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How Russia Recruited Elite Hackers For Its Cyberwar (nypost.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the how-it-came-to-be dept.

Lasrick quotes a report from The New York Times (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternate source): For more than three years, rather than rely on military officers working out of isolated bunkers, Russian government recruiters have scouted a wide range of programmers, placing prominent ads on social media sites, offering jobs to college students and professional coders, and even speaking openly about looking in Russia's criminal underworld for potential talent. From the New York Post: "Russia's Defense Ministry bought advertising on Vkontakta, the country's most popular social media site, to lure those who were more talented with a keyboard than an AK-47 rifle. 'If you graduated from college, if you are a technical specialist, if you are ready to use your knowledge, we give you an opportunity,' the ad promised, according to the Times. The ad went on to assure recruits that they would be part of units called science squadrons based at military installations where they would live in 'comfortable accommodation' and showed an apartment outfitted with a washing machine, the Times reported. The Defense Ministry even dangled the chance to dodge Russia's mandatory draft by allowing university students to join a science squadron instead and then questioned them about their proficiency with programming languages, the report said."

39 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. What cyberwar? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Someone managed to get access to someone else's email account? EPIC HACKZ0ring!

    1. Re:What cyberwar? by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 2

      What we see is kind of the pre-pubescent hacking. What is going on behind the scenes is the real stuff.

    2. Re:What cyberwar? by Narcocide · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's curious that the security of the WWW is not addressed by those who could do something about it.

      The problem is, the people whose job it is to do this, they decided to side with the hackers.

    3. Re:What cyberwar? by tinkerton · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I don't know how much of the Russian hacking scandal is valid and how much is PR (propaganda).

      But PR does not care about truth or falsehood, it will use anything. The last large analysis of a campaign that I know of is
      from the Iraq war. You can find the report here: http://www.sourcewatch.org/ind...
      Note the extent of the organisation, how many people and resources are involved. It's yuge. And the variation in types of stories. There can be speculation, fear mongering(which does not require lying, you just worry about possibilities), claims, plain false stories. It's a great analysis.
      These people haven't been sitting on their asses since then.
      In this case there's a campaign to ruin the relation with Russia and make it very hard for Trump to mend that(only russian stooges want better relations with russia).And to take away the focus from the content of the leaks, which were uh about what again?
      With fake news there is little or no build up. It's just rumors made up of thin air. That's amateurish and low budget.
      Real campaigns work on many fronts at once. Once you have official sources and favored journalists channelling anonymous sources you're instantly playing on another level.
      In this case the trumped up charges are that the Russians made sure Trump was elected by hacking Podesta and DNC computers and passing them to wikileaks.
      With a good campaign every reasonable person should start to doubt and think there must be really something to it.

      Wikileaks say (reluctantly) that they got their data from the inside, not through hacking and not through the russians.

      Suppose there's a hack. The reaction to is a choice. You can choose to minimize it. You can choose to respond in kind. Usually secret agencies would fight this out quietly. You can choose to take the opportunity to escalate the tensions as much as possible. That is clear intent.

  2. Fake news by ArchieBunker · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So is this fake news or not?

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    1. Re:Fake news by wasted · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't know if I would call it fake, but I wouldn't call it news. I have no reason not to believe that the NSA and other government agencies recruit top talent in important fields from college, and I would expect agencies from other countries to recruit top talent in important fields from their colleges.

    2. Re:Fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      I have no reason not to believe that the NSA and other government agencies recruit top talent in important fields from college, and I would expect agencies from other countries to recruit top talent in important fields from their colleges.

      They certainly try, but there remain a number of factors in the Russian society that make the recruitment offer in Russia more attractive to Russian graduates than similar offers are to American or European graduates:

      1. Military service is still mandatory in Russia, even for college graduates. I know this because several teaching assistants in my computer science classes here in the United States were from Russia and told me that a major attraction of studying abroad as graduate students was the opportunity to defer or avoid the mandatory military service back home. In the United States, military service has not been mandatory since the late 1970s and the jobs available to computer science and other STEM graduates are generally much more attractive than anything on offer from the US government or the military. Some of the European countries still have mandatory military service, but European armed forces are generally small and poorly funded which makes them less able and willing to make attractive offers to high skill graduates. So, a chance to satisfy the mandatory service requirement in relative comfort and with higher pay has the potential to be very attractive to a Russian graduate in Russia.

