Tag Archives: Russian hacking

Is That All There Is? Intel Community Releases Its Russia ‘Hacking’ Report, by Daniel McAdams

Posted on January 9, 2017 | 1 comment

Daniel McAdams takes a shotgun to the Intelligence Community report on Russian hacking of the US election, putting smore holes in it than it already had. Intelligence community “confidence” impresses a lot fewer people than it used to. From McAdams at antiwar.com:

The much-anticipated Intelligence Community report backing up its claims that the Russians hacked the US elections in November has just been released. Titled “Declassified Intelligence Community Assessment of Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections,” the report is long on speculation and short on any evidence for the claims it was supposed to prove. It even came with a warning label stating that though the conclusions are reached with “high confidence,” that “does not imply that the assessment is a fact or a certainty; such judgments may be wrong.” We who lived through the 2002 “high confidence” in Iraqi WMDs remember this possibility well.

According to the report, the Russians conducted “cyber operations” against both major US political parties, used the Romanian hacker known as Guccifer 2.0, who they claim is “likely” Russian, “maintained access” to local electoral boards but “were not involved” in vote tallying, and used Russian state-run media to influence voters to vote for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.

The Intelligence Community Assessment does not offer any evidence of Russian hacking of the DNC and thus provides nothing new to back its claims. Rather than explain the means used by the Russians to “hack” the US elections, the Assessment instead devotes most of the report to speculating about possible Russian motives for so doing. Thus it appears more a diversionary maneuver to compensate for bringing a whole lot of nothing new to the table.

To continue reading: Is That All There Is? Intel Community Releases Its Russia ‘Hacking’ Report

 

 

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Why Donald Trump Is Spot-On About The Russians And The Election, by John Reed Stark

Posted on January 3, 2017 | Leave a comment

Skepticism about all the Russian hacking allegations and the election is warranted. The claims are unsubstantiated and will remain difficult to impossible to substantiate. From John Reed Stark at linkedin.com:

President-elect Donald Trump has recently questioned: 1) President Obama’s finger pointing at the Russians for election-related cyberattacks; and 2) the current media and pundit frenzy alleging a Russian cyber-strike targeting Secretary Hillary Clinton in order to assure a Trump presidency. President-elect Trump plans to press U.S. intelligence agencies to defend their conclusions, stating,

“I know a lot about hacking. And hacking is a very hard thing to prove. So it could be somebody else. And I also know things that other people don’t know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation.”

Having worked since 1995 as a first-responder to cyber-attacks, including serving 11 years as Chief of the SEC’s Office of Internet Enforcement, I whole-heartedly agree with President-elect Trump. His skepticism is not only appropriate and warranted — it’s spot-on.

Official U.S. Statements About Russian Hacking of U.S. Election

Despite countless inflammatory headlines about Russian election hacking, there exist only two official U.S. statements specifically addressing the facts of recent election-related hacking incidents. The first is the October 7, 2016 Joint Statement from the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Election Security (the “Joint Statement”). The second is the December 29, 2016 Joint Analysis Report of the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, entitled, “GRIZZLY STEPPE – Russian Malicious Cyber Activity” (the “JAR”).

Both government statements are curt, vague, opaque and miles away from being concrete — and both also beg far more questions than answers.

To continue reading: Why Donald Trump Is Spot-On About The Russians And The Election

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Was Claim by Department of Homeland Security and FBI About Russian Hacking Fake News? by David Spring

Posted on January 1, 2017 | 2 comments

David Spring, who judging by his credentials may know what’s he talking about, takes apart the DHS/FBI report on Russian hacking. From Spring at truthdig.com (please see the original article for links to the report and other links):

Editor’s note: David Spring, M. Ed., is a retired college instructor from Seattle who specializes in website design and security. This article has been very lightly edited at Truthdig; its information was not affected. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

On December 29, 2016, the Hill posted an article discussing a 13-page report that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security presented as “evidence” of Russian hacking in US elections.

Wikileaks has repeatedly stated that the source of its leaks was a disgruntled Democratic Party insider.

However, President Obama issued a press release on December 29, 2016, using the DHS-FBI report to justify increasing sanctions against Russia.

I therefore decided to see what the evidence was of Russian involvement in US elections. The Hill article linked to this 13-page government press release.

The government press release written by DHS-FBI did not mention Wikileaks. Nor did the report provide any evidence of Russian hacking in the US elections. Instead, the press release stated that “technical indicators” of Russian hacking were in the “CSV file and XML file attached with the PDF.” However, there was no CSV or XML file or link attached with the PDF. I was eventually able to find these two files at this link.

