Thursday, December 29, 2016

The FBI And DHS Report On Russian Hacking Has Been Released



The Hill: FBI, DHS release report on Russia hacking

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday released a joint report detailing how federal investigators linked the Russian government to hacks of Democratic Party organizations.

The document makes clear reference to the hacks of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, though it does not mention either by name.

The 13-page report provides technical details regarding tools and infrastructure used by Russian civilian and military intelligence services to “compromise and exploit networks and endpoints associated with the U.S. election, as well as a range of U.S. Government, political, and private sector entities.” (See the entire report below.)

The report, known as a “Joint Analysis Report” or JAR, refers to the Russian hacking campaign as “Grizzly Steppe.”

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The 13 page FBI/DHS report is here. After reading it this is my take .... "You got to be kidding me". There is no evidence. No smoking gun. No timeline. Nothing. Just a list of alternate names that Russia's intelligence agencies may use on the internet .... and the coding that they may have used .... and a big maybe at that. As to the rest of the report .... much of it is just a summary on how U.S. organisations can protect their network from intrusions and hacking attempts, or to spot past attempts. To say that I am "underwhelmed" is an understatement. Unfortunately .... it is this flimsy document that is going to be used to justify today's U.S. actions against Russia.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Liars lie. Most transparent administration evah! And not one denial.

Jay Farquharson said...

Evidence of a State Sponsored hack, is always going to be thin and circumstantial.

Suxnet was exposed as a US/Israeli hack by:

- Israel "leaking" a "confession" of the hack to try to sabotage the Iran Negotiations,

- Kapersky Labs breaking down the hours of coding required and some of the "access" coding to discover that it was a multi-million dollar "worm", that could only be the product of a Nation State.

B.Poster said...

If this really is all there is to it, then the next POTUS should have no problem undoing the sanctions, at least hose imposed by the Executive Branch. Any sanctions imposed by Congress, can be undermined by the State Department, diplomats, and other officials who answer to the Administration. Perhaps there is still a chance for the sane and level headed to work out a resolution to this.

I always thought the evidence linking Stuxnet to America was rather flimsy. America routinely gets tried and convicted in public opinion based upon flimsy evidence. On would think such people as US leaders would not be so reckless as to do the same to others.

Jay Farquharson said...

"i always thought the evidence linking Stuxnet to America was rather flimsy."

The digital evidence was always "flimsy",

Israeli's Aman ( Military Intelligence) issuing a press release admitting Suxnet, Duqu and Flame was a joint CIA/Aman Operation, that they were "sorry" that it escaped into "the wild", along with confirming documents,

And Bush's CIA Director Porter Goss confirming it to the Washington Post kinda made the claim "less flimsy".

fred said...

https://goo.gl/iXfK2z

B.Poster said...

Not sure when exactly Mr. Goss made this claim, however, it is and has not been unusual for US "Intelligence" to overstate their exploits and capabilities. The Israeli "confession" does not impress me. This falls into "he said, she said, they said" stuff that would not be admissible in a court of law.

The problem with Stuxnet is how clever it was. While understandable why one would want to undermine the nuke program of "Iran death to America" the cleverness of this computer virus was/is way beyond the capability of the Americans. The Israelis might be able to pull it off, the Russians or the Chinese probably could, but not the Americans. This one is way beyond them.

Furthermore if the Israelis were to bring the Americans in on this project there would be a huge risks of leaks as Iranian agents in the US government receive wind of it. As such, an American involvement seems unlikely.

A Russian hack of the US electoral system even less likely. There's little upside to such an action, huge downsides, and Russia has far more important things to worry about than who the next US POTUS is. Even less likely is the notion that the hacks or information from something such as Wikileaks actually swayed the election.

Clearly if the hacks occurred we would not like them. It would have been far better and more effective to have handled this issue quietly with the Russians. If determined that the actions somehow helped DJT, he could have been quietly persuaded to go back to his life as a businessman, perhaps an illness in the family something plausible to get him out of the way.

