| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| Why I Still Don't Buy the Russian Hacking Story |
| 2016-12-23 |
| I'm willing to believe that Russia sought to hack the U.S. election, but I still find the evidence lacking. That skepticism applies to the latest sensation -- a report that Russian proxies in Ukraine are employing the same malicious software used on the U.S. Democratic National Committee. For months, I have been parsing stories of the great Russian hack -- the anonymous leaks from U.S. administration officials, the two fact-poor statements from the U.S. intelligence community, the distant echoes of briefings received by U.S. legislators -- for technical evidence. But so far, the only evidence pointing to Russian government involvement comes from cybersecurity companies that have studied Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) 28, a hacker collective that has attacked many targets over the years -- including the DNC in 2016 Don't get me wrong. It stands to reason that Russian intelligence was interested in the U.S. election campaign, and it's a distinct possibility that it leaked what it found to the press via WikiLeaks, despite the latter's denials. Russian President Vladimir Putin dislikes Hillary Clinton, and he probably would have been happy to hurt her chances of getting elected -- thus, by default, helping Trump. It's all quite logical, which is why a third of Americans believe Russia influenced the outcome of the election. In the real world outside of soap operas and spy novels, however, any conclusions concerning the hackers' identity, motives and goals need to be based on solid, demonstrable evidence. At this point, it's inadequate. This is particularly unfortunate given that the DNC hacks were among the defining events of the raging propaganda wars of 2016. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #9 #3 Willy - Heh.™ |
| Posted by: Barbara 2016-12-23 15:51 |
| #8 #3 It's pretty uncomfortable to be reading something written by a murderous kleptocrat and thinking, "Hey! Good point." |
| Posted by: Matt 2016-12-23 13:03 |
| #7 I would be curious to know how many people changed their opinions based on the emails. How many stayed, home, voted for Trump instead, etc. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2016-12-23 12:46 |
| #6 I still say the real damage was what was IN the emails not the fact that the hack occurred...the media and the Dims are covering up the cesspool of corruption and manipulation that was the Clinton campaign. Had the emails been good old fashioned political strategy and exchanges of talking points or ideas for an ad campaign, it would have come to nothing. BUT, we all know what was in those emails and any voter that bothered to look was appalled. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2016-12-23 12:19 |
| #5 You can't expect Baraq to admit that he had eight years to do something about cyber security and failed It's hard to remember since there were so many other and more spectacular failures. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2016-12-23 12:00 |
| #4 Blaming the Russians is only natural. You can't expect Baraq to admit that he had eight years to do something about cyber security and failed. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2016-12-23 11:40 |
| #3 From Putin Q&A “The Democratic Party lost not only the presidential election, but also elections in the Congress, where the Republicans now have a majority. Was that my doing too?” “They are losing on all fronts and look for someone else to blame. I believe, this is, how should I say, humiliating. One should know how to lose with grace,” he said. |
| Posted by: Willy 2016-12-23 11:35 |
| #2 The story that needs to be addressed before I even look at this is the one about how we allow the situation to develop in the first place. We need to secure our electoral process. This is our fault. |
| Posted by: gorb 2016-12-23 10:40 |
| #1 Would it be mean to describe the Russian Hacking Story as another failed attempt by the CIA to overthrow a country? |
| Posted by: SteveS 2016-12-23 00:21 |