Can US election hack be traced to Russia?

I am thinking of a number of examples where a nation did not trust it intelligence agencies and as a result paid one hell of a price for not doing so.

The one that come to my mind now is that a complete copy of the German Schlieffen Plan was given to the French high command and they refused to believe it or act on it.

Millions lost their lives on both sides as a result.

 

LOL once more if we are not going to trust our intelligence agencies why spend hundreds of billions on them yearly.

Maybe we could outsource that function to the Russians as it seem they are trusted far more then our own people.

 

Even Rolling Stone is calling the Obama administration on this

Something About This Russia Story Stinks
Nearly a decade and a half after the Iraq-WMD faceplant, the American press is again asked to co-sign a dubious intelligence assessment

In an extraordinary development Thursday, the Obama administration announced a series of sanctions against Russia. Thirty-five Russian nationals will be expelled from the country. President Obama issued a terse statement seeming to blame Russia for the hack of the Democratic National Committee emails.

"These data theft and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government," he wrote.
Russia at first pledged, darkly, to retaliate, then backed off. The Russian press today is even reporting that Vladimir Putin is inviting "the children of American diplomats" to "visit the Christmas tree in the Kremlin," as characteristically loathsome/menacing/sarcastic a Putin response as you'll find.

This dramatic story puts the news media in a jackpot. Absent independent verification, reporters will have to rely upon the secret assessments of intelligence agencies to cover the story at all.
Many reporters I know are quietly freaking out about having to go through that again. We all remember the WMD fiasco.
"It's déjà vu all over again" is how one friend put it.

You can see awkwardness reflected in the headlines that flew around the Internet Thursday. Some news agencies seemed split on whether to unequivocally declare that Russian hacking took place, or whether to hedge bets and put it all on the government to make that declaration, using "Obama says" formulations.

At one point we learn that the code name the U.S. intelligence community has given to Russian cyber shenanigans is GRIZZLY STEPPE, a sexy enough detail.
But we don't learn much at all about what led our government to determine a) that these hacks were directed by the Russian government, or b) they were undertaken with the aim of influencing the election, and in particular to help elect Donald Trump.

The problem with this story is that, like the Iraq-WMD mess, it takes place in the middle of a highly politicized environment during which the motives of all the relevant actors are suspect. Nothing quite adds up................

The New York Times was more aggressive, writing flatly, "Obama Strikes Back at Russia for Election Hacking." It backed up its story with a link to a joint FBI/Homeland Security report that details how Russian civilian and military intelligence services (termed "RIS" in the report) twice breached the defenses of "a U.S. political party," presumably the Democrats.

This report is long on jargon but short on specifics. More than half of it is just a list of suggestions for preventive measures.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/something-about-this-russia-story-stinks-w458439

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The caught them in a phishing scam.

 

You don't seem to understand how intelligence works. The truth, veracity and usefulness of the intelligence is not with those agencies that develop the intel but it lies solely with the leadership it is given. FRD new the Japanese were going to attack the USA but they thought it was to be the Philippines. MacArthur was given the intel that the Chinese were in North Korea and there in strength, but he choice to ignore it. Bush was given the intel that it was a slam dunk the Iraq had WMDs, he choice to believe it and it was wrong.

It's the leader's responsibility to study the info and use their best judgement. Intel is never wrong or right in and of itself.

 

Sure the conclusion from the raw data by our experts is either right or wrong either the hacking attack was done by the Russians or it was not done by the Russians.

You and others seem willing to take the word of a former KGB head over our intelligence community experts on it not being a Russian hack.

If our trust is so high concerning the Russians and so low as far as our intelligence community once more I suggest we defund them and hired the Russians to do the job for tens of billions less a year.

Oh somehow I question if either Obama or Trump have the background to look at the raw information and judge for themselves who was the attackers but it seems that Obama is believing our own experts and I fear that Trump is going to claimed at least to believe the Russians.

 

It's already been traced to Russia. But Trump and his fanboys have a vested interest in denying it. Along with reality, for that matter.

