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Washington Post Retracts Story About Russian Hackers Penetrating US Electricity Grid (washingtonpost.com)

Those anonymous U.S. officials who reported Russian hacking code had been found "within the system" of a Vermont power utility must've been surprised to learn the code was on a laptop that wasn't actually connected to the grid. The Washington Post has updated their original story, which now reports that "authorities" say there's no indication that Russian hackers have penetrated the U.S. electric grid.

The Post's newly-edited version now appears below (with their original and now-deleted text preseved inside brackets). A code associated with the Russian hacking operation dubbed Grizzly Steppe by the Obama administration has been detected within the system of a Vermont utility, according to U.S. officials. While the Russians did not actively use the code to disrupt operations of the utility, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss a security matter, the discovery underscores the vulnerabilities of the nation's electrical grid... [Was "the penetration of the nation's electrical grid is significant because it represents a potentially serious vulnerability."]

American officials, including one senior administration official, said they are not yet sure what the intentions of the Russians might have been. The incursion [was "penetration"] may have been designed to disrupt the utility's operations or as a test by the Russians to see whether they could penetrate a portion of the grid... According to the report by the FBI and DHS, the hackers involved in the Russian operation used fraudulent emails that tricked their recipients into revealing passwords.

The Vermont utility does report that they'd "detected suspicious Internet traffic" on the laptop, but they believe subsequent news coverage got the story wrong. "It's unfortunate that an official or officials improperly shared inaccurate information with one media outlet, leading to multiple inaccurate reports around the country."

574 comments

  1. Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here we go again. This reminds me of a boy, a boy who loved to cry wolf.

    1. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. Forgive me if I don't run away from the latest dormant cyber super pathogen. They should be ashamed of themselves, pretty sick of this kind of bullshit. So easy to see through it if you have more than two brain cells to rub together.

    2. Re:Meh by unixisc · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Here we go again. This reminds me of a boy, a boy who loved to cry wolf.

      Precisely. After a year of troll articles about Trump, /. has now become Russia Watch. In addition to a meteorological site. Fuck BeauHD, MSMASH, EditorDavid and WhipSlash. I joined this the day after CmdrTaco left, but the articles used to be about tech stuff - be it OSs, computers, phones, et al

    3. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I've noticed that this forum is being overrun by republican and russian operatives; I hope I'm not the only one.

    4. Re:Meh by INT_QRK · · Score: 5, Insightful

      One should assume a posture of tentative disbelief about anything with potential political charge that one reads in the media pending sufficient corroboration from multiple sources over time.

    5. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yikes. Are people like this the future?

    6. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Read the REVISED article in the WP and elsewhere....Old common code on a laptop not connected to power grid computers.

      Hype article...Fake news. On Washington Post. Pure BS, agenda reporting.

    7. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Njet tovaritsj, it is not.

    8. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      YOU MUST BE A RUSSIAN stop with facts and debunking us that's FakeNews(tm) remember? You must be a Republissan operative.

    9. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Liberal, loser tears are so sweet!

      "I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me!"

    10. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Obama didn't say any of this, the entire US intel establishment did, including CIA, FBI, DHS, NSA weighed in briefly but it's not their bailiwic, etc. Obama mentioned what all of them said, that specific malware linked to GRU was used both to track Ukraine artillery assets/units and hack DNC/GOP machines.

      If Republicans have no need to learn to read, 2017 will continue being confusing to them. Quelle surprise. Stupid bitches, every last one. Yes, I call you stupid bitches when you act like stupid bitches.

      You don't have to like Obama, you don't have to trust him. Trusting Trump against the entire US intel establishment is where retards like you earn your stripes.

    11. Re:Meh by kuzb · · Score: 1

      Agreed, BeauHD in particular needs to go.

      --
      BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
    12. Re: Meh by kuzb · · Score: 1

      It's a transmission across the space time continuum from the future to the past warning about what will happen should we not change our ways. Hundreds of years of browsing mildly amusing cat videos has mutated us in to an angry warlike race unable to form a thought that doesn't include Hitler in some way.

      --
      BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
    13. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      You're not. It's become so blatantly Republican/Russian (Republissian?) that I come to this site to see what the Trump-camp talking points are for any given situation.

    14. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The only republican or the only russian operative?

    15. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Star Track

    16. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Entire "establishment" can suck a dick and take you ukro-shit with them.

      Go back to your shitty banana republic

    17. Re:Meh by John.Banister · · Score: 1

      Have you tried moving the right-hand slider to the left of the zero? It doesn't eliminate that influence, but it seems much less overrun.

    18. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've noticed this as well. There's a rule of thumb in international diplomacy: Your country first. Allies are merely people with similar policy interests as you, but at the end of the day, your nation is the most important to you. Your allies will abandon you if their own interests are threatened. What policy interests do Russia and the US share? Pretty much two things: Not destroying the world and the ISS I guess. What's good for Russia is NOT good for the US by and large.

    19. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it is spelled Star Track bitch

    20. Re: Meh by unixisc · · Score: 1

      If you wanna do that, why not go to Breitbart?

    21. Re:Meh by unixisc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So this would be the same people who endorse Obama/Kerry's treatment of our only Mid-Eastern ally Israel on their way out, but are miffed that Trump supporters are not being patriotic enough?

    22. Re: Meh by jedidiah · · Score: 0

      ALL of those people work for Obama.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    23. Re:Meh by unixisc · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not for not knowing how to use e-mails, but for maintaining her OFFICIAL WORK ON A PRIVATE SERVER, CRETIN!!!

    24. Re: Meh by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1
    25. Re:Meh by vtcodger · · Score: 1

      "Here we go again. This reminds me of a boy, a boy who loved to cry wolf."

      Exactly. If you were out to cripple the US electric grid, would you really start with an office computer in small municipal power company (fewer than 20000 customers) in the middle of nowhere? About the only significant feature to Burlington Electric is that it has three decades of experience operating a 25MW wood powered power plant. I suppose that might somehow have some weird significance although I can't imagine how.

      --
      You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
    26. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was going to say it's been overrun by shitheads, but yeah.

    27. Re:Meh by Patent+Lover · · Score: 1

      And general dipshits.

    28. Re:Meh by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Republicans like me have been here a long time. There just didn't used to be so many political stories here on Slashdot.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    29. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What, you hope you're not the only operative? Why, do you need help?

    30. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hey genius, if you didn't fucking notice (and you didn't), all they did was copy the Crowdstrike report. And guess what, Crowdstrike was paid by the DNC.

    31. Re: Meh by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Do you trust all the three letter agencies when they tell us they need to plant backdoors in all our phones and computers to keep us safe?

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    32. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It doesn't even rate as a Bulk Electric System (BES) facility. It has to be 75MW and connected at 100KV or greater to even be a concern.

    33. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I consider Slashdot comments as like a manual summary of Breitbart ;)

    34. Re:Meh by hambone142 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Which one are you?

      A Republican or a Russian operative?

    35. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      We've been pulled into an alternate universe where the liberals are war mongering sociopaths who justify their actions with fake news while complaining about fake news.

      Please 2017 hurry up.

    36. Re:Meh by Nehmo · · Score: 1

      Here we go again. This reminds me of a boy, a boy who loved to cry wolf.

      Considering the update, which negates the story, does this count as that "fake news" we've been hearing about?

      --
      (||) Nehmo (||)
    37. Re: Meh by Nehmo · · Score: 1

      ... I come to this site to see what the Trump-camp talking points are for any given situation.

      It goes beyond that. Anybody who links to a /. thread with a political element is a handsomely-paid troll who works at a known address in St. Petersburg. Putin has commanded this army of trolls to infiltrate every major comment section on the web.

      We are thankful to Obama for closing down the two Russian spying compounds our dedicated security forces discovered here in America.

      --
      (||) Nehmo (||)
    38. Re: Meh by hambone142 · · Score: 0

      Yes, they all work for Obama. Mostly put in place due to their gender or skin color.

    39. Re: Meh by submergingmkt · · Score: 2, Informative

      Anyone who doubts Trump's long-standing connections w sketchy Russia\FSU types should read this: http://www.the-american-intere...

    40. Re: Meh by unixisc · · Score: 2

      Funny. I notice more of a semblance to Huffington Post or the Guardian - two favorites of enough posters here

    41. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Washington Post has already been found to shovel fake news during the election. More wagging the dog. Nothing to see here.

    42. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But herein lies the problem - this theory of Russian hackers has been corroborated by countless private sector IT security firms, by the FBI, the CIA, by German and British intelligence, a number of individual well known private security experts, but of course, they still say it's not true.

      So your comment whilst all very well and good is rather meaningless - those of us who understand it already do as you suggest, those who don't, are the ones who will never get it and will say this is all a conspiracy theory no matter how many sources and how much evidence is provided.

    43. Re:Meh by unixisc · · Score: 1

      That's what's been so annoying. I was more than happy to check my political opinions at the door, but there are fewer tech stories every day

    44. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Well, more accurately for failing to turn over those work emails to the State Department until 2 years after leaving office when they were discovered by a Congressional fishing expedition.

    45. Re: Meh by unixisc · · Score: 1

      If Republicans have no need to learn to read, 2017 will continue being confusing to them. Quelle surprise. Stupid bitches, every last one. Yes, I call you stupid bitches when you act like stupid bitches.

      Why would 2017 be confusing to Republicans? If anything, it was the greatest year for the GOP since 1994: aside from Trump's win - which one may view as good or bad from a GOP standpoint depending on whether one's a never - Trumper or not, the GOP also gained 1000+ seats in congress and the various state houses. What they'd do well to do would be to understand how their voters want them to split their support b/w themselves and Trump, and execute accordingly

    46. Re:Meh by bongey · · Score: 1

      BeauHD is by far the worse, he posted the following twitter post and didn't think maybe if I am media type , I should post something like that. Or use a sock puppet account, but he seems too stupid for even that.
      "Trump is a saggy sack of shit. If any one of you is even remotely considering voting for him this November, please unfollow me. "
      "That sack of shit next to Hillary is attracting flies! #debate"
      "Clinton wiped the floor with Trump tonight. Say hello to your next president, America!"
      " It's only a story because it has the 'Trump' buzzword. Stupid media is stupid."
      "I bet Trump hired the climber for publicity."

    47. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You think they all fabricated it? Do you know how many people would be involved?? Mostly low level people like you and me? Do you have any idea the damage it would do if it WERE fabricated? The idea is utterly moronic.

    48. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Trusting Trump against the entire US intel establishment is where retards like you earn your stripes.

      Well I don't trust Trump but I sure as hell don't trust the US intel establishment either. I am not a retard. I work as a pen tester and this is TOTAL propaganda spread by the intel bastards. I've read all the reports put out to the public and there is not one bit of REAL evidence to support the Russians have done anything. Not one bit. The article the report and you mentioned the malware. The malware in question can be downloaded for free or for a small charge from the Internet. Hell I have a copy of it and I have never been to Russia. I sure the attacker used Linux for the attack too. Does that make me a Russian hacker because I also use Linux. The malware and Linux are the same. Just software which can easily be copied and reused.

      I read the 13 page report. It was very vague and contained nothing to support that it was the Russians except the fact that a piece of malware which was used in the past by Russian hackers was used. This is no proof. This is script kiddie grade malware this isn't stunxnet. Speaking of which, who is the country who has been caught many many times hacking other countries with very complex trojans and malware? The US. Who is it that has hijacked the whole Internet. The US.

      10 of these pages was just canned OWASP mitigation they copied and pasted from other security sites. Truth be known if I wrote a report this bad at work I'd be getting a phone call from work or maybe fired.

      13 pages for a breach this bad? Most of the reports I have to write about networks which have been breached are normally several 100 pages long so with this one why it the report so short?

      Look I don't trust Trump and no I didn't vote for the asshole but I sure was hell don't trust the CIA NSA and the FBI either. You do know the CIA is in the business of lying and deceit don't you? Really who is the retard here...

      Then again this is what this whole false flag attack is about is getting stupid bitches like you to believe the US is the gentle protector of the world while it shoves a dildo up your ass.

      Let's hear it sheep. Baaaaaaaaaaaa

      Wake up and smell the coffee there is some serious shit going on here we are being lied to at great length something is going on behind the curtain and it ain't the Russians.

    49. Re:Meh by cshark · · Score: 1

      Two bad sources, layered on top of each other. Really is remarkable that anyone trusts this stuff at all.

      --

      This signature has Super Cow Powers

    50. Re:Meh by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      The boy did get eaten by a wolf in the end, though...

    51. Re: Meh by HornWumpus · · Score: 2

      The low level people are absolutely keeping their mouths shut. We are hearing from political appointees, saying what they are instructed to say.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    52. Re: Meh by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 2

      Their oath isn't to the president - it's to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. The vast majority of the defense and intelligence community (because there's a huge overlap, and several of the 17 agencies are part of the military, plus many of those who aren't are chock full of veterans) also tend to be highly professional about doing their jobs regardless of who's in charge, particularly the rank and file analysts who do the actual work on this stuff.

    53. Re:Meh by the+simurgh · · Score: 1

      how exactly does a parable that teaches you not to tell the same lie twice apply here?

    54. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not for not knowing how to use e-mails, but for maintaining her OFFICIAL WORK ON A PRIVATE SERVER, CRETIN!!!

      Something that was a quite widespread practice among politicians ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ISLE NOT THAT LONG AGO, CRETIN!!!

    55. Re:Meh by Mikkeles · · Score: 1

      So; will be euro500,000 to Germany?

      --
      Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
    56. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LOL... that bunny will be back in the jungle in the weeks.

    57. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And overrun by trangenders and other LGBTF SJWs.

    58. Re:Meh by haruchai · · Score: 1

      Precisely. After a year of troll articles about Trump, /. has now become Russia Watch. In addition to a meteorological site. Fuck BeauHD, MSMASH, EditorDavid and WhipSlash. I joined this the day after CmdrTaco left, but the articles used to be about tech stuff - be it OSs, computers, phones, et al

      Then just ignore the main site and set your home pages directly to the Science, Open Source, Devices subs

      --
      Pain is merely failure leaving the body
    59. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is a common information warfare phrase being posted on forums.

    60. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only the closeted homosexuals.

    61. Re:Meh by ClickOnThis · · Score: 2

      Here we go again. This reminds me of a boy, a boy who loved to cry wolf.

      Considering the update, which negates the story, does this count as that "fake news" we've been hearing about?

      No, it doesn't.

      Fake news is a story that is presented as factual news (not satire) whose author knows it to be untrue, and who publishes it with the intent to deceive.

      It is not the same as a news item whose author pursues the truth in good faith, but gets it wrong and then later posts a correction. That is what WP did here.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    62. Re:Meh by ClickOnThis · · Score: 2

      Here we go again. This reminds me of a boy, a boy who loved to cry wolf.

      The "boy who cried wolf" knew he was lying.

      The Washington Post made a mistake, and corrected it.

      Learn to recognize the difference.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    63. Re:Meh by haruchai · · Score: 1

      Not for not knowing how to use e-mails, but for maintaining her OFFICIAL WORK ON A PRIVATE SERVER, CRETIN!!!

      I never thought this was a good idea on the part of the Clinton camp - my advice to them would have been this was a STUPID thing to do - but it didn't seem to be a problem when others were using private emails officially.
      Also, the Bush / Cheney administration "misplaced" several MILLION e-mails and there was barely any outrage but Clinton's fuckup makes her the Worst Woman Ever?
      http://mediamatters.org/blog/2...

      --
      Pain is merely failure leaving the body
    64. Re:Meh by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      One should assume a posture of tentative disbelief about anything with potential political charge that one reads in the media pending sufficient corroboration from multiple sources over time.

      Do you mean all the time, or only when it's in contradiction with ones own beliefs? Cuz most people here already do the latter.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    65. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Someone should start a list of fake news articles, and the "journalists" and editors and mainstream media institutions who picked them up too.

    66. Re:Meh by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 2

      They didn't make a mistake. They made up claims that the grid was penetrated when hey were clearly told it wasn't.

    67. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait, other Secretaries of State did that as well? That's news for me...

    68. Re:Meh by pipingguy · · Score: 2

      But it's sooo important to be the FIRST! to report on something for all that fame, glory and cash! Self-important, sensationalist morons, all of them.

      Hey did you hear that Mariah Carey's problem last night was that the monitors were broken and she couldn't sing because she couldn't read the lyrics?

    69. Re:Meh by ClickOnThis · · Score: 3, Interesting

      From the Burlington Electric website linked in TFS:

      Federal officials have indicated that this specific type of Internet traffic also has been observed elsewhere in the country and is not unique to Burlington Electric. It’s unfortunate that an official or officials improperly shared inaccurate information with one media outlet, leading to multiple inaccurate reports around the country.

      So, Burlington Electric itself is admitting mea culpa on this one.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    70. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not for not knowing how to use e-mails, but for maintaining her OFFICIAL WORK ON A PRIVATE SERVER, CRETIN!!!

      Something that was a quite widespread practice among politicians ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ISLE NOT THAT LONG AGO, CRETIN!!!

      Really?

      Other Secretaries of State DIRECTED their underlings to strip classification markings off and send the classified data via unsecure means

      GFY, you useless lying toady.

      And take Hillary!'s dick out of your mouth while your at it.

    71. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is not the same as a news item whose author pursues the truth in good faith, but gets it wrong and then later posts a correction. That is what WP did here.

      Doesn't sound like you're very familiar with the Washington Post then.

      Anyway, if that's your definition of "fake news", then its relevance to the election or really anything else is nil. Everything from pizzagate down to Vince Foster/Seth Rich murder conspiracies are pursued in good faith by their investigators. (Who are certainly partisan, credulous, and occasionally crazy people, but the same descriptors apply to much of the MSM. Anyway, the first amendment doesn't stop at the front door of the loony bin.)

      You're saying half of Europe - along with the US, by proxy through facebook - are creating Ministries of Truth to combat the critical problem of people who can't distinguish The Onion from reality.

    72. Re:Meh by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Wait, other Secretaries of State did that as well? That's news for me...

      That's because you didn't pay attention. She literally got the advice to use a private server from Colin Powell.

      I am not saying this to give Clinton a pass, I am saying this because I presume many facts are news to you.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    73. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Republican crybaby, I'm sorry you disagree that malware on the US electrical grid is "techy" stuff. Too bad, so sad. Go worship Hitler you dumb bitch. Nobody cares.

      There was no malware on the electrical grid of the country. It was found on an isolated notebook computer not connected to the electrical grid in any way, shape, or form. Go worship Satan, I mean Crooked Hillary.

    74. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So it was never fake news.
      So the Washington Post just did a "Satire" story and no one got the joke?

    75. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://www.newsweek.com/2016/09/23/george-w-bush-white-house-lost-22-million-emails-497373.html - CRETIN!

    76. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HA HA HA HA HA HA HA, Did you hear that big woosh? That was a clue, you've seen them before but apparently didn't know what they were.

    77. Re:Meh by Jiro · · Score: 2

      It is not the same as a news item whose author pursues the truth in good faith

      The Washington Post did not post that in good faith. They posted it because Russian hackers have been used as an excuse to bash Trump, and the Washington Post's narrative is anti-Trump.

      Also, the phrase "reckless disregard for the truth" applies here. They aren't excused from having posted fake news just because they didn't care if it was true and didn't bother checking.

    78. Re:Meh by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      I guess you missed the part where Burlington Electric admitted to providing the inaccurate information that led the Washington Post to report the wrong story. It's in the first link in TFS. Here, let me help you.

      There is no indication that either our electric grid or customer information has been compromised. Media reports stating that Burlington Electric was hacked or that the electric grid was breached are false.
      [...]
      Federal officials have indicated that this specific type of Internet traffic also has been observed elsewhere in the country and is not unique to Burlington Electric. It’s unfortunate that an official or officials improperly shared inaccurate information with one media outlet, leading to multiple inaccurate reports around the country.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    79. Re:Meh by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      Pardon me, looking at the quote again, I see that Burlington Electric says it was federal officials (not their own) that misled the Washington Post. But my point stands.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    80. Re:Meh by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      Whoops, I see now that Burlington Electric says it was federal officials (not their own) who misled the Washington Post. But my point stands that the Washington Post was simply correcting an error, not making things up.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    81. Re:Meh by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 1

      And the townspeople rejoiced.

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
    82. Re:Meh by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      They were eaten by the same wolf as well, it's just that this part of the story didn't get told (because there was no-one to tell it).

    83. Re:Meh by umghhh · · Score: 1

      You are indeed not the only one - I am also a Putin operative.
      A certified one. Certificate is falsified though.

    84. Re:Meh by NoImNotNineVolt · · Score: 2

      our only Mid-Eastern ally Israel

      Is Saudi Arabia no longer part of the Middle East? Oman? UAE?

      --
      Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
    85. Re:Meh by Zxern · · Score: 1

      Some stooge at dhs "leaked" the story to them and they never bothered to check with the only two providers in the state to verify the story before publishing. So reckless disregard for the truth still stands.

      Reporters really need to go back to journalism school and learn how to do fact checking and stop regurgitating whatever some government "source" feeds them to print.

    86. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LOL.

      The same thing happened after Brexit. Establishment doesn't get it's own way and the mask drops. We get to see their utter contempt for ordinary people and morality.

      Never forget this folks. Left and right was always a myth. They are two wings of an establishment ruling elite that wants a borderless world and see its breeding stock (white westerners) aren't reproducing anymore (for various despicable reasons).

      Russian doesn't want a new borderless world.

      So they need a war to make them comply.

    87. Re:Meh by BoFo · · Score: 1

      Don't forget Qatar. I guess we just don't have any influence in the Middle East except what Israel provides... NOT!

    88. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Reminds me of some incredibly nefarious stuxnet type of security breach that needs to be hushed

    89. Re:Meh by unixisc · · Score: 2

      None of the Arab countries are our allies - not Saudi Arabia, not Oman, not UAE, not Qatar, not Kuwait, none of them. Relations transcend mere government to government interactions

    90. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the problem isn't political stories the problem is that have complicated lives very greatly, if you have something really important to say, write it out and have it delivered by courier, the old-fashioned way.

    91. Re: Meh by MooseMiester · · Score: 1

      http://arstechnica.com/securit...

      http://www.robertmlee.org/crit...

      Try reading actual sources about things.

      --
      Murphy was an optimist
    92. Re:Meh by DougDot · · Score: 2

      Responsible journalists verify before publishing.

    93. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      actuality while scada grids always say they are airgapped from corporate... it has been found that they rarely truely are. Which makes this a significant finding although not unique when it comes to ICS (industrial control systems). What is unique about this story is that staged exploits on ICS systems are considered senstaive information when discovered and this was purposely leaked either for international geopolitical gain in the national interest or domestic political gain over current Russian affairs. Don't be fooled. There is a threat.

