General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: It has to be asked: Could the Russians have hacked DU? [View all]stevenleser
(32,886 posts)I still think it very unlikely the Russians were behind the hack, but given everything that has come out now it's no longer a laughable assertion. I'm going to list a few facts, or strong suppositions, in support of and against the idea
In favor of the idea that Russians hacked us
1. DU has a history of hammering any information that suggests that an American election has been stolen or that there is an element of election fraud. If there is another site that does more of that and can put more eyeballs on any such allegations posted, I am not aware of it. That being the case, if someone was going to mess with our elections and wanted to prevent dissemination of information about election issues, this is one of the sites they would likely target.
2. The hacking was timed so that the site went down just before the results came in. Again, if this was the result of an actor that messed with our elections, this is exactly the time you would want it to happen.
3. The message itself
3a. As many noted, the syntax and other wording suggest a middle eastern writer.
3b. The message suggested the election of Trump was a fait accompli. Trump was definitely going to be elected, when the latest data up until that point suggested the opposite.
4. The hack seemed pretty sophisticated. I don't know the DU software but the website wasn't merely brought down. The attack was much more sophisticated and thorough than that. There was zero chance the website could be successfully brought up in time to have meaningful discussions about election irregularities before it was too late. This could point to a state actor.
Against the idea that the Russians hacked us
A. DU has been the center of negative attention for a number of groups and websites. Any one of them could have done this to hurt Skinner, EarlG, Elad and the membership during their busiest time.
A1. At least one of those websites themselves were hacked in the not too distant past and I saw some suggestions that they suspected someone connected with DU. This could have been revenge.
B. The timing again could have been just to hurt us at a time when DU was busy.
C. The hacking community has plenty of folks who are capable of sophisticated hacking. It wouldn't have to be a nation state or their security services.
D. Would the attack on DU be worth it for the security services of a nation state? Worst case scenario is someone found voting irregularities in real time, it was posted here as an OP and several hundred or thousand of us clicked on the sharing mechanisms to send it to Facebook and Twitter. Would that be enough to substantially increase the risk of discovery of any election issues? So much is being posted and tweeted on election night. It might not be enough.