Delicate matters between nation states are often handled quietly. this is nothing new. Instead a spoiled man-child and a spoiled-woman child along with their supporters go on temper tantrums because they did not get their way and months of careful diplomacy by team Trump is undermined in one step. Surely there is something the next Administration can do to fix the damage here.

Best case scenario team Trump was not going to be able to fix everything in two terms. Now things have gotten even harder. The top international priority should be fixing this problem and restoring constructive relations with Russia. After all this is probably the only country that could destroy us.

Jac said...

I have not the skill to make any judgement on who do this or not, but I am very worried that Obama is becoming "all the sudden" agitated at the end of his presidency. This looks like a man who his sinking and do randomly anything to save his skin. Unfortunately this is extremely dangerous because this kind of behavior is not measuring the consequences. After 8 years of power Obama seem to have learn nothing. Sad.

Jay Farquharson said...

Choice is to pull a "Johnson",

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21768668

32,000 American dead, 1.3 million more dead South Asians, 5 more years of The American War, 7 more years of the Vietnam War,

Exact same results at the Paris Peace Talks, except for the 2 year "Descent Interval" Secret Clause to allow the US to save face.

Obama should have started his First Term with purges and trials, instead, he's having to end it with weak tea as all the old War Criminals, Traitors and Fraudsters crawl back into Trump's Swamp.

Trump's First Term ( if he makes it) is going to make Bush II look like a genius in comparison.

B.Poster said...

Jay,

I'd prefer a choice that does not involve more dead Americans. The problem with purges and trials is we have to prove things. A better alternative might have been to allow some Intelligence personnel to retire with dignity.

In any event America will not e able to survive another Bush or Obama. As such, Americans sure hope he does better. As for you, perhaps you wish to Americans hurt. If Trump can renegotiate NATO, improve relations with Russia (his choice of Sec of State looks extremely helpful but unfortunately the reckless actions of late by someone may have shot that to h!ll), succeed in streamlining regulations that are killing American enterprise, secure the borders, properly focus on ISIS, and open up more domestic American drilling he has a chance of succeeding.

The obstacles are an opposition that seems to be willing to stop at nothing to destroy him. I must admit I never thought BHO and his allies would sink to the lows they have at imposing sanctions on Russia over the alleged hacking.

Anonymous said...

Not sure if anyone you ask in the streets could tell you anything about the Podesta emails, I'm guessing most wouldn't have ever heard of him, and if they did they couldn't specifically identify anything damning to Hillary that was in his emails. Now if you would ask about Anthony Weiner I'm thinking you'd probably get a 50/50 response as to who he was and probably half of them would know about his laptop and Hillary's emails.

The Weiner story was way more interesting and if you could pin him as a KGB agent then you'd be onto some good stuff, otherwise we are just scraping the bottom of the barrel of the "it's not Hillary's fault" campaign.

Jay Farquharson said...

Johnson and the FBI had lot's of evidence of Nixon's Treason, before the election,

Johnson did "nothing" because of concern's it would weaken American's belief in their democracy, and be seen by some Republican's as a partizan attack.

Instead, Contrelpro, Watergate, etc.

Carter, the FBI and CIA had evidence of Reagan's treason before the election,

But Carter did nothing for the same reasons as Johnson.

Instead, Iran Contra, etc.

LMAO, the 1st Trump Recession's gonna hit before the end of 2017.

Jay Farquharson said...

LMAO,

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/gallup-candidate-word-clouds-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-emails-2016-11?client=safari

B.Poster said...

Jay,

Not sure what is so funny about a recession. Americans have already been badly hurt by the current economy. It is a given that interest rates will rise after the election. This will certainly not help, however, if overly burdensome regulations can be reduced this should offset some of the effect of this and will be good in the long term.

Now IF the Russians exposed Hillary as a criminal of course as anon points out no one even knows about the emails and I suspect far less than 50% of the population even know who Anthony Weiner much less his laptop then perhaps we should give Vladimir Putin a medal as a friend of the United States and its people. Of course the "evidence" being presented is not evidence at all and as pointed out elsewhere there's minimal benefit to such interference, much downside risk, and they have bigger issues to be concerned with than who the next POTUS is. As such, I don't think he's going to get that medal anyway nor is he likely a friend of America either. It'd make far more sense to get her elected and use the hacked emails as blackmail to get her to cooperate.

