to the DOD
Pizza Hut does not have a permanent DoD team. Canonical has actual contracts. You'll have to wait till their site is back up to read about it
https://canonical.com/blog/meet-the-canonical-federal-and-do...
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Almost certainly a target of opportunity. The UK has really made a point of staying out of this fight, but is also seen as a close ally of the US. Perhaps the calculus is:
- Iran was able to attack Ubuntu.com
- Iran sees it in its interests to stress the UK / US relationship (albeit in a small way)
UK has been trying to thread the needle of staying out of what is obviously a complete cluster** of a war while also not annoying the US too much, but US bombers are taking off from air force bases in the UK to bomb Iran all the time.
Because of that and the general ingrained hostility of the permanent UK security state to Iran, they view us as a legitimate target albeit not a particularly important one because we’re just not that powerful anymore
Yeah when Americans talk about how bad a deal NATO is they always conveniently forget the military bases. Most of their wars tend to involve Ramstein for example.
Why would Ubuntu problems cause stress in the US/UK relationship?
I suppose the idea was that Canonical is a UK-based company and they're being threatened by the US's enemy.
Having said that, I really can't believe that either Trump or Starmer will give a shit about this, especially given the recent friction in that relationship.
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Perhaps it's just that Iran believes it's only chance for victory is maximum public attention, and they don't have any real hacker know-how. So they pick a soft but well known target.
It's what they do to students inside Iran.
An actual answer because all you've received so far is complete nonsense: because they want press attention as they're using these attacks to advertise their DDoS-as-a-Service tool. Literally every single statement they release (on Telegram) includes text saying that their attacks are "100% powered by $websiteEndingWithDotSu".
They also attacked the likes of Vrbo, Expedia and eBay, but they get more press by targeting Mastodon, Bluesky, Ubuntu and the likes, so they go after those now. People are desperately trying to somehow tie those victims to some ideological nonsense, but it's just advertising.
It's a well(ish) known org with well known product, and they seem to have been vulnerable. If they had attacked a deli in Newark, would we be having this conversation?
Canonical literally has a DOD team. They are a military contractor
313 Team claims their attack is vengeance for killing Khamenei.
They work with US military.
Terrorists will generally target anything of opportunity.
It was also perplexing when Iran was shooting missiles at their allies, until you realize they aren't rational humans.
> they aren't rational humans.
Would you be able to point to any rational humans?
Maybe ones who don't follow supreme religious leaders that called for the gunning down of 3000 men, women, and children in the streets. And then approve beatings/the murder of doctors that treated them.
Imagine that being your moral leadership. And 3000 is the official Iranian number. Some claim as high as 30,000. Those religious leaders are calling for more murder/death in todays Friday prayers. I don't know how anyone who calls for (or especially signs off on in a religious theocracy) murder can be called spiritual leaders or anyone could follow their 'teachings' .
Edit: Just highlighting the horrors/behaviors you are normalizing/waive away as 'shared by everyone' with your statement 'but what humans aren't like this'.
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Which allies are you talking about? Gulf nations with US bases actively being used to kill their children?
You say "actively" as if it wasn'y a one-off event... maybe because Iran is forcing children to sit at IRGC checkpoints or other military targets?
None of the gulf countries allowed offensive US strikes to occur from their territory. Its all used to defend against attacks from Iran trying to kill Gulf country children.
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> until you realize they aren't rational humans
How did you get to that realization?
> It was also perplexing when Iran was shooting missiles at their allies, until you realize they aren't rational humans.
Ah yes, the classic “my enemies are ontologically evil” gambit.
I'm not sure dismissing the people who invented the term "checkmate" as a bunch of irrational terrorists really works. They stared down Saddam Hussein, so how hard can it be to stare down Donald Trump?
Bombing Iran is like nuking an asteroid. Now, instead of one giant asteroid on a collision course with Earth, there are a half-dozen medium-sized radioactive asteroids on a collision course with Earth.
was iran a muslim theocracy when they invented the word “checkmate”?
congrats on the glorious past or whatever, in the actual present iran is a failed state ran and supported by loons
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Canonical is a UK company, so its a symbolic attack against a Western agent. Ubuntu is used by a lot of tech companies so they knew this attack would get a lot of visibility in the tech community. I'm assuming they think this will garner support from the tech community as well.
Exactly as described in "how to win friends and influence people". Break their stuff and extort money.
> I'm assuming they think this will garner support from the tech community as well.
I don't understand their thinking if this is the case. DDoSing widely used project is going to turn people against you, not generate support.
Still it feels quite odd that from all western tech companies (and several more influential than Canonical) they chose precisely one that is highly involved with open source
All these comments saying it's just a salient target are making it up. Canonical is a military contractor. They literally have an entire DoD team. That's why they're being targeted. They're far from the only military contractor to be targeted by Iranian hackers this year
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Welcome to war. This was why the Qatar attack was so destabilizing.
Iran's position is that any organization that is in any shape or form aligned with the US and West is a target.
And being an anti-war westerner won't help you. People are forgetting that the Iranian government detests Israel and the entirety of the West.
The core principals of the revolution which is the IRGC's entire ideological basis is reversing westoxification (Gharbzadegi) and returning to the norms of the Imam Husayn (Velayat-e Faghih).
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You should have seen so many lies about Iran by now to justify the neocolonial war against them: so why do you assume every time some newly reported "fact" about them to be true? Rather, you should assume the opposite.
There is such a thing as being too open-minded to form an accurate perception of reality.
I think the saying is "so open-minded your brain fell out"
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