FBI says foreign hackers have penetrated US state election databases.

[Sean Lynch]

On Tue, Aug 30, 2016 at 10:16 AM, Razer <rayzer at riseup.net> wrote:

>
>
> On 08/29/2016 03:54 PM, Steve Kinney wrote:
> > On 08/29/2016 06:30 PM, grarpamp wrote:
> >> https://www.yahoo.com/news/fbi-says-foreign-hackers-penetrated-0000001
> > 75.html
> >
> >
> > https://s.yimg.com/dh/ap/politics/images/boe_flash_aug_2016_final.pdf
> >
> >> The FBI has uncovered evidence that foreign hackers penetrated two
> >> state election databases...
> >
> > This is an outrage!  That information is supposed to cost money,
> > dammit.  It's public record and anyone can buy it, so the Russians had
> > no business breaking in to copy it.  Cheap bastards.
> >
> > :o(
> >
> >
> >
>
> There NOTHING here to indicate a hack no less a RUSSIAN hack except the
> FBI's "Suspected" say-so.
>
> "Matt Roberts, a spokesman for the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office,
> said state authorities were notified last month by the FBI of the
> ***SUSPECTED*** hack, when it was discovered the username and password
> of a county election official were being circulated online."
>
> "...authorities ***BELIEVE*** the source of the attempted intrusion was
> a Russian hacker."
>
> This could have been a simple cybersecurity fuckup on the part of
> [username]
>
> http://www.azcentral.com/story/tech/news/2016/08/29/
> hackers-hit-arizona-illinois-voter-databases/89547326/


And even if it were a Russian hacker, it's a long trip from there to its
being a hacker working under orders from the Russian government for the
purpose of swaying the US election. Arizona kinda makes sense since it
looks like the vote will be close there and it's winner-take all. But why
Illinois? There's no way to swing Illinois toward Trump and not get caught.
Of course, that assumes that the supposed hack was targeted only at those
states, when it's more likely every state was targeted and either only
those states had vulnerabilities the hackers could find, or only those
states had enough auditing in place to even know they'd been hit. Given the
general state of computer security in government, especially state
government, databases, my money's on the last one. And the most likely
motives are money, embarrassing the government, and lulz. Probably all
three. Maybe they were Russian, maybe they were Ukranians pretending to be
coming from Russia, or maybe the NSA is pulling a fast one on the FBI.

It's also possible the FBI is simply lying, but then we're back to the
problem of why Illinois? If you were going to make up a Russian hack for
the purpose of swaying the election, wouldn't you pick likely swing states?
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