Democratic House Candidates Were Also Targets of Russian Hacking

[TomCADem]

Source: MSN/NY Times

WASHINGTON South Florida has long been a laboratory for some of the nations roughest politics, with techniques like phantom candidates created by political rivals to siphon off votes from their opponents, or so-called boleteras hired to illegally fill out stacks of absentee ballots on behalf of elderly or disabled voters.

But there was never anything quite like the 2016 election campaign, when a handful of Democratic House candidates became targets of a Russian influence operation that made thousands of pages of documents stolen by hackers from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington available to Florida reporters and bloggers.

It was like I was standing out there naked, said Annette Taddeo, a Democrat who lost her primary race after secret campaign documents were made public. I just cant describe it any other way. Our entire internal strategy plan was made public, and suddenly all this material was out there and could be used against me.

The impact of the information released by the hackers on candidates like Ms. Taddeo in Florida and others in nearly a dozen House races around the country was largely lost in the focus on what was done to the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clintons presidential campaign. But this untold story underscores the effect the Russian operation had on the American electoral system.

Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/democratic-house-candidates-were-also-targets-of-russian-hacking/ar-AAlwBQf?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=UE01DHP

---

Perhaps we can have a movie about the upcoming 2018 elections as Democrats try to fight against foreign influence and billionaire control over the federal government.

[blue neen]

1. New revelations every day.

Awful.

[YOHABLO]

2. Are we 100% sure Russia is behind the hacking? Until then, we should take a chill pill.

Do you people want a thermo nuclear war? Is that what we want? We're going back into a cold war with Russia folks. I grew up in the 50s and 60s and as a kid I was scared to death of the consequences.

[KatyBR]

3. Interesting how many of these were those critical electoral states

"The intrusions in House races in states including Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Ohio, Illinois, New Mexico and North Carolina can be traced to tens of thousands of pages of documents taken from the D.C.C.C., which shares a Capitol Hill office building with the Democratic National Committee."

[TomCADem]

4. Trump Says The Same Thing About Climate Change

Last edited Tue Dec 13, 2016, 11:40 PM - Edit history (1)

We do not have 100 percent consensus on the cause of climate change, so until we do, everyone should just chill.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-says-nobody-really-knows-if-climate-change-is-real-171304133.html

Trump says ‘nobody really knows’ if climate change is real

President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday that “nobody really knows” whether climate change is real and that he is “studying” whether the United States should withdraw from the global warming agreement struck in Paris a year ago.

In an interview with “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace, Trump said he’s “very open-minded” on whether climate change is underway but has serious concerns about how President Obama’s efforts to cut carbon emissions have undercut America’s global competitiveness.

“I’m still open-minded. Nobody really knows,” Trump said. “Look, I’m somebody that gets it, and nobody really knows. It’s not something that’s so hard and fast. I do know this: Other countries are eating our lunch.”

[YOHABLO]

6. No climate change/ global warming is scientifically a proven fact.

[GusBob]

5. Read the new York times piece just posted in GD. It was the russians

2 different groups that have been followed by the FBI for years

[janx]

14. Yep.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/politics/house-democrats-hacking-dccc.html

[Coyotl]

9. I'm still waiting for the evidence. And, if they were the ones, were they hired by Trump?

[TomCADem]

11. Trump: Unless you catch "hackers" in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/12/trump-blame-cyberattacks/510356/

Trump Is Wrong That Investigators Have to Catch Hackers in the Act

When Trump questions experts’ abilities to sniff out the culprits behind cyberattacks, he’s picking up on a strand of truth and twisting it out of proportion. In general, yes, when computers come under attack, it’s not always immediately clear who’s behind it. In the case of the data breach at Sony Entertainment, for example, the cybersecurity expert Bruce Schneier wrote about his doubts that the North Korean government was behind the hack. The evidence in that particular instance was questionable and open to several interpretations, Schneier said.

But the specifics around this year’s election-related hacking are very different. In early May, the Democratic National Committee asked CrowdStrike, one of many cybersecurity companies that identifies and defends against hacking attacks, to investigate a potential intrusion into the organization’s network. Using a program called “Falcon,” the company’s security researchers soon determined that the cyberattack came from Russia.

* * *
CrowdStrike did in fact “catch the adversaries in the act,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, the company’s co-founder and CTO, in an email. “We were able to watch everything that the adversaries were doing while we were working on a full remediation plan to remove them from the network.”

A few months later, in October, CrowdStrike’s conclusions picked up a major endorsement: A joint statement from 17 intelligence agencies said that the intelligence community was “confident” that intrusions into political organizations like the DNC were “consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts,” and were “intended to interfere” with the presidential election.

[Coyotl]

12. Well, "consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts isn't getting caught

Anyone could mimic that to avoid being identified. But, every hack requires a hacker with the know how. Follow the money to whoever paid the hacker, and I bet you'll find an orange guy with a bad hairpiece.

[TomCADem]

13. So, Do You Have Evidence or Stories Supporting This Theory?

In an earlier post, you mocked the CIA report for not having enough evidence. Then you make this statement alleging that the Trump campaign hacked the Clinton campaign directly:

Anyone could mimic that to avoid being identified. But, every hack requires a hacker with the know how. Follow the money to whoever paid the hacker, and I bet you'll find an orange guy with a bad hairpiece.

[Coyotl]

15. Trump's secret server connected to a Russian server was found during the DNC hack investigation.

It seems people have really short memories about stuff like this though.

Plus, we have what the intelligence agencies have themselves indicated, specifically that what they have is just inference.

Plus plus, those aren't Russian lawyers blocking the recount, that's the massive Republican machine at work. We underestimate these forces at our own peril.

You don't need a 140 IQ to know the beneficiary of the crime is the number one suspect.

[Coyotl]

7. K & R

[Coyotl]

8. Was the "Russian operation" run by the Republican Party?

Paid for by dark money and out of the jurisdiction of US law.

[mopinko]

10. or vice versa.

how much russian dark money is out there?