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Russian Government Hackers Penetrated DNC, Stole Opposition Research On Donald Trump (washingtonpost.com)
Russian government hackers penetrated Democratic National Committee's database and stole research on Donald Trump (could be paywalled; alternate source), according to a report on Washington Post. DNC officials and security experts say the hackers were able to read all e-mail and chats in the DNC system. Some of the hackers had been in the DNC system for a year, the report adds. They were expelled from the computer system this past weekend. Russian spies also targeted the computers of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and several GOP political action committees. From the report: The intrusions are an example of Russia's interest in the U.S. political system and its desire to understand the policies, strengths and weaknesses of a potential future president -- much as American spies gather similar information on foreign candidates and leaders. The depth of the penetration reflects the skill and determination of the United States' top cyber adversary as Russia goes after strategic targets, from the White House and State Department to political campaign organizations.
Also, the DNC are a bunch of clowns. They're not a government agency and have to buy their IT security and it sure sounds like they went with the lowest bidder.
I heard the DNC used the same impenetrable firewall on their server than SecState Hillary used. Locked bathroom door and everything!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
(insert Soviet Russia meme here)
Opposition research trumps you?
Dark Reflection
firewall around his servers.
As far as I am aware only the united states admits to cyber espionage.
Russian spies also targeted the computers of [...] Hillary Clinton
Certainly if there was incriminating evidence of something diabolical in her email server, the Russians would have found it, would they not have? Why would they wait to release it?
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
in the toaster oven
And once all 2.3 million outstanding ballots are counted in California (yes, as of today), you'll realize how wise that was.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
. . . .they already have all they need on Clinton, from her email server. . . .
The fact that they're looking for dirt on Trump, suggests that they think he might well be elected. . .
Bernie was the first to "compromise" data on DNC servers. Did we already forget just how bad some of the DNC data is protected?
https://medium.com/@AmyKDacey/...
are worth more than lump sum hush money.
I'm sure the US (tries to) bust into the Russian political stuff also.
Table-ized A.I.
Quote Trump directly.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
They had backup copies of the hard disks . . . but they crashed.
There were backup copies, of the backups, but they have been recycled.
And, last, but not least . . . "I'll take the fifth amendment and my $200,000 per year pension with me."
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
It doesn't suggest that at all. It would be pretty stupid for Russia not to look into the major political contenders of their primary adversary regardless whether they might win or not.
The Russians look at national economic ascendancy like a zero sum game (that's why Russians are so poor).
... sigh ... Trump (like Putin, Obama, and Hillary) is an economic protectionist.
They think that if we get pushovers like Obama (who told Putin he was one reelection away from giving him everything Putin wanted) in office that the US will do worse and Russia will do better.
Russia and the US could actually succeed together if they relaxed commercial barriers. Increased trade rewards value-adds at every stage and more people can compete to fulfill demand (i.e. more jobs).
To me it makes no sense to punch a guy in the stomach and then think my life is going to be better since it is better relative to someone else. But that's how these guys think.
But
So, they had access for how long? A year? I don't suppose there's *any* chance that the open access that Bernie's folks looked at - one of the first reports I read, never repeated, was the guy in charge of the 4-person team had them look, to see if Hillary had gotten *their* info.
And then the DNC "cleaned up"?
I now believe *nothing* the DNC says about its computer systems, or security, since if they'd *actually* cleaned up... they would have caught the Russians *then*, not the beginning of May.
mark
The stolen file reads: "Trump is an arrogant classless bigoted blowhard who often changes his position and rarely offers specifics. Thus, he's a lot like Putin."
Table-ized A.I.
Credit to the DNC and Big Media for spinning this so well. Putin only got got his hands on Trump research.... Nothing on Hillary.
What a load.
ZOMG! Now the Russians know that Trump is racist, sexist, homophobic and Islamophobic. He wants to throw grandma out of the hospital to die on the street, or off a cliff, depending on the topic. At night he hands out fully automatic, laser guided "Assault Guns" with extra-lethal plastic parts to inner city toddlers and mentally unstable Democrats. In his spare time, he is the leader of a secret society of racists known as "the Police" that meets daily to discuss new ways to murder and/or frame innocent black children on their way to church.
Seriously guys, the DNC's "opposition research" is chiseled in stone, and not exactly secret. They just swap out the name at the top.
See that "Preview" button?
... everybody.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
It would be pretty stupid for Russia not to look into the major political contenders of their primary adversary regardless whether they might win or not.
It's pretty damned stupid that Russia thinks of the United States (or more accurately, NATO and the West) as their "primary adversary" when they have a near negative birthrate and 1.3 billion neighbors to the east that are far more likely to come looking for Lebensraum.
