back to article Did the Russians really hack the DNC or is this another Sony Pictures moment? You decide

Security intelligence firm ThreatConnect thinks it has found a smoking gun that links the leaked US Democratic Party emails to Russian hackers. The biz has analyzed the communications methods used by Guccifer 2.0, which is thought to be a team of miscreants who obtained the somewhat embarrassing internal emails and gave them …

  1. wayne 8

    Tu use Hillary's own words...

    "What difference, at this point, does it make?"

    The REAL issue is the content of the emails, which the DNC has not denied and avoids discussing.

    The DNC took a crap on the primary process. Someone leaked emails that detail the shenanigans and the discussions at high levels concerning the tactics.

    Finger pointing. How childish.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Tu use Hillary's own words...

      But finger-pointing is American politic's basic modus operandi. It's all a blame game... blame the previous office holder... blame the opposition.... blame the schools, the media... etc. etc. etc. The result if the blame sticks is that the finger pointer gets elected.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Tu use Hillary's own words...

        > "But finger-pointing is American politic's basic modus operandi."

        Is your country any different? Where is this utopia? And if not, why are you making a point of it?

        1. Woza
          Joke

          Re: Tu use Hillary's own words...

          He's not making a point, he's pointing a finger...

          1. Bloakey1

            Re: Tu use Hillary's own words...

            "He's not making a point, he's pointing a finger..."

            He can get shot for that in America, particularly if you are a of a darker hue.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Tu use Hillary's own words...

              Plus, if you are white and get shot, nobody cares.

              1. Hollerithevo

                Re: Tu use Hillary's own words...

                Really? You are white and get shot, no one cares? The whole point of Black Lives Matter is that shooting of white people got all the police attention and shooting of black people didn't.

                The Orlando gay murders were all over the news because (a) they were Americans and (b) a lot were white. A similar shoot-up in a gay club in Mexico did not get the same worldwide attention because: brown, and Mexican.

                Or is any attention paid to anyone not white the actual problem?

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  Re: Tu use Hillary's own words...

                  Firstly, the narrative that all US Police Officers are murdering enormous numbers (or even percentages) of US Citizens of African descent is false.

                  https://i.sli.mg/3qkPR4.jpg

                  http://www.amren.com/news/2015/07/new-doj-statistics-on-race-and-violent-crime/

                  Secondly, hackers my eye.

                  Julian Assange states Any DNC Staffer Could Have Been The Leaker. Combined w/this amazing coincidence.

                  A 27-year-old man who worked for the Democratic National Committee was shot and killed as he walked home early Sunday in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Northwest Washington, D.C., police and his family said. Seth Conrad Rich (who worked as voter expansion data director) died after he was shot multiple times on the 2100 block of Flagler Place NW, three blocks east of Howard University Hospital, police said.

                  He was talking on the phone with his girlfriend when she heard noise on Rich's end of the line, Mary Rich said. Her son told his girlfriend not to worry about it.

                  "There had been a struggle. His hands were bruised, his knees are bruised, his face is bruised, and yet he had two shots to his back, and yet they never took anything," she said.

                  ======

                  Seth Rich was the key witness in a case filed against Edison Media Research and the alarming discrepancies between the results and exit polls, and their chummy relationship with John Husted.

                  ======

                  Even in botched robbery attempts, criminals at least an attempt to grab an item of value, watch, wallet, smartphone, etc. before fleeing. The case remains unsolved but it does appear to be more of an execution than a robbery.

        2. Mark 85

          @Big John -- Re: Tu use Hillary's own words...

          I'm in America. I've been watching these shenanigans for way too long. Everything from local politics up to the top. Both parties heavily engage in this. If think otherwise, then you've not paid attention to any campaign ads. Negative campaigning isn't anything new.

          1. StudeJeff

            Re: @Big John -- Tu use Hillary's own words...

            There is a big difference between negative campaigning and breaking your own parties rules to stop a candidate.

            But when you come down to it what we are really talking about is vote fraud, and that's something the Democrats have a lot of experience with.

            1. Mark 85

              Re: @Big John -- Tu use Hillary's own words...