To see the evidence of Russian hacking firsthand, I downloaded the CSV file and converted it into a spreadsheet. The CSV file and the XML file both contained the same data. Here is the XML link to this data which can be viewed online in a web browser.

Both files provide a list of 895 “indicators” of Russian hacking. Unfortunately, nearly all of these indicators are simply IP addresses. In other words, it is a list of 895 servers from more than 40 countries around the world. But the list also includes a few website domain names. (A domain name is simply the name of the website such as Youtube.com.) I looked up these website domain names with this tool, which tells us who owns the domain names and where they are located.

To continue reading: Was Claim by Department of Homeland Security and FBI About Russian Hacking Fake News?

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What Is The Obama Regime Up To? by Paul Craig Roberts

Posted on December 31, 2016 | 1 comment

Paul Craig Roberts takes apart the Department of Homeland Securities report on alleged Russian computer hacking, allegedly to influence US elections. From Roberts at paulcraigroberts.org:

Obama has announced new sanctions on Russia based on unsubstantiated charges by the CIA that the Russian government influenced the outcome of the US presidential election with “malicious cyber-enabled activities.”

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a report “related to the declaration of 35 Russian officials persona non grata for malicious cyber activity and harassment.”

The report is a description of “tools and infrastructure used by Russian intelligence services to compromise and exploit networks and infrastructure associated with the recent U.S. election, as well as a range of U.S. government, political and private sector entities.”

The report does not provide any evidence that the tools and infrastructure were used to influence the outcome of the US presidential election. The report is simply a description of what is said to be Russian capabilities. https://diplopundit.net/2016/12/29/dhsfbi-issues-joint-analysis-report-grizzly-steppe-russian-malicious-cyber-activity-read-report/

Moreover, the report begins with this disclaimer: “DISCLAIMER: This report is provided ‘as is’ for informational purposes only. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not provide any warranties of any kind regarding any information contained within.” https://diplopundit.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/jar_16-20296.pdf

In other words, the report not only provides no evidence of the use of the Russian tools and infrastructure in order to influence the US presidential election, the report will not even warrant the correctness of its description of Russian capabilities.

Thus the DHS report makes it completely clear that the Obama regime has no evidential basis for its allegations on the basis of which it has imposed more sanctions on Russia.

To continue reading: What Is The Obama Regime Up To?

 

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Just who is undermining election? Russians or CIA? by The Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board

Posted on December 18, 2016 | Leave a comment

If the Albuquerque Journal qualifies as the mainstream media, then even the mainstream media is waking up to the deception that is the Russian hacking allegation. From the editorial board at abqjournal.com:

Congress needs to dust off its Magic 8 Ball. At this point, how else are our elected representatives going to get to the bottom of allegations that Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, tried to influence the U.S. general election?
After all, the Central Intelligence Agency isn’t being very open – at least not with our elected representatives.

Instead of briefing the House Intelligence Committee about the alleged Russian role in hacked emails made public during the campaign – which Democrats desperately seek to blame for Hillary Clinton’s loss – the agency is leaking conclusions without facts to the Washington Post, New York Times and television networks. The media, naturally, are quick to report the anonymous bits of “blame Putin” information to the public.

So to the extent Putin meddled, our own spies have at least matched his efforts to discredit our electoral system.

To recap: Private emails from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign were made public via WikiLeaks, allegedly through hacking, even though the FBI had tried to warn the DNC back in September 2015 of problems with its security system. The agency couldn’t get past the party’s technical help desk – harking back to Hillary’s email security problems on her own private server.

The media reported on the leaks daily – and if a reporter had obtained the same information from inside sources, there would be no controversy at all. Today’s uproar is over the source – not the substance.

To continue reading: Just who is undermining election? Russians or CIA?

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The Leak That Came in From the Cold, by Justin Raimondo

Posted on December 16, 2016 | Leave a comment

The evidence that the WikiLeaks’ emails came from an insider leak is at least as strong as that it came from a foreign hack. From Justin Raimondo at antiwar.com:

Craig Murray tells all – media ignores him

What difference, at this point, does it make?

As the frantic attempts by die-hard Democrats, the media, and the CIA to prevent Donald Trump from being sworn into office reach a fever pitch, Hillary Clinton’s anguished cry seems like the only appropriate response. Trump won the election, he’s now announcing his Cabinet, and that’s the end of the matter.

Or is it only the beginning?