      2. The private sector in Russia is nothing like what it is here in the United States or Europe. The opportunities are much poorer and therefore less attractive compared with a government position. Especially one that provides benefits that are hard to get and expensive in Russia, particularly for young people, like decent and affordable housing in and around the Moscow area.

      3. The sorts of skills that one learns hacking on behalf of the Russian government are not the sort of things that one can easily learn in school or working for a legitimate American or European business. These skills can be lucrative in the criminal networks and Russia has generally shown a willingness to give the United States and Europe the middle finger when it comes to cooperation in law enforcement among other things. This makes hacking for a living, mostly with impunity, a much more viable career path in Russia than it is in the more law abiding countries of Europe or especially here in the United States where not only is hacking frowned upon, but as Aaron Swartz discovered, severely punished.

    3. Re:Fake news by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 2

      These skills can be lucrative in the criminal networks

      Heh, that reminds me of a survey where they asked graduating Russian high school students about intended careers (apparently the survey is taken every year). At some point, to some surprise, one of the top scoring careers was "policeman". It turned out that a cop's training and networking opportunities were seen as an excellent preparation for an entry into organized crime.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    4. Re:Fake news by rholtzjr · · Score: 2

      I think he was referring to the Draft for the "Vietnam Conflict". So yes, that was mandatory.

  3. Hypocracy by Zemran · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A country that regularly invades other country to force a change in government gets its panties in a twist over a theory that someone might have taken an interest in their election. The US does this all the time.

    --
    I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
    1. Re:Hypocracy by lucm · · Score: 2, Informative

      A country that regularly invades other country to force a change in government gets its panties in a twist over a theory that someone might have taken an interest in their election. The US does this all the time.

      That's just not true. More often than not, there's no invasion, instead of group of puppet opponents are trained and funded by the USA. Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Argentina, Chile, Zaire/Congo, Cuba, Colombia, Panama, El Salvador, Ghana, Haiti, Honduras, Uruguay, Guatemala. Probably many others.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    2. Re:Hypocracy by lucm · · Score: 4, Informative

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    3. Re:Hypocracy by Noishkel · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I for one never imaged I'd live to see another red scare come out of a bunch of bhutt hurt liberal media shills. But then again I never thought I'd see the DNC get so low that they'd allow the most corrupt politician in American history be their front runner either.

      Honestly I don't know how you liberals sleep with yourselves at night. Just forget about Trump for a moment. Look at how bad the DNC has come apart thanks to this election. How many times they they have to complete restaff the committee because of internal corruption. And yeah. Some Russian person, either as a state operative or some fake porn site script kiddie, got into your system. We can all agree on that. But they did was released just how absolutely full to the brim with internal corruption the DNC is! Why is that more important than how you all found out about it? You can be mad at BOTH the Russian as the DNC itself. Why is that just your focus?

    4. Re:Hypocracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      A country that regularly invades other country to force a change in government gets its panties in a twist over a theory that someone might have taken an interest in their election.

      Correction. President Obama and his fellow sore losers in the Democratic Party got their collective panties in a twist because they lost to Donald Trump. As an American it doesn't surprise me at all that Russia wants to meddle in our affairs. We need a much tougher man in the White House and it's my hope that Trump will be that tougher man. Obama always struck me as too fawning and effete to be effective in a world inhabited by the likes of Vladimir Putin

      Okay, let me get this straight. Your completely ignoring the fact that the result of a national election was dictated by a foreign country in favor of a cheap shot against democrats? Seriously? Is this what passes for patriotism? The election was close. Months of stolen emails did hurt them considerably, and no there was nothing there that might not have been worse from the other side.

      Also, you want a tough guy, you know like Trump who appears to be all but ready to molest Putin with how much praise he heaps on him? That is your tough guy? Seriously?

      Obama stands up to the guy who attacked us and does what he can. Trump says, thank you, your such a wonderful awesome special and misunderstood man. We are talking about the guy who has a record of lead filled enemies and who has invaded at least the one country, not to mention has helped Assad murder his own people. Link That Putin?

      I don't know, maybe Trump is afraid Putin will put some polonium in his Cheerios. That or call his bank loan due.

      The only evidence I see about Obama maybe being weak on this was he didn't hit Putin harder before during the election because Mitch McConnell threated to cry about it. That may have been a little weak, and in hindsight stupid, but that is a tempest in a teacup to how spineless Trump has been. I seriously begin to wonder if he really is Donald J Puppet.