 

First it was an email hack, not an election hack. Prove that they hacked one polling place. Just one.
Calling it an election hack just makes the people doing it look like hacks themselves.

I can see why Putin might want Trump instead of Clinton.
Would you want to put up with 4 years of that Kackling Kook after 8 years of the babbling Obama?
"Tell Vladimir I will have more flexibility after my next election"
I'll bet "Vladimir" doesn't think of himself as being on a first name basis with "Barack".
I'll bet he thinks of "Barack" as an insufferable prig.
"Lieutenant cum captain applesauce"

 

1/21/17 President Trump will overwrite almost every executive order BHO ever wrote.
1/22/17 Congress will obliterate Obamacare.
1/23/17 President Trump will appoint a new Supreme Court Justice.
1/24/17 Congress will confirm that Justice.
Legacy Gone.

Reality that.

 

I think of the Obama group as the gang that can't shoot straight.

This is the same bunch that promised us it was a Video that caused deaths in Libya.

And told it for days and days, all with a straight look as if it was true. (hateful video on the internet)

[video=youtube;Cetu6SMiZsY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cetu6SMiZsY[/video]

 

First off, What personal bias are you referring to?

second, I'm not convicting. I'm agreeing that the information available is unclear at best and more facts need to be revealed before any further action is taken.

 

They issued a report that does not say that.

 

Let's run down the Susan Rice, the Obama and Clinton lies, shall we?

Who with a straight face dares defend any olf those liars. Those liars are also lying about the Russians hacking the inept DNC

The DNC flew into a rage and fired Debbie Wasserman Schultc.

Russia and Wikileaks report the truth.

But Obama and his pals will try to run a lie around the world a dozen times hoping it does not crash.

This is exactly how they handled Benghazi. They simply refuse to learn.

[video=youtube;xitCdlo9IlQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xitCdlo9IlQ[/video]

 

I'm glad John McAfee made a public statement. No one can dispute his credentials in the IT field. He just made many posters on this forum look like absolute ignorant fools by categorically accusing Russians without providing any evidence whatsoever.

John McAfee: 'I Can Guarantee You, It Was Not the Russians'

http://ibankcoin.com/flyblog/2016/1...showing-juvenile-evidence-of-russian-hacking/

In case some of you were duped into believing this was evidence that proved Russia hacked the US elections, John McAfee would like to remind you that you're probably a high tier retard and would believe virtually anything your government told you.

Crazy, but brilliant, John said “if it looks like the Russians did it, then I can guarantee you it was not the Russians.”

The Joint Analysis Report from the FBI contains an appendix that lists hundreds of IP addresses that were supposedly “used by Russian civilian and military intelligence services.” While some of those IP addresses are from Russia, the majority are from all over the world, which means that the hackers constantly faked their location.

McAfee argues that the report is a “fallacy,” explaining that hackers can fake their location, their language, and any markers that could lead back to them. Any hacker who had the skills to hack into the DNC would also be able to hide their tracks, he said

“If I was the Chinese and I wanted to make it look like the Russians did it, I would use Russian language within the code, I would use Russian techniques of breaking into the organization,” McAfee said, adding that, in the end, “there simply is no way to assign a source for any attack.”

However, McAfee does see a problem with the National Security Agency (NSA) being able to listen in on every conversation and read every text message and email of every American. Rather than focusing on disrupting the bad guys in foreign countries, McAfee thinks that “all of that effort has been placed on a country that is afraid of its own citizens.”

He claims that the only way he has been able to fully block the NSA from infecting his phone with spyware is by using a flip-phone too old to be hacked. He even goes as far as to call the iPhone the “ultimate spy device.”

Since the stakes are so high, thermonuclear war and all, the least the CIA and other wonderful intelligence agencies can do is provide sufficient evidence to the American people before they get annihilated under the winds of a 10,000 degree winter breeze. Or is that too much to ask? Judging by just about everything they've told us over the past 15 years, I'm inclined to believe the exact opposite is true...

