All language subtitles for VICE S05E27 Russian Hacking & Contagion

This week on "Vice,"

a deep dive into Russian hacking.

Is there any personal
information of mine

that you couldn't have gotten access to?

If someone wants to hack
you, they're gonna be able to.

And then, the race to stop

the next global pandemic.

We are walking into the Zika Forest.

There are mosquitoes flying
all around me right now.

Doesn't fill me with warm and fuzzies.

Outbreaks are inevitable,

pandemics are optional.

Go, go, go!

We are not animals!

Russia's been in the news a lot lately

for allegedly hacking
the 2016 US election.

The Russian government pursued

a multi-faceted influence campaign

in the run-up to the election,

including aggressive use
of cyber-capabilities.

Russian cyber-criminals

have been accused of everything
from digital bank robberies

to tampering with
critical infrastructure.

So we sent Gianna Toboni to investigate

the severity of this growing threat.

We're about an hour
outside of Portland, Maine.

It's a pretty rural part of the state,

and we're heading into
this Sheriff's Department,

because they've been hacked,

along with every other police
department in the county.

This is the office where
we received the virus.

Um, it was downloaded from an e-mail,

um, right here at this terminal.

We didn't know anything
had happened until, again,

the system started to slow down.

Files weren't accessible, we
started getting error messages.

This is a copy

of the ransom information.

Now, right on the top here
it has "Cryptowall 3.0."

It was a readme-type file.

Um... don't ask me to explain that.

Um, "What does this mean?

This means that the structure
and data within your files

have been irrevocably changed,

um, and you won't be
able to work with them,

read them, or see them."

What did you end up
doing after you read this?

We ended up clicking on the...

the IT folks went to the, um...

the http address,

and were able to locate

the request for ransom

that they were asking for in bitcoin.

I'd never heard of a bitcoin...

... at that point, myself.
You know what I mean?

You know, we're a law
enforcement agency, right?

And my first reaction was,

"I'll be damned if I pay ransom."

It's the cardinal rule,
right? Never negotiate.

We're the police, you can't ransom us.

Which, uh, obviously I
had a rude awakening there,

and actually, I was really surprised

when our IT folks recommended that...

that we pay the ransom.

We've made several changes since then,

and we were not successful.

Another e-mail came
through, and low and behold,

we started to experience
the problem again.

You guys paid twice.

What makes you think these
hackers won't come back again?

We've been fortunate not to
have encountered the virus again,

but I'm not kidding myself.

I don't believe we're a
hundred percent immune.

A cyber-attack has spread
to every corner of the world.

Lincoln County, Maine, is not alone.

Across the country,
thousands of police stations,

hospitals, and businesses,

have been hit by ransomware attacks.

In 2016 alone,

Americans paid close
to a billion dollars

in digital ransom.

This massive uptick in attacks

has the Department of Homeland
Security on high alert.

We went to their National Cybersecurity

& Communications Integration Center

to see just how dire the situation is.

Thank you.

So, in order to get into
this control room here,

yeah, we've got to
leave our phones behind.

Ultra secure in here.

Wow.

So, this is our main watch-floor

for the National Cybersecurity

& Communications Integration Center.

And this is where we have
our 24/7 watch operations

looking for threats and incidents

across the federal government

and in our critical
infrastructures domestically.

- We're hearing a lot about ransomware.
- Mm-hmm.

- Are you concerned about that?
- Yes.

Ransomware has expanded significantly.

Existing organizations are now
taking advantage of the Internet.

What is the nature
of the type of hacking

that we see in the US

that originates in
Russian-speaking countries?

Everything from cyber-criminals,

um, to more organized capabilities,

and the Russian influence
in our election process.

We put out, um,

what we call a joint-analysis
report back in December.

This report was the first
time government officials

published evidence of the
2016 Russian election hack,

which showed Russia's
ability to penetrate

major American networks.

To understand why Russia has
become such a hub for hacking,

we traveled to Moscow.

Andrei Soldatov is an
investigative journalist

who recently wrote a definitive account

of Russia's cyber-espionage.

Of course, it was huge news in the US

when the DNC and Clinton
campaign e-mails were hacked,

but is there really any evidence
to show that direct link?

And how do we know that?

So you can say with
certainty that those hackers

were working with the
Russian government?

To actually see Russian hacking at work,

we went to one of the country's

biggest gatherings of hackers.