    5. Re:Hypocracy by guestapoo · · Score: 4, Informative
      One more, this time is Russia, not invasion but "influence/interference" other country's election:
      Time 1996: Yanks to the rescue. The secret story of how American advisers helped Yeltsin win

      In the end the Russian people chose--and chose decisively--to reject the past. Voting in the final round of the presidential election last week, they preferred Boris Yeltsin to his Communist rival Gennadi Zyuganov by a margin of 13 percentage points. He is far from the ideal democrat or reformer, and his lieutenants Victor Chernomyrdin and Alexander Lebed are already squabbling over power, but Yeltsin is arguably the best hope Russia has for moving toward pluralism and an open economy. By re-electing him, the Russians defied predictions that they might willingly resubmit themselves to communist rule.

      The outcome was by no means inevitable. Last winter Yeltsin's approval ratings were in the single digits. There are many reasons for his change in fortune, but a crucial one has remained a secret. For four months, a group of American political consultants clandestinely participated in guiding Yeltsin's campaign. Here is the inside story of how these advisers helped Yeltsin achieve the victory that will keep reform in Russia alive.

      Focus on the bold texts, how nice the good guys Time preferred to describe, compare to:

      Time 2016: Russia Wants to Undermine Faith in the US Election Don't Fall for It

      Since the spring, U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agencies have seen mounting evidence of an active Russian influence operation targeting the 2016 presidential election...., undermining faith in the result and in democracy itself.
      ......
      Russia’s interference in the U.S. election is an extraordinary escalation of an already worrying trend.
      ......
      in Trump, Putin has found an almost perfect, if unwitting, ally for his influence operation.

    6. Re:Hypocracy by quenda · · Score: 2

      That's just not true. More often than not, there's no invasion, instead of group of puppet opponents are trained and funded by the USA. Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Argentina, Chile, Zaire/Congo, Cuba, Colombia, Panama, El Salvador, Ghana, Haiti, Honduras, Uruguay, Guatemala. Probably many others.

      Not just 3rd-world countries. Some have seen the CIA fingerprints on the US's closest allies.

      http://www.theaustralian.com.a...

    7. Re:Hypocracy by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I didn't realize that the CIA and FBI were now "bhutt hurt liberal media shills", thanks for clarifying that.

      I honestly don't know how conservatives sleep at night, knowing that their system failed badly enough to put Trump in the White House (too many candidates spreading their support too thin, failing to counter his bullshit effectively)... I guess they are just happy that they can now ram through all their policies and are willing to overlook the rest of it.

      They must be terrified over what Russian has on the GOP though. You can bet that if Putin's man in the White House ever goes rogue there will be some strategic leaks to neuter him.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    8. Re:Hypocracy by Freischutz · · Score: 3, Informative

      A country that regularly invades other country to force a change in government gets its panties in a twist over a theory that someone might have taken an interest in their election. The US does this all the time.

      Are you seriously pointing at the USA's habit of invading other countries in an attempt to make Russia look like an Boy Scout? Russia has it's own record of invading other countries, installing puppet governments, committing atrocities and imposing a regime of oppression that makes the Americans look like rank amateurs. Just ask the nations of Eastern Europe how much they enjoyed half a century of Russian imposed communism and how much they are looking forward to enjoying a repeat of that experience if Putin succeeds in disassembling NATO and rebuilding the Soviet empire. If I have to choose between living under US Imperial hegemony or Russian kleptocratic tyranny I'll choose the Americans every damn time, even when they, are dumb enough to elect a narcissistic moron with a bad orange comb over and an over active Twitter account who seems to be hell bent on provoking a trade war with China.

    9. Re:Hypocracy by unixisc · · Score: 2

      So the battle they picked was not when the private records of US citizens were stolen by hackers, or any of the other instances, but when the emails of DNC officials were hacked and leaked to the American public? Yeah, good prioritization

      This was not anything like a Watergate break-in, since neither Trump nor the RNC did it: a third party, that had an animus towards Obama and Clinton, and which GOP administrations in the past as well as the GOP establishment openly condemn, did. And the only 'damage' was the US electorate seeing the real shenanigans of the DNC in their own internal race, and later, the thought processes of Clinton campaign officials, whether it was their opinion on Catholics, Clinton's desire to have an equivalent of the EU in the Americas, w/ open borders from Canada to Argentina, or solicitations from the King of Morocco for the Clinton Foundation. Yeah, I know that Dems would have loved for such a person to have been elected in preference to the evil Trump, but that's not how it works. Besides, what cost Clinton the election was the fact that she didn't care about the working class, particularly in WI, MI and PA, where it mattered, and flipping those 3 states were what cost her

    10. Re:Hypocracy by unixisc · · Score: 2

      Excepting that if this was manufactured information, no break-ins would have been needed - or maybe one. Steal whatever info you need about certain computer information, like headers, and then generate emails w/ all sorts of details that would make candidates squirm. Only that if they had done that, it would have been very vociferously denied, instead of the battle cry of 'It was the evil Putin trying to get his puppet Trump elected'.