 

McAfee is a nut in my opinion at least however sometime an amusing nut but still a nut and as far as I know is still wanted by the Belize police for questioning concerning a murder of another American who was a neighbor of his.

He also had try to run for president this year by way of the Libertarian Party.

Yes we should take his word over NSA and the other experts in our government.

Now I did said he was amusing did I not?


[video=youtube;bKgf5PaBzyg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKgf5PaBzyg[/video]

 

Now below is a article by an internationally respect expert on internet security by the name of Bruce Schneier. Look him up on Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Schneier

 

Nah...Bruce Schneir is just another paid establishment propagandist, so called expert without any working knowledge. He's clueless like many others so called establishment experts.
McAfee might be a funny character, a bit nutty but he has proven himself in the field of the cyber security time and time again.

Guys like Schneir can learn from him. You too. You'd better pay close attention to what he says instead of desperately trying to smear his personality.


JOHN McAFEE: Here's what it means to be a 'cybersecurity expert'

http://www.businessinsider.com/john-mcafee-defines-cybersecurity-expert-2016-3

... In addition to our personal security, our national security is no less plagued.

Foreign States provide the greatest risk to our national cybersecurity. In the past few years numerous hacks directly affecting our military hardware, including aircraft, missile defense systems and military communications systems have been attributed to the Chinese and other foreign states.

But it is not just foreign states that have the capability to disable our weapons systems or turn our weapons against us. Individual hackers are now capable of taking control of our military drones and other military weapons, or even local and state police surveillance drones. Now, instruction manuals exist for anyone wishing to hijack one of our military attack drones, or even a stealth bomber.

So who can be called a cybersecurity expert in this vast landscape of thorny risks and deadly missteps?


It's someone who understands, first and foremost, the interconnected, multi-dimensional web of interactions between our pure data systems and our automated control systems, because there is no way to secure a single component of this web without securing those elements with which the component interfaces.

We can secure, for example, the software within our military drones so that hackers cannot directly hack into them, but if we do not likewise secure the communications systems and headquarters control systems that give orders to the drones from halfway around the world, then the secure software within the drones is meaningless.

A cybersecurity expert must likewise understand, at the deepest level, how hardware and software mesh together. A person who cannot understand how machine language controls the fundamental processing and the operation of peripheral devices will be helpless against hackers who utilize hardware and firmware anomalies to gain access and take control of software systems.

A cybersecurity expert must also have a deep understanding of communications systems and the various protocols upon which they are built. Hacking, first and foremost, uses communications systems as a main component of entry into a target environment.

A cybersecurity expert must have a firm knowledge of existing hacking toolkits, and must be able to anticipate the evolution of these toolkits into increasingly sophisticated weaponized software.

In short, a cybersecurity expert must know every aspect of cyberscience. In addition, he or she must be a full-time student of human nature, for it is social engineering which is emerging as the philosopher’s stone of new-age hacking.


SEE ALSO: JOHN McAFEE: Either President Obama's cybersecurity advisers are incompetent, or our enemies have planted agents at the highest level of our government

 

Keep in mind that this is the very same government that said the Benghazi attacks were due to a video. Oh, and for those that continue to say that I believe the Russians over our own government, let me state that I don't believe either of them.

 

So this "hacking" that happened back in like July, that nobody cared about till a moth after Hillary lost, suposivly "influenced" the voter. Tell me, what did they expose? As pf Nov7, it was landslide Hillary. Go back and read the threads. Nobody was thinking about Russia.

If you buy into the "Russians hacked the election", you're a total establishment tool.

 

wow, where were you people back in July.... you know... like when this took place? Oh... I remember... It was because Seth Rich was leaking the emails to WIKI and they killed him for it. Now they blame Russia a month after Hillary lost. Establishment tools will buy and propaganda they are sold and repeat it. This Russian story is a perfect example.

 

*** Epilogue ***

Perhaps ONE thing that all of us, Left and Right, could agree on is that self-righteous, ignorant, delusional morons with "dinosaur" mentalities should never, ever be allowed to use computers for anything but purely personal, recreational use -- and most particularly -- they should never, ever be allowed to come anywhere near any computer that is even vaguely connected to any computer system in the United States government.