    94. Re: Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Russian troll

    95. Re:Meh by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      No, 'federal officials' tipped the Post off to the story, but even the Post doesn't claim the fed official told them it was a grid hack. It seems even the author of the article did not directly claim that but the editor decided to state it in the headline anyhow. On top of that, nobody even tried to verify the story. You can let the Post off the hook if you like, but it is much more than a 'mistake'.

    96. Re:Meh by MercTech · · Score: 1

      Amen. There is a huge difference in breaking into the internet connected administrative network and accessing customer and vendor records and accessing the operational network (often air gapped from the internet) where you have PLC controllers and digital sensors so the control room accesses plant control without the hundreds of cables used for older analog control rooms.
                One of the largest things that has come around in power plants over the last decade is taking cyber security to the operational spaces. The office computers that are connected to the internet are where you can access reports, personnel records, pay records, vendor contracts, operational and maintenance procedures, etc. Yep, those could be hacked. When you go to the operating spaces; the "see something, say something" is emphasized as physical security intersecting with cyber security. If you see a piece of equipment attached to operating machinery that hasn't been there before; ask questions. If you see a wireless router attached to something it shouldn't be; say something immediately. (Attaching a router to an air gapped piece of critical machinery controls is one way to make a power plant hack-able where it isn't in its intrinsic state.)
              I'm not surprised a professional journalist would fail to pick up on which of the various intranet systems belonging to a power plant the malicious code was found. More and more I'm convinced that to be a journalism major; you have to have failed middle school science class.

      --
      NRRPT/RCT
    97. Re:Meh by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      Responsible journalists verify before publishing.

      Yes, they do. And despite that, they sometimes make mistakes. If they endeavour to correct them after the fact, they deserve a pass.

      But those "journalists" who knowingly publish fake news with no intent to correct falsehoods do not deserve the same respect.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    98. Re: Meh by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      Their oath isn't to the president - it's to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.

      It is, but they serve "at the pleasure of the President," and that's deeply ingrained -- more-so in non-military agencies, actually, which aren't bound by international law. In other words. they're political. For better and for worse. How do you think we got warrantless wiretaps, extraordinary rendition, enhanced interrogation, and extra-judicial executions? It wasn't by worrying too much about the Constitution.

    99. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here we go again. This reminds me of a boy, a boy who loved to cry wolf.

      The "boy who cried wolf" knew he was lying.

      The Washington Post made a mistake, and corrected it.

      Learn to recognize the difference.

      I can't tell if you're lying here or just making a mistake.

    100. Re:Meh by dywolf · · Score: 1

      because telling the truth about trump = trolling.
      and the blatant bigotry of your own posts somehow doesn't.
      don't let the door hit you on the way out.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    101. Re:Meh by dywolf · · Score: 1

      a) they are not our only ally in the region
      b) the past does not give them a pass on their own slow moving genocide

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    102. Re:Meh by dywolf · · Score: 1

      spoken like the ignorant person you are.

      Regardless of your own "no true Scotsman" definition, our allies in the region do include Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Morocco.
      Egypt had been one as recently as 2013, but it's status following the repeat disruptions of its government leave it rather chaotic at the moment.

      We also have a drone base in Saudi, and a full military base (joint Army/Air Force) in Qatar.
      Been to the Qatar one. Nice place. Has a Chili's on base, and a regular boat tour out into the Gulf for swimming and sunning.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    103. Re:Meh by dywolf · · Score: 1

      all that s*** you guys accused the Clintons of doing all those years, all the corruption, all the double dealing? trump is doing right now, blatantly, in public, using just his status as president elect, not even in office yet.

      thank god you saved us from the Clintons because EMAILS!!!@#!$@#! suddenly became more important right?

      morons.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
  2. This is a very serious accusation by Frank+Burly · · Score: 5, Funny

    I will not believe this is true until Trump says it isn't a big deal.

    1. Re:This is a very serious accusation by Tablizer · · Score: 2

      If it turns out to be a 400 pound Russian in his mom's basement, then both parties are right.

    2. Re:This is a very serious accusation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      President-elect Fruitcake is, of course, an expert when it comes to computers. The US has its own version of Kim Jong-il.

      “And I know a lot about hacking. And hacking is a very hard thing to prove. So it could be somebody else. And I also know things that other people don’t know, and so they cannot be sure of the situation. You’ll find out on Tuesday or Wednesday.”

      “It’s very important, if you have something really important, write it out and have it delivered by courier, the old-fashioned way, because I’ll tell you what, no computer is safe.”

      “I don’t care what they say, no computer is safe. I have a boy who’s 10 years old; he can do anything with a computer."

    3. Re:This is a very serious accusation by kaizendojo · · Score: 1

      I agree, because he "knows a lot about hacking".

    4. Re:This is a very serious accusation by h33t+l4x0r · · Score: 1

      Well he at least knows that you have to catch them red-handed.

  3. Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You can't use your NSA to break in, spy, and sabotage industries, utilities, and governments, around the world. If you conduct malicious and damaging operations like you have for decades, expect that the world will respond.

    1. Re:Tit for tat by Ryanrule · · Score: 3, Insightful

      russia does not represent the worlds interests, very far from in fact.

    2. Re:Tit for tat by beelsebob · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Nor does the USA.

    3. Re:Tit for tat by ScentCone · · Score: 1, Insightful

      People who can't muster the vertebrae to correctly observe that the US's general posture in the world is wildly preferable to Russia's are the sort of people who, on display, just cost the Democrats another large chunk of political power. If the US stops what they traditionally do, countries like Russian and Iran invade other countries and take them over. If Russia stops what it's doing, cities like Aleppo aren't turned into rubble through indiscriminate bombing by a country that wishes it could resurrect some good old fashioned socialist tyranny, just like the sweet, sweet days of the USSR. If Iran stops what it's doing, thousands of people aren't routinely killed over hair-splitting religious differences by a retrograde medieval theocracy that pours cash into terrorist operations. Yeah, the US is exactly like those things.

      And yet if someone even TALKS about expecting other countries to carry fair weight in organizations like NATO, then the US is suddenly evil for not being willing to deal with everything. Do you really think that the world would be a better place if the US simply disengaged across the board? Should Japan and Korea be the only entities in the front line dealing with China's territorial expansionism?

      Never mind. Your instinct for moral relativism means the entire topic isn't worth addressing.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    4. Re:Tit for tat by richardkettle4 · · Score: 2

      If you think that moral relativism is an insult, I would point out that it simply is the case. I have lived in many countries and guess what? Their morals are reflective of their needs, their history, their desires, their environment, their Gods etc. Perhaps you are thinking of ethics, for that is the hiding place of cowards. If you think you are right, you do not have morals, but ethics.

    5. Re: Tit for tat by Ichijo · · Score: 2

      The world is in a very precarious position if peace depends so much on a single country. Where's the redundancy that protects the world if something happens to the USA?

      --
      Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
    6. Re:Tit for tat by Neuronwelder · · Score: 1

      As long as I found ONE PERSON with sanity. I'd like to ask you a question.. Do you see a "blame Russia for everything" pattern on this post? Or is it just me?

    7. Re: Tit for tat by ScentCone · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Where's the redundancy that protects the world if something happens to the USA?

      Excellent question. Why won't other countries agree to shoulder anything at all like their own share of that load? Because Americans are far too generous that way, but do it anyway because not doing so means having to deal with the even more expensive consequences later. We can't totally wash our hands of that chore, no matter how lazy other countries are, because it will end up just like the last two world wars when we hoped to avoid that expensive and deadly work for too long as well, and still had to get involved.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    8. Re:Tit for tat by ScentCone · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So what you're saying is that you have no understanding of what morals and ethics actually are. No wonder you opt for sounding so petulant on the subject, in order to distract from your unwillingness to discuss the matter in real terms.

      Your moral framework derives directly from your value system. If your value system is based on false and or mixed premises, your moral code will either be objectively evil or simply so internally hypocritical and contradictory that it cannot be used to shape a workable bundle of ethics. If you think that living in another country where the environment is different means that one's evaluation of whether or not it's OK to (for example) murder, rape, steal, enslave, lie, etc would be different, then your entire understanding of the matter is so under (or mal) informed, or you are so willing to be disingenuous in the interests of being able to sound like a condescending superior, that you really should excuse yourself from making such lectures. Especially when you decide to trot out words like "cowards" while making such a craven display of your own.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    9. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stupid people at the helm giving up passwords to anyone who asks = blame it on the Russians. Because... Damage control to make us look better.

    10. Re:Tit for tat by dilvish_the_damned · · Score: 4, Interesting

      While the phishing attack may have originated in Russia, I find it disingenious to portray everything as state sponsored when the evidence is weak at best. To me its something akin to suggesting we need to retaliate against Australia every time Julian Assange takes a leak.

      --
      I think you underestimate just how much I just dont care.
    11. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And the only talking point of the useful idiot is to accuse any skeptics of being Russian agents.

    12. Re:Tit for tat by richardkettle4 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      wow.. false moral premises? Really? Show me one. Murder, Rape, Steal are wrong by definition, but Kill, marital right, appropriate are not, why is that? And you do not realise that ethics are rule based and dogmatic and morals not? I

    13. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The lesser of two evils is still evil. Vertebrae be damned. And what did we do in Syria? Sow more chaos. Iraq? Sow more chaos. Who's evil is more preferable now?

    14. Re:Tit for tat by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Ours, sowing chaos so the sunnis/shia kick the fight out of each other is _clearly_ the least evil path. They deserve each other, being two sides of the same religion. Just as the Catholics deserved the Protestants, and vice versa, in their days of open war.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    15. Re:Tit for tat by king+neckbeard · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Our posture is fucking horrific. We support Israel even when they blatantly violate international law. We've long sided with Saudi Arabia, the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism. We overthrew Iraq, creating ISIS. We're largely responsible for arming a good chunk of the terrorists in the world. Yeah, Russia does shitty things, but our problems are big enough that our first concern should be fixing our own problems. Not understand that, along with the unbelievable hubris of the Clintonites, is why the Democrats got their asses kicked in this election, and why they've been getting their asses kicked for so long.

      As it stands right now, the best thing that could happen for world peace is for the US to go down in flames. I would rather that not happen, but if we listen to people like you instead of behaving like adults, the rational choice for the world at large is to get rid of us.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    16. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People who can't muster the vertebrae to correctly observe that the US's general posture in the world is wildly preferable to Russia's are the sort of people who, on display, just cost the Democrats another large chunk of political power.

      So... most of the vocal republicans are responsible?

    17. Re:Tit for tat by rubycodez · · Score: 1, Insightful

      the USA has invaded a country that didn't attack it and was no threat to it, causing the death of hundreds of thousands of innocents and caused the creation of ISIS/ISIL with its ham fisted stupidity.

      Tthat country was friend of the USA, and so the USA gave it's leader Saddam money and dual use tech to make bioweapons that killed tens of thosands.

      Elsewhere in the world,t he CIA of the USA destabilized another country, and so certain ethnic Russians in an area of that country voted to rejoin Russia.

      Who is the aggressor in the world? who destabilizes entire regions?

      You are the spineless one, being a shill for the evil of your country's government, imagining that is "patriotism"

    18. Re:Tit for tat by rubycodez · · Score: 0

      You are the immoral one, the government of the USA commits all those atrocities and gives arms and support to others who the same. wake up, quit being blind

    19. Re:Tit for tat by richardkettle4 · · Score: 1

      agree

    20. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It seems you see evil Russians everywhere, and would be fit for a trip to the happy-farm. Congratulations, you have been successfully brainwashed. Now, resume your shopping, and don't ask any questions.

    21. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And what is Russia's posture to the world, exactly? If we judge by the last 70 years, then Russia is by all means a peaceful country compared to the U.S., and that posture is certainly one to prefer. We just need to start judging the U.S. by her actions, and we can see how wrong she is and does.

    22. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People who can't muster the vertebrae to correctly observe that the US's general posture in the world is wildly preferable to Russia's are the sort of people who, on display, just cost the Democrats another large chunk of political power. If the US stops what they traditionally do, countries like Russian and Iran invade other countries and take them over. If Russia stops what it's doing, cities like Aleppo aren't turned into rubble through indiscriminate bombing by a country that wishes it could resurrect some good old fashioned socialist tyranny, just like the sweet, sweet days of the USSR. If Iran stops what it's doing, thousands of people aren't routinely killed over hair-splitting religious differences by a retrograde medieval theocracy that pours cash into terrorist operations. Yeah, the US is exactly like those things.

      And yet if someone even TALKS about expecting other countries to carry fair weight in organizations like NATO, then the US is suddenly evil for not being willing to deal with everything. Do you really think that the world would be a better place if the US simply disengaged across the board? Should Japan and Korea be the only entities in the front line dealing with China's territorial expansionism?

      Never mind. Your instinct for moral relativism means the entire topic isn't worth addressing.

      That was beautiful...Clear, concise..beautiful.

    23. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're a moron, you have no idea how spearphishing works or how the malware in question is directly attributed to the GRU.

    24. Re:Tit for tat by blind+biker · · Score: 3, Insightful

      People who can't muster the vertebrae to correctly observe that the US's general posture in the world is wildly preferable to Russia's are the sort of people who, on display, just cost the Democrats another large chunk of political power. If the US stops what they traditionally do, countries like Russian and Iran invade other countries and take them over. If Russia stops what it's doing, cities like Aleppo aren't turned into rubble through indiscriminate bombing by a country that wishes it could resurrect some good old fashioned socialist tyranny, just like the sweet, sweet days of the USSR. If Iran stops what it's doing, thousands of people aren't routinely killed over hair-splitting religious differences by a retrograde medieval theocracy that pours cash into terrorist operations. Yeah, the US is exactly like those things.

      Actually, I would say it's Sunni Islam that is hell-bent on destroying any other religion, including "incompatible" versions of Islam. Whenever there is a suicide or otherwise bombing targeting civilians, whenever there is a church, a bar, or a mosque bombed or shot up, it's the work of a Sunni extremist, and practically never of a Shia Islamist. Personally I am a socialist atheist (much like Hitchens) so I don't have any horse in the race, but to me it's plainly clear that the US has been supporting Saudi Arabia quite aggressively, and the US' destabilizing actions in Syria, Yemen, Lybia and Iraq (resulting in the proliferation of Sunni movements like ISIS and various Al-Quaeda affiliates) must have been, at least partly, been directed by the powers in the Saudi kingdom. If not, then the US are dangerous suckers, and either way, the US' foreign policy does not make the world a better place. I don't like Russia's self-serving leadership, but I am glad there is a counter-force to the Wahabi-Sunni-US block.

      --
      "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
    25. Re:Tit for tat by rubycodez · · Score: 0

      There is no proof the Russian government had anything to do with the phishing. Instead, Obama has turned from lame duck into lame Daffy duck.

    26. Re:Tit for tat by ScentCone · · Score: 0

      So you also have reading comprehension problems. Which makes sense. If you can't follow along with something this simple, then of course you're going to have trouble assembling a rational world view and all the thing that flow FROM that (like ... a moral code that doesn't rely on baked-in contradictions and mutually exclusive premises).

      If you can't handle the distinction between murder and killing, then, again, just stop.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    27. Re:Tit for tat by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 1

      Yes, this. The USA isn't perfect in its conduct, but by and large the USA strives to be the protector of the post World War II international order, the cornerstone of which is that war for conquest of territory is forbidden. Everyone should be able to agree that this makes for a better world order than what came before, or what countries like Russia or Iran or China might care to replace it with.

      As for the notion of asking that all NATO members contribute as recommended, it's certainly fair to point out that some aren't, and to chastise them for it. What concerned me about the remarks that were made was the suggestion that maybe we shouldn't come to the defense of countries we don't feel are doing enough. If Germany or France or Latver-whateveria is contributing less than they should, that's an issue sure, but dissolving the alliance itself is a very serious matter that should not be undertaken lightly, at all.

    28. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is plenty of proof, you see none of it because you're a dipshit Trumpy faggot who doesn't matter and disregards actual proven facts with the ease of a child throwing their food.

      Read more you uneducated fascist twat.

      http://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/malware-used-in-dnc-breach-found-tracking-ukraine-military/d/d-id/1327778

    29. Re:Tit for tat by Highdude702 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My question... DID EVERYBODY FORGET ABOUT THIS NEW TECHNOLOGY CALLED "PROXY" WHERE YOU CAN TUNNEL YOUR TRAFFIC THRU A LEGIT OR... GET THIS..HACKED DEVICES!!! yes that includes your refrigerator home camera system, hell even some home alarm systems are vulnurable. for being "nerds" and knowing how "technology" works you sure do forget obvious steps to hide your tracks.. and lets face it. USA hacker hacks kremlin pc, ssh tunnel traffic to it. hacks podesta "THE RUSSIANS DID IT!!" fucking morons

    30. Re:Tit for tat by acrimonious+howard · · Score: 1

      I agree our posture could be way, way better, and I agree the Iraq invasion is by far the worst part of it. Over a million people killed, it's the worst political decision since Vietnam, and in our time, we have Vietnam in our history so we shouldn't have repeated the mistake. But that was all clearly, clearly the Republicans pushing it, lying about it, forcing it through. If you take away the Reps and their influence, I'd defend the US's posture.

    31. Re: Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Generous, my ass! America acts only in and only for America's interests. They screw over over countries for American corporate and political power. Look to Central America or the Middle East to see what they have done. America is anything but a saint.

    32. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > If you can't handle the distinction between murder and killing, then, again, just stop.

      They're perfectly aware of it, that's why I raised the point. YOU then stopped, essentially forfeiting the argument. Feel free to pick it back up where you left.

    33. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Vietnam and Iraq wars weren't mistakes, they were crimes. That people can't even call it that way, and drive to the hills the nazi scum who would beat around the bush regarding it, just shows the complete lack of progress. All you did was GET USED TO living under nazi criminals and playing the "smaller of two evils game". The Republicans aren't the standard, not being nazi scum is.

    34. Re:Tit for tat by ScentCone · · Score: 1, Informative

      the USA has invaded a country that didn't attack it and was no threat to it

      What, Afghanistan? That country was taken over by the Taliban, which in turn fed, sheltered, and harbored an organization that deliberately set out to kill thousands of Americans and did. The entity running Afghanistan then refused to turn the leaders of that terrorist organization over for prosecution - even as that group promised ever more killings across the world. You're complaining that multiple countries, including the US, after extensive diplomatic attempts through the Taliban's so-called government, only to see that Taliban was not only sheltering AQ, but approved of their mission and gave them material support ... that we sent in forces to end that threat? Your definition of "didn't attack" and "no threat" would sound pretty juvenile and absurd to someone whose family member was killed in those attacks you think didn't happen.

      I am curious - what do you think will happen when you lie like that? Are you like those holocaust denier who actually think someone will believe them when they say it never happened? Do you understand how childish you sound when you stamp your feet and pretend that AQ and the Taliban didn't kill thousands of people? So that you understand: everyone knows they did. YOU know they did. So when you lie about it, it really does make people wonder what's wrong with you, that you think someone will believe you. Perhaps you should talk to a doctor or other counselor so you can get some help with this compulsion of yours.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    35. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you sure you did not meant Saudi Ariabi, Quataar and the Arab's Emirate, all know for funding the Wahhabism/Salafism ideology that is the theocratic scoure behind terrorism ? You use big word, but show little knowledge ...

    36. Re: Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously. And using ww2 as an example of no one else stepping in when clearly Russia did most of the heavy lifting and then us actions were mostly to stop Russian expansion post war. Good example.

    37. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're an American?

      I bet you are? Because saying the USA is better to be influenced by over Russia is like picking Hitler, Stalin, or Ceasar to be ruled by. Which is great if you're German, Russian, or Roman but sucks for everyone else.

      If you're not an American I will shut up. But no one likes American influence outside of the USA anymore than the USSR because of the whole principle behind it. All countries getting in things that are not their business and doing real espionage or installing puppet governments does real harm. America had it coming as Hillary tried to create fake media and influence in Russia too in 2011 and 2012.

      Revenge is best served cold on a platter :-) Putin won and got his boy Trump. I am not saying it's good utility plants are hacked. I am just saying the pot calling the kettle black here

    38. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have got to be shitting me! (from someone in a US implanted dictatorship)

    39. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Should Japan and Korea be the only entities in the front line dealing with China's territorial expansionism?

      And Russia and India. You should look at maps sometime. Are you American? You should look at a map sometime.

    40. Re:Tit for tat by rubycodez · · Score: 0

      so phishing emails show up the world over including the ukraine aned this constitutes proof of what exactly? that typical windows users are idiots who click on links in email? because that's as much as you've got.

      Get some critical thinking skills troll anon, then maybe you can present an argument.

    41. Re:Tit for tat by kuzb · · Score: 1

      What ScentCone is saying rings true in a lot of ways. The US isn't always right, and it doesn't always act in the best interests of others. However the world is a lot better off with the US doing what it's doing than without. If nobody tried to keep world peace and maintain some semblance of order you would unquestionably have another Caesar, Hitler, Genghis Khan, etc trying to conquer everything again. Would-be world conquerors tend to be dictators that crush everything that doesn't fit their exact world view.

      --
      BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
    42. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Republicans don't understand facts, arguments. Only the stupidity of their pre-conceived Trump-down conclusions.

      No wonder they'll suck Putin's dick so willingly!

    43. Re:Tit for tat by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      ..or perhaps you've just fallen for someone else's propanganda. The US government isn't the only guilty party in the world.

    44. Re: Tit for tat by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      Would you have preferred being left to the russians?

    45. Re: Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's right, keep believing the propaganda your own government shovels into your head.. March little comrade, march.

    46. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      only because they've had little choice. You think that Putin is charitable?

    47. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Check out the Dutch and British about 400 to 150 years ago.

    48. Re:Tit for tat by Swistak · · Score: 1

      So Russia invaded Ukraine, USA invaded Iraq. Russia invaded Kazachstan. USA invaded Afganistan. USA didn't stop Russia from invading Ukraine, Russia didn't stop USA.
      Superpowers do whatever the fuck they want. UN is powerless, we're basically back to square 1, exactly same place we were before WW1.

      Also guess which is the country with second biggest number of incarcerated people (right after Seyshelles)? Hint: Not Russia

      In Syria, the "rebels" supported by USA are nor the good guys, those are religious fanatics that rebeled against previous dictatoriship, but they will not create meritocracy, or democracy, but _theocracy_ one where Women have no rights.

    49. Re: Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      s/russians/nazis/ and you've got the go-to excuse for Russian war crimes during WWII.

    50. Re: Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pr-twentieth century, the US was rather isolationist. A couple wars taught them a lesson.

    51. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      countries like Russian and Iran

      Do you mean "countries like Russia and Iran?". Other than that, your entire post is just nonsensical drivel.

    52. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd say that most of the US doesn't like going places and influencing just as much. They just don't want a repeat of WWII.

    53. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Afghanistan?? Are you really that stupid? Or are you using the tactic of ignoring the obvious answer if it is uncomfortable? The GP was talking about Iraq.

    54. Re: Tit for tat by epyT-R · · Score: 1

      It's not like the north Vietnamese regime was benevolent and peaceful either.

    55. Re:Tit for tat by bmo · · Score: 2

      I keep talking about this fact and all I seem to get is "so you know more than the CIA and FBI?"

      And it hurts my head so much and I need to find a place to do a primal scream.

      They're going to talk us into war and there is fuck-all anyone can do about it. Because people are so tech illiterate that they can be led by the nose right into the front lines.

      Because"the big E is the Internet!"

      FUCK.

      --
      BMO

    56. Re:Tit for tat by zedaroca · · Score: 1

      This shit got +5? That is Slashdot's lowest. Russia didn't destroy Iraq, or plan and give tactical, military and financial support for the destruction of Libya and Syria. The USA did.

      And if people have doubts on Libya and Syria, remember the we came, we saw, he died interview, the DIA 2012 report and the Syria insight stolen memo.
      Because people are lazy I'll quote, yet again, from the memo:

      they said without saying that SOF teams (presumably from US, UK, France, Jordan, Turkey) are already on the ground focused on recce missions and training opposition forces. One Air Force intel guy (US) said very carefully that there isn't much of a Free Syrian Army to train right now anyway

      So there were no rebels to train, but they were there and training them anyway.

      the idea 'hypothetically' is to commit guerrilla attacks, assassination campaigns, try to break the back of the Alawite forces, elicit collapse from within

      They dont believe air intervention would happen unless there was enough media attention on a massacre, like the Ghadafi move against Benghazi. They think the US would have a high tolerance for killings as long as it doesn't reach that very public stage.

    57. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, no, no. Murder, rape, stealing are not wrong by definition. They are wrong due to tradition, based on judeo christian beliefs which have been propagated across centuries.

      As a general rule, it depends on whether there are several classes of people or just one class. While murder, rape and stealing from someone in the same class as you is wrong as these people have the power to retaliate, it is a different matter if your class is superior to their class. Examples: slave owners vs slaves. Royals vs vassals. Indian superior castes vs lower castes.

      The judeo christian legacy is that by making everyone (human beings) a lower caste vs God, who is in the superior caste, it follows that it's difficult to justify murder among any two people. However, even that is not impossible to justify. You just need to split off people into two groups, one being the government and the military, and another group being the civilians. Once that happens, you can justify murder provided it is being done by the military for military purposes, eg bombing a city (therefore murdering civilians). You can justify stealing provided it is being done by the government for the common good, eg taking someone's house even if they don't want to sell it, to build a higway.

    58. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      morality doesn't exist, it has no connection to the principles of the material universe, notions of morality are just a useless assortment of subjective aesthetics

      the world operates by the law of the jungle, 'might is right' is a consequence of causality

      by relying on "morality", you place your thoughts on an extremely shaky foundation

      it's much more useful to think in terms of end goals and how to achieve them, how to engineer well functioning systems of meat machines

    59. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This situation feels like the Dubya Iraqi invasions again. They relied on super flawed intelligence to use it as justification to depose Hussein in Iraq. A cynic would exclaim that they intentionally fabricated the intelligence. I have a feeling that this cycle of flawed intelligence will repeat again. I just hope it doesn't end up with an American invasion of Russia under Trump's administration.

    60. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The alternative to Russia's support for nationalistic movements and enlarging their sphere to take their former satellites back (you do remember there was a Russian Empire even before the USSR right) is to have things like the TPP and the proposed TTIP which will lead us to either a world government or a world confederacy ruled by the megacorps. I would rather have neither but at least in a world with a nationalistic streak you can at least move to some place with different rules, in a world government scenario there will be nowhere to run to. The megacorps will be able to enforce rules by treaty which cannot be reversed by democratic vote. The megacorps already have more cash and hence power than many world governments.

      If the Communists with their internationalist streak were the threat in the XXth century today the threat is the megacorps and globalization.

    61. Re: Tit for tat by hambone142 · · Score: 4, Informative

      "Treat the United States nicely or we'll bring democracy to your country"

    62. Re: Tit for tat by hambone142 · · Score: 2

      They tried to reunite their country that the French separated. The "domino effect" was later proven to be 100% bullshit.

      Kennedy went in and made the problem worse supporting their puppet South Vietnam's Catholic "leader". Both parties contributed to the mess beyond that.

      Ironically, Nixon ended it but only because parents got tired of getting their sons sent to die in a war that would never be won.

    63. Re:Tit for tat by hambone142 · · Score: 1

      What?!

      It must have not been Podesta's fault for clicking on the faked Gmail link asking for his password? It was the RUSSIANS!!!

      I'm surprised Podesta didn't send his business card to Craig Shergold.

      They're technologically inept.

    64. Re:Tit for tat by ScentCone · · Score: 1, Informative

      Oh, you mean Iraq, which we and a large group of other countries invaded as part of pushing Saddam Hussein back out of his attempt to annex Kuwait? That Iraq? Or are you referring to Iraq, a few years after Saddam's invasion of a neighboring country, when he'd utterly failed to adhere to a single promise he made in order preserve his rule as his forces retreated from that invasion? Are you thinking of the invasion that happened when Saddam did everything he could to block weapons inspectors? They guy who was so busy slaughtering entire villages with WMDs that we had to enforce no fly zones ... and his forces never stopped shooting at the aircraft enforcing those zones? Are you thinking of the Iraq that was stealing UN funds meant to feed his people, and using that stolen international fund to continue to re-build his military, buy more of the long range missiles he promised he'd never have again, funnel cash to terrorists, and otherwise enrich himself and his cronies?

      Doesn't matter which of the hundreds of violations he committed non-stop from the minute his forces were pushed out of Kuwait. The one that matters was his continual targeting of US aircraft. Non-stop. Never stopped.

      I know, I know - you think it would have been better to let him continue to use his WMDs to slaughter thousands of ethnic and religious minorities and to lob SCUDs over his border into Israel, etc. No need to worry about stuff like that. It's just a little squabble in the Middle East, right?

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    65. Re:Tit for tat by hambone142 · · Score: 1

      Well-said.

      I'd mod you up but I've commented so my thanks to you for explaining the mess the U.S. has created.

    66. Re: Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would say that keeping the Middle East in chaos is a good thing. Let Muslim kill Muslim and keep the busy fighting for their homeland. When they aren't fighting like that, they come here and blow up are buildings. The only good Muslim is a dead Muslim.

    67. Re: Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would say that the creation of ISIS was a good thing. Look at what they did. They brought death, slavery and misery to their own kind. Like locusts, they wiped out a quite sizable amount of land, destroyed thousands of years of history and basically showed the world what true Islam is all about. I am sure that when all the bodies are totalled that more Muslims will have been massacred, than all of the Jews that died at Hitler's hand. The only good Muslim is a dead Muslim.

    68. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The same Talibans that were trained and armed by USA's CIA.

      Oh you'll never ever grasp how much the world despise you. And no, it's not because you are successful and rich.

    69. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is precisely why Russia is resurgent, whilst everyone's asking questions like "Are the little green men really Russia though? do we have proof?" they're annexing Crimea and Putin says afterwards "Yeah, they were our guys, thanks for the territorial expansion by not responding".

      Putin has figured out that the West's search for irrefutable proof is sadly it's weakness. The West can spend a decade trying to find that one bit of undisputable evidence by which time Putin has already annexed territory, changed a presidential election outcome, and is laughing in our faces that he's achieved all that.

      Unfortunately we're dealing with an opponent where revealing HUMINT sources as irrefutable proof only gives him what he wanted from the hack. He's checked us unless we lower our standards and deal with him. I'm sure you'll say that sounds like we're going to war without evidence just like Iraq, but the evidence that Putin is already doing those things is already there. We already have explicit evidence that he's altering European elections with hacks and financing of populist far right movements, he needs checking either way and if we do or don't prove it explicitly after the fact it doesn't matter - doing something is still better to stem this far right Putin funded tide of fascism than it is to sit saying "But what about he evidence?" long after it's way too late. The same happened with something as relatively trivial as the Olympics, everyone knew Russia was cheating but waiting for the evidence meant the damage was already done, the Olympics was turned into a joke where state sponsored cheating was defacto Ok'd with only the Paralympic committee having the balls to put a stop to it before the final reports were in to be proven right. The same with the 2018 World Cup in Russia, everyone knew Russia bribed FIFA for it, but by the time the Blatter bribery evidence came out it was again too late.

      No one asked for evidence of half of the accusations Trump made against Hillary, they just believed the bullshit - Pizzagate? - so why is it suddenly an issue now when it comes to tackling the neo-Soviet threat? Russia is lying, cheating, and using every subversive tactic under the sun to push it's power and diminish US influence in the world. If you really insist on dithering around until you have absolute non-circumstantial proof of everything rather than simply accepting balance of probabilities evidence that showed Russia was guilty in all these cases then it'll be too late for you, you'll be losing against a game against someone whose already outwitted you and used your own principals against you to win making them meaningless.

      Unless you can make your opponent work to the same standards you expect, then you can't expect to win by crippling yourself that way - you have to play the game to the rules of the lowest common denominator else you've already lost. This is precisely why we can't defeat ISIS, the Taliban and so forth, because we're sticking to the Geneva convention whilst they are not. Such agreements should only be adhered to when they're reciprocated.

    70. Re: Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The US can't, and won't try to, make all the incompetent, impotent little pissant whiners in the world into grown-ups. That doesn't make the US responsible for their hatred of the US.

    71. Re:Tit for tat by TechnoCore · · Score: 1

      USA have been upholding and trying to spread the values of free liberal western democracy, which is in the worlds best interest. The way they've done it has been far from perfect, but there is no substitution for it today. EU could eventually maybe share that burden, if we don't dismantle ourselves before that. Russia is a nightmare state led by a dictator.

    72. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The usa has troops in 147 countries right now.
      If those vanish half of those countries would be at war again. A few of them technically already are, like korea.

      Without the usa holding a lot of shit together, there is no 'world peace'.

    73. Re: Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you Russian?

    74. Re: Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fucking amoral Machiavellian bullshit

    75. Re:Tit for tat by SWPadnos · · Score: 1

      If you can't handle the distinction between murder and killing, then, again, just stop.

      How do you define the difference between murder and killing?

      There are many possible differentiators, here are a couple that come to mind:
      Murder is killing for no reason.
      Murder is killing for no *good* reason.

      I'm just curious as to how you might distinguish between the two without resorting to something like "I know it when I see it".

      --
      - The Sigless Wonder
    76. Re:Tit for tat by bongey · · Score: 1

      As long as the US has organized US territories with no voting rights, some that were just taken and military bases from former invasions. The US has no moral authority considering Israel is holding land for defensive measures, after they were invaded MULTIPLE TIMES. No Palestine was never a country and it sole purpose is to be a Muslim country and to make sure Israel can't exist. Funny how none of the countries that invaded Israel take in people Palestine, they are kept in limbo just to make Israel look bad.

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

    77. Re:Tit for tat by king+neckbeard · · Score: 0

      Anonymous Coward parrots ridiculous government propaganda. Film at 11.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    78. Re:Tit for tat by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Look, basically everyone in the Middle East is shitty. However, we are an enabler for the shittiness of both Israel and Saudi Arabia. We could easily tell them, "we aren't going to give you billions of dollars in aid and weapons unless you follow the UNDHR and follow international law." But we don't. We suck both of them off every single time, and anybody who complains is [current stock insult here].

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    79. Re:Tit for tat by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1

      We overthrew Iraq [sic], creating ISIS

      As it stands right now, the best thing that could happen for world peace is for the US to go down in flames... the rational choice for the world at large is to get rid of us.

      Try connecting these two bits of reasoning you've displayed here. How and to what extent did we "create ISIS"? Well, our policies in Iraq ended up creating a power vacuum, of course.

      Now onto your claims about America's downfall being for the best: Do you honestly believe that in the ensuing worldwide power vacuum that things would actually get better?

      People around the world might wish us ill, but this wish most definitely does not represent a "rational choice" unless they happen to be in a country or part of a movement that is posed to benefit from our downfall. And if you make a list of those countries and movements most likely to benefit from our downfall, I think you'll quickly understand why every clear-thinking person in the rest of the world is in favor of American soft-power hegemony enduring (along with a grotesquely hypertrophic military held in reserve), despite the long list of legitimate grievances they may have.

      There simply isn't a good second option to be found anywhere. Maybe in 50 years the EU could be a viable alternative, if they can get their shit together.

    80. Re:Tit for tat by Shane_Optima · · Score: 2

      It is not spinelessness to live and breathe in the real world, where everyone has blood on their hands and virtually every single decision of any significant magnitude is of a "lesser evil" sort.

      * Increased Chinese and Russian dominance in the world is not preferable, and you'll find their direct oppression and foreign alliances are more cynical and destructive than anything we've recently done.

      * The continued propagation of Salafism and pan-Islamism in the Muslim world is not preferable to the status quo, including every single wrong and stupid thing we've done on this front.

      * The EU is nowhere near strong enough or stable enough to be a powerful world player without America at its back.

      None of that is apologia for America; it is merely the recognition that the improvement and maintenance of America, which is indeed a patriotic enterprise, is still the best hope for the world. Advocating for the downfall of America is advocating for a power vacuum that will be filled by something worse, and in ages past demonstrably was worse.

    81. Re:Tit for tat by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      The Left is rediscovering hawkishness now.

      http://www.politico.com/magazi...

    82. Re: Tit for tat by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      100% bullshit that led directly to the Cambodian holocaust.

      Vietnam was a pawn war, but it's loss had bad consequences for the region. Still largely worked out OK, the Ruskys lost, the Chinese got smart without having to lose first.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    83. Re: Tit for tat by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Russia started WWII on the wrong side. If they took the biggest beating, it was because they deserved it. Having been all for the Nazis, until they were against them. They were also completely disengaged from Japan.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    84. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > While the phishing attack may have originated in Russia

      Even that part isn't clear. There are things that weakly link it to the Ukraine, but half of that is the text of the phishing email itself, which can't exactly be trusted.

    85. Re:Tit for tat by NotAPK · · Score: 1

      "Do you really think that the world would be a better place if the US simply disengaged across the board? Should Japan and Korea be the only entities in the front line dealing with China's territorial expansionism?"

      Yes I do.

    86. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the US stops what they traditionally do, countries like Russian and Iran invade other countries and take them over

      And that is the exact kind of thinking that leads us to world war 3; america thinking it has to bully the rest of the world to stop them being naughty.
      The US government doesn't have the right to tell any country what it should be doing, let alone brutally invading them, destroying working governments and then just walking away letting the extremists take control. The US government created ISIS; it has single handedly made the world a far far more dangerous place because it likes to throw its weight around and destabilise countries.
      Frankly all the posturing america is doing; blaming russia for anything and everything; its bringing a new war closer and closer. It will be america that triggers the next global war when one of a good number of countries finally gets sick and tired of them throwing their weight around and trying to be the world police.
      Why do you think kim jong-un wants nukes? To protect himself against america and if i were in his position, knowing how blood-thirsty the US is, i'd be doing exactly the same.

    87. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You sound like an ignorant millenial "educated" by the sociology department of a US college in the last 10 years.

      The best thing for the world is for the US to stop selling arms to horrible people and continue supporting our allies.

      Since I'm sure you can't figure out who those people are, that means we support countries like Israel against the human rights violators who condemn them at the UN and cut off scum bags like the Saudis instead of helping them escape questions and prosecutions in the US on 9/11.

      If you want to see world wide horror then the the US should go down in flames. That's the best way to see tens of millions die in war, famine, of unchecked plagues and general economic disaster.

      I won't call you an idiot but you are certainly poorly educated and misinformed by your college professors... People by the way who have zero real world experience but I'm sure they sold you a lot of their books.

    88. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oversimplification or ignorance, you're a decade behind.

    89. Re:Tit for tat by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure I get you. Murder, rape and steal are wrong. Killing is not murder in that murder is killing someone for personal reasons, killing is done generally to protect. We don't kill people just because we want something they have or because we don't like them. In some cases we kill people in error but the difference is the intent as with a bomber that targeted a bunker and perhaps destroyed a house with civilians in it. This is accepted generally by all civilized governments as not murder. I understand for the victims it matters little but you have to have some standards or it just become savagery. Rape is rape, the forcible act on another person who is unwilling. I don't see how marital right enters into that. Stealing is taking something that's not yours. These are mostly pretty obvious.

    90. Re: Tit for tat by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      Oh the horror!

    91. Re:Tit for tat by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      While I mostly agree with your analysis of the shortcomings of the US government I find the last statement foolishly shortsighted. Do you somehow think that China as the world power is something to look forward to? Just a little bit of research should warn you that while things may be bad now they've got excellent chances to be much worse. And I think China is far from the worst of candidates out there. Be careful what you wish for, it might come to pass.

    92. Re:Tit for tat by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      When did getting some fool to give you his password become hacking?

    93. Re: Tit for tat by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      A lot of the "load" only exists to serve the US, and other countries don't want to be involved in it. Also, sometimes it's just a bad idea, e.g. Japan developing its own nuclear weapons.

      The best thing would be for other countries to tell the US to get stuffed and for Trump to withdraw some support, de-escalating where possible.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    94. Re:Tit for tat by h33t+l4x0r · · Score: 1

      People who can't muster the vertebrae to correctly observe that the US's general posture in the world is wildly preferable to Russia's...

      You're misrepresenting Russia here, these are areas that have historically been part of Russia and are populated by people who consider themselves Russian. Imagine if 50 years ago Texas had seceded. Do you not think that re-annexing it would be on DT's agenda?

    95. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Idiot. If the US was not there, it would be only minutes before someone used nuclear weapons. And it would get worse from there.

    96. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nothing is patriotic about america anymore, you were a fledgling nation on the cusp of freedom but gave it all away due to fear.

      The aid american gives out isn't as nice as you think it is, it has destroyed economies in some places leaving them reliant on aid or trade goods as the industries that supported the area have been bankrupted - a good example of this is the "free shoes" which decimated the locally produced shoe market or the massive food drops - not just enough to survive but excessive amounts of manufactured foodstuffs that bankrupted farmer's due to product rotting in the fields when then did not have enough money to buy more seed, the Aid actually created more poverty in many places.

      USA is not even a democracy anymore, its a reality show that's run out of popcorn.

      best hope for the world isn't the US, I would say switzerland is the best hope for a real democracy and humanity, the US is just the schoolyard bully who's just realising no-body wants to play with him anymore.

    97. Re: Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because Americans are far too generous that way

      WTF?
      Have you witnessed any evidence of generosity of any entity at any level of government that would make you conclude that the motives behind US foreign policy come from a place of generosity? If so, please elaborate.

    98. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Literally no one with ant technical knowledge is falling for this bullshit anti-Russian propaganda the Democrats are using as some kind of bizarre smoke screen to distract the incredible corruption that the leaks unveiled.
      What's amazing to me is they don't give a shit anymore how blatant their bullshit it. They just keep pumping it out, and the main stream media tow the line.
      There are so few reliable sources of news now. I just wonder how long that has been the case.
      I'm very thankful we have the Internet.

    99. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean how through April Glaspie we gave Saddam the impression we didn't give a damn about what he wanted to do re: Kuwait? What about the hired PR propaganda about babies being taken out of incubators?

      How about Albright thinking starving out 500k people was totally worth it?

      Come off it.

    100. Re:Tit for tat by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      You agree with me on a number of points. I want to stop selling arms to horrible people. "Moderate rebels" are basically always horrible people. I agree with cutting off the Saudis.

      The major points of disagreement seem to be on Israel and the US. The US topped an international Reuters poll as the biggest threat to world peace by a wide margin, and basically everybody but the US hates Israel. As far as the 'real world' goes, it would seem that you are deluded by virtue of being in the American bubble, and falling victim to old propaganda.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    101. Re:Tit for tat by dave562 · · Score: 1

      Please, go watch "The Untold History of the United States" by Oliver Stone before you spread any more ignorance about what drives Russian foreign policy, and who the aggressors in the world are.

      Do you realize that the reason there is a radical Islamic government in charge of Iran is because the United States overthrew the moderate, populist government in the late 1970s and replaced it with a puppet dictator who was hated by his people? The response of those people was to welcome any group, no matter how extreme, who promised to reflect the will of the people against the Shah?

      Of course you realize that after the US puppet was kicked out of Iran, the US then went ahead and armed Iraq with chemical weapons to use on the Iranians. The very same chemical weapons that were long gone by the time Bush got around to 'dealing with Saddam'.

      Do you realize that al Qaeda was created by the CIA to destabilize Afghanstian and protect the petroleum empire that the British created, and the Americans inherited after WW2?

      Are you at all familiar with the concept of "blow back" as it applies to covert operations?

      Contrary to whatever propaganda you might have digested, the US's "general posture in the world" has been to threaten anyone who opposes us with nuclear weapons. The posture has been to loot 'third world' nations for the benefit of the multi-national corporations that own our government hook, line and sinker.

      If you have one ounce of mortality left in your body, you would be ashamed if you opened your eyes and accepted the realities of how American foreign policy has been conducted since the end of WW2.

    102. Re:Tit for tat by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      Yes! Definitely excuse away his invasion and mass murdering by tribe/ethnicity using WMDs that (let me guess) you are still trying to wish away. He was a good guy, Saddam.

      No, he wasn't told that nobody would mind him invading and annexing another country. Your level of context-free delusion while posting as the anonymous coward you are pretty well sums up your understanding of the entire situation. Carry on, please. Let's hear something from you, perhaps, about how North Korea's regime is just misunderstood but really very nice.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    103. Re: Tit for tat by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      They tried to reunite their country that the French separated

      No, they didn't. Their puppet communist regime tried to turn South Korea into an extension of the larger communist empire, and were happy to slaughter South Koreans to do so. Defending a forward-looking democracy from invasion by totalitarian socialist thugs isn't "contributing to the problem," it's the only rational thing to do. Look at the difference between the two Koreas right now for the proof of that.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    104. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have lived in many countries and guess what? Their morals are reflective of their needs, their history, their desires, their environment, their Gods etc.

      That is pure racism. It denies everybody's individual choices, common ratio and universal human rights. It tells people who happen to be born into a fascist system that fascism is in their genes.

    105. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you are just butthurt, but there are lotions for that you know...

    106. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, how noble of you Yanks. Especially after your then-government provided aid to the USSR who tried to invade our country during WWII. Every day I wish the EU would get its shit together and ditch NATO and found a joint defence effrot.