      The Trump tax returns are the favorite straw man of not just Liberals, but also Trump's former Republican opponents, who got nowhere w/ it. When a candidate files to run in the elections, they have to file a financial disclosure statement stating all their assets, liabilities and other operating incomes and expenses, which is what Trump did. That is a lot more comprehensive than a tax return. A tax return would have the end results of how much was paid, but not necessarily the internals of what went into it. The financial disclosure revealed a lot more.

  4. from Russia by turkeydance · · Score: 4, Funny

    with LAN

  5. Interesting, but entry-level programmers, not elit by raymorris · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's mildly interesting. As is normally the case, the article points out that the headline is bullshit. College students? That's where you find entry-level programmers, not "elite hackers". Nothing wrong with that, of course, you can train an entry-level programmer to damage computing systems just as readily as you can train them to build secure systems.

    There are a few elite hackers, people who really understand the low-leveling functioning of the system, who write the payloads in assembler. Those elite ones, who write assembler, tend to be older more often than they are college kids. College kids tend to *use* the tools written by the older, more experienced and "elite" hackers.

  6. Hypocrisy at its finest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    because don't pretend the U.S. has not done this for a decade or more. Russia (and China) has got _nothing_ on the U.S. when it comes to staging a cyberwar on the world, as the NSA revelations have proven. This NYT article is a case of the Fake News you've been hearing about.

  7. Re:Interesting, but entry-level programmers, not e by lucm · · Score: 4, Funny

    There are a few elite hackers, people who really understand the low-leveling functioning of the system, who write the payloads in assembler.

    Of course. A piece of code in assembler that gets injected on the system via a clever manipulation of the power phase and/or fan oscillation, delivered via Q-spoiling. Once infected, the host system sends an email to the hacker to let him know which version of Wordpress is running on the server so he can know which php file to upload and pwn the organization.

    --
    lucm, indeed.
  8. They post ads, more since Snowden by raymorris · · Score: 2

    > I have no reason not to believe that the NSA and other government agencies recruit top talent in important fields from college,

    I know they post employment ads just like any other organization who hires people. I would expect they recruit like other organizations - though possibly not as effectively as many companies. I'm in the security field and have been called about jobs for a lot of companies, only one of which sounded like potentially a front company.

    One thing different about their ads is when you click to go to their online application site, it you're instructed to not tell anyone that you've applied - just in case they want to hire you for a clandestine, or more likely semi-clandestine role (typically not spy thriller stuff, just a fairly typical office job but you keep it on the down low).

    I understand the intelligence services have had trouble recruiting since the Snowden revelations, which makes sense. Ten or fifteen years ago I probably would have considered a job hacking for the "good guys". Now, we know the good guys are bad guys.

  9. Re:Obama's still crying after his embarrassing los by lucm · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Obama, what an asshole. He gladly breaks the tradition of lame ducks not rocking the boat. He antagonizes Israel at the UN and now tries to declare war on Russia. What's next? Invade Ireland to seize Apple's cash, then nuke North Korea?

    What an awful president. Good riddance.

    --
    lucm, indeed.
  10. Re:Interesting, but entry-level programmers, not e by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 2

    people who really understand the low-leveling functioning of the system

    We calls thems electrical engineers where I'm from.

    You fancy higher-level people.

    --Physicist

    Hey, how's it look way up there?

    -Mathematician

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  11. A washing machine? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The ad went on to assure recruits that they would be part of units called science squadrons based at military installations where they would live in 'comfortable accommodation' and showed an apartment outfitted with a washing machine, the Times reported.

    Wait a minute, you mean the President Elect chose to pimp out the US to a country that has to recruit tech talent with the promise of a fucking washing machine? A country that's sitting on untold natural resources but has an economy smaller than that of Spain?

    Jesus, Trump should have at least held out for China. We might have actually gotten something out of that deal.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  12. A few, sure. Overall tendencies, likelihood by raymorris · · Score: 2

    In my experience, a few young people can work at low level, assembler etc, and truly grok it but it's much more common for older people to have learned it. On the other hand, the youngest programmers are more likely to know how to use the framework of month, which is also a good thing to know.

    Multiply the percentage of people in each age group who grok assembly by the percentage that have elite skills that normally come from many years of experience.

      In 20 years of continually learning, I've already done it wrong 5,000 different ways. It's hard to screw up that much in just a few years, and learn the same lessons. Actually there's also a lot of benefit, to me, of cross-pollinating a lot of stuff I've done over the years; hacks I did with DirectX 8 and 9 give me ideas that I use today. It's tough for a college kid to say "hey maybe something like the hack I figured out in 1994 can be applied here."

  13. Re:really? by superwiz · · Score: 2, Interesting

    And if you still don't think "let's find some Russians to blame" is the modus operandi for handling elections loss in the DNC, just recall this

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Chapman

    They rounded up some RF nationals who worked in finance (not even in government) and expelled them ON JULY 4th in the year when they were trying to stem the tide of the upcomming losses which were to come from the Tea Party surge in the mid-term elections. Their "espionage" consisted of advising RF government in financial matters... imagine that. Some finance guys advising foreign government in financial matters. Don't take me wrong. I am a very vocal critic of Putin's government. And I usually find myself on the side of vehemently mocking RF apologists. RF could not sway Ukrainian election (which is why they had to resort to open warfare with Ukraine). But now we are supposed to believe that they can sway US elections? Why? Because there is a few RF citizens engaging in some credit card fraud? So Russians are these super hackers all of a sudden? But only when DNC losses the election. When the RF manages to get a glance at some military data, that's not news because that's on Obama's watch. I call bull shit.

    --
    Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  14. Real Story, Fake Narrative by Nova+Express · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm sure the Russian government recruits computer talent in the many ways listed in the article. I would suspect the U.S. government does much the same.

    The fake part comes in: Why publish this piece now? Why not, say, during the massive OPM breach?

    Simple: Publishing it during the OPM breach would have harmed Obama, whom the New York Times and it's employees almost universally adore, while publishing it now helps prop up the false narrative that the Russians were behind the DNC leaks, not a disgruntled Democratic Party insider, and thus supposedly harms President-elect Donald Trump, whom the New York Times and it's employees almost universally loath.

    Remember, among the revelations to come out just after the election were how the Times abandoned objectivity to go after Trump and how the entire newsroom is dedicated to driving a predetermined narrative rather than carrying out an objective search for truth.

    This story was published because it fits an (unproven and probably false) narrative that Russia "hacked the election" because it theoretically harms Trump.

    Further reading here and here.

    --
    Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)

    http://www.lawrenceperson.com/

  15. Re:Hypocrisy by unixisc · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually, it was done twice by 2 US presidents - Clinton and Obama. Both did what they could to try and get Netanyahu beaten in the Israeli elections - w/ Clinton sending Carville to manage Labour's campaign and actually pulling it off - getting Ehud Barak elected

    While I don't believe that the WikiLeaks was the straw that broke the camel's back and tilted this election Trump's way, in the event that it actually did, it couldn't have happened to a more deserving candidate

  16. What's the Answer... by hyades1 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is Trump's connection with Putin purely sexual, or are there US national security implications?

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    1. Re:What's the Answer... by Xyrus · · Score: 2

      Is Trump's connection with Putin purely sexual, or are there US national security implications?

      Money, sex, and power. Putin helped Trump get elected. Power. Putin-Trump puts Rex Tillerson in as Secretary so he can roll back the sanctions blocking the half-trillion dollar oil deal Tillerson had with Putin. Money.

      So now we just need the sex part. All jokes of shirtless Putin and Trump nipple tickling him aside, I'm not sure where that plays in yet. Trump and some of his current and former associates have had plenty of dealings in Russia. Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest that someone like Trump has had more than a grabby handful of female adventures, and it would surprise me even less if Putin didn't have an extensive archive of blackmail material on him.

      Putin isn't stupid, and he's certainly more intelligent and clever than Trump could ever hope to be. He's a chess player; he knows how to think ahead and play the long game. Trump has had presidential ambitions for decades. I'd bet dollars to donuts that Puty has got quite the dossier on Trump, Tillerson, et al. and I'm also sure they know the Putin isn't the type of person to make idle threats.

      Putin will continue to be praised and treated with velvet gloves by this administration because they've got Trump and friends by the proverbial (and possibly even literal) balls.