If you agree (and how could you not?), then reflect for a moment on who that would automatically EXCLUDE....

 

With Hillary lack of any sensemail of cyber security I would not be surprised to find out that dozens of foriegn countries an individual's got in to the State Dept through her basement server

 

As an American I still believe innocent until proven guilty, no matter the accused. Don't you? Obama is a serial liar and there is tons of evidence to prove it so until the day I see proof I'll reserve judgment.. No one has said Putin is a saint, he's a thug. Also, for homework find one of my post where I elevate Putin to Sainthood. I know the Russians are bad actors and I've lived through the 'Red Scare", but to start a war with Russia because you think he's guilty doesn't cut it. As Frank Zappa say's "paranoia will destroy ya".

 

I said Obama (or Pinocchio as I call him) is a serial liar you don't refute that so yes I'll wait for proof.I can read and I can disseminate information, please continue your snobbery.

 

It'd be hard to trace directly to the Russian government. Proxies could make it so the perpetrator could be the guy living across from you in Apt. 23, but have it look like the perpetrator is from Estonia. Still easy to sort through all the proxies to find the source.

Even if the attacks came from Russia or an organization known to do things on behalf of Russia, you'd still need evidence that A) the Kremlin was involved, and B) It was specifically to get the Don into the White House to serve Russian interests.

The US doesn't have evidence of that as far as I know, so I'm still in wait-and-see mode to see if any evidence does turn up. But for now, I'm saying this is just one last "(*)(*)(*)(*) you" to Russia before Trump comes in. And this is coming from someone who doesn't like either Trump or Russia.

 

My post was not intended for you as an individual, so please don't think that it was.
I just don't understand the....Let's hug Putin movement.

From 78 to 83 I worked in Cleveland. During that time frame, the day after every pay period, an old Polish guy would walk around asking
if anyone wanted to give for Solidarnosc in Poland to help people with their struggle against the Russians and what was going on at the time.
No checks, just cash. I'm sure the money was funneled through the Church.
Many people gave and not just Poles. I'm positive this happened all around the country, mainly with U.S. Polish communities & the Catholic Church.
I'm also sure a tremendous amount of cash was raised.

Putin is a carnivorous sociopathic rabid animal.
You can reserve your judgement all you wish. That is your right.
I happen to know better.
Just remember, if one chooses to handle a cobra, one may be able to hold said cobra a hundred times without getting bitten.
But sooner or later, the cobra will bite you.
You can't be angry with the cobra.
You knew it was dangerous the first time you picked it up.

You shouldn't be hung up on Obama so much.
You should be hung up on the Russians, whether your guy won or not.
They're Russians, not Teletubbies.
No need to start a war with them. They can be managed in other ways.
Thanks for posting.

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My post was not intended for you as an individual, so please don't think that it was.
I just don't understand the....Let's hug Putin movement.

From 78 to 83 I worked in Cleveland. During that time frame, the day after every pay period, an old Polish guy would walk around asking
if anyone wanted to give for Solidarnosc in Poland to help people with their struggle against the Russians and what was going on at the time.
No checks, just cash. I'm sure the money was funneled through the Church.
Many people gave and not just Poles. I'm positive this happened all around the country, mainly with U.S. Polish communities & the Catholic Church.
I'm also sure a tremendous amount of cash was raised.

Putin is a carnivorous sociopathic rabid animal.
You can reserve your judgement all you wish. That is your right.
I happen to know better.
Just remember, if one chooses to handle a cobra, one may be able to hold said cobra a hundred times without getting bitten.
But sooner or later, the cobra will bite you.
You can't be angry with the cobra.
You knew it was dangerous the first time you picked it up.

You shouldn't be hung up on Obama so much.
You should be hung up on the Russians, whether your guy won or not.
They're Russians, not Teletubbies.
No need to start a war with them. They can be managed in other ways.
Thanks for posting.