              That's true, but it's been a lot negative at this point . I forgot about Johnson's first election in Texas, and Chicago, and.... all the rest which should have been mentioned in regard to the DNC candidate.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Tu use Hillary's own words...

        "The result if the blame sticks is that the finger pointer gets elected."

        Didn't quite work for David Cameron; I remember him blaming the EU and the previous New(tm) Labour incumbents, in roughly equal measure, to deflect blame for the Tory's inability to actually meet any of their 'promises' following their election in 2010 and look where that got him.

    2. veti Silver badge

      Re: Tu use Hillary's own words...

      "What difference does it make?" - well, if you're OK with Putin - who is at this point basically Lex Luthor - trying to influence the US presidential elections, then not much, I guess.

      Me, if I were American I wouldn't care for that one bit.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Tu use Hillary's own words...

        And who is Lex Luthor? Someone famous? I've never heard of him, what did he do?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Tu use Hillary's own words...

          "And who is Lex Luthor?"

          Seriously?

      2. StudeJeff

        Re: Tu use Hillary's own words...

        So if Putin is Lex Luthor does that make Hillary Faora?

      3. Ian Michael Gumby
        Boffin

        @Veti Re: Tu use Hillary's own words...

        I think you missed the OP's initial point.

        Putin if the allegations are true... didn't craft the emails which indicate that the DNC party's nomination and election was a sham. In short, if you're a democrat who voted for your party's candidate, you were disenfranchised but their actions.

        This has nothing to do with Putin but the DNC and its own corruption along with the corruption from the Clintons.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Tu use Hillary's own words...

      Hmmm ... The only difference between the Democratic National Committee's "Stop Bernie" intent and the Republican National Committee's abortive "Stop Trump" movement was that the DNC succeeded and the RNC failed.

      1. Bob Dole (tm)

        Re: Tu use Hillary's own words...

        I guess we know who has the better hackers then.

    4. strum

      Re: Tu use Hillary's own words...

      >The REAL issue is the content of the emails

      Which was to reveal that the Democratic National Committee engaged in (gasp) POLITICS!!! How dare they!

  2. Christian Berger

    Malware doesn't wear a uniform

    Unless you are dealing with someone incredibly stupid, there is no way to tell what country an attack came from. Considering the low levels of security in most organisations, it's also problematic to assume nation states. Also individuals are most likely to be suffering from Clinton winning over Sanders. The parts of the normal public that know how to use a computer might have the best motivation.

    1. Sir Runcible Spoon

      Re: Malware doesn't wear a uniform

      If some agency had managed to crack the Elite VPN server and cloned it, they could have used that clone for the attack.

      In short, it could have been anyone. However, if evidence is only collected that supports your theory (i.e. that Russia did it) then it can look like a stitch-up which leaves people thinking that anyone *other* than Russia did it, unless it's a double-bluff :)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Malware doesn't wear a uniform

      http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2016/07/russia-hillary-clinton-email-hack.html

      "Evidence that could publicly attribute responsibility for the DNC hack certainly exists at #NSA, but DNI traditionally objects to sharing".

      — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) July 25, 2016

      "Even if the attackers try to obfuscate origin, #XKEYSCORE makes following exfiltrated data easy. I did this personally against Chinese ops".

      — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) July 25, 2016

      "Snowden is right and the MSM is clueless".

      — William Binney (the NSA executive who created the agency’s mass surveillance program for digital information, who served as the senior technical director within the agency, who managed six thousand NSA employees, the 36-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a “legend” within the agency and the NSA’s best-ever analyst and code-breaker).

  3. Brian Miller
    Pirate

    Popcorn time

    Never mind the tin foil hat, it's time for a big bowl of popcorn, and hope that fur flies. And badly!

    1. Teiwaz

      Re: Popcorn time

      "Never mind the tin foil hat, it's time for a big bowl of popcorn, and hope that fur flies. And badly!"

      - Unfortunately, I doubt it. Too much flying fur, and the wolf will end up as mauled as the rabbit.

      Mainstream Political parties, no matter what spectrum they are on, don't want public confidence in 'the system' rocked too much, just their opponents seen on a little more shakier ground than them.

  4. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Big Brother

    Uh-oh!

