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Spy Chief: Foreign Hackers May Be Targeting Presidential Candidates (nbcnews.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via NBC News: Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned Wednesday that foreign hackers may be targeting the campaigns of U.S. presidential candidates. The FBI and Homeland Security are working with the campaigns to tighten security and prevent cyber intruders from penetrating their defenses, said Clapper. "We have already had some indications of that, and a combination of DHS, FBI are doing what they can to educate both candidates of potential cyber threats," Clapper said, without specifying which candidates they were advising. "I anticipate as the campaigns intensify we will probably have more of it." A senior U.S. intelligence official told NBC News that they are "most worried about Trump, who has no experience with government computer systems or protocols." Foreign hacking against American political candidates is nothing new, Clapper said. Prior to the 2008 presidential election, Chinese cyber spies had targeted the presidential campaigns of then Sen. Obama and Sen. John McCain in order to read emails and policy papers. The hackers successfully compromised some emails, including private correspondence from McCain, NBC News reported. Also, both Obama's and GOP candidate Mitt Romney's campaigns were hit by Chinese cyber-attacks during the 2012 election. The Office of the DNI clarified Clapper's remarks tweeting: "We're aware that campaigns and related organizations and individuals are targeted by actors with a variety of motivations -- from philosophical differences to espionage -- and capabilities -- from defacements to intrusions. We defer to FBI for specific incidents."
Foreign hackers are targeting everything, everywhere. Of course they're targeting political figures.
who has no experience with government computer systems or protocols
I seem to remember another candidate that seemingly has no experience with proper security protocol.
Not that "murky." Hillary was under a sworn obligation to keep classified material secure. She had at least 22 Top Secret documents on her email server. Those things don't just get accidentally forwarded from a secure system. Somebody went to some trouble to move them from a classified system to an unclassified one. That is a federal crime right there. It's also a crime to handle classified materials in a negligent manner.
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
So is Mr. Clapper now going to admit that SECURING WEBSITES and SECURING DATA is a good thing... and to do that we need encryption, or is he going to try to weasel out by somehow pretending you can secure these things but still give law enforcement and hackers access?
Sooner or later these Washington mouths need to realize that what comes out of one side of their mouth undermines what comes out the other.
Long live encryption.
Ehud Gavron
Tucson AZ
" A senior U.S. intelligence official told NBC News that they are "most worried about Trump, who has no experience with government computer systems or protocols."
As opposed to Hillary's extensive experience of maintaining a secure platform to conduct official business ?
Technically, she had the experience and knowledge to conduct State Deparment business, she just chose to ignore it.
Of the two, I would be more concerned about Hillary who KNEW better, but elected to follow her own rules vs the established ones. ( There is a very good reason we handle classified info the way we do. )
The reason she did it was so that her official emails wouldn't be archived and subject to the FOIA. She did it for the most undemocratic and opaque reasons.
Nobody has presented public evidence that ANY were clearly classified at the time she sent/received them.
Zilcho.
Irrelevant, and false: Dozens of Clinton emails were classified from the start, U.S. rules suggest
Plus, some things are "born classified". They do not need "clear markings" to be classified, and she knew this.
Oh, and then there is the email in which she ordered someone to strip the classified markings from a document. Quote: "If they can't, turn into non paper w no identifying heading and send nonsecure." That's a smoking gun in my book. If you or I did that, we'd be in federal prison right now.
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot