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Microsoft Reveals First Known Midterm Campaign Hacking Attempts (politico.com)

Posted by msmash on from the where-we-are dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft detected and helped block hacking attempts against three congressional candidates this year, a company executive said Thursday, marking the first known example of cyber interference in the midterm elections. "Earlier this year, we did discover that a fake Microsoft domain had been established as the landing page for phishing attacks," said Tom Burt, Microsoft's vice president for security and trust, at the Aspen Security Forum. "And we saw metadata that suggested those phishing attacks were being directed at three candidates who are all standing for election in the midterm elections."

Burt declined to name the targets but said they were "people who, because of their positions, might have been interesting targets from an espionage standpoint as well as an election disruption standpoint." Microsoft took down the fake domain and worked with the federal government to block the phishing messages.

21 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. But... by TFlan91 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But Trump said they weren't hacking us..............

    1. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      He said they didn't hack the elections. Election day is different than campaigns. But anyway I get phishing mails spam all day long. I would hardly categorize that as hacking.

    2. Re:But... by snapsnap · · Score: 2

      Well Obama did say no serious person thinks they are.

    3. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Trump was the only one saying the election was going to be hacked during the election.
      Hillary, the DNC and CNN were all saying it couldn't happen.
      After Trump won, suddenly it was Russian hacking 24/7.

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

      Not going into a war because of it? USA trying to whine about Russia engaging in subversion like any rational competing government does, and much like USA does whenever there's Russian elections, is hilarious considering USA's own fucked up meddling in world governments, one of which lead to the emergence of a fundamentalist Iran that would never happen had USA never been involved in fucking up the Iranian people during and after Mosaddegh. Another fine historical meddling is USA putting Saddam into office and supplying him with weapons during the Iraq-Iran war (including chemical which would later be re-branded as WMDs for convenience), then deposing Saddam and fucking up Iraq, which then lead to ISIS/ISIL being born from American destabilizing a country to make it worse than it was during its Dictatorship that at least provided a stable economy and some form of order.

    5. Re: But... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yeah why did Obama do nothing about this? He knew about it and it still happened.

      He attempted to do something about it... unfortunately it failed.

      Obama tried to warn off Putin (as if that would work by itself). He then went to congressional leadership, trying to establish some sort of bipartisan response - but was rebuffed.

      Now, after that failed, I think he should’ve still done something - even if it were just a televised address to the nation. Frankly, I do think he dropped the ball - and badly. But pretending he just sat on the knowledge is ignoring the facts - fake news, as it were.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    6. Re: But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      He also introduced sanctions against Russia.

      I'm not sure anything he said in public would have made a difference. Nothing he would have said would have convinced anybody who wasn't already convenced. Thus, the only reason for him to say something would be so that later (about now) he could say "I told you so". He never was that kind of guy, and I like that in him.

    7. Re: But... by Papaspud · · Score: 2

      So was him telling Romney the 80s want their foreign policy back his way of doing stuff? What a farce.

      --
      Everything above is my opinion....YMMV
    8. Re: But... by SharpFang · · Score: 2

      Remember the result of the First Free Elections in Iraq, after deposing Saddam?

      The Iraqi Nation voted. They choose a major religious fundamentalist choice, in genuine, free, honest elections. Then USA decided they didn't like their choice, dismissed the result of the elections and set up a government of their own.

      There's a rather lengthy list of cases where USA was sticking their fingers into foreign government choices.

      Panama. Guatemala. Bolivia. Afghanistan. Nicaragua.

      The hypocrisy is staggering.

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      45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
  2. The hacking isn't nearly as troubling... by RyanFenton · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As the electorate that pursues their greed and cruelty to such a degree, that they would throw away the any pretense of defending democracy in the face of open attack.

    That's like 42% of likely voters.

    What happened to America. I'm not a democrat myself - I'm just amazed that this is what conservatism has allowed itself to become. Beyond any ideals, just driven by cruelty to hurting the other side, at all costs.

    Ryan Fenton

    1. Re:The hacking isn't nearly as troubling... by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Republicans are conservative in the same way Putin is communist.

    2. Re: The hacking isn't nearly as troubling... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And the same way libertarians will give to charity just as soon as social security is dismantled. Every party is packed with hypocrites and liars, many of them clearly misanthropic. Nothing I can do about that, so I'll just smoke my weed.

    3. Re: The hacking isn't nearly as troubling... by danbert8 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Show me on the straw man where the libertarian hurt you.