Welcome to Russia's biggest
cyber-security conference.

You have guys who are hacking
into ATM machines right here,

into BMWs, Teslas.

The average age here is probably 25, 26.

You have teenagers. Everyone
seems to be under 30.

Cyber-security expert
and even organizer,

Andrew Bershadsky, showed us around.

All right, so what are
you excited about here?

Can you show me some things?

So, what's their angle?
If they attack this,

what do they want to happen?

We wanted to see hacking in real-time,

so we asked former NSA
hacker, Patrick Wardle,

and his associate, Mikhail Sosonkin,

to put my personal
cyber-security to the test.

Well, you know, this was
your first hacker conference,

and we really wanted to make
the experience very authentic,

so we decided to just

hack you in as many ways as possible.

While I thought our crew was
filming background footage,

they were in fact
capturing me getting hacked.

Generally, there's two
main ways to hack people:

Remotely and with physical access.

Um, so we designed some
attacks to do both of these.

Basically, we set up
wireless access points

and we made it look like
it was a hotel Wi-Fi.

But it was, like, a
little thing that suggested

the correct one... it says "guest."

So you probably thought
that that's the one

- you should be connecting to.
- Oh, wow.

So, when you connected to it,

everything you entered in there,

like your last name, your room number,

we basically collected that.

Hotel room numbers... it's
kind of what hotels use

- as an authentication key.
- Oh, my God.

And with that, then we were able

to pull off a social engineering attack,

which gave us a copy of your room key.

Good afternoon.

Could you print another
key for my room, please?

We needed someone to
impersonate you, essentially,

and we had my lovely wife, Diana,

call up the reception and say,

"Hey, can you please give
my colleague another key?"

My co-worker, Gianna,
she's in room 2086.

No other questions asked,

they gave me a key to your room.

Then with that, we were able
to gain access to your room,

where we installed some hidden cameras

so we could see, when
you access the safe,

- what the keypad was.
- Wow.

So, even if you had put your laptop

or your phone in there,
it wouldn't have mattered,

- we could have gotten in.
- You could have gotten in.

So, at this point, we kind of had
complete access to your laptop...

- There's the binary.
- Nice.

What we basically did was we installed

something called a
backdoor on your system,

that would then connect out
to a computer we controlled,

allowing us to execute
commands on your computer.

So, at that point, we
could share your screen,

see exactly what you were
looking at at all times.

Uh, we could record off the webcam

to watch you as you
walked around the room,

hijack your Skype sessions.

So, how did you get my
credit card information?

Every time you press a button,

there is an event that
happens in the machine,

and we can capture
that. You can see here,

we have your credit card information

from when you were
booking your trip to Cuba.

Is there any personal
information of mine

that you couldn't have gotten access to?

I don't think so.

So, you could have
hijacked my whole identity?

Yeah, and you know, the
attacks we pulled off here

really weren't hyper sophisticated,

so I always like to say, if
someone wants to hack you,

- they're gonna be able to.
- Yeah.

We bought you some souvenirs.

This is, obviously, the flag of Russia.

- Thank you very much.
- Actually, you know, we used your credit card, so.

Right.

Cyber-attacks originating in Russia

have become increasingly brazen,

including a data breach of more
than 500 million Yahoo Mail accounts

and a scheme that stole
160 million credit cards

from American corporations.

Russian cyber-security firm,
Group IB, hunts hackers.

They showed us online hacker forums

filled with troves of stolen data.

We're looking at websites that are D.C.,

US government websites,

and when we click on them,

you can see the username and the login.

Uh, it's all the information
to access these accounts.

So, these people may not know

that her e-mail has been hacked?

Wow.

So, my name could be in
there. I wouldn't even know.

These cyber crimes

are committed by blackhat hackers

who can steal critical
data and damage networks.

They exist anonymously on the web,

but we found one who
agreed to talk to us.

Hi, there.

Gianna. Nice to meet you.

- Gianna. Nice to meet you.
- Hi.

Though he first hesitated,
Kostya eventually agreed

to show us some of his hacks.

And, so, what are you doing with
all this personal information?

And then what will they
use that information for?

What's the most amount of money

you've made off of a hack like this one?

Spurred by the trillions
of dollars online

and a generation raised on the Web,

hacking from Russia
and around the world,

is flourishing.

And increasingly, hackers are targeting

the world's most lucrative market,

the US.

But at DHS,

the first line of defense
are hackers themselves.

I hack into agencies, and then,

after the hacking is done,

I go in, and I teach them how we did it,

so then, they can actually go
through and fix those vulnerabilities

so the actual bad guys can't get in.

That's a map of 82,000

critical infrastructures
sites in the United States

that are basically exposed
directly to the Internet.

- Wow.
- We're talking about water systems,

manufacturing plants,
building automation.

When you start to aggregate
it at a scale of 82,000, right,

now, intruding upon a lot
of those systems all at once

could cause, you know,
a significant issue.

How do you see
cyber-attacks, uh, advancing,

in the next 10, 20, 30 years?

At a technical level, we're
gonna be constantly evolving.

As adversaries create new capabilities,

we'll create new countermeasures.

As we advance past their
capabilities with countermeasures,

they'll create new capabilities.

It's always gonna be that kind
of arms race type of activity.

I think this problem is one that...

it's certainly one that we can work on,

but I don't think it's ever
gonna completely go away.

This is gonna be with us
for a long time, I think.

Since 1980, outbreaks
of infectious diseases

have more than tripled worldwide.

Nearly every year,
somewhere around the globe,

a different disease has emerged,

leading to varying degrees of
infection and widespread panic.

Fear of Ebola in infected
countries and beyond, is palpable.

Bird Flu has hit North America.

As our world continues to
become more interconnected,

the threat of one of these outbreaks

growing into a global pandemic

is becoming increasingly real.

To see if and how we
can actually prevent

this next pandemic from happening,

we sent Suroosh Alvi to
the Zika Forest in Uganda.

So, we are walking into
the Zika Forest right now.

We're with our pals

from the Uganda Virus
Research Institute.

We are gonna set up some insect traps,

and discover new viruses.

So, this is the very tower that was used

to discover the original Zika virus?

It was right here?

Long before the Zika outbreak
in Brazil caused global panic,

it was first discovered
here in Uganda in 1947.

Pathogens are constantly mutating

and acquiring new traits,

so researchers monitor the mosquitoes

to track the emerging infections

that could ignite the next pandemic.

Okay.

There are mosquitoes flying
all around me right now.

Doesn't fill me with warm and fuzzies.

Tropical forests like this

are breeding grounds for new viruses.

Once untouched, human populations

now destroy around seven million
hectares of forest each year,

allowing diseases to have an easier time

getting into human populations.

There are houses right there.

There's been encroachment
upon the forest,

and the airport is just past the houses.

What are the implications

of people living so
close to this forest?

Each year,

a million people are killed

by diseases transmitted from mosquitoes.

And with increasing temperatures
and population growth,

that death toll is expected
to climb in the coming years.

The Zika vaccine trials
are progressing right now,

and even though it's daunting
to vaccinate the entire world,

scientists have proven
they can eliminate threats.

In 1967,

the World Health Organization
launched a campaign

to eliminate one of the biggest
killers in human history.

Dr. Larry Brilliant was part of the team

that eradicated smallpox

using a very simple concept.

Instead of gong all
through India or Bangladesh

and trying to vaccinate everybody,

we got the idea

that if we gave the vaccine

only to those

who were closest to an infected person,

and you put a ring around
every infected person,

with your scarce vaccine,

you would abort the epidemic,

and that's what worked.

We have a lot of vaccines,

but the vaccines we have
are for known viruses.

When the next unknown virus

jumps from an animal to a human,

we're not gonna have
a vaccine on day one.

These live bird markets are prevalent

throughout the developing world,

and the tight quarters
that these animals are in

make it very easy

for pathogens and infectious disease

to spread from animals to humans.

Almost 70% of human infections

actually come from animals.

Dr. Denis Byarugaba

investigates the threat
of avian influenza

in live bird markets.

- Standing there...
- Yeah?

... you could smell some
little bit of stuff...

- Yeah.
- ... from the cages.

Now, these are aerosols that
are coming from the cages.

And should there be an
infection in those cages,

you are automatically inhaling them.

So, that smell that I
was smelling over there...

what you are referring to as an aerosol,

is potentially really bad for us?

If there was any potential pathogen

that was within those poultry,

the likelihood that you would
pick it up from those aerosols,

as the birds fluff their
feathers, is very high.

There is a high concentration of poultry

from different regions,

where they are exposed and come
in with different infections.

There is slaughtering of these birds

within the markets,

in very unhygienic conditions.

And if these are zoonotic,

then you expose and get this infection

into the human population.

Could you define or
explain what zoonosis is?

Zoonosis is a disease
that is transmitted

from animals to humans.

The typical example is,
for example, influenza.

And they are quite many.

With the population
increases in these countries,

should the world be afraid
of a crazy bird flu pandemic

at a level that we've never seen before?

For now, the major threat, actually,

is those diseases that we are unable

to find treatment for or contain.

Each zoonotic disease
poses a unique threat.

Transmitted from bodily fluids,

the deadly Ebola epidemic

was exacerbated by the
poorly-developed health systems

and living conditions in West Africa.

The SARS outbreak was less lethal

but struck wealthy
countries as it went airborne

and spread between people
in cities and hospitals.

We are truly in the middle

of the evolution of an epidemic.

Global health systems were unprepared

as these diseases devastated
people around the globe.

But if a disease as deadly as Ebola

can transmit through the air like SARS,

the consequences would be dire.

In the Netherlands,

a scientist proved just how easily

this mutation could occur.

Dr. Ron Fouchier demonstrated

how he genetically modified
the H5N1 bird flu virus

to transmit through the air.

A deadly airborne virus is
potentially a nightmare scenario,

so why create it?

To prove that the H5N1 bird flu virus

could acquire the traits of
becoming airborne transmissible.

So now we can find out
exactly what it takes

for an animal virus to become airborne.

Despite the breakthrough
of his findings,

Dr. Fouchier's work sent shock waves

through the international community.

There were a lot of concerns about

your findings being out in the public.

Yes. So, when we submitted
our manuscript for publication,

the US government judged
that our manuscript

could be used by people to construct

biological weapons of terror.

We argued that the
information that we collected

had to be sent back

to the countries where
outbreaks are occurring

to inform the people about
what to be on the lookout for.

You eventually did
publish your findings,

- is that correct?
- That's correct.

We convinced the World
Health Organization

to have a meeting with the countries

that were facing outbreaks,

to explain why they would
need the information.

And so the people in Uganda

or in Indonesia or
China who do surveillance

can be on the lookout for the mutations

and the biological traits

associated with increased risk.

What you're doing in the lab

is happening in nature all the time.

Absolutely. Flu pandemics
happen every 20, 30 years

without any involvement of scientists...

mad scientists or good scientists.

What we did in the lab
was nothing different

from what is happening

in animals around the globe every day.

When an animal virus mutates

and spreads into the human population,

it inevitably causes chaos and panic.

As the Ebola crisis spiraled
out of control in 2014,

the US government spent
$2.4 billion in response,

more than a quarter of the US's
entire annual global health budget,

pushing scientists like Dr. Brilliant

to find more preemptive
solutions for future outbreaks.

We have to strengthen public health

in the poorest countries
to make ourselves safe.

Human beings are only as strong

as our weakest surveillance system.

This is one instance
where "America first"

means working with the
poorest countries of the world

to protect them out of selfishness,

our own enlightened self-interest.

Uganda is now at the forefront
of deadly disease monitoring,

with a remarkably effective
bio-surveillance system

that was implemented with the
help of American health agencies

and the US Army.

These motorcycle guys, there's
a whole network of them.

They ride around, they
pick up blood samples,

and they take it from the local
clinics to the bigger hospitals.

It was originally set up to deal with

the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

And then they had the very smart idea

to piggyback the examination

of the blood samples
for other infections

like Ebola, SARS, yellow fever.

It's very lo-fi and
rudimentary and cheap,

but it's working.

In 2007,

146 people were infected by a
small Ebola outbreak in Uganda.

Since then, three
outbreaks have emerged here,

but this bio-surveillance
system helped prevent each one

from spreading beyond 25 infections.

It's not just surveillance of humans,

it's surveillance of animals

who could carry a virus
that we don't know about

but has potential for human disease.

We sample from poultry and swine,

for rapid virus detection,

so that immediately, we
are able to detect it,

before it spreads out
massively to other areas.

If we have good pandemic preparation,

if we find outbreaks quickly,

we won't have that
pandemic. It's our option.

Outbreaks are inevitable,

pandemics are optional.