    107. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Previously USA has supported local Muslim fundamentalists against local secular regime in Afghanistan for no other reason than it was aligned with USSR. Later those Muslims formed Taliban. So USA not just attacked a country that wasn't a threat. In fact it betrayed own past allies and attacked them.

    108. Re: Tit for tat by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Where's the redundancy that protects the world if something happens to the USA?

      Excellent question. Why won't other countries agree to shoulder anything at all like their own share of that load? Because Americans are far too generous that way,

      It's not generosity. It's empire-building.

      We can't totally wash our hands of that chore, no matter how lazy other countries are, because it will end up just like the last two world wars when we hoped to avoid that expensive and deadly work for too long as well,

      We deliberately delayed getting into WWII even though we knew the holocaust was occurring because, as Hitler was betting, nobody cared enough about Jews to risk getting into another unpopular war. But that's only half the story. By delaying as long as possible, and then swooping in at the last moment to play the hero (when Russian lives did the bulk of the work) we were able to take advantage of the fact that everyone else had to deal with being bombed periodically, and we didn't. That produced the prosperity that fueled the baby boom, to say nothing of selling fuel and materials like aluminum (which Mitsubishi made into Zeroes) to the axis.

      and still had to get involved.

      We were always going to get involved. The only question was when.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    109. Re:Tit for tat by dwpro · · Score: 1

      All of us here know that, as do many others.  One would hope that our 'cyber' (how did that word become a thing again...) defense representatives have some way of validating who is actually at the other end of the line, and we're supposed to get some sort of evidence in a report soon.  However, with means and methods being what they are, I'm not expecting much.

      --
      Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. -- Susan Ertz
    110. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "If the US stops what they traditionally do, countries like Russian and Iran invade other countries and take them over."

      HAHAHAHA

      So your logic is, if WE (USA) don't invade then Russia / Iran will?

      So I will murder you, before the Russians do.
      Don't live under the fear of a dictator (like Saddam or Ghadaffi), rather live under constant drone bombings and islamist terrorists!

      USA! USA! USA!

    111. Re:Tit for tat by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      I'm not saying that there aren't downsides to the US going down in flames, but assuming that a power vacuum is always worse than the status quo is unwise. Iraq was a relatively stable dictatorship that didn't pose a major threat. The US is not content on just screwing over its own people, or even just its neighbors, but instead is causing global chaos on multiple fronts.

      Plus, we're not a balanced power, and global power would be closer to equilibrium if the US fell down significantly. The US today is the horrific result of the power vacuum created by the fall of the USSR. And yeah, we'd ideally want to get off the petrodollar and other such things before a collapse.

      Let me once again clarify, I would very much rather the US NOT go down in flames. And all that it really takes is for reasonable adults to be in charge. But both parties have been fighting tooth and nail against that for decades, which may mean that there is no longer a reason for the world to maintain hope that we'll get our shit together.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    112. Re:Tit for tat by dywolf · · Score: 1

      Would-be world conquerors tend to be dictators that crush everything that doesn't fit their exact world view.

      you just described exactly what the US has done in roughly half the countryies of the world following WWII.

      so much so, that it gave rise to this old joke:
      Q: Why will there never be a coup d’état in Washington?
      A: Because there’s no American embassy there.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    113. Re:Tit for tat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      God you are a neck beard aren't you, what let me guess you're waaring a fedora now too and spout atheist drivel on unsuspecting passers by. The best thing for world peace would be to ship all the "real" muslims to the fucking South Pole.all the ones that don't take it seriously enough can stay. You a fan of the idea of sharia law? Then gtfo. Out of the UK out of Germany out of France out of the US out of the EU. Ship those assholes to an ice desert and they can live out their nomadic fantasys

    114. Re:Tit for tat by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      I see you are as confident as i am with the fucksticks that "protect(violate at any given chance) us". You give me a small hope for humanity. now only if there were moar!

    115. Re:Tit for tat by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      I feel your frustrations, I was started on the internet by my father when i was a kid before it was the atrocity that it is now, Remember when IRC was the closest thing to "social media". People don't feel the need to learn anything anymore when they can just look up what they need with the locked down computer in their pocket when the time arises.

  4. Intentions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Nobody can't be sure about the intentions of the fur hat hackers.

    1. Re:Intentions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Was that an intentional double-negative, or are you just bad at English?

  5. tricked their recipients into revealing passwords by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    more evidence that the era of Idiocracy is upon us

  6. Countermeasures by LTIfox · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Some organizations started to inject fake phishing emails into their communication systems. All employees who clicked get their heads bashed with a rock.

  7. Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    One laptop not on the network had malware.

    Fuck the washington post.

    http://boingboing.net/2016/12/31/no-russia-didnt-hack-vermon.html

    1. Re:Bullshit by Velox_SwiftFox · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Exactly, bullshit. It sounds to me like an employee used his laptop to visit an infected website, or answered a general phishing mail.

      Hardly an attack aimed at the grid, and volume cranked up to 11 by WP as a part of the general current panic to glorify Obama and what his administration has done, and undermine the incoming administration.

      Or the WP feels it is simply unimportant to get proper attribution and any of the details right.

    2. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      NBC had a story about how they are constantly being probed. People are port scanning the entire internet all the time, it's basically internet background radiation.

    3. Re:Bullshit by Vegan+Cyclist · · Score: 2, Informative

      Err...you link to BoingBoing, who in turn links to Glenn Greenwald who himself is infamous for spinning wildly inaccurate stories. Greenwald asserts:

      What’s the problem here? It did not happen.

      There was no “penetration of the U.S. electricity grid.” The truth was undramatic and banal. Burlington Electric, after receiving a Homeland Security notice sent to all U.S. utility companies about the malware code found in the DNC system, searched all their computers and found the code in a single laptop that was not connected to the electric grid.

      Sadly, the premise of his claim may be true (there is a chance the code wasn't a deliberate attempt by Russia), but rather than simply state that, he makes his own unsubstantiated claim that "it did not happen". He does not know for certain that it wasn't a deliberate attempt from Russia.

      There's a lot of words in the Greenwald piece, but it all hinges on this press release from the power company (via the Burlington Free Press):

      Statement from Burlington Electric Department:

      "Last night, U.S. utilities were alerted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of a malware code used in Grizzly Steppe, the name DHS has applied to a Russian campaign linked to recent hacks," said Mike Kanarick, spokesman for Burlington Electric Department. "We acted quickly to scan all computers in our system for the malware signature. We detected the malware in a single Burlington Electric Department laptop not connected to our organization’s grid systems. We took immediate action to isolate the laptop and alerted federal officials of this finding. Our team is working with federal officials to trace this malware and prevent any other attempts to infiltrate utility systems. We have briefed state officials and will support the investigation fully."

      Greenwald conveniently excludes the press release (the foundation of his claims), because anyone reading it would realize he's being just as hysterical, and relies on dopes like the editor at BoingBoing to 'trust' that somehow Greenwald knows more.

      Shame on BoingBoing for being so lazy, and shame on the OP for not actually doing a little reading, and perpetuating the very same spin tactics. It took me all of 30 seconds to get to the bottom of this. The Washington Post also took it too far and sensationalized the story.

      The code was found on a laptop at the power station, and it's Russian in origin. It's uncertain if it's deliberate, and they're investigating that aspect of it now. That's the whole story as I can see it, and it doesn't seem like something to dismiss. It's definitely concerning, regardless of where the code came from. The laptop wasn't connected to the power station network, but depending on the malware, it might not have taken much (a USB stick copying some files to a network computer) to change that. So yes, let's keep investigating, and hopefully it was just some 'user viewing a bad website', but we can't say that right now either.

    4. Re:Bullshit by pipingguy · · Score: 1

      BoingBoing making sense and not following the prog party line? WTF is going on - FakeNews again?

    5. Re:Bullshit by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      It should be deeply concerning, but that's effectively the result of the complete lack of care regarding OpSec and vital infrastructure. We've had reasons to be deeply concerned about that for years, if not decades, but now seems like an awfully convenient time to trot out a fact that would likely have applied at just about any point in time if we did an audit of our power grid.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    6. Re:Bullshit by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      The code was found on a laptop at the power station, and it's Russian in origin. It's uncertain if it's deliberate, and they're investigating that aspect of it now. That's the whole story as I can see it, and it doesn't seem like something to dismiss. It's definitely concerning, regardless of where the code came from. The laptop wasn't connected to the power station network, but depending on the malware, it might not have taken much (a USB stick copying some files to a network computer) to change that. So yes, let's keep investigating, and hopefully it was just some 'user viewing a bad website', but we can't say that right now either.

      Sure they should investigate it further, but I doubt "Burlington Electric" is high on the Russian target list. Don't assume it 'might not have take much' to transfer to control systems, because those systems are pretty much all isolated from admin systems anymore, I would be very surprised if there were a crossover path via the laptop. Of course we should check to make sure, but it doesn't appear to be a bid deal.

    7. Re:Bullshit by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      The code was found on a laptop at the power station,

      That is not necessarily true. All we know is that it was a company laptop that wasn't connected to grid or power systems, there is no reference I can find to it being in a power station, just as likely to be in a corporate office.

    8. Re:Bullshit by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      It should be deeply concerning, but that's effectively the result of the complete lack of care regarding OpSec and vital infrastructure. We've had reasons to be deeply concerned about that for years, if not decades, but now seems like an awfully convenient time to trot out a fact that would likely have applied at just about any point in time if we did an audit of our power grid.

      What is deeply concerning? The bullshit false headline?

    9. Re:Bullshit by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      In some ways it is a success story. The Government put out a warning for a specific malware and how to detect it. The company appropriately scanned based on that warning, found the malware on a isolated laptop (which was isolated from grid systems), and appropriately reported it.

    10. Re:Bullshit by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      Exactly! This "probing" happens all day every day by legit and non legitimate people, I used to mass scan IP range blocks all the time. started back in the 90's doing it. ITS NOTHING NEW PEOPLE. this is what happens when you give people a toy that they have no fucking idea how it works, but you give them the power to be in control of it.

    11. Re:Bullshit by king+neckbeard · · Score: 1

      Given the importance of our infrastructure, this big of a security breach should be a concerning incident. However, the standards are set so low that this is probably a common occurrence, and thus isn't really anything new.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    12. Re:Bullshit by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      But you don't know how "big" a breach it was. We had malware on a laptop not even part of the the grid network.

    13. Re: Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But that wouldn't be a good news story! "IT security controls do what they are supposed to. No damage done. No news at 11."

    14. Re:Bullshit by johannesg · · Score: 1

      So this is an example of that 'fake news' I keep hearing so much about? Or does that depend entirely on who is spreading the news?

    15. Re:Bullshit by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      The specific claim he made: "There was no âoepenetration of the U.S. electricity grid."

      That is entirely true. It may have been a deliberate attempt by Russia, he doesn't make a claim one way or the other, merely that "[t]here was no âoepenetration of the U.S. electricity grid."

      The code was found on a laptop at the power station, and it's Russian in origin. It's uncertain if it's deliberate, and they're investigating that aspect of it now. That's the whole story as I can see it

      I agree, and you seem to agree with Greenwald that it doesn't warrant the claim that the _grid_ was "penetrated" in some fashion.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    16. Re:Bullshit by Xenographic · · Score: 2, Informative

      There's a ton of Russian malware/botnets out there. Same for Chinese, etc. The burden is on the person making the assertion this is the work of the Russian government, because the media is hard at work with flimsy, inaccurate stories like this which they end up retracting in part after the big headlines hit (see also: changes to the ODNI report...).

      Obama is up there sabotaging diplomacy efforts with Israel & Russia that will compromise our ability to take out Isis. Islamic radicals, incidentally, were the ones behind the assassination of that Russian diplomat.

      So ask yourself, why would you want to be on the same side as the Daesh & co.?

    17. Re:Bullshit by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      Give it up. king neckbeard doesn't even know what the grid network is.

    18. Re:Bullshit by bongey · · Score: 1

      Libtard , really the Russians are coming is getting really old quick. The WaPo corrected ie retracted the entire story. http://www.mediaite.com/online...

    19. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still waiting for the outrage from Hillary on the fake news.

    20. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      +1

    21. Re: Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HRH's, I mean HRC's, outrage is focused solidly on the Russians. They hacked her Gibson.

    22. Re:Bullshit by ls671 · · Score: 1

      Would you please stop over use "penetration" and "penetrate"?

      My imaginary wife is not feeling good today...

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    23. Re: Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OpSec at electrical companies is pretty serious. Look up NERC cyber security standards. The electric industry does not take security lightly.

    24. Re:Bullshit by LesserWeevil · · Score: 1

      Absolute B.S. RH (Russian Hackers) is the UFO scare of the present. And about as believable.

    25. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Glenn Greenwald who himself is infamous for spinning wildly inaccurate stories.

      Funny most things including the article on this he wrote is very accurate and asks the right questions. I guess the whole Snowden thing is just a hyped up lie.

      First you sound like he is supporting this lie the Russians did this when his story is based on the information put out by the electric company. Which states the grid was NOT hacked. This so called hack is TOTAL BULL SHIT. Malware was found on ONE laptop. This malware is readily available for download BY ANYONE from the Internet. Hell I have a copy of cozybear. For the record I'm not Russian. I do work as a pen tester. For the record I also have some very nice and a lot more complex exploits built right here in the USA paid for by our tax money and built by the NSA. (see equation group) Great tools to breach several brands of US made firewalls. Even if it is the Russians we have the pot calling the kettle black.

      Greenwald made this statement in his article "Finding this malware is like finding an AK47 at a crime scene and saying the Russians did it." This is so true. Russian made doesn't mean anything.

      There was a time on this site when everyone here knew how networks worked. Damn I miss those days. Dude please take your shit over to redit or somewhere besides slashdot.

    26. Re:Bullshit by Vegan+Cyclist · · Score: 1

      How about we have conversations without pejoratives and labeling people you don't even know? I observed all the references provided, and summarized. Unless you're making an admittance to willful ignorance on the side of whoever isn't a "libtard", you're only inflaming the discussion. If you couldn't tell from my writing, I thought the WaPo was out of line as well, so you're denigrating someone who might actually agree with you. While I do lean liberal, I appreciate the challenge *thoughtful* conservatives offer, and in the US system deem it necessary as a counterbalance. (And I'm not even American.)

      Although the Future Leader of the Free World is apparently unable to contain himself (which itself is a fact, albeit an unflattering one), maybe the rest of us can leave the insults out of it and try and stick to the facts and try and make things a bit better. The core of my post is that responding to sensationalism with more sensationalism doesn't do any good. Do you disagree with that, as the opposite of "libtard" (what's that, conservatard?) are you all for it?

    27. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Very well put. The hyperbole and lack of rigour on both sides is shameful and disastrous...

    28. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anyone else starting to distrust Amazon now that their politics are so blatantly coloring journalism?

    29. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nerds get this. Most of slashdot doesn't.

    30. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think you are forgetting how the US destroyed the Iran Nuclear centrifuges. ...It just took one more step...

    31. Re:Bullshit by manu0601 · · Score: 1

      That deserves a +1 insightful. Many malwares are made in USA, but no government points finger to US intelligence when they discover one.

    32. Re:Bullshit by lucm · · Score: 1

      So this is an example of that 'fake news' I keep hearing so much about? Or does that depend entirely on who is spreading the news?

      And those geniuses wonder why people take their news on Trump's twitter feed rather than in the mainstream media.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    33. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ahhh, logic not biased by emotion! I greatly appreciate your post :)

    34. Re:Bullshit by mujadaddy · · Score: 1

      Islamic radicals, incidentally, were the ones behind the assassination of that Russian diplomat.

      Could "Islamic radicals" have cleared all the security from the room, leaving one young "off-duty" riot policeman, in a $5000 suit , alone to deliver his full message in full view of the assembled press?

      --
      Populus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur...
      "Force shits upon Reason's back." - Poor Richard's Almanac
    35. Re:Bullshit by Xenographic · · Score: 1

      It's not normally a high security event, but inasmuch as you're suggesting others could have had a hand in it, Saudi Arabia & Qatar would seem to have the most to gain from this.

      While it's true that Obama promised retaliation, both secret and overt, against Russia just days prior, I have no reason to believe he had any hand in this one.

  8. Breaking News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Malware scan discovers malware. "Luckilly (?) the exec who owned the laptop hasn't plugged it into the network in 8 months, so I can enjoy my weekend. My boss will be in meetings fox six months, I told her to reassure the public the laptop was running on battery so the risk to the grid was small," reports sysadmin. "I spent all last weekend rebuilding my mom's computer when she got this same infection, it sucked", said other sysadmin.

  9. Please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Stop using the word penetrated. It gives me needs.

    Signed,
    Fez.

  10. Fake news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Headline: Russian operation hacked a Vermont utility, showing risk to U.S. electrical grid security, officials say

    Details: Burlington Electric said in a statement that the company detected a malware code used in the Grizzly Steppe operation in a laptop that was not connected to the organization’s grid systems.

    Is there such a thing as integrity in journalism any more?

  11. 1 laptop, not connected to the grid by david.emery · · Score: 5, Informative

    Journalists wonder why people don't trust them, and this story is a good example. Turns out the crap was found on one laptop in the company's possession, which was not connected to their power grid.

    (And when will companies/CIOs stop buying computers that contain so many exploitable vulnerabilities? I guess the answer is "Not until there's financial and legal consequence for their failure.")

    1. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by mattwarden · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'm very happy to come to the comments section and find mostly mocking and people who looked beyond the headline. Would have been nice if the editors did that.

      Here is the full takedown on The Intercept of this BS-vending from WaPo: https://theintercept.com/2016/...

    2. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by SpankiMonki · · Score: 1

      No mod points today so I'll just say thanks for that link. Good read.

    3. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Great link, mod up!

    4. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Journalists wonder why people don't trust them, and this story is a good example.

      Indeed. Does anyone still doubt the media is just an arm of the government, after all this hysteria about Russian hacking? Does anyone seriously think this isn't at the behest of the government?

    5. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by david.emery · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There have been substantial penetrations of the US Power Grid, but this was -not- one of them. I remember hearing about vulnerabilities in the electrical grid and other SCADA critical infrastructure in the '90s. The one guy who talked about that worked for the EPRI, and ended up getting fired because he continually pointed out how the utilities were -ignoring- the problem.

      (Agree, mod parent up, good link!)

    6. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by Imrik · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't think they're an arm of the government, they're just creating stories that will sell/get clicks. Clever government officials have figured out how to release information that will cause the story they want out to be the one written.

    7. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you want people to be able to use computers, there will be vulnerabilities.

    8. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It just takes one computer to harvest passwords. Tech people here should realize this much more so than the general public.

    9. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think they're an arm of the government, they're just creating stories that will sell/get clicks. Clever government officials have figured out how to release information that will cause the story they want out to be the one written.

      Except the bulk of the media in the US is, shall we say, more than a little too helpful for one of the two major parties in the US. To the point of actually colluding with that one party.

      Hence all the hoopla of "RUSSIA!!!!" and "FAKE NEWS!!!" - it's a distraction from how the bulk of US media is merely the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party's apparatchiks.

      It appears to be working, too. Over half of all self-identified Democrat votes now believes Russians actually hacked vote counts and allowed Trump to win.

      Nice.

      I truly hope when the US media is done undermining confidence in US institutions and the US descends into anarchy, the media is the first up against the wall.

    10. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by Vegan+Cyclist · · Score: 1

      You need to look beyond *this* headline as well, it's Glenn Greenwald for crying out loud. Please see my post in the thread above.

    11. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      (And when will companies/CIOs stop buying computers that contain so many exploitable vulnerabilities? I guess the answer is "Not until there's financial and legal consequence for their failure.")

      So you managed to look beyond the headline and realise that the article is bullshit and there was no real security breach, but you're now criticising a company who acted just fine and wish that there were higher penalties on them?

      Get a grip man.

    12. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is ENTIRELY NOT the fault of the Russians or any other malactor.

      If you've ever worked in netsec, you know the US, and essentially the entire world,
      is completely fucking lazy and stupid and unfunded when it comes to securing
      computers, networks and systems. People can't even get backups done right.
      And certainly can't be bothered with code audits. So OF COURSE you're
      going to get your knobs turned.

    13. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1 laptop that could contain password hints (names, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) used by the people in charge of the plant

    14. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by david.emery · · Score: 1

      1. There clearly was a penetration of a computer.

      2. For this to happen, there had to be a vulnerability on that computer.

      We _know_ that some systems are much more vulnerable than others. But there's no penalty for that, either for the makers or for the purchasers/specifiers of that.

      My 'grip' is to not run Windows.

    15. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why should I listen to you? You're "Vegan Cyclist" for crying out loud.

    16. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by lhowaf · · Score: 1

      Because he's not AC.

    17. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      1. There clearly was a penetration of a computer.

      2. For this to happen, there had to be a vulnerability on that computer.

      We _know_ that some systems are much more vulnerable than others. But there's no penalty for that, either for the makers or for the purchasers/specifiers of that.

      My 'grip' is to not run Windows.

      I'm labelling this one security through stupidity. Targetted attacks don't care what OS you're running when there is a user you can exploit. There's no evidence that an exploit was used to install malware on this machine. For all anyone knows it was a disgruntled former employee who specifically put it on.

      In the meantime security practices are what prevent exploits from migrating through networks into critical systems which is what happened here. So maybe get off your high-horse and realise that everything is working securely and as expected.

    18. Re: 1 laptop, not connected to the grid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1 laptop that could contain the True Vote Totals for the Clinton Firewall States! This is more proof that Russia Hacked The Election.

    19. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by david.emery · · Score: 1

      There has to be a vulnerability on the computer to exploit. That's a point most people seem to forget, and the people here have no excuse for that.

      Yes, the air gap between the vulnerable laptop and the power grid worked as expected. But that doesn't excuse the vulnerability of the laptop!

    20. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by LesserWeevil · · Score: 1

      WaPo rapidly heading toward National Enquirer status. NYT following close behind.

    21. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by david.emery · · Score: 1

      NYT's coverage of Apple puts it ahead in this race, I think. There's just plain incompetence, and then there's targeted attacks with the goal to win a Pulitzer.

    22. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Because he's not blathering about cycling or veganism?

      He identified his blind spots in his name.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    23. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by JoshuaZ · · Score: 1

      On the contrary, this is exactly why I trust serious journalistic sources like the Washington Post. They sometimes get things wrong, but when they do get it seriously wrong, they own up to it. This is what makes so-called mainstream media so great: they aren't perfect but they own up to their mistakes.

    24. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by david.emery · · Score: 1

      Has anyone ever seen a "an unnamed junior administration official" cited in a story?