      --
      Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
    4. Re:The hacking isn't nearly as troubling... by mlw4428 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      All of this is very much open for debate. Multiple Republican states were found guilty in various lawsuits on gerrymandering. There was no shortage of reports of Red states pushing laws/practices which were targeting minority voters to make it very hard for them to get to a voting booth (either by limiting the hours to during work hours typically worked by low income voters or by setting up voting stations far from population centers). The "fantasy" as you call it has produced numerous indictments and some cases high profile persons have begun cooperating with the investigations in an attempt to minimize the penalties they now face. Russian media has actively chided Trump and said that he is Russia's puppet. Our allies are extremely alienated in what is, perhaps, the most egregious display of international diplomacy outside of major historical dictators like Hitler, Stalin, or Hussein. Our allies are working towards a future in which they no longer need to be our allies. People like you work actively to undermine the American system because you're stupid. There's no need for pretense. People like you have been working to block the investigation claiming it has taken too long - and ironically supported decades worth of investigations of the Clintons. The sheer amount of hypocrisy is either from malicious intent or vast stupidity. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and casting people like you as a stupid instead of malicious.

    5. Re:The hacking isn't nearly as troubling... by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Friend, I have some Bad News for you, an epiphany I had some time ago: The America we all grew up thinking we were living in? IT NEVER EXISTED IN THE FIRST PLACE. Maybe it did for the first few months or years in the 18th century, but after that it started getting subverted by the greedy and the cruel, as you put it. Long before the time we were born, it was already gone.

      Let me tell you what is at least as big a threat, if not more so, than the foreign agents who are meddling in our electoral process: malicious natural U.S. citizens who are only really interested in 'pissing off liberals', and they don't care if they destroy the United States in the process, so long as they get their pound of flesh. CBS News conducted a poll that shows that even in the wake of Trump virtually selling out the U.S. Government to Vladimir Putin -- a shameful debacle that both sides of the Congressional aisle universally condemned -- Republicans are still supporting Trump. Even Congressional Republicans won't criticize him for long, because they're more interested in retaining their majority in Congress than they're interested in what's good for the entire country, so they let this train wreck of an Administration continue, even as Trump makes nice with one of the biggest villians on the planet today, an unmistakable enemy of the United States. That's why everything is so bad, that's why it all so completely fucked up, and until the GOP no longer has a majority in at least the House or the Senate it'll all just get worse and worse as time goes by. By 2020 there may not be much of a country left.

    6. Re:The hacking isn't nearly as troubling... by jedidiah · · Score: 3, Insightful

      > Talk radio conservatives, internet conservatives - every place with a passion for conservatism is pushing right in line with Trump.

      So you've never actually paid any attention to any of that stuff then.

      Conservatives are not nearly the mindless hive mind that liberals are. Talking heads even from the same outlet can have different points of view. Conservatives have a bigger tent (than liberals) these days.

      Considering what nonsense "liberals" have been latching onto lately, it's not really that hard to be considered a heretic by them.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  3. Re:why is windows on a voteing system? by ole_timer · · Score: 2

    do you mean why is a voting system on windows? that is not what was reported. garden variety phishing with a landing domain that looks like Microsoft. has nothing to do with a voting system.

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    nothing to see here - move along
  4. lol by gDLL · · Score: 2

    and what would you have them do ? Get eviscerated by the MSM holy inquisition ? Perfect is the enemy of good. But of course there is one current of thought that dreams of utopias all day long, and it's not conservatism.

    1. Re:lol by mrclevesque · · Score: 2

      "and what would you have them do ? "

      Stop making so much stuff up and represent the people a little more, and themselves and big business a lot less, same as for the democrats.

  5. nothing new by gDLL · · Score: 2

    I am not american but it seems nothing new here... the US have never fully figured out that the Russian Empire is equal or worse than say Nazi Germany. Bush jr didn't get it, Obanana didn't get it, Hillary didn't get it (reset button lol) so pretty much nothing new here.....

  6. this is true, and also... by gosand · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Trump was the only one saying the election was going to be hacked during the election.
    Hillary, the DNC and CNN were all saying it couldn't happen.
    After Trump won, suddenly it was Russian hacking 24/7.

    After Trump won, suddenly he does an about face and says there was no meddling in the election.

    One side changed their stance based on evidence. Well... I guess they both did.

    Trump is the president, election meddling or not. Please STOP talking about Hilary and the DNC. It's past, gone, they lost.
    It has nothing to do with them anymore. All that matters now is how our president handles things. Which is embarassing.

    --

    My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.