When the CIA targets a country for regime change, I wouldn’t bet the farm on the targeted government surviving. And while this isn’t quite Allende’s Chile, America’s increasing resemblance to a banana republic is augured in the CIA’s refusal to appear at a congressional oversight committee to explain leaks in the press charging that Russian intelligence actively worked to elect Trump. So who’s in charge here – the CIA or the people’s elected representatives?

The White House has joined the fray, implying that the PEOTUS is directly colluding with Moscow. White House spokesman Josh Earnest stated that Trump was “obviously” aware, “based on whatever sources were available to him,” that the Russians were behind the alleged hacking of the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta. Because, you see, Trump has a direct line to the Kremlin: after all, how else could the Russians issue their marching orders?

It’s unlikely, albeit possible, that this brouhaha is going to prevent Trump from taking office: the “Hamilton electors” campaign doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, in spite of the best efforts of Christine Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi’s daughter – gee, how did she become an elector, I wonder?

To continue reading: The Leak That Came in From the Cold

 

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So What if it was the Russians? by Paul Rosenberg

Posted on December 16, 2016 | Leave a comment

Okay, let’s say hypothetically that the Russians did it. Did they engage in a massive campaign of disinformation? No, they revealed a lot of embarrassing truths. From Paul Rosenberg at freemansperspective.com

This entire episode is a warning of just how rancid the American over-class has become. Is there no one left in the American elite who has some dignity, some class, some measure of perspective? Have they all descended to the level of drunken brawlers?

American elites are rushing to create a constitutional crisis as I write this, building up an immense head of steam (there was an 8,000 word article in the NY Times, fer goodness’ sake), and all for what?

Stop and think for a moment: The Russians allegedly “intervened” in a US election. But what is it they are supposed to have done?

They spilled the truth.

Yup, that was their unfathomable crime… revealing the truth. That’s not exactly a problem, is it? And if it is, what does that say about the aforementioned American overlords?

This is not a minor or ancillary point: The leaked emails were true! And what they revealed should be dinner-table conversation coast to coast. But instead (perhaps this was the deceitful purpose of this), we’re inundated with a new Red Scare. “Look over there, little girl, there are flashing lights.”

Where is the cool head that says something sensible? Perhaps like this: “Listen boys, this isn’t worth tearing the county apart over. We may not like Trump, but he cares about this country in his own way, and he’ll work four years to reach his goals. He’s not going to sell nukes to terrorists, and he’s not out to conquer the world. Let him have his turn.”

Apparently such people can’t survive in rulership these days.

To continue reading: So What if it was the Russians?

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Putin Lashes Out At Obama: “Show Some Proof Or Shut Up” by Tyler Durden

Posted on December 16, 2016 | Leave a comment

Are the US mass media “manipulating themselves?” That may be all they end up manipulating; nobody else trusts them. The Russians are telling their accusers to put up some real proof or shut up. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

Putin has had enough of the relentless barrage of US accusations that he, personally, “hacked the US presidential election.”

The Russian president’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Friday that the US must either stop accusing Russia of meddling in its elections or prove it. Peskov said it was “indecent” of the United States to “groundlessly” accuse Russia of intervention in its elections.

“You need to either stop talking about it, or finally show some kind of proof. Otherwise it just looks very indecent”, Peskov told Reporters in Tokyo where Putin is meeting with Japan PM Abe, responding to the latest accusations that Russia was responsible for hacker attacks.

Peskov also warned that Obama’s threat to “retaliate” to the alleged Russian hack is “against both American and international law”, hinting at open-ended escalation should Obama take the podium today at 2:15pm to officially launch cyberwar against Russia.

Previously, on Thursday, Peskov told the AP the report was “laughable nonsense”, while Russian foreign ministry spox Maria Zakharova accused “Western media” of being a “shill” and a “mouthpiece of various power groups”, and added that “it’s not the general public who’s being manipulated,” Zakharova said. “the general public nowadays can distinguish the truth. It’s the mass media that is manipulating themselves.”

Meanwhile, on Friday Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister told state television network, Russia 24, he was “dumbstruck” by the NBC report which alleges that Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally involved in an election hack.

The report cited U.S. intelligence officials that now believe with a “high level of confidence” that Putin became personally involved in a secret campaign to influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. “I think this is just silly, and the futility of the attempt to convince somebody of this is absolutely obvious,” Lavrov added, according to the news outlet.

To continue reading: Putin Lashes Out At Obama: “Show Some Proof Or Shut Up”

 

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