Thanks for the link. I will check this out.

Jay Farquharson said...

Republican Presidencies always come with at least one recession and one minor financial collapse.

1:4 come with several recessions and an economic collapse.

1:6 come with a major finacial sector collapse.

Simple facts and statistics for a post-fact America.

Trump's stacking up to make Bush II with his failed endless wars of choice, and the destruction of not just the US Economy, but the Global Economy, look like a piker.

LMAO, don't worry though Trump and his Multi-Billionaire Cabinet will do just fine.

Anonymous said...

Jay's on a bender tonight...

B.Poster said...

Donald Trump is not the typical Republican in terms of claiming to be fiscally or socially conservative and he's shown a willingness to challenge the ideas of constant foreign military actions specifically renegotiating NATO should be a plus and if relations with Russia can be improved this would be good for everyone. If he can stay on task with the issues I mention above, then the recessions be avoided.

Frankly, Americans are mostly aware of the issues mention and in general would prefer Democrats. As such, it took some doing for HRC to lose.

If he fails, I don't think his cabinet members are going to come out fine. He's hated by the media and support for him among Republican leaders is tepid at best. As such, it seems unlikely anyone is going to come to their rescue if things don't work out.

Jay Farquharson said...

Nope, I just LMAO at the "y'all watch this" you tubes

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S6V0S1m5a7U

and the karma effect:

https://www.google.ca/amp/www.nydailynews.com/amp/news/national/texas-mother-killed-cops-fatally-shooting-daughters-article-1.2687929?client=safari

And the voting against their best interests:

https://www.google.ca/amp/www.nydailynews.com/amp/news/national/texas-mother-killed-cops-fatally-shooting-daughters-article-1.2687929?client=safari

Bush II was a "y'all watch this" Government,

Trumph's gonna be epic.

War News Updates Editor said...

Anon .... that's why I love Jay .... and that's why I always read his comments. He provokes us to think, and he is willing to debate, argue, disagree, express a point, fight for his opinion, and to share his insights and experiences. I do disagree with him at times .... but there has been many times where I found myself agreeing with him. Agree or disagree .... bottom line is that I respect his opinion .... just like I do for everyone else who decides to take the time to post a comment on this blog. In the end .... we are all human beings and we all want a better world .... our differences is on how we are going to get there.

Jay Farquharson said...

Trump's Cabinet's worth $365 billion in personal assets. The richest US Cabinet in US history.

They will do fine. Some of them have already made $3.8 billion on Trumph's Tweets alone.

LMAO

War News Updates Editor said...

The Russians are laughing at the FBI/DHS report. https://www.rt.com/usa/372195-report-russia-hacking-elections/

Anonymous said...

Rachel Maddow has hijacked Jay's account...don't worry buddy we'll blame it on Molson and start fresh tomorrow.

Jay Farquharson said...

I think they are laughing more at it's reception in the US.

https://www.google.ca/amp/news.nationalpost.com/news/world/republican-senators-prepare-to-investigate-russias-alleged-meddling-in-u-s-election/amp?client=safari

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2016/12/27/politics/lindsey-graham-donald-trump-russia/index.html?client=safari

Not often an outsider neuters anentire US Government from the get go,

And they still have the RNC and other "hacks" in pocket.

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/11/01/spy-russia-cultivating-trump.html

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UOhW0AzZ1Pg



Jay Farquharson said...

LMAO,

http://driftglass.blogspot.ca/2016/04/there-is-no-tea-party-epilogue.html?m=1

War News Updates Editor said...

That they are Jay. But Russian media is also focused on their own Russian audience, and they are many in Russia who are wondering if the Kremlin did hack into Podesta's email acct and the DNC server ... hence this coverage.

"Sebastian" said...

"Drain the svamp"... sure. I belive he will be the last nail in the coffin. :)

hurhur said...

WNU is acting like some PC principal with loud mouth lgbt jay and his "opinions", coddling his tears.

The more opens his mouth the deeper he buries himself.