      --
      ~X~
  17. Re:Interesting, but entry-level programmers, not e by Tuidjy · · Score: 2

    I doing plenty in Assembly for the Bulgarian People's Army in the 80s. There was a time I could read and edit in hexadecimal, getting things right most of the time. After the fall of the so called Communist government, I went to college in the US. Nothing mythical about Assembly and college, they mix just fine.

    As a matter of fact, at least in the 90s, MIT had plenty of courses that used Assembly... and a few were you would actually design both a processor (with a very simple instruction set) and write the assembler (the program going from Assembly to binary code) for it.

    This said, I have used (embedded) Assembly twice in the last twenty years, for the same reason both times: to wring a little bit more performance for data crunching that had to be performed in real time. Neither was for my day job. Then again, I'm not a hacker for the Russian government, the only government that's eeeeevil enough to employ *gasp* hackers.

    --
    No good deed goes unpunished...
  18. I see why you are confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Okay, let me get this straight. Your completely ignoring the fact that the result of a national election was dictated by a foreign country in favor of a cheap shot against democrats?"

    WHERE do you get this garbage?

    THERE is NO evidence that the result of the election was "dictated by a foreign country"!!!!! Hillary Clinton's campaign idiot, John Podesta, stupidly responded to a phishing e-mail and in doing so handed over the access to his e-mail account to SOME HACKER located SOMEWHERE ON EARTH. Apparently, the unknown hacker then grabbed Podesta's e-mails and handed them to Wikileaks. There's a plausible report that even this phishing attack was not even the source of the Wikileaks info and that it was provided by a Democrat insider, possibly an annoyed Bernie supporter. IF this phishing attack affected the election, then what you are saying is that it was very unfair for the American people to find out the truths about Hillary and her team that were exposed and that by your reckoning the American people should have remained ignorant and been tricked into supporting Hillary (THAT would have been the electionhack the Democrats intended).

    You Hillary supporters are just getting pathetic at this point - there's now a poll showing half of the Democrats think Putin hacked the voting machines (something even Obama says is impossible). It's just like you people who think Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from her House; Palin NEVER said it, the words were said on SNL by Tina Fey who was impersonating Palin. If left-wing media outlets repeat a lie often enough, it appears that fact-starved bubble-occupying liberals will believe the lie.

    Answer this: IF Obama knew Putin was hacking the election over the past year-and-a-half, then why did he do NOTHING to stop the hacks or punish the Russians until now, just before leaving office and after supposedly letting Hillary lose to the Russian hackers???? Obama theoretically has NSA people snooping on all net traffic and e-mails etc, so SURELY he could have detected it and defended the Democrat party from a simple phishing attack and SURELY he must have iron-clad proof of all the hack traffic and should have known exactly where all the hack traffic was coming from and going to. If you are right that Putin "hacked the election" then why did the most powerful man on Earth (Obama) let him do it????

    Another Question: You Hillbots keep insisting Trump is Putin's puppet... where is any shred of evidence for this? Trump has certainly called Putin "smart", but if you Democrats are right that Putin hacked the election, then you agree that Putin is smarter than Obama. Trump has certainly said he disagrees with Putin's agenda but that Putin is a better leader than Obama, but this was a slam on the poor leadership of Obama and is certainly true if you consider who is getting more results from his efforts to lead his respective nation. Remember that Hillary actually enabled Putin to grab a big chunk of America's Uranium capacity and that her campaign boy Podesta is a registered lobbyist for Putin's banker...

    1. Re:I see why you are confused by unixisc · · Score: 2

      No truths had to be revealed on the Trump side b'cos.... he revealed them himself. Whether it was buying politicians, or paying the least taxes or taking advantages of tax loopholes.... The thing that frustrated the lamestream media was that Trump would admit everything upfront, which is why to this day, they have their collective cunt in a twist over his tax returns. Never mind that he released a comprehensive financial statement - as required by law - a few days after he announced his candidacy

  19. I heart hypocrisy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Hey guys, did you hear Russia is hacking the US? "No big deal, it's probably just propaganda" Hey guys, did you hear Hillary didn't secure her e-mail server? "OMG SHE'S THE DEVIL SEND HER TO PRISON FOR TREASON!" I love watching you morons try to justify your way out of your own stupidity.

  20. Re:Hypocrisy by unixisc · · Score: 2

    No, I stated that the Democrats deserved what they got. They tried rigging Israeli elections twice - the first time successfully - and this time, assuming that this election was rigged against them (something I don't agree that happened), it was a just payback.