    25. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by kyrio · · Score: 1

      You're foolish if you think the government doesn't control the media: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ada...

    26. Re:1 laptop, not connected to the grid by tomhath · · Score: 1

      A legitimate newspaper would never run a story based on one leaked piece of information from an unnamed source. WaPo is so anxious to print anything anti-Trump they'll print fake news and apologize when they get called out.

  12. Making molly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Neone know where to get da sassafras oil ?

    1. Re:Making molly by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Hey Editor David, instead of covering up your ignorant original posting of this article by changing the headline with no explanation, how about just posting a new article. Now people are confused at comments below pointing out the erroneous headline which should have never been put here to begin with if you'd just tried a little to validate it.

    2. Re:Making molly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yup.. this does it for me. Slashdot if officially crap. Shame, I enjoyed the discussions in the comments being actually about the subject matter. Now I first have to worry about Slashdot pulling shit like this. Its just not worth it anymore

    3. Re:Making molly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not sure what my comment did to disserve being deleted other than expressing my concern over Slashdot doing what the user above is pointing out and how its something else to drive people away from the site. Sigh...

    4. Re:Making molly by Entrope · · Score: 1

      On top of that, the Washington Post is now saying that the intrusion was "not linked to any Russian government effort to target or hack the utility" -- either it wasn't the Russians, or they didn't mean to infect that utility.

      Can we all now agree the original story was the kind of Fake News the Washington Post and other establishment media outlets have been warning us about?

  13. has to be asked by jmccue · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why is infrastructure on the public Internet ? It is not like the internet existed when most of the US electric grid was 'designed' and built. It worked quite well for 70 or so years without the internet. And I will say I have experienced more blackouts over the past 10 years than I did in total before 1990.

    1. Re:has to be asked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      from TFA:

      Burlington Electric said in a statement that the company detected a malware code used in the Grizzly Steppe operation in a laptop that was not connected to the organization’s grid systems. The firm said it took immediate action to isolate the laptop and alert federal authorities.

    2. Re:has to be asked by Streetlight · · Score: 4, Informative

      According to an earlier post the laptop that was allegedly infected was not connected to the electric company's grid control system. That conclusion answered my first question. Any vital utility system should absolutely never have it's control system of computers connected to the Internet. If somehow that's the case, those responsible need a very long prison sentence. There also needs to be other security measures to prevent folks having direct access to these control systems from sabotaging them.

      --
      In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
    3. Re:has to be asked by Freischutz · · Score: 3, Informative

      Why is infrastructure on the public Internet ? It is not like the internet existed when most of the US electric grid was 'designed' and built. It worked quite well for 70 or so years without the internet. And I will say I have experienced more blackouts over the past 10 years than I did in total before 1990.

      Infrastructure does not have to be on the internet to be hacked. The Iranians air-gapped the computers controlling their nuclear centrifuges and Stuxnet still managed to infect and damage them. The interesting thing is that Russian hackers have actually taken down an electricity grid, that of the Ukraine. The Ukrainians brought it back online relatively quickly by manual operation even though their computer control systems remained a mess. The irony of that incident was that the relatively primitive nature of the Ukrainian grid actually worked for the Ukrainians. It is doubtful that the higher tech grids in the west could be brought up that quickly after a major attack. Just because this incident turned out to be an attack of hysteria, I think we can learn from the Ukrainian experience that it pays to be vigilant and just because the US now has a Russophile president who is a paid up member of the Putin fan club does not mean that the Russians will stop probing for weaknesses in US infrastructure systems.

    4. Re:has to be asked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We have been running our nuclear power plant on Windows 95 for the past 20 years. Works flawlessly.

    5. Re:has to be asked by HornWumpus · · Score: 5, Informative

      Worked in the industry for a decade. Wrote simulation shells that did short term forecasts based on on system conditions, did data reductions etc (e.g. This unit IS going down for unscheduled maintenance, how much will it cost to shut it down RTF now vs after afternoon peak?) Went on to 'tech lead' for significant energy trading/risk management platform. Ran on many traders and grid operators desks...don't ask, won't tell. Did once see a bug because grand total on printable VAR only had room for 10 digits plus sign. Assigned to Brahmin coder, week later I fixed it myself, I digress.

      What you say isn't really possible. What they typically do have is a secure network, which runs operations, staffed with lots of ex-military actual Engineering school grads. That network is being monitored by redundant data integrators which present integrated (by some time interval, usually hours/half hours or minutes, back when I was up to my nose in it) system data to a second less secure (but still as secure as any corporate) network where routine operations run. That server is usually locked down tight, read only from the less secure network; but that is only software. They also like to run diverse OSs, lots of 'big iron' and Unixes and home brewed binary data formats. These things were mostly architected before Windows was common, particularly on the secure side it's still loaded with 'legacy', likely to remain so until they have a complete staff turnover. Old Dilbert with neckbeard flipping a nickle at Wally and telling him to get a better computer, that's the dude.

      Routine operations need access to internet based facilities. To schedule transmission line capacity, trade power, get closing prices from grid operators, weather forecasts and unit availability from neighbors (lots of VPNs). But that part of the operations could more or less crash and burn and it will only cost money (and extra CO2). Operations, more or less, ignores trading at the minute by minute level. Trading gives them trade schedules and operations will try their best. But if 'shit happens' they keep the lights on and let the accountants worry about reconciling to 'what should have happened'. Which is sometimes a bitch of a computational problem, fortunately most everybody involved are engineers and close enough is close enough. Pennies aren't statistically significant; try and explain that to an accountant. Don't recommend it, just say 'not a material difference' and get on with your life, I'm digressing again.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    6. Re:has to be asked by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Why is infrastructure on the public Internet ?

      Because people only read headlines and not articles.

      It is not like the internet existed when most of the US electric grid was 'designed' and built. It worked quite well for 70 or so years without the internet.

      Yes but the internet has caused the stupidification of readers, so now they naturally assume every headline means that someone was incompetent and that they are oh so smart, when in reality it is the other way around.

      And I will say I have experienced more blackouts over the past 10 years than I did in total before 1990.

      Yep I'm sure nothing has changed in the size and demand or the stability of the grid in the past 17 years.

    7. Re:has to be asked by Streetlight · · Score: 1

      Not an expert here. Far from it, but it sounds like the electric generation and the grid control systems have the possibility for multiple sites of failure as well as multiple sites for intrusion by bad guys. This sounds like a recipe for disaster. Hopefully critical sites such as the defense department, local police departments, hospitals, etc., have standalone electric generators independent of the grid and web. Then again, a large enough cohort of spies and terrorists could disable those. Maybe we need a system of signal fires, flags, carrier pigeons to keep the grid up in an emergency. If the fuel supply or cooling water to power plants is shut down, why worry about the Internet controls.

      --
      In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
    8. Re:has to be asked by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Duh, but the point is that the system will degrade fairly gracefully. It will run less efficiently, but even if regions island, the lights will stay on most places.

      Basically, variable weather makes the system be overbuilt for 99% of days. On the remaining 1%, cascade failure is distinctly possible, margins are too tight. The theory (spinning reserve) is that every region should always have margin equal to their biggest single power source, nice theory.

      Emergency facilities/Hospitals provide backup power, duh. Allowing them to turn on their backup generators (damn the EPA) would pull the system back from the edge on the hottest/coldest days. But utilities would just further underbuild, depending on that capacity. You'd be back in the same place, only worse, in ten years. Tons of solar (or other predictable but crap capacity factor power) could change that calculus. 0.01% backup power can be dirtier than 1% backup power. (Just change the laws a little, allow emergency facilities to go on generator when utilities call for load curtailment.)

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    9. Re:has to be asked by dj245 · · Score: 2

      Not an expert here. Far from it, but it sounds like the electric generation and the grid control systems have the possibility for multiple sites of failure as well as multiple sites for intrusion by bad guys. This sounds like a recipe for disaster. Hopefully critical sites such as the defense department, local police departments, hospitals, etc., have standalone electric generators independent of the grid and web. Then again, a large enough cohort of spies and terrorists could disable those. Maybe we need a system of signal fires, flags, carrier pigeons to keep the grid up in an emergency. If the fuel supply or cooling water to power plants is shut down, why worry about the Internet controls.

      At the end of the day, every major electrical generation site has means for some sort of manual control. There are enough "blackstart" (electrical plants that can start up without any external power) units in place to restart the grid in the event of failure. Syncing a generating unit to the grid "by hand" is not that hard (I have done it). You watch your Synchroscope carefully and flip the switch at the right moment. Then you open the steam valves to your turbine and start "pushing" on the grid, if the grid is small enough that you can actually push the grid past 60.3Hz or so, there are local systems in place to close the steam valve slightly, and automatically.

      Much of the automation in place in the grid is mainly for convenience, stability during adverse events, and manpower reduction. You could have somebody physically at each major valve and switch with a radio and have them control the thing. I have done that too, it is a boring job but it is possible.

      There are enough varied systems out there that launching a wide-scale attack would take a lot of time to prepare, and somebody would likely notice. Smaller attacks are possible but not particularly worthwhile, you can probably cause a small utility some grief and money but it wouldn't accomplish much. Stuxtnet was a huge wakeup call to the industry and NERC has been ramming good IT practices downwards to utilities and equipment OEMs for the last 6 years. The protections in place aren't foolproof but nothing is. The industry is full of engineers and we generally weigh the likelihood of risk & cost to recover.

      --
      Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
    10. Re:has to be asked by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      . Syncing a generating unit to the grid "by hand" is not that hard (I have done it).

      I did that once too in one of my EE classes...well, the whole class kinda did and watched. That is one of the few things I remember from the class - it was not my area of interest, but required. One of those things that you really don't think about and then go 'hey, of course you have to do that'. Fun memories.

    11. Re:has to be asked by AHuxley · · Score: 2

      Re "Why is infrastructure on the public Internet ?"
      Generational share holders like their profit over maintenance. Owners like to show they can make profits. Reducing expert staff shows managerial skills.
      Removing staff who are in a union is great too.
      The US was happy to see costs in local staff go to profits and not keep staff working on secure separate networks.
      No expert local teams watching over their state or city or towns grid.
      A few lower cost engineers trusted by the state/feds could watch it all from a big set of networked computers. Lower staff costs, no unions. The networks could find a fault and contractors could be sent to fix or upgrade the grid. No paying staff wages for decades for a few events per year.
      This removed the need to have a huge on site workforce 24/7 watching equipment and systems, getting pensions and been in a union.
      The network used to track issues did not get designed to be facing the "internet" later so any concept of security is now totally lacking.
      Later efforts used the "internet" to remove even more staff and expend the work of fewer staff with skills over wider areas.
      That effort to save costs and use less staff connected some very old and complex networks to the internet. As other nations, users and interesting people move over the many different US internet connections they discover such networks.
      The US won't admit to their own lack of security or need to upgrade internet facing security so they have contractors and the press plant wild stories about "Russia".
      Nice cover for when things fail and very expensive teams have to fix complex issues. It was super smart "Russia" sounds better than a lack of design, doing maintenance or having enough on site staff.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    12. Re:has to be asked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What you're really talking about is that recovery from an attack would be relatively simple (if the utility can find enough people like you who know what's what - depends on how much of that 'manpower reduction' has occurred). But it doesn't prevent an attack that if massive or targeted enough can cause major problems.

      It's actually a Good Thing that the US doesn't have a nationwide, fully-connected grid. Which it doesn't - large regions are connected, but not the whole country. That makes it more complicated for an attacker to really do a number - at worse, they might bring down a large chunk of one of the big regions (which has happened in the past without hacking, when just the wrong combination of things happens) for some hours to perhaps days. Would cause major problems but not, probably, catastrophic.

      Loved the engineers vs. accountants thing. Had one like that in a place I worked many years ago (not a utility). A manager insisted on monthly reports by project, on or near the 1st, of all the staff and other costs. But it was impossible to do that because the payroll data including all vacation, sick, etc. time weren't final and sent back to us until about the end of the month. So we cobbled up something using overhead factors from contract cost estimating systems. It was close enough when averaged over several months, and was fully disclosed. Then when they sent an auditor for a routine exam he got all pushed out of shape because the FY-end quick report didn't match actuals received a couple of months later (and the accounting guy's paper records which somehow didn't get entered right away). Was walking by the accounting office and got pulled in; when I realized what the auditor was mad about I just told him that we have quick reports and final reports; the end/FY reporting gets finished about 3 months after the end of the FY due to delays in getting all the (at that time largely paper) inputs together; so we'll just better label the adjustments in the final reports that made it all match. Which could be done with a few minutes work. Auditor thought for a sec and said fine. Accountant sat there with mouth hanging open. Bookkeepers prepare the ingredients; accountants (and their IT support) do the cooking; auditors figure out and publish the recipes.

    13. Re:has to be asked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Iranians air-gapped the computers controlling their nuclear centrifuges and Stuxnet still managed to infect and damage them.

      Because it was already in there.

    14. Re:has to be asked by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      just because the US now has a Russophile president who is a paid up member of the Putin fan club does not mean that the Russians will stop probing for weaknesses in US infrastructure systems.

      Equally, it doesn't mean that defense or our other security apparatus is going to stop looking out for Russians. It's quite irrelevant to the security of the nation.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  14. More of the same by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Intertubes: Lowering the barriers to mischief since 1969.

  15. Evidence? or more fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    These unsubstantiated alegations are making the Obama regime look increasingly like MacCarthyist lunatics.

  16. FAKE NEWS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Washington Post: OMG! Russian hackers penetrated utility grid!!! RUSSIANS!!!!!

    Reality: Laptop not connected to network had malware.

  17. Now I'm mad. by hey! · · Score: 1, Funny

    Somebody should have warned us that something like this was possible.

    I mean, clearly if it had been known this was even a possibility, management would have taken effective action to prevent it.

    Because people are rational beings who make logical decisions. I learned that in Economics class and if that's not true then the very principles our society is founded upon would be nothing more than wishful thinking.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    1. Re: Now I'm mad. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I keep reminding myself that it is the 21st century. Humanity doesn't change very quickly.

    2. Re:Now I'm mad. by admin7087 · · Score: 2

      Why so sarcastic? Just about every programmable system can be broken into, and it's not management who develop these systems but private companies. As long as companies aren't held accountable for their lax security, problems like this are never going to be fixed, no matter what 'management' wants or tries.

    3. Re:Now I'm mad. by hey! · · Score: 1

      Why so sarcastic?
      [snip] As long as companies aren't held accountable for their lax security...

      I think you just answered your own question.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  18. Fake News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Already proven this was a fake story.

  19. Coul it be by Max_W · · Score: 1

    I receive almost daily scam emails asking me to click on a link. Sometimes it is as if from FedEx, sometimes as if from a bank, etc. Could it be stopped too?

  20. OH NOES! IT'S THE RUSSIANS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    1980's are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back

    "Gov. Romney, I'm glad you recognize al-Qaeda is a threat, because a few months ago when you were asked what is the biggest geopolitical group facing America, you said Russia — not al-Qaeda. And the 1980's are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back — because the Cold War has been over for 20 years.

    So, which is it?

  21. Just the tip of the iceberg here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...people with RUSSIAN names that drink RUSSIAN vodka are working in our power plants and other critical infrastructure. If that isn't all the PROOF you need then I don't know what else will show you.

    Your move Trump.

    1. Re:Just the tip of the iceberg here... by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      Hey I'm like my buddy Bill, I tasted the vodka, but I didn't swallow

  22. Hey look! It's another MSM Russian Hacking Story! by Nova+Express · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Security experts have been warning of possible foreign hacking for decades. But why this sudden spate of "Russia hacked X" stories now? Why not back when our Secretary of State was running an illegal, private, unsecured email server through which she transmitted classified information?

    Simple: The Washington Post wanted Hillary to win the Presidential election, and reminding people how her action made it easier for Russian hackers to gain access to classified information wouldn't have helped her. But publishing it now helps support the false narrative that the Russians were behind the DNC leaks, not disgruntled Democratic Party staffers, and thus supposedly harms President-elect Donald Trump, whom the Washington Post and it's employees almost universally loath. That's the entire reason the story is being written and published now.

    Further reading here and here.

    What do you think the under/over is for MSM "Russian Hacking" stories between now and January 20?

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

    http://www.lawrenceperson.com/

  23. NSA has failed us again by Nyder · · Score: 1, Interesting

    NSA has failed us again. Instead protecting America, they are wasting their and our time by mass collecting data on citizens. Instead of making sure exploits are fixed to keep our systems secure, they hold onto them so they can use them against us and other countries.

    If am I to believe this Russian hacking our systems like the Government is pushing, then the blame goes straight on the NSA and those who backed them.

    --
    Be seeing you...
    1. Re:NSA has failed us again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The NSA isn't even involved in keeping these kinds of systems secure, this is currently not part of their mission. The NSA is a branch of the DoD whose main task is SIGINT/cryptanalysis and whose secondary task is the securing of military computer systems (like e.g. missile launch sites, radar stations, military networks).

    2. Re:NSA has failed us again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Read the article. No electric "grid" was hacked. Malware found on one laptop. Malware can make it onto HMIs and control systems running any OS. But it was not hacking.

  24. WaPo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm so sick of their disinformation. They're aren't the only offender but at this point anytime I see an article from them I automatically assume it's propaganda.
    These large media corporations are trading their reputation in to push an ideological rift in our population.
    I wonder why they'd do that?
    https://theintercept.com/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/

    1. Re:WaPo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1. WaPo admitted it assigned 20 reporters to dig up dirt on Trump, they apparently assigned none to dig dirt on Hillary.
      2. WaPo has repeatedly cited that completely bogus "97% of climate scientists agree" claim.
      3. WaPo cannot accurately use the terms he/she/his/her and has bought into the idea that there are many genders.
      Do you seriously need ANY more evidence they are NOT a trustworthy source of accurate news?
      They've ALWAYS been partisan political hacks, but in 2016 their mask came off and now it's no secret that they are NOT unbiased journalists who report FACTS.

  25. Nothing to see here. by skoony · · Score: 0

    So some code supposedly created in Russia somewhere, is found on a computer. This is news? It sounds like some kid fooled someone into giving up a password and injected some code freely available to anyone who wanted to obtain such code. Russian (criminal) hackers like their counterparts in other countries sell their wares for the right price. A lot of malicious code is freely available and or well documented on forums all over the net. It is just as likely some kid in a basement in Minneapolis is responsible for this,let alone the Russian government. I have speculated myself that a lot of this code is diseminated by the very companies that sell the anti-virus/malware designed to protect against these things. The Russians my ass.

  26. My company does that. I think it works by raymorris · · Score: 2

    I work for an information security company. All of us should really know better, and yet we do occasionally click the phish bait sent out by corporate security. After being caught once, we start being more careful - at least for six months to a year. I think it's a good idea. Corpsec doesn't need to really scold us or anything, just informing us "you clicked on a fake email" is enough to raise our awareness.

  27. #IgnoreWashingtonPost by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The Washington Post has become a Joke. Another Joke: blaming Russia for our election results. We blame everybody but ourselves. Blame blame blame. Look like 12yo children.

    1. Re:#IgnoreWashingtonPost by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is really sad to see the old Washington Post (that published the Pentagon Papers) become so untrustworthy and opposed to reporting of the truth.
      A few years ago, the Washington Post was going bankrupt. Jeff Bezos / Amazon.com bought them at a loss. He bought their brand.

      So now we get propaganda (basically fake news) from a super rich guy using the Washington Post to tell lies or half truths in order to influence American democracy.

      Meanwhile, we are supposed to be worried that we received truthful information about how the DNC cheated to influence the primary elections.

      I'm not so worried about sunshine being shined on political corruption when it gives us us the truth. Whoever did it did a favor to our democracy.

      I'm a lot more worried about the rich owner of Amazon.com trying to sabotage democracy by using the Washington Post to spread lies and half truths in order to undermine our democracy.

    2. Re:#IgnoreWashingtonPost by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Washington Post in particular is on record taking money from the CIA to write propaganda for 50 years now. Plenty of well documented history on this.

  28. GOTO fail by raymorris · · Score: 1

    if (usa.spies)
            usa.get_leverage();
            china.spies = true;
            russia.spies = true;

    For non-programmers, Russia, and especially China, will do this regardless of whether the US does it. In theory, it could be reduced by treating an electronic attack the same as a physical attack; China isn't going to bomb the USA. However in practice it's very difficult to know whether a cyber attack is state-sponsored or not. An attack by Russian people isn't necessarily an attack by Russia.

    So what we're left with is the very difficult job of strengthening defenses. Fortunately, this has a great side-effect - systems that don't fail even when being attacked are systems that don't fail when not under attack. Secure systems are reliable systems.

  29. Penetration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It looks like Russian Hackers have penetrated much more than computer networks, they have penetrated the psyche of the population. If anything has been "hacked" it was fundamentally broken in the first place, we only have ourselves to blame. Close the holes, give the technically responsible a rap over the knuckles and move on. The country is driven by drama queens.

  30. False Flag coming???? by gabrieltss · · Score: 0, Troll

    If you watch the below movie this article may be a hint of whats to come... Look at what Obama has been saying about a "third term".... Would he use a "false flag" and take down our electric grid, blame it on he Russians and institute Martial law? Think it isn't going through his and the other globalists minds?

    AmeriGeddon
    http://vidzi.tv/ym13lf5uypeb.h...

    NDAA offical!

    George Orwell literally wrote the HOW TO manually for these SOB's!

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/...

    --
    The Truth is a Virus!!!
  31. This is enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm getting sick and tired of this fake news being vomited out by institutions such as WP and mindlessly repeated by slashdot. This used to be a decent site but not anymore; so herewith, goodbye and FU.

  32. Amateur-level security will do that... by gweihir · · Score: 1

    Apparently, the operators of the US power grid are using cheaper-than-possible security, i.e. they were basically asking for it. Stupid.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  33. News at 11 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh NO! There was a virus on a laptop in Vermont and it was written by Russians!

    I'm so glad that nobody in the United States government writes viruses. That Stuxnet virus from the CIA was such a great success at stopping Iran.

  34. Burlington Free Press printed headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Government people started it and Burlington Electric found malware on one unconnected computer. The Burlington Free Press (on printed paper) reported this huge headline. This is what sells newspapers. But on the very same front page, near the bottom, it says "Malicious software found on uitility's laptop. 'Grid is not in danger,' state official says."

    http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/dfp/jpg31/lg/VT_BFP.jpg

  35. Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet Union by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    Trump thinks Putin is his buddy. Either that or his entire family are a bunch of Russian sleeper agents. In any event Trump thinks he's smart, but he's not -- Putin would love nothing more than to either have the U.S. in his back pocket, or destroy it -- either way he gets his wish, the resurrection of the Soviet Union and everything that implies. Putin, at best, is going to use Trump and his gullibility/greed/lust for power/whatever it is that goes through the head under that bad wig of his, and America is going to pay the price.

    1. Re:Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet Union by PPH · · Score: 2

      In any event Trump thinks he's smart, but he's not

      Or perhaps he is. A great real estate developer and dealmaker who has managed to make bundles of money while leaving other investors with the losses from his failed ventures. If you are trying to close the deal on a shithole condo with leaky plumbing in a bad neighborhood, you don't insult prospective buyers. You butter them up by telling them how great they are.

      The jury is still out on Trump. But I wouldn't write him off yet.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    2. Re:Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet Union by rubycodez · · Score: 0, Troll

      No, Trump believes he can handle Putin.

      Unlike Obama, who is soiling his britches and crying wolf.

      We'll soon see what Trump can actually do, even if I don't agree with all his 90 day and similar I will respect him if he moves on them.

      Unlike the empty suit that continued the Bush/Cheney agenda and gave us a Republican healthcare plan that is lining the pockets of big business and is fiscally unsound

    3. Re:Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet Union by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

      Disclaimer: None of us know Donald Trump personally, so anything you or I are saying is just opinion and conjecture. That now having been said..

      I think someone like Trump is only as good as the employees he surrounds himself with, and especially so once he enters the Whitehouse, i.e. he'll only be as good as his cabinet choices. Now, of course, that also assumes that he's going to listen to the people he's chosen to surround himself with -- assuming, that is, that he's actually going to listen to what they tell him. Some people say that his off-the-hook attitude, temper-tantrums, and the like are all an act to throw people off balance. I'm far from convinced of this. Unfortunately we'll all just have to wait and see if he sells us down the river to Russia or not, or if he just ends up incompetent enough himself to be taken in by Putin. Remember that Putin used to be KGB; he didn't get to where he is by chance or have it handed to him, I'm sure he's done at least his share of dirty-work to rise to power. I'd call Putin far, far more dangerous that Trump.

    4. Re:Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet Union by hambone142 · · Score: 1

      Don't forget continuing the "War on Terror" that will never end.

      Obama continued to wage war in Afghanistan (a country that hates us) whilst anointing them with 100 Billion dollars in "aid".

      WTF is he thinking ?

    5. Re:Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet Union by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Or perhaps he is.

      Perhaps he is, but let's look at your argument.

      A great real estate developer

      Most of that real estate only makes him money, maybe a couple of the early investors. Then it goes to hell and most of the investors take a bath and a lot of people lose their jobs. The rest of it isn't managed by him, like that tower in Panama where it turned out they had a dusty office with a desk and some cardboard boxes, and zero staff. That one only succeeds because they've managed to keep him legally at arm's length.

      So, he's a con artist in the real estate development category. That's a kind of success, but not the kind you're claiming. Let's move on.

      who has managed to make bundles of money

      He won't release the documentation which will show us how many bundles of money he has compared to his debts, so we're going to have to disqualify that claim as well.

      while leaving other investors with the losses from his failed ventures.

      Those people don't just vanish. We'll see how smart Trump really is.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    6. Re:Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet Union by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      WTF is he thinking?

      He's thinking status quo. That is odious. But what evidence is there that Trump will do anything positive? He's going to relax some environmental protections which are actually quite critical to protecting the unique treasure of our public lands; no other nation has quite so much land which is anything other than sand in the public trust. Granted, BLM land is mismanaged now, but he'll make that worse and not better. He's hiring all the kinds of people whose feet he said he would hold to the fire. My prediction is that everything that doesn't get worse over the next 4-8 years is going to remain the same.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  36. Re:OH NOES! IT'S THE RUSSIANS by Frank+Burly · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Russia is still not an existential threat to anyone but her former client states. This isn't a problem that Romney's larger Navy would have solved (and I'm surprised that Russian nationals and domestic rightists are so offended by this throwaway zinger 4 years later). But in retrospect, Obama underestimated Russia's guile. Rather than do catastrophic harm to the United States, Russia (like Al Queda) has done minor harm that led the United States do major harm to itself (the Iraq war, Trump).

  37. Could we get some workers with a modicum of intern by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seriously, who falls for this spear phishing shit? We need to teach baby-boomers about cyber paranoia. Never ever ever do anything outside the bounds of strict behavioral protocol. These good natured softies are our Achilles heel. Either harden up or get nerf jobs and leave the serious stuff in the hands of serious people.

  38. The grid was never in danger by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm an IT guy in the nuclear power generation business, including spending several years in the distribution business. The network that runs the grid or generation systems is physically separate from the business network. Federal law mandates this - along with other standards for physical and cyber security safeguarding critical infrastructure and physical assets. You would have to be extremely willful and reckless - begging for federal prison time to compromise the physical integrity of these networks by exposing them to the internet - either as an insider or remote "hacker". Just stupid over sensationalist reporting.

    1. Re:The grid was never in danger by PPH · · Score: 1

      That didn't work for Iran's centrifuges.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  39. HYSTERIA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://theintercept.com/2016/12/31/russia-hysteria-infects-washpost-again-false-story-about-hacking-u-s-electric-grid/

    ":after receiving a Homeland Security notice sent to all U.S. utility companies about the malware code found in the DNC system, searched all their computers and found the code in a single laptop that was not connected to the electric grid. "

  40. Title 10 vs. Title 50 by laing · · Score: 1

    Don't mix them up. NSA is just an intelligence agency.

  41. Re:Tit for profit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, if you see a concept of "country" and "state" as necessary, you are bound to say that. The suffering that States create, is infinite. You think its a good thing. Russia bombing Aleppo, cos Amerikkan intrigues destabilised the country and created a profitable war, as they usually do. That is all USA does on the international political arena - fills the world with tumult and roar, and sells weapons/tech/invasions to solve problems they created. No moral person will argue for one states superiority or legitimate dominance over another, cos all states are pure evil. And so are you with opinions like that.

    USA is a mirror image of Soviet in the 80'es, you have even imprisoned a larger % of your population the Soviets ever did... Basically, there are no redeeming qualities left. State of USA is a net detriment to the world both culturally and ideologically; and is an enemy of Peace. Take your Pax Americana, and shove it where the Sun don't shine!

  42. Pigpen? Dai Jones? Morse? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    A code? I suppose we should be grateful there weren't several.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  43. Re:Too many lies already by HornWumpus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Internal propaganda for the Democrats. Trying to prevent cynicism from setting in, but only working for the very dumbest most indoctrinated of them.

    Seriously this was one laptop with some malware, found by a routine virus scan. It's the Washington Post, no credibility left except with the poor snowflakes that need to be constantly fed a reassuring yet terrifying narrative.

    The worst thing about these kinds of efforts, it leaves the Democrats with their army of chanting morons, but those with two working brain cells still fall away. It will serve as its own punishment.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  44. Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secrets by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "... the US's general posture in the world is wildly preferable..."

    The U.S. government has many secret and semi-secret agencies. No one, literally no one, knows all of them, or which are badly managed. As we've seen, the secret and semi-secret U.S. government agencies often hire outside consulting companies that often have areas of sloppy management.

    The U.S. government is, by some measures, such as money spent, the most violent in the world.

    The U.S. government has killed, or caused the death of, an estimated 11,000,000 people since the end of the 2nd world war.

    War is extremely profitable for some corporations. See the book, House of Bush, House of Saud, by Craig Unger. Bush and Cheney started a war that was profitable for them.

    The U.S. has the largest percentage of its citizens in prison, of any country, in any century. The prison system is hugely profitable for prison corporations. Two of the many articles:

    ACLU: With only 5% of the world's population, the U.S. has 25% of the world's prison population.

    ThinkProgress: The United States Has The Largest Prison Population In The World -- And It's Growing.

  45. In Soviet Russia... by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    Electricity grid penentrates you!

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  46. One example of U.S. government mismanagement: by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 1
    1. Re:One example of U.S. government mismanagement: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Confirmed: US and Israel created Stuxnet, lost control of it.

      So? They wrecked the centrifuges didn't they? Mission accomplished and who gives a rats ass about collateral damage.

    2. Re:One example of U.S. government mismanagement: by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      I bet uranium hexafluoride kind of stings.

      Someone on /. claimed that the centrifuges were playing an old traditional jewish song (hatma...) when they were self destructing. I'm sure it's BS, but the thought still puts a smile on my face.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  47. No Grid Penetration by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The headline is complete bullshit. Can the author not even read? The grid was not penetrated, hacked, or comprimised. No report says it was. This is totally a fabrication from the reporters.

    "We detected the malware in a single Burlington Electric Department laptop not connected to our organization’s grid systems."

    1. Re:No Grid Penetration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Scroll to the end of the article:

      Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Russian hackers had penetrated the U.S. electric grid. Authorities say there is no indication of that so far. The computer at Burlington Electric that was hacked was not attached to the grid.

      Propaganda / Manipulation / Fake News / Click Bait from WaPo... I think they should be treated with as much skepticism as The Sun and the other UK tabloids.

      We spill all kinds of words about this huge threat and everyone should be pissed about it... get to the end and they put a little disclaimer that it's all bullshit.

    2. Re:No Grid Penetration by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      DogDude should read crap before posting it. Only an utter moron would not pick up on the BS. I'd be embarrassed.

    3. Re:No Grid Penetration by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      The headline is complete bullshit. Can the author not even read? The grid was not penetrated, hacked, or comprimised. No report says it was. This is totally a fabrication from the reporters.

       
      "We detected the malware in a single Burlington Electric Department laptop not connected to our organization’s grid systems."

      So other sources say more than just a laptop and last I checked a power station is part of the grid

    4. Re:No Grid Penetration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It only takes one braindead sysadmin or technician to let a networking facing laptop onto the grid. Remember, it takes a really minor problem to kill the power for the most economically productive region of the country. People were scared then because terrorism. Imagine how many liberties we will have to give up in case of the real thing?

    5. Re:No Grid Penetration by colin_faber · · Score: 2, Insightful

      CNN ceased being a credible news organization after the wikileaks revolutions

    6. Re:No Grid Penetration by colin_faber · · Score: 1

      Bah *revolations

    7. Re:No Grid Penetration by unixisc · · Score: 1

      revelations

    8. Re:No Grid Penetration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The headline is complete bullshit. Can the author not even read?

      I thought it was just that BeauHD idiot, but I see that this EditorDavid is just as much of a tool now.

    9. Re:No Grid Penetration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      CNN has always been a biased party, built on dead Mesopotamian miseries ...
      News? Mostly war porn ...

    10. Re: No Grid Penetration by Entrope · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Your CNN link consistently describes the infection as affecting only a single laptop that was not connected to the systems that control the electric grid. Did CNN change the story since you linked to it?

    11. Re:No Grid Penetration by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      So other sources say more than just a laptop and last I checked a power station is part of the grid

      Did you read the source you linked to? It says nothing about being at a power station, and specifically says it was on a laptop NOT connected to the grid systems.

    12. Re:No Grid Penetration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is such crap! It's all made up shit to scare the American public so they will trust and run to the idiots 'in charge' for protection and try to solidify the illusion that we 'need' the government to protect us. All bullshit!!!

    13. Re:No Grid Penetration by jcfandino · · Score: 1

      The headline does not say the grid was penetrated, it says the retracted (fake) story was ABOUT the grid being penetrated.
      The story here is that the WP changed their original story.

    14. Re:No Grid Penetration by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      The headline does not say the grid was penetrated, it says the retracted (fake) story was ABOUT the grid being penetrated. The story here is that the WP changed their original story.

      NO, the story here had the erroneous headline "Russian hackers penetrated U.S. electricity grid", but Editor David just now changed it without informing anyone. So now many are confused just so he can cover up his lame submission.

      If you don't believe me, then explain why the comment you responded to is dated before this article shows it was submitted?

    15. Re:No Grid Penetration by Topwiz · · Score: 1

      I'm a former employee of a different electric utility in Vermont. If this were really a state sponsored attack on the grid, Vermont would be the absolutely the worst place to attack first. We only have two connections to the outside world and they are for incoming power only. The utility in this story only serves the city of Burlington so is one of the smaller utilities in the state.

    16. Re: No Grid Penetration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That you had to ask that question says a lot about how much you yourself trust CNN's editorial integrity.

    17. Re:No Grid Penetration by dave562 · · Score: 1

      I setup a Honeywell ICS for a small power plant about a decade ago. Even back then, we had a completely separate and air gaped network for the plant systems. There was no reason for the regular plant employees to connect computers to the control network. The only devices on the network were the servers and the sensors / controllers. The operators sat in a control room at the console and ran the plant from there.

    18. Re:No Grid Penetration by kyrio · · Score: 1

      Did you seriously just cite CNN as a source of legitimate news?

    19. Re: No Grid Penetration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wouldn't be surprised if it had been. Everyone had to retract their stories to some degree once actual investigation took place.

    20. Re:No Grid Penetration by jcfandino · · Score: 1

      Yes. I believe you.
      Thanks for the explanation.

    21. Re: No Grid Penetration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stuxnet hit air gapped systems.

    22. Re: No Grid Penetration by T.E.D. · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't shock me. CNN has gotten to the point where I don't accept references to it, like Fox. In a way, its worse than Fox. At least the folks there think they have a noble reason to be misleading people. CNN is just doing it to attract eyeballs.

  48. Re:An avalanche of bullshit... by NotAPK · · Score: 1

    And what can we do? Hope it doesn't degrade into WW3?

  49. "Russian Hackers" by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    When does the movie come out?

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  50. Re: OH NOES! IT'S THE RUSSIANS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ukraine. Ask folks barrel bombed in Syria.... Can't because they're dead.

  51. Amazon's CEO owns the Washington Post. by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 2

    Amazon's Jeff Bezos Explains Why He Bought The Washington Post.

    In my opinion, a good indication of Jeff Bezos's management ability is any Amazon web page. Amazon web pages distract you from buying something by trying to sell other things.

  52. Soon, there will be no more Russian hacking by hyades1 · · Score: 0

    When Trump takes over, he'll just give the Russians whatever they want. No need for all this nasty cyber-crime.

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
  53. Probably true, but... by irving47 · · Score: 1

    I'd bet small amounts of money:
    Some agency (FBI, CIA, DOE, etc) has known about it for over a year.
    It was just revealed by order of outgoing administration.
    Some numb-nuts had a VNC or RDP firewall rule added so he could monitor/work/help from home.

    --
    I had a sucky sig.
    1. Re:Probably true, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd bet a larger amount of money that it was a virus somebody got while viewing pr0n sites and didn't run the virus scan like they were supposed to.

  54. The Russians Penetrated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sounds like a X-Files movie in more than one way.

    Where can I get a copy?

    Can't find anything on Wikipedia.

  55. "Anonymity" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity

    I've come to the conclusion a long time ago that whenever this is used, it simply means there's nobody who wants to be accountable for and stand by whatever claims are being made, which in turn raises an extremely high suspicion that said claims are completely fabricated.

  56. Re:OH NOES! IT'S THE RUSSIANS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Absolutely!
    Russia forced Obama/Killary to support Muslim 'hood, ISIS, Afghani northern alliance. It's Russia that forced Barack to support moderate islamic terrorists in Syria/Libya.
    It's Russia that made Obama support Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter domestically. It's Russia that forced Demonrat voters to shoot cops and white people.
    They also made him double the national dept and lose millions of jobs to China/Mexico...
    Those evil russians, i tell you, nuke them already. (this post brought to you by the putin)

  57. Comeuppance by mariox19 · · Score: 1

    With respect to the electrical grid, we deserve what we get. Our entire civilization rests on electricity. If ever there was cause for an air gap or private network, this is it. It goes beyond irresponsible to have hooked our power stations up to the Internet. It is simply moronic.

    --

    quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.

    1. Re:Comeuppance by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      Air gaps are federally mandated. This virus was on the outside FTA.

  58. Re:Too many lies already by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

    The worst thing about these kinds of efforts, it leaves the Democrats with their army of chanting morons, but those with two working brain cells still fall away. It will serve as its own punishment.

    You hit the nail on the head with that one, I know about 5 people that were liberals a year ago, now cringe at the words "clinton, cnn, and dnc" And thats actually saying alot as im a true nerd and spend any time im not at work, infront of my computer.. so i dont get a whole lot of social interaction outside of work.

  59. Re:More slashdot fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    According to progressive, loser, libtards, it is GWB's fault.

  60. your niggher president by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is funny, but your niggher media is hilarious
    so, yeah, he fails again, this time at being the funniest mongoloid on tv

  61. Daily Reminder: RUSSIAN HACKERS! FAEK NEWS DURRR by aristotheron · · Score: 0

    Thanks

  62. There's a shocker by DaMattster · · Score: 2

    No pun intended but this comes as no surprise because the software being developed was outsourced to India or H1B Indians whom just aren't good software engineers. This fiasco could have been avoided if these energy companies had employed the highly skilled and qualified people in the United States. I personally have been tasked with cleaning up garbage code full of memory leaks that was churned out by WiPro.

  63. This has to stop! by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

    Please go upvote this article: https://slashdot.org/submissio...

  64. Re:More slashdot fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pot, meet kettle.

  65. Already debunked as fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So yeah.. not real news. The electrical Grid was not compromised. One Notebook, had the same malware as the DNC, but it was not connected to any electrical grid systems. Is there no end to the BS being spouted by the media these days?

  66. Great hysteria by Meniconi,Nando · · Score: 1
    too bad it never happened.

    https://theintercept.com/2016/...

    /. should stick to tech news and stay out of politics. The editors have no clue or education to filter out fakenews in that field.

  67. Had to be said by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    Russian Hackers Penetrated The US Electricity Grid

    Well I sure hope for their sakes they were wearing a rubber!

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  68. China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    China. They're a mess. They're numbers are way down. They can't hack their way out of a wet paper bag anymore. They use to be the top hackers, but now they can't even make the news. It sad, really. Pathetic.

    I know top quality hackers and, believe me, China... they're terrible.

    - DT

  69. Odds are... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The laptop was running Windows.

  70. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by epyT-R · · Score: 2

    Compared to how many deaths by the Russians? By the Germans? At this point, I don't think any country with any sort of history measured in centuries can claim the high ground on violent acts.

    Then you follow with non-sequitur alarmist speak. How are you different than Alex Jones again?

  71. chivalry is dead by tie_guy_matt · · Score: 1

    Russian hackers could have at least bought the US electric grid dinner first before penetrating it. What is wrong with people today?

  72. Editor’s Note: DID NOT PENETRATE THE GRID! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Russian hackers had penetrated the U.S. electric grid. Authorities say there is no indication of that so far. The computer at Burlington Electric that was hacked was not attached to the grid.

  73. Re:OH NOES! IT'S THE RUSSIANS by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Beyond the obvious fact that you are overlooking Russia's nuclear stockpile, your analysis of US-Russian Naval warfare seems delusional at best. A larger surface fleet was never the answer to the Russians that never focused on that to begin with. It's not our super carriers that matter as much as our ASW capacity.

    Like many things... it's not how big it is but how you use it.

    Furthermore, our current crop of Destroyers aren't a threat to anyone. Not even Cuba.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  74. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by Swistak · · Score: 1

    Having biggest population of people on earth in prison does not sound like alarming to you? :)

  75. Re:Too many lies already by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1
    Trust: The New Currency

    You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.

    Scott McNealy, CEO, Sun Microsystems

  76. It wasn't a test. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It was just the 5th grade glass having a pop quiz.

  77. Sorry but.. by Patent+Lover · · Score: 1

    The title of the WP article is not the Slashdot title. The title of the WP article. is "Russian operation hacked a Vermont utility, showing risk to U.S. electrical grid security, officials say". Slashdot is becoming Reddit.

    1. Re: Sorry but.. by Bartles · · Score: 1

      The wapo edited the headline postpublication after it became obvious their pants were around their ankles.

  78. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by epyT-R · · Score: 1

    I said his statements were alarmist and non-sequitur relative to the discussion. I did not say anything else on the subject of american prisons.

  79. Re:OH NOES! IT'S THE RUSSIANS by Frank+Burly · · Score: 1

    I think you are reading an awful lot into my statement that a larger Navy would not have prevented the Russian meddling. I don't see anything bringing us close to a MAD trigger--unless the Donald really thinks tactical nukes are OK. Also, you are being pessimistic about Cuba (once we scrape together bullet money).

  80. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How many did the german military kill since world war 2? I would imagine little enough to be called a rounding error of the other 2 nations in question.

  81. Re: OH NOES! IT'S THE RUSSIANS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A hahaha..

    No. It would be about as fucking stupid as you, dipshit.

  82. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey, look, a puppy!

  83. Re:OH NOES! IT'S THE RUSSIANS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think it's more likely that some recording will come out where Putin mentions how he got Trump to suck his cock during a state visit.
    Remember, Trump is the bitch, his place is on his knees, not standing with his cock flapping in the wind.

  84. Fuck You EditorDavid by sexconker · · Score: 1

    You're deliberately inciting World War III by spreading this bullshit.

  85. More fake news from WaPo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So the laptop the HR guy uses for surfing porn got infected at some earlier time. Big deal. Never connected to the grid, never could be.
    Another bullshit slashdot article based on bullshit fake new from people with an agenda.

  86. inaccurate story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The actual story is:
    A computer that's never been connected to the power grid was found with a file with a hash signature that matches a common public malware file on it. It's doesn't say if malware was actually installed or how it was downloaded, or if it was verified to be malware, or was a false positive, or the purpose of the computer, other than it being a nongrid connected computer.

    News flash: one user in a large corporation of thousands of users downloaded a virus once in 2016, that was detected and found by their antivirus scanning system.

  87. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by hambone142 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Watching the video "Why We Fight" explains a lot of this.

    Eisenhower warned us about the Military Industrial Complex.

    Now both parties are dependent upon war for a successful economy.

    Notice we're still in Afghanistan.

    Why?

  88. Clinton Won The Election by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    President Elect Clinton reported that malware claim was false, says the Obama Administration.

  89. Washington post again? by Bartles · · Score: 1

    I don't know what beef Bezos has with Russia, but this rag has really gone downhill since he bought himself a newspaper.

  90. Fake news bandwagon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Its great to see /. hop on the Washington Post and New York Times fake news bandwagon. Of all sites to be posting such drivel, I find it hard to believe the story also showed up here where surely 99% of readers can see this is a complete BS story. What nonsensical propaganda!

  91. Re: Hey look! It's another MSM Russian Hacking Sto by Bartles · · Score: 1

    Yep. Any time the media starts pushing a narrative this hard, one should immediately be skeptical.

  92. Re: More slashdot fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Fact is Trump made a deal with Putin. Win me the election and will sanctions. Trump will definitely lift sanctions in Russia within his first 100 days. That is why Trump is denying that Putin hacked US elections.

  93. someone should stop looking at russian porn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    someone should stop looking at russian porn

  94. Re: OH NOES! IT'S THE RUSSIANS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hope Russia barrel bombs some more Muslims. Let's face facts. Islam is a war religion that does not preach about peace. So, the only good Muslim that exists, is a dead Muslim. What Russia is doing, is good for the world.

  95. Re: Tit for profit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As an American, I want it to bring nothing but misery to those countries that attacked us. They waged war on us and we are now responding. They killed almost 3 thousand of us and destroyed buildings costing billions of dollars. I want the lands razed to the ground. I want their buildings turned to rubble. I want their families to feel the loss of family members. Romans had a policy that if you killed 1 of them, they would kill a thousand of you. I don't think it unreasonable that if you kill 1 American, that at least a million if you are killed in return. The only good Muslim is a dead Muslim.

  96. Slashdot is US government propaganda now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Shouldn't someone at least look into who is really behind these dubious stories, and why there is a specific MacCarthyist focus on Russia and China that corresponds to the agenda of some members of the US elite? Why aren't similar allegations made by other countries against America posted here. In my own country (UK), we have had US political interference in our referendum on EU membership, and at numerous times in the past. It got not a single mention here. Slashdot used to be about technology. Now it look like a mouthpiece for the US 'state department' ministry of propaganda. It's like turning the pages of a North Korean newspaper.

  97. US media bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The media effectively supported Clinton, yet people are still peddling fake news about phantom Russian 'involvement'. It's making a total mockery of Obama and the 'democrat party' wing of the ruling elite. Slashdot is being sullied with this fake news regularly now. Is this part of an organised propaganda campaign by the US regime?

  98. Slashdot spreads fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is non news. It was a laptop that has nothing to do with the grid .

  99. i for one welcome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i for one, welcome the antisocial, non-tweeting, non-sensationalist, non-tinfoil hat journalist overlord.

  100. FFS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hillary, this fiction you are trying to create in order to soothe your bruised ego just makes you look all that more pathetic.

    Nobody stole the election from you. You lost it on your own due to your arrogance and laziness.

    Grow the fuck up and move on, you spoiled, entitled child.

  101. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well if you are going to talk about centuries to compare let's not forget the estimated over 40 million Native Americans killed in the take over of North America. Lot's of blood from the very beginning of the US's hands. This country was built on the blood of others.

    Remember Hilter got all his ideas on how to handle the Jews from how the US (especially Andrew Jackson) handled their "Ethic" problem. The first concentration camps were built in North Georgia by Gen. Windfield Scott and approved by President Jackson.

  102. Vermont the HQ of Americas security ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You know that if Russia screws that power grid up in Vermont America will collapse its so crucial , yea right

  103. Re: More slashdot fake news by cshark · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Fact is Trump made a deal with Putin. Win me the election and will sanctions.

    No, that's not a fact. It's pure conjecture.

    --

    This signature has Super Cow Powers

  104. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by Shane_Optima · · Score: 2

    Now both parties are dependent upon war for a successful economy.

    Nonsense. Peacetime military spending has never been an issue for us.

    Notice we're still in Afghanistan.

    Because the Taliban were stronger than the "moderate" forces in Afghan society, and still are. We can't fix Afghanistan without resorting to draconian cultural imperialism (*real* cultural imperialism, not the SJW buzzword); we can only play for time and hope it somehow fixes itself.

    This is largely due to the influence of conservative Islam and Islamism, but there are also some complex intersecting issues with the war on drugs, warlordism and interactions with Pakistan, itself an extremely fucked-up country with fucked-up rulers whom we prop up because we don't want nukes to fall into the hands of people who would actually use them.

  105. Washington Post says "Never mind." by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This may repeat another comment (I can't read all 342 prior comments), but the Washington Post has admitted the story's most alarming assertion is simply not true. Both the Burlington Free Press (https://theintercept.com/2016/12/31/russia-hysteria-infects-washpost-again-false-story-about-hacking-u-s-electric-grid/) and The Intercept (https://goo.gl/1qHZhe) report that there's no evidence the electric grid was ever touched by any hacker. And the Post now admits atop a corrected version of its story: "Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Russian hackers had penetrated the U.S. electric grid. Authorities say there is no indication of that so far. The computer at Burlington Electric that was hacked was not attached to the grid."

  106. Re:OH NOES! IT'S THE RUSSIANS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > Russia (like Al Queda) has done minor harm that led the United States do major harm to itself (the Iraq war, Trump).

    That's a neat rhetorical trick to lump Al Queda in with Russia. If anything, our problems with Isis are due to aligning with the Saudis instead of crushing them with Russia, which is what Trump seems to intend to do.

    It's not clear to me how Trump is the harmful one when Obama is trying to sabotage diplomacy with Russia & Israel on his way out. Given that Islamic radicals murdered that Russian diplomat recently, I have to question any policy decisions that leave us on the same side as Isis & co.

  107. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    Native americans were stone age, pre agriculture. N and S america just can't support 40 million people at stone age technology. By reference estimates for Europe's population at similar technology was about 100k.

    Wherever you got the 40 million number, treat them as a disinformation source.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  108. Re:OH NOES! IT'S THE RUSSIANS by PopeRatzo · · Score: 0

    What does the Zumwalt do to that equation? What will it replace and how many can we afford to build?

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  109. Re:OH NOES! IT'S THE RUSSIANS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Russia is still not an existential threat to anyone but her former client states. This isn't a problem that Romney's larger Navy would have solved (and I'm surprised that Russian nationals and domestic rightists are so offended by this throwaway zinger 4 years later). But in retrospect, Obama underestimated Russia's guile. Rather than do catastrophic harm to the United States, Russia (like Al Queda) has done minor harm that led the United States do major harm to itself (the Iraq war, Trump).

    I started to comment on this only to realize the author of this got it exactly right.

    Terrorism is not an existential threat to the US. Our response to terrorism, otoh, is. Yes, terrorism is a problem, but it needs rational and careful responses. Hell all the republicans need to do to declare success is simply point out the actual statistics about US deaths to terrorism. They are tiny. Trump's complete dumb arse stupidity essentially lumping every muslim as a potential terrorist is a horrible response. That just gives the real terrorists something to help with recruitment and then denies us the allies we need to finish or at least contain this.

    Trump is just utterly unsuited to lead a country. His biggest skill is bloviating or simple outright lying to appease whichever group he is in front of or needs help from at the current minute. Hell he just said he had secret facts that were better than the information gathered by what thousands of people at 16 different intelligence agencies, and there are no doubt idiots buying it. Oh he is going to let us know those secret facts shortly, and guess what he is an expert on hacking too. I guess he gets that from his mad twitter skills.

    Perhaps I wouldn't be as depressed about our new leader if he would just stop lying, but if there is one thing at the core of Donald Trump is that he doesn't remotely care for the precious commodity called truth.

  110. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by msauve · · Score: 1

    " Peacetime military spending has never been an issue for us."

    That's a strawman. When's the last time the US was at peace for longer than a presidential term (4 years)?

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  111. Stooooopid news paper of the year award goes toooo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    .....washington post

  112. WaPo. Now in "Sensationalist Rag!" by Chas · · Score: 1

    Yep.

    Going down hill like a warp-drive assisted sledder.

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  113. Re: More slashdot fake news by haruchai · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Fact is Trump made a deal with Putin. Win me the election and will sanctions.

    No, that's not a fact. It's pure conjecture.

    Don't we now live in a post-fact world? WSJ editor-in-chief Gerard Baker says that stories will *not* call Trump a liar as this is "too partisan" but will merely investigate his claims and post those stories separately for readers to make up their own minds.
    However, the WSJ has had no qualms in labeling Edward Snowden a liar in several stories.

    --
    Pain is merely failure leaving the body
  114. Re: More slashdot fake news by ichthus · · Score: 2

    Oh yes, Somebody made deals with Putin, but you're thinking of the wrong guy.

    --
    sig: sauer
  115. Malware != Hacking... BUT... by Dutchmaan · · Score: 1

    Malware isn't hacking. Malware unlocks the doors to hacking by creating opportunity. It exploits security holes wherever it can find them, then once a security hole is established THEN when needed, it can be used for hacking purposes.

    If hacking was an army, malware would be the scout.

  116. SCADA systems (ie "the grid") by Kernel+Kurtz · · Score: 1

    are not normally connected to the internet. Utilities have administrative networks that certainly are though.

    Ideally those two networks don't ever touch each other, in practice though there are often some paths from one to the other, even if it is only sneakernet (Stuxnet apparently got onto the Iran nuclear program SCADA system via a USB drive used for transferring updates).

    So yes, the hackers probably never got to exploit any such path before they were discovered, but that is almost certainly what they were looking for. It is still a hostile act.

  117. Re: OH NOES! IT'S THE RUSSIANS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, live Muslims in Guantanamo are as good as dead muslims. Wonder if Obamas going to keep one as a memento when he leaves office.

  118. Re:OH NOES! IT'S THE RUSSIANS by amiga3D · · Score: 1

    That's not what she said.

  119. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because Obama lied.

    Gitmo is still open, too.

  120. AND 1 "newspaper" connected to the DNC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is the bigger issue we're not supposed to think about:

    This "Russia hacked the election, Russia is a hack threat, Russia is hacking the Grid, Russia, Russia Russia!" meme was pushed out by the DNC. It's very clear that the "journalists" at the NYT and at WaPo grabbed this meme and ran with it. They're not actually doing and real journalism, they're just running with partisan political talking points, as was exposed a number of times in 2016.''

    It was not just the Wikileaks exposure that showed "journalists" working hand-in-glove with the Clinton campaign, but even members of the Obama admin were caught explaining that the voters were dumb (look for Gruber on YouTube) and liberal journalists would happily repeat to the public anything the Democrats told them to say. For example, see this piece about Ben Rhodes (the novelist Obama hired as deputy national security advisor).

    With all the screaming about Russia and hacking and "fake news", the elephant in the room is that most of our current "mainstream" new outlets are really just shills for the Democrats who spout whatever they've been told to spout and run with stories that align with those talking points, without doing ANY actual JOURNALISM. Did the WaPo do ANY standard journalism on the power grid hacking story before running with it? Nope. No serious questions were asked and no skepticism was on display - there was a Democrat political narrative to push: The amazing Russian Hackers are able to hack ANYTHING! DANGER! DANGER!

    This was about reinforcing the idea that Russian hackers elected Trump. Just as mainstream journalists breathlessly hype the hacked election theme and do not bother to ask any skeptical questions of team Obama/Hillary (Like "why could we not detect it in real-time and shut it down?" and "President Obama insisted out elections could not be hacked, so now what's changed?" etc) this hacked power grid story lacked basic journalistic questions as well (Like "are the power grid controls even connected to the web, and if so who was stupid enough to do that?" and "does this one laptop have any access to the controls for the grid?")

  121. Don't think like a hacker. Think like a spy. by hey! · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you were out to cripple the US electric grid, would you really start with an office computer in small municipal power company (fewer than 20000 customers) in the middle of nowhere?

    Why not? You have to start somewhere, and the best place to start is often where people assume is not a good place to start. When Israeli and US intelligence decided to take down Iran's air-gapped uranium centrifuges, they started with the least likely entry point imaginable: they infected the whole damned world, hoping that eventually Stuxnet would get to a machine used to program the PLCs in Iran's centrifuge controllers. And it worked.

    In comparison office machines in a minor utility are practically a surgical strike on US electricity infrastructure. Or possibly the start of one.

    The path to success in attacking a hard target is full of dead ends. But that wouldn't deter a national intelligence agency. This was a case of sloppy reporting -- jumping to conclusions. But if the malicious code was put on an electric utility machine by Russian intelligence you have to assume that the grid is at least one of their ultimate targets. Intelligence agencies are willing to spend years infiltrating and undermining organizations if the payoff is large enough.

    So while this was not the hair-on-fire situation it was portrayed as, it's not a "meh" situation either. This is something people should take seriously.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    1. Re:Don't think like a hacker. Think like a spy. by NoImNotNineVolt · · Score: 2

      But if the malicious code was put on an electric utility machine by Russian intelligence you have to assume that the grid is at least one of their ultimate targets.

      Sure, as long as you're consistent in your reasoning. So if the malicious code was put on Joe Sixpack's machine by Russian intelligence you have to assume that the general public is also one of their ultimate targets. And indeed, this being generic malware available for purchase, your reasoning really starts to look questionable.

      --
      Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
    2. Re:Don't think like a hacker. Think like a spy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stuxnet was constructed to become operational in very narrowly defined window of system configurations. To whit, it specifically looked for and compromised controller software that runs centrifuges, among other things.

      Are you seriously saying that this particular malware has code designed specifically to interface with and subsequently compromise software specifically used by the US electricity grid operators?

      If it doesn't, your analogy to Stuxnet is without merit. A false analogy in service of a false news narrative. What are you people trying to accomplish?

  122. Re:More slashdot fake news by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's about the most lame "retraction" I've seen to a fake news story. The entire central premise has been destroyed, but 98% of the article remains unchanged. That's not a retraction. Also of note:

    Original Slashdot headline:

    Russian Hackers Penetrated The US Electricity Grid, Say Officials (washingtonpost.com)
    Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday December 31, 2016 @10:34AM from the power-play dept.

    blah, blah, fake story

    Conveniently, now Slashdot now doesn't have that lingering headline showing they fell for this idiocy as well. I thought I'd just post it for posterity here.

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  123. EPIC ignorance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If the US stops what they traditionally do, countries like Russian and Iran invade other countries and take them over. .... If Iran stops what it's doing, thousands of people aren't routinely killed over hair-splitting religious differences by a retrograde medieval theocracy that pours cash into terrorist operations. Yeah, the US is exactly like those things.

    Wow, EPIC ignorance. Go and read a little history dumb-ass. Since you probably can't digest entire volumes, try for example keywords "operation boot/ajax". If the US did not do what they "traditionally" do, Iran would be a quite healthy and modern secular democracy and would not be a danger to anyone (except to British Petroleum etc). The middle east in general would probably be quite stable without the well over half a century of US meddling.
    No, Russia seems like a puppy to me compared to what the US has done and will continue to do. And it is pretty suicidal of course, as you end up screwing the entire planet when you are not exactly in a position to just pack and move to Mars...

  124. Washington comPost fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Washington comPost stories are almost always fake news. What else is new.

  125. And you didn't even mention Iran by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And you didn't even mention Iran. The GP is bellowing at how it is a "retrograde medieval theocracy", when it is EXACTLY the US (with the UK) who overthrew their secular democracy back in '53 and led to where things are now!!

  126. Israel isn't anybody's ally by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

    except Israel's. Not saying that's a reason to throw 'em under a bus, but it's also no reason to support their interests over anybody else's.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:Israel isn't anybody's ally by Tablizer · · Score: 1, Informative

      Sorry, Israel is a land thief, just like Russia. Their mommies should spank them both. All the excuses for the settlements are just plain dumb. Givvitup.

    2. Re: Israel isn't anybody's ally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd rather deal with Israelis than Arabs. Just sayin'.

    3. Re:Israel isn't anybody's ally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, no, that was the UN. They have held onto land they captured during conflicts, but I think all of that was during wars their Arab neighbors started, which is a great disincentive for them to pull shit like that again.

  127. Accentuate the positive / Eliminate the negative by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    is what you just did. Seriously, the shit we did in Central America is terrifying. We didn't invade Iraq for peace love and kittens. We wanted oil. Period. As for Iran, they were on their way to a secular government until we meddled and put those crazy religious bastards in power. The rest of the world hates us because we've actively campaigned against the advancement of human civilization. Electing Trump is just the latest in a long line of it.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  128. Government please save us by frovingslosh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When will the Government start shutting down Fake News sites like the Washington Post?

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  129. Be careful what you wish for by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    America is an Empire. We extract tribute through monetary policy and cheap goods made with borderline slave labor. When you go to the grocery store and Bananas are .49 cents/lb congratulations, you've just benefited from our Empire. When you buy your wife a blood diamond (or your husband gives you one), congratulations, you've just benefited from our Empire.

    If they're gonna share the "load" they'll share the spoils too. Get ready to give up your personal automobile. With gas at $5/liter you won't be able to afford it

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:Be careful what you wish for by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      We extract tribute through monetary policy and cheap goods

      Wow, we're really, REALLY bad at that, if you think that's how it works. We're not extracting tribute at all. We're a net loser across the board.

      Your notion that the international commodity pricing on bananas is the result of some imperial dictate from the US Ministry Of Slave Labor is hilarious. Likewise your complete misunderstanding of how things like gasoline are priced (hint: other countries choosing to raise revenue by heavily taxing retail fuel sales doesn't have squat to do with prices here - the wholesale prices are the same regardless of who's bidding on that next tanker full or where they are).

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  130. How dare you? by frovingslosh · · Score: 1

    How dare you actually expect Editor David to do a competent job? That's not in the job definition of a Slashdot editor. You need to lower your expectations immediately. You should expect and accept duplicate posts, grammatical errors and sentences that just don't make any sense, incomplete thoughts, and completely irrelevant and non-technical posts on fluff piece "celebrity news" articles.

    Don't pick on Editor David. He had no qualifications to actually edit Slashdot and is doing as good of a job as he feels like doing without any supervision or guidance.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    1. Re:How dare you? by tripleevenfall · · Score: 1

      You guys seriously don't want stories and titles to be retconned? Come on, we've got biases to advance here!

  131. Re: More slashdot fake news by mrclevesque · · Score: 1

    "That's why he's taking office in 20 days"

    Yup, Trump won the election but lost the popular vote, hence he lost too, just not the election.

    That said, I'm sorry for my comment. It was my sad attempt at trolling and it took nearly 24hrs to get a response and have my comment down voted, and if it wasn't for the update I'd probably never have gotten any attention.

  132. Re: More slashdot fake news by frovingslosh · · Score: 1

    You write as eloquently as I expect you are capable of writing.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  133. Re:Hey look! It's another MSM Russian Hacking Stor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nice truthy self-promotion you've got going here.

  134. From the Washington Pest's lips... by HanzoSpam · · Score: 1

    ...to Slashdot's ear.

    --

    Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.
  135. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    Our forces split the Shia, Kurd, and Sunni into separate militias and armed each of them. I won't use the word 'deliberately' because it's irrelevant. Whatever influence you think we're having in the world, you're wrong.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  136. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And both the U.S. and Germany are suffering for their inability to finish the job. Can we get a do-over?

  137. Most Suspicious of All by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If the laptop doesn't connect to the power grid... than how do its user/s recharge it?

  138. How can Slashdot just repost a thread... by Bartles · · Score: 2

    ...with an altered headline and act like they never fucked up in the first place? Fake news reporting fake news.

  139. Re:More slashdot fake news by HanzoSpam · · Score: 2

    Given the intelligence of the typical Washington Pest reporter, this really shouldn't be a surprise:

    When I came home from my last TV hit, the kids, ages 4 and 5 months, were asleep. The house was quiet. I was still full of caffeine and do-gooder energy and decided to tidy up.

    Among the clutter on the coffee table, I found my 4-year-old’s Party Popper, a bright yellow gun that fired confetti. For some reason, I held the gun up to my eye and looked down the barrel, the way Yosemite Sam always does.

    It looked unloaded.

    Then, for some reason, I pulled the trigger.

    When I got to the ER, I had a swollen face, metal-foil confetti in my hair and a faint odor of gun smoke. Finally, the doctor could see me.

    “I shot myself in the eye with a glitter gun,” I said. I showed him the Party Popper, which I had brought with me, in case he wanted to send it off to the National Institute of Morons for further study.

    I got home from the hospital with a scratched cornea and a tube of eye ointment. The next day, with some of my dignity permanently lost, I got started on a bigger story.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com...

    --

    Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.
  140. 20 Days Remain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hold onto your butts, we're going to make America great again.

  141. ahhhh, but there's the rub by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Progressives hew to the old Marx line that EVERYTHING is political, and they also support growing the government and injecting it into EVERYTHING. Remember: it was progressives who passed the initial ordinance in North Carolina about transgenders in locker rooms and bathrooms and thus triggered the state lawmakers to push back with a law of their own. Before the local ordinance passed, the issue was not even in the political realm.

    Government is political, by definition, given that it's run by politicians. So when you inject government into a thing, you inevitably inject politics into it.

    With government injected into all things geeky, all thinks geeky have a stench of politics and political arguments arise about everything. Americans did not, as a general rule, do this decades ago. Indeed, before the late thirties, most Americans believed the government and politics had no role at all in most aspects of life. In the 1980s with computers on the rise and names like Atari and Commodore as common as Apple the computer industry was still largely unregulated by the morons in both parties in Washington DC, and the industry and all its related issues remained mostly non-political. Things have changed. Thanks to progressives, when an issue like gay marriage arises, somebody in the tech industry who is opposed gets attacked and driven from his job. In the past, his position on social issues would not have mattered, only his technical skills and competence would have mattered. Thanks to progressives, Google has had direct access to, and a revolving door with, the Obama White House. Anything Google cared about became political, and Google was working in partisan political activity. The toxin of politics has been mainlined into geekdom with a partisan IV drip line. It's annoying, but we'll probably never be free of it as long as progressives are around shoving their politics down everybody's throats.

    1. Re:ahhhh, but there's the rub by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everything IS political. This golden time of people and things not being political is completely in your head.

  142. WaPo And NYT The Sources Of Fake News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No doubt.

    Their "little scheme" is exposed.

    All that is left is to cut their funding from the Clinton Foundation and others.

    Maybe dual 20 Ton Fertilizer Bombs will render the NYT and WaPo Offices, decommissioned.

    Ha ha

  143. Moronic by s.petry · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You're not. It's become so blatantly Republican/Russian (Republissian?) that I come to this site to see what the Trump-camp talking points are for any given situation.

    Just like leftist media, you are attempting to slander people because you can't win the argument. Democrats ran a horrible candidate, much worse than the Republican. Russia did not make the Democratic party push Hillary into the mix, behave questionably (at best) even with their own party members, to prop her up as the candidate. The Democratic party did this all on their own, and it failed. Pick a better candidate, a better platform, and try again next election.

    Republicans, even Trump, is not for Russia, and your conflation makes you just as bad as CNN or any other crap media outlet spreading BS because their "chosen" candidate lost. Republicans like America, and just like Democrats of a couple decades ago, push for Americanism. The ideology being pushed by Trump matches much of Kennedy and other Democrats and Republicans. Peace through Strength is not a Trump thing. Negotiating with countries we are not necessarily friendly with is also not a Trump thing (Look at President Obama for pity sake). Populism and Nationalism are centuries old ideologies.