I understand the historical reasons for Russia to fear the West -- multiple invasions in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries -- but it's 2016; are the people in Moscow really that stuck in the past? To look at the fat and happy citizens of the West and see an existential threat? I don't think the generation that demands "safe zones" from "microaggressions" is terribly likely to launch Operation Barbarossa II.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
The silver lining is that the DNC may actually be worth penetrating! If the GRU thinks there may be something valuable in there then maybe the DNC actually does something of value.
Exactly. Plus Hillary might launch a nuclear war if the money is right.
I think that Trump himself is still trying to figure out what his foreign policies will be!
Please let the American people know if you figure anything out!
Surprised that the Chinese didn't lock down their DNC espionage better in order to keep the drunk Russians out.
A lot of noise is made about foreigners buying influence (over US legislators and executives), but we don't hear much about blackmail. Which might mean that it's been very successful. If Wikileaks can find stuff in emails to get people in trouble, certainly the Russians can find stuff in emails with which to blackmail. The beauty of blackmail is that it's the gift that keeps on giving. The more you succumb to it, the more grip the blackmailer has over you.
Useful idiots, Lenin called them.
Have gnu, will travel.
Hackers broke into the DNC to steal information about their opponent and not their candidate. Now thats some straight up spin. They stole everything that was there but I can guarantee you that they were far more interested in the internal info they had on the DNC candidate. BTW just because the logged-ip addressed point to Russian ip-blocks it doesn't mean that this was done by direction of the Russian government or even that the attack originated in Russia. Using compromised machines under the hackers controll as proxy servers to carry attacks on a 3d party is standard practice. Using machines in countries that are generally considered rivals and are unlikely to cooperate with U.S authorities in an investigation, makes a heck-of-a-lot of sense
Do a little reading and you'll find that the Chinese are busy stealing all of our technology and preparing themselves to take out our infrastructure (power-grid, banking, etc.). On the other front the Russians are actively engaging in political sabotage via all means from hordes of message forum trolls to active hacking. Don't think that the upcoming "Brexit" vote isn't being watched with great interest, and actively promoted by the Russians. I remember a few years ago Putin predicting that we'd be in a civil war here in the states by about now. Don't think for a moment that he doesn't have a bunch of shills working the interwebs for Russian interests in fomenting unrest and discontent right here and now.
The fact that they're looking for dirt on Trump, suggests that they think he might well be elected. . .
Well duh, he is the presumptive candidate of one of the two dominant US political parties. His chances of becoming president of the US for the next 4 years are currently better than every other human on the planet except one (by some variable margin). ....uhhboy....
Omar Mateen was a registered Democrat
| Why they would support Trump I don't know,
It's literally part of the old KGB playbook. Because POTUS Trump would cause friction between US and European NATO allies. Hurting US/Europe alliances is considered a benefit to Russia.
Trump is extremely popular in Russia. Everyone is rooting for him over there- both the government and ordinary citizens. They were probably gathering the stuff to hand over to him.
The real puzzle here is, why does Hillary or anyone else need to do "opposition research" on Trump? He does it for you every time he opens his mouth.
Russia doesn't fear the West. Putin just wants somebody to be the bad guy - and we do that splendidly. We're much less likely than Islam (in it's various incantations) to come back and bite. It also gives him an excuse to work on the military - something that's good for his hold on power and for his cronies pocket books.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Donald - log in for chrissakes.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I noticed they collected "Research" on Donald Trump and not intelligence.
lol
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
Something posters here seem to be missing. This didn't happen last week, it happened almost a year ago. So whatever they wanted to do with the dirt they found out about Trump, they've had it for over a year.
Trump has been making oddly fanboyish statements about Putin for the last year. It *could* be that he honestly is a fan of that one mid-Eurasian dictator out of all the others like him out there. But the timing opens up other interesting possibilities.
Trump has also conspicuously refused to release his tax returns, unlike just about every major party nominee since tax returns started.
It would certainly be interesting if a foreign intelligence service managed to get themselves a major party nominee in their pocket. If I was on the Secret Service detail for Clinton, I'd start screening for polonium in addition to guns.
What if the Russians find out he's a racist, uninformed narcissistic orange bloviating dickhead? We need to protect that information!
There is Nothing Hillary can say or do will sway Trump Supporters period. There is Nothing Trump can say or do will sway Clinton Supporters period. I don't think either can win with just their supporters so the fight is going to be over the undecided and keeping the "Lean toward one due to the lesser of two evils" leaning the right way and to lesser getting the Bernistas to fall in line.
Getting the leaning towards and undecided is the sweet spot, that's why in every election the true dyed-in-the-wool supporters feel betrayed.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds