MURPHY Kenneth Charles
The funeral mass for Kenneth Charles Murphy was celebrated Monday, July 30, 2018 from Hillsboro Funeral Home to St. Joachim’s Church, Vernon River, with Fr. John Lacey as chief celebrant, proclaiming the gospel and delivering the homily. The Pall was placed by the Funeral Directors. The first reading was proclaimed by Ray Murphy; second reading by Cecil Villard and Prayers of Intercession by Shannon Carver. Music was provided by Organist - Joan Gleadall and soloist - Suzanne Campbell. The processional hymn was “Precious Lord Take My Hand”; psalm Shepherd Me O God; communion - “Prayer of St. Francis”; meditation - “On Eagles Wings”; incense - “Songs of the Angels”, and the recessional hymn - “Amazing Grace”. The Cross bearer was Eddie Trainor; the Altar Servers were Fred McInnis and Leonard Doyle; the Holy Water & Incense Bearer was David MacDonald. The pallbearers were Clayton MacLeod, Douglas MacDonald, Michael MacDonald, Vernon Doherty, Allan MacDonald and Gerard Doherty. Interment followed at St. Joachim’s Cemetery with Fr. John Lacey delivering the graveside prayers. Following the Interment, a reception was held at St. Joachim’s Hall. Completion of funeral arrangements were entrusted to Hillsboro Funeral Home.
Six years ago, a Russian-speaking cybersecurity researcher received an unsolicited email from Kate S. Milton.
Milton claimed to work for the Moscow-based anti-virus firm Kaspersky. In an exchange that began in halting English and quickly switched to Russian, Milton said she was impressed by the researcher’s work on exploits - the digital lock picks used by hackers to break into vulnerable systems - and wanted to be copied in on any new ones that the researcher came across.
“You almost always have all the top-end exploits,” Milton said, after complimenting the researcher about a post to her website, where she often dissected malicious software.
“So that our contact isn’t onesided, I’d offer you my help analyzing malicious viruses, and as I get new samples I’ll share,” Milton continued. “What do you think?”
The researcher - who works as a security engineer and runs the malware-sharing site on the side - always had a pretty good idea that Milton wasn’t who she said she was. Last month, she got confirmation via an FBI indictment.
The indictment , made public on July 13, lifted the lid on the Russian hacking operation that targeted the 2016 U.S. presidential election. It identified “Kate S. Milton” as an alias for military intelligence officer Ivan Yermakov, one of 12 Russian spies accused of breaking into the Democratic National Committee and publishing its emails in an attempt to influence the 2016 election.
The researcher, who gave her exchanges with Milton to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said she wasn’t pleased to learn she had been corresponding with an alleged Russian spy. But she wasn’t particularly surprised either.
“This area of research is a magnet for suspicious people,” she said.
The researcher and Milton engaged in a handful of conversations between April 2011 and March 2012. But even their sparse exchanges, along with a few digital breadcrumbs left behind by Yermakov and his colleagues, offer insight into the men behind the keyboards at Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU.
It isn’t unusual for messages like Milton’s to come in out of the blue, especially in the relatively small world of independent malware analysts.