    Now, as to why so many people here are now "Republican", at least in leanings, has much to do with age. The older people get, the more they tend to be conservative in their political views. The Democratic candidate, and the media handling of her, probably accelerated countless people into the Republican camp. That, and the fear most Republicans have of posting in public has been largely diminshed.

    It's really a shame that instead of having dialogue and being accountable, the Democratic party and media simply slander everyone who disagrees with them. You AC, are included in that shameful act.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re: Moronic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When people say things like "republicans live America", and "like democrats used to", it's coded to convey loyalty to Dixiecrats, racists, and white nationalists. We see this in Trumps family, his cabinet, and his supporters.

    2. Re: Moronic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh boy, another conspiracy nutter, how about you judge the man on his actions in office instead of consulting that crystal ball of yours.

    3. Re: Moronic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He made his cabinet picks. His actions have started. Stop pretending he is a blank slate.

      He is dangerous and has an army of idiots prepared to worship his teachings.

    4. Re:Moronic by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Democrats ran a horrible candidate, much worse than the Republican.

      Ha! Good one.

      push for Americanism.

      Which is?

      The older people get, the more they tend to be conservative in their political views.

      I do not believe that's true.

    5. Re:Moronic by s.petry · · Score: 1

      What you just summarized is that you hate facts.

      Fact: The DNC colluded to _install_ Hillary as the candidate even though Sanders had far more visible support. Trump was colluded against by the RNC, but _STILL_WON. So who exactly is the better and worse candidate? Facts are not that hard.

      Fact: Numerous studies show that people DO become more conservative with age. Link that you probably won't look at since you hate facts.

      I'm sure you do your Junior High School proud though.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    6. Re: Moronic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You simply cannot get your ideas through to these people. Their side won so they believe that most people agree with their hate and it is validated. That's the only part of Petry's post that was remotely correct- the old white folks aren't afraid to stay silent anymore. The time for diplomacy is over. It's time to prep for war.

  144. I've unmasked the identities of the Hackers by nsaspook · · Score: 1
    --
    In GOD we trust, all others we monitor.
  145. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1

    Not sure where you get your information, but the Kurds split themselves off and were mostly autonomous long before Iraq part 2, and we attempted to unite all three in a federation. We would have probably done better to split them up and sent them to separate corners, as draconian and disruptive as that would've been, but the fact is we did the opposite of what you're saying. We didn't split up anything. They split themselves up. You're tragically misinformed if you think this conflict dates back to only 2003.

    I was against Iraq from the start, but mindless self-flagellation (assuming you're American) doesn't accomplish much except disqualifying yourself from the conversation at the grown-up table, and when large sections of the left do this it ends up empowering the reactionary warhawk right.

  146. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1

    When's the last time the US was at peace for longer than a presidential term (4 years)?

    The claim was about economics, not how long we've gone without military action. My response is that we spend on our military like mad even in peacetime, so this makes little sense.

    Prior to September 11, our R&D, logistical investments, and other standing-army costs far outstripped our operational expenses in the minor conflicts we were involved in. The last quarter of the twentieth century did not feature any major wars for us, yet we mysteriously managed to avoid slipping into an economic depression.

    That's a strawman.

    I do not think that word means what you think it means.

  147. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by msauve · · Score: 1

    "The claim was about economics, not how long we've gone without military action."

    Fuck you and your attempt at revisionist arguments. The GP exactly said "Peacetime military spending has never been an issue for us."

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  148. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now both parties are dependent upon war for a successful economy.

    Nonsense. Peacetime military spending has never been an issue for us.

    Were you thinking your response contradicted, rather than amplified, the statement you were responding to?

  149. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1
    I have no idea what your beef is. My point is thus: we can easily sink a trillion bucks on the F-35, 66 billion on the F-22, untold billions on bases in Europe and next gen research projects and the latest reactive armor technology and whatnot... the actual act of paying people extra money to take that equipment into combat is not necessary to spend a bunch of money on the military, nor did our economy do much better after we became involved in Iraq.

    Now both parties are dependent upon war for a successful economy.

    This is bullshit. That's my point. Argue about the lobbyists and warhawks all you want, but war is not and has not been propping up our economy.

  150. US MSM = fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Surprise, surprise. More fake news from our American media.

    The biggest disappointment and surprise to me was NY Times as I was somebody who frequented their site daily. They've completely abandoned all of their ethics during the election. NYT was supposed to be this prestigious, impartial gold standard in news, and here they were, announcing their backing of Clinton and launching a full-scale shit-flinging war on Trump and Sanders. Not that I care about these candidates, but that what the hell happened? It's like someone pulled a switch and activated them.

    I later heard from others that NYT pulled this propaganda thing after 9/11 to push the Iraq War. I simply don't trust US media any more.

  151. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1

    Were you thinking your response contradicted, rather than amplified, the statement you were responding to?

    Yes. Let me remind you what that argument was:

    Now both parties are dependent upon war for a successful economy.

    It's a moronic one for multiple reasons, but as an obvious point there's never been a strong effort (to my knowledge) to downsize the military even in times of peace, and spending during peacetime thus remains as strong as ever, so even if one were to concede the fairly outlandish claim that military spending were vital to the success of our economy, it by no means follows that war is.

    Now let's see how long it takes for some AC to babble some bullshit about the petrodollar.

  152. JEFF "BOZO" KNOWN GLOBALIST FAILS? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: More "FAKE NEWS" from the 'establishment' with KING CLOWN JEFF BOZO @ THE WHEEL FAILS WITH FAKE NEWS? Hahahahaha/LMAO!

    * ... & those A-HOLES talk "fake news"?

    Please...

    APK

    P.S.=> The more these CLOWNS like "BOZO" try their bullshit fake news PROJECTING THEIR OWN MODUS OPERANDI IN ACCUSING OTHERS OF IT, the more they fail... I love it! apk

  153. Re:More slashdot fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The damage had been done. The retraction will get FAR less views than the original and the "Russia == Evil" neurons will be reinforced.

  154. Re:OH NOES! IT'S THE RUSSIANS by Dahamma · · Score: 1

    The OP's point was solid, yours makes no sense.

    Nuclear "stockpiles" are totally useless in any foreign policy other than reduction, as both countries can annihilate each other regardless of who struck first.

    Similarly, naval warfare analysis is also useless. See above, if it gets to the point of taking out carrier fleets the world is already completely fucked.

    And, you clearly have no idea about the capability of US destroyers. The whole term "destroyer" has almost nothing to do with the ships in WW2. The current ships of that class carry enough missiles to effectively take out a small coastal city.

  155. Re:More slashdot fake news by tinkerton · · Score: 3, Funny

    You mean it should have been Russian Hackers Failed to Penetrate The US Electricity Grid, Say Officials? No retraction needed then and the scarefactor is still good.

  156. Re:More slashdot fake news by admin7087 · · Score: 1

    Why can't you guys (=people with a political agenda in every post) not even get the simplest distinctions right? This wasn't a fake news story.

    false/wrong news != erroneous/incorrect news != fake news

    The first to are created with the intention of writing news and informing readers but something goes wrong - the source turns out to be incorrect, withdraws previous statements or the fact checking was wrong. Journalists make mistakes like every other human being. Fake news is something completely different, it's not news at all and not intended as such, just like a fake policeman isn't a policeman and never intended to be one. The writer of fake news has evil intentions and you cannot trust this person at all, just like you wouldn't trust a fake policeman.

    If you can't see the difference between these fake news and journalistic mistakes, then you're bound to get serious problems with perceiving reality as it is.

  157. Cianix Male Enhancement by jobfinaly13 · · Score: 0

    Cianix Male Enhancement http://gainmusclesup.com/ciani...

  158. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by msauve · · Score: 1

    "I have no idea""

    We can agree on that.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  159. Re: More slashdot fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I understand the difference but still contend this was an instance of fake news. I believe that WaPo's intent *was* to deceive in this case.

  160. Re: More slashdot fake news by ganjadude · · Score: 3, Informative

    yeah that was a bad troll. i mean. we werent playing a game where popular vote matters, thats like saying the winning world series team lost too, because the losing team actually had more runs (or hits, or fans in the stands or any other irrelevant point that has nothing to do with the actual rules)

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  161. More fake news from so-called MSM by walterbyrd · · Score: 1

    Just more crap from the crap factory. And they call alternative media "fake news."

  162. The Story was Corrected, NOT Retracted! by chicksdaddy · · Score: 2

    Did anyone bother to notice that this entire thread is based on an inaccurate assertion? The story was NOT retracted. It was CORRECTED - meaning that a piece of inaccurate information in the original story (about the laptop being connected to the ICS/SCADA system) was rewritten to clarify that the computer was not connected to that part of Burlington Electric's network. A retraction would mean WAPO removed the story from its website and disavowed its contents. No such thing happened. In fact, you can still read the story using the link provided in the Slashdot post - a sure sign that it HASN'T BEEN RETRACTED!!! Slashdot should probably RETRACT the incorrect story about the Washington Post's (non-existent) retraction.

    1. Re:The Story was Corrected, NOT Retracted! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This article corrects the earlier one (which should have been retracted).

      As federal officials investigate suspicious Internet activity found last week on a Vermont utility computer, they are finding evidence that the incident is not linked to any Russian government effort to target or hack the utility, according to experts and officials close to the investigation.

      An employee at Burlington Electric Department was checking his Yahoo email account Friday and triggered an alert indicating that his computer had connected to a suspicious IP address associated by authorities with the Russian hacking operation that infiltrated the Democratic Party. Officials told the company that traffic with this particular address is found elsewhere in the country and is not unique to Burlington Electric, suggesting the company wasn’t being targeted by the Russians. Indeed, officials say it is possible that the traffic is benign, since this particular IP address is not always connected to malicious activity.

      U.S. officials are continuing to investigate the laptop. In the course of their investigation, though, they have found on the device a package of software tools commonly used by online criminals to deliver malware. The package, known as Neutrino, does not appear to be connected with Grizzly Steppe, which U.S. officials have identified as the Russian hacking operation. The FBI, which declined to comment, is continuing to investigate how the malware got onto the laptop.

      Initially, company officials publicly said they had detected code that had been linked by the Department of Homeland Security to Grizzly Steppe.

      Over the weekend, the company issued a statement, saying only that it had “detected suspicious Internet traffic” on the computer in question.

      What we had here was propaganda which initially puts out an outrageous sounding story, then stepped it back a little bit at a later time, and finally they now say it was just a misunderstanding. The number of people who see the initial headline was the highest, while the fact that it was all just bullshit gets viewed by the least. The propaganda does its job, it gains mindshare.

  163. Washington Post credibility nonexistent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They have published a number of these fake news stories lately. They seem as crazy as the minister of propaganda who appears at Obama State Department briefings.

  164. Who's the real hackers? by BoFo · · Score: 1

    Perhaps while WaPo is discussing a "possible" intrusion into the US electrical grid, they should mention a confirmed penetration of the Belgian national telephone company Belgacom (now called Proximus) by the NSA and GCHQ in 2012. The code that was found on Belgacom's network had some commonality with the StuxNet virus and was introduced in order to listen on on Europe-wide GSM communication. http://www.infosecurity-magazi...

  165. Re: More slashdot fake news by michael_wojcik · · Score: 2

    Fact is Trump made a deal with Putin. Win me the election and will sanctions.

    No, that's not a fact. It's pure conjecture.

    Don't we now live in a post-fact world? WSJ editor-in-chief Gerard Baker says that stories will *not* call Trump a liar as this is "too partisan" but will merely investigate his claims and post those stories separately for readers to make up their own minds.
    However, the WSJ has had no qualms in labeling Edward Snowden a liar in several stories.

    Sure. Who's surprised that the WSJ editorial team has double standards? Hardly shocking - in fact it's how newspapers everywhere have always operated. It's pretty much how language has always operated, particularly if you accept some of the less naively instrumental theories of language like Toulmin's or Davidson's.

    And I think Trump's a loathesome narcissist, bully, and con man.

    But as far as I'm aware, there's no compelling, or even mildly persuasive, evidence that he "made a deal with Putin" to "win ... the election". For that matter, I don't think Putin was capable of delivering the election, or that Trump needed his support. Trump won because he carried the states everyone expected him to carry; he won Florida[1]; and he won the "defector" states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Michigan[2], and Wisconsin.

    Why he won all those also seems pretty clear: populist demogoguery that appealed to antiestablishmentarianism, contrarianism, xenophobia, and general disconnection; a smaller but vocal cadre of middlebrow right-wingers who either believed his vague promises of business liberalization and social conservativism or anticipated that he'd delegate everything to right-winger lieutenants;[3] an even smaller bunch of Powers That Be who bet that he'd reward them;[4] some demographic factors; and gerrymandering, though that's an easy target that attracts more blame than it deserves (and blaming it doesn't do much good anyway).

    Is Trump's win good for Putin? Very likely yes, though to be honest Putin would likely have been pretty pleased with a Clinton win as well, since continuing the current tensions would have served to keep his popularity up. Putin's a deft strongman and the Kremlin is adaptable. Really, sowing FUD about the election is probably all Russia wanted, since it distracts from more important issues and rallies nationalism at home. And they got that - in spades.

    The OP's claim that Putin delivered the election to Trump just plays into Putin's hand. Focusing on things we do have evidence of would be much more productive.

    [1]The Florida results seem to me pretty likely to be an accurate reflection of the actual popular vote, at least in terms of the overall winner. It wasn't another 2000.

    [2]It's really not clear that he actually won Michigan, where the difference in the official count was well within the margin of error and the recount was halted early; but it makes no difference to the overall election. Trump still wins without Michigan's votes.

    [3]That bet appears to be pretty safe, judging from Trump's cabinet nominations and the abundant evidence that he doesn't care to do the day job, whatever his day job supposedly is at the moment. If it's not something splashy that feeds his narcissism, he's not interested.

    [4]Goldman Sachs executives, for example. Or the folks running Carrier, who just got a big reward from that tool Mike Pence for only eliminating many of the jobs at their Indiana facilities.

  166. Russian Trolls Busy on Slashdot by herbierobinson · · Score: 1

    And here we have another set of Slashdot posts that are mostly from paid Russian flamebaiters. Great English, BTW, comrades.

    --
    An engineer who ran for Congress. http://herbrobinson.us
  167. Re: More slashdot fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Keep pretending the people don't matter as much as acreage, and Trump will have to handle chaos that makes the Seattle WTO demonstrations look like day care centers.

  168. WaPo story F-up by nsaspook · · Score: 1
    --
    In GOD we trust, all others we monitor.
  169. Sounds like "fake news" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Washington Post should now be forced out for business for publishing lies.

  170. Islam wants Jews exterminated by unixisc · · Score: 1

    Israel gave up Gaza, and got rocket attacks over Sderot. Reason that hasn't stopped is that the Hamas charter calls for the extermination of Jews, taking a verse right out of the Hadiths

    1. Re:Islam wants Jews exterminated by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      So? Two wrongs don't make a right. Two wrongs makes proliferation of violence as the cycle of revenge spins faster.

    2. Re:Islam wants Jews exterminated by unixisc · · Score: 1

      The case here is not 2 wrongs making a right, but a right - the return of Gaza - being countered by a wrong - the bombing of Israeli border areas from Gaza.

    3. Re:Islam wants Jews exterminated by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      If they keep swiping land, they deserve to get rockets up their ass.

  171. Re: More slashdot fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everyone agreed to the rules before the game was played, don't bitch about the results because it only makes you look like a salty little cunt.

  172. Re: More slashdot fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Also in the news, we're still gathering evidence that you molest small children, but we don't have enough to charge you yet.

    What's the difference?

  173. Re: More slashdot fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everyone agreed to the contract, and Trump seeks to break it. Peace is a fragile thing, held together by belief in the system to be better than chaos.

  174. Re:More slashdot fake news by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Fine, we can call it what it really was, which was political propaganda. How else do you explain that a single laptop getting infected with malware gets elevated to the level of national news?

    And no, this wasn't a simple mistake. A simple mistake is getting a name or peripheral fact incorrect, and we can forgive that so long as corrections are made, because we're all human, and all make mistakes. Rather, the entire premise to the original story was shown to be false, but the story still remains in almost its entirety. Not a single call to Burlington Electric was made prior to publishing... the simplest, most basic fact checking you'd expect of a professional journalist or organization. Quite simply, this was journalistic malpractice. Only one of two possibilities seem likely - either the WaPo organization is simply incompetent and doesn't understand how to do proper journalism, or they rushed the story out because they had their eye on a political narrative they wanted to push, and facts be damned, this couldn't wait. This is not the first time they've been caught doing this either, when they promoted an absurd "fake news blacklist" with questionable sources a bit over a month ago.

    Even some thoughtful left-leaning journalists are having a hard time swallowing these latest reports about Russian hacking, as they're all too aware of how governments are perfectly willing to lie when it suits their purpose (on both sides, mind you). All I ask is that you look at these reports through the lens of a skeptic, and ask why these stories are getting pushed to the front of the newsfeed. And what has changed so that so many people are willing to believe our three letter agencies without question, when they've been caught in lie after lie after lie these past many years? Why the change in heart when it comes to these Russian hacking reports, and subsequent stories that seem to neatly dovetail into that line?

    --
    Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  175. Re:More slashdot fake news by admin7087 · · Score: 1

    It's a fucking newspaper, a bunch of journalists who try to get good stories and where looking for a followup story. The editor in chief was sloppy on this one, that's all. Do I now need to educate you about what "political propaganda" is? Are you really that uneducated or just trolling? Do you really want to pretend you have never seen real propaganda? Here is propaganda and that is propaganda. When a reputable journal like the Washington Post makes a mistake and they immediately correct themselves, that does not even remotely qualify as propaganda for reasons that should be completely obvious to anyone with half a brain . (And, of course, "political propaganda" is redundant. Propaganda is political by definition.)

    Get a life!

  176. Anything you say, Comrade by ebusinessmedia1 · · Score: 1
    What you fail to note is how SUCCESSFUL gaslighting over the course of the last few years from Putins hacks AND the lying media like Brietbart have been. Either you are part of the effort (because it serves your ends), or you are willfully ignorant of it (because it serves your ends).

    Read some history about Russian propaganda; Putin is GOOD at this; it's a high-level art in Russia. Don't believe me, Comrade? Here, let this guy deconstruct it for you! http://smallwarsjournal.com/jr...

    1. Re: Anything you say, Comrade by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      The fact that you think that it's all one sided proves that it's not just Putin that's good at this sort of thing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...

  177. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1

    If you're going to truncating a quote to make a point about my supposed ignorance, you should try not to choose a line that is about how shitty your communication and/or comprehension skills are, Mr. I-don't-know-what-a-strawman-is.

  178. Re: More slashdot fake news by mrclevesque · · Score: 1

    Nah, that would be like saying Trump lost too because he lost some debate with Hillary. Losing the popular vote by over 2 800 000 votes is clearly losing the popular vote.

  179. STUXNET by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's not forget who invented STUXNET (ahem, Israel & America).....

  180. Re: More slashdot fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think you need to revisit the facts. It's hrc supporters that are breaking the peace domestically, it's hrc with all the war rhetoric during the campaign, and it's the butt-hurt Democrat President of the US that is instigating (or trying to instigate) WW III now.

    The only thing in all of this that is"Trump" related is that the charges being leveled at Russia by your madman of a President are "trumped" up.

    The truth is that Russia did interfere very successfully with US politics. It was back in the 60s and 70s when they started seeing Marxist dogma into universities and then into the press and finally Hollywood. It's worked so well that many "educated" and "informed" US citizens under the age of 45 (and a few that are older) now think that black is white, left is right, and up is down to the point where they call out those who aren't lapping up the propaganda as ignorant.

    Sorry sonny, in my day we used to use critical thinking done in our own heads, not just parroting what we heard from our teachers, the media, and Hollywood - then again, to be fair, back then there was more truth around and the lie was easier to spot. Back then it was a minority of teachers, news outlets, and entertainment that were wrong headed; making it easier to spot the fake, we also weren't indoctrinated not to think critically from our youth. Back then trusting your gut was reliable, because our gut wasn't full of rubbish.

    It's going to take a while lot of hard work to undo the mess the communist Russians did back then, but the Russia of today? If the best they can come up with is a phishing attack that only works occasionally because Americans are now so gullible? That's not a real threat. Ukraine's invasion was a real threat, but the US government didn't mind that so much; at least not as much as it minds the phishing attacks.

    Kind of ironic, considering that a halfwit in his basement could make the same phishing attack as "Russia".

  181. Re: More slashdot fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The article I r ead was highly nuanced. It didn't say not to call a lie when its clearly a lie, but its more likely that because much of what Trump may say is not in fact intended to be a lie, that saying its a lie is hyperbolic. Better to expose the inaccuracy of something said, rather than attack the messenger.

    At least that's what I took from it.

  182. Misleading title by Mondor · · Score: 1

    Let's face it - Russian hackers deleted the article from Washington Post and now make us feel like Obama is [what he most certainly isn't].

    By the way, I think that Russian hackers penetrated my cell phone. There is no other explanation why I didn't hear the alarm this morning. Somebody, stop Putin now!

  183. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... successful economy.

    I thought we were talking about the U.S.

  184. Re:More slashdot fake news by tinkerton · · Score: 1

    The WaPo has now completely retracted the story , https://www.washingtonpost.com...
    So in principle they acted correctly here. They adhered to their own rulebook. Effectively however they contributed to the hysteria and that's not acknowledged. If you look at it statistically, take 10 stories like that, some pass without complaints, some get partial retractions, some are fully retracted after the fact when the damage is done, but the net effect is a lot of scaremongering even if a paper tries to follow its own rules.

  185. Re: More slashdot fake news by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    ....but that doesnt matter in the slightest.....

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  186. Re:Evaluate the U.S. government? No, too many secr by dywolf · · Score: 1

    he uses facts, whereas Jones does a line of LSD and coke and then turns on his microphone shouting out whatever pops into what passed for his mind.

    --
    The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
  187. Re: More slashdot fake news by mrclevesque · · Score: 1

    "....but that doesnt matter in the slightest....."

    Of course it matters, it is a fact, and it's a large margin at that. *You* can still choose how or if it matters to you, but that won't change the fact that Trump won the election and lost the popular vote.

  188. Re: More slashdot fake news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Proof you stupid libtard, proof!

  189. Re: More slashdot fake news by haruchai · · Score: 1

    The article I r ead was highly nuanced. It didn't say not to call a lie when its clearly a lie, but its more likely that because much of what Trump may say is not in fact intended to be a lie, that saying its a lie is hyperbolic. Better to expose the inaccuracy of something said, rather than attack the messenger.

    At least that's what I took from it.

    "I don't do nuance" - George W. Bush, and neither does a lot of the rightwing when they're hating on Clinton & Obama. I think the mainstream left is not so partisan but I could be wrong.

    --
    Pain is merely failure leaving the body