    "Our research into Guccifer 2.0's infrastructure further solidifies our assessment that the persona is a Russia-controlled platform that can act as a censored hacktivist," the intelligence biz said. "Moscow determines what Guccifer 2.0 shares and thus can attempt to selectively impact media coverage, and potentially the election, in a way that ultimately benefits their national objectives."

    So Guccifer is the anemic Russian Response to the "National Endowment for Democracy" and sundry "NGOs" whose stirrings are indicative that regime change and/or the AC-130 gunship of peace and understanding is going to visit your premises?

    "The 9-step program: Hitlerization, Sanctions, Local Clients, Human Rights NGOs, Sabotaging Diplomacy, Criminalization, Scare Word Genocide, Media and Propaganda, and finally Bombing."

  5. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    FWIIW

    At kindergarden they told us not to point fingers - it is not polite and while you point at others, three of your fingers point back at yourself.

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge

      Re: FWIIW

      "At kindergarden they told us not to point fingers - it is not polite and while you point at others, three of your fingers point back at yourself."

      Unless you're a Clintstone; then, everything "slicks" off of you, and doesn't stick.

      Mrs. Clinton's native tongue is "the lie". The DNC is nearly as bad. Debbie "Blabbermouth" Schultz has quit her position over this already, but Mrs. Clinton is still in there, ready to become the next "Liar in Chief". You can expect LOTS of finger-pointing as the USA circles the drain, if SHE gets elected. "It was a MOVIE on YOUTUBE that caused it!"

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: FWIIW

        I defy anyone to read - or even skim - through this list and not feel shocked and frightened. At the very least, there is overwhelming circumstantial evidence that it is VERY unhealthy to be associated with the Clintons.

        http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/BODIES.php

    2. Hollerithevo

      Re: FWIIW

      Clinton as a liar: this label got stuck on Mrs Clinton some decades ago but a reporter recently looked into this and found she had a better than average record -- for a politician -- on being truthful. People simply repeat the same calumny over and over again. I finally just tune out people who thump that 'Clinton is a liar' as if it were an overwhelmingly proven truth.

      Story, with links to other similar in USA:

      https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/28/hillary-clinton-honest-transparency-jill-abramson

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's ironic that a country basically ruled by a dictator is outing a country that supposedly is a democratic republic.

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      You mean a country ruled by one man and a an organization based on fear and surveillance (the ex-KGB) is outing a country ruled by a few rich men and an organization based on fear and misinformation (the media). Doesn't sound so ironic to me.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "You mean a country ruled by one man and a an organization based on fear and surveillance (the ex-KGB) is outing a country ruled by a few rich men and an organization based on fear and misinformation (the media). Doesn't sound so ironic to me."

        The irony is in how the western liberal mainstream media portrays the two countries. Maybe that's a little bit easier for you to digest.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There are lots of people poring over the logs.

    So, this is based on a new analysis by ThreatConnect.

    Apparently earlier on the Democratic National Committee hired CrowdStrike to take a look, with conclusions here.

    Then Fidelis was hired by CrowdStrike ... "to review the findings. Fidelis worked exclusively and only with data provided by Crowdstrike (as did several other companies.) They concluded the same two hackers, COZY BEAR and FANCY BEAR APT, committed the intrusion, but made no comments on whether those two were linked to the Russian government." (as Peter van Buren writes)

    At The DNC Breach and the Hijacking of Common Sense we read that "other cybersecurity companies including FireEye, Kaspersky Lab, ESET, TrendMicro, Microsoft, iSight Partners, and AlienLab have made similar claims of attribution to the Russian government."

    Everybody is working on this!

    1. Bloakey1

      Re: There are lots of people poring over the logs.

      Forget the logs. sec.service@mail.ru means either everything or nothing.

      Could they be that stupid or could somebody be trying to leave a false scent.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: There are lots of people poring over the logs.

        "Could they be that stupid or could somebody be trying to leave a false scent".

        You think? But look at that address: sec.service@mail.ru! Obviously "sec.service" means "Security Service" - even a Republican senator could understand that.

        It's not as if anyone in the worlds of intelligence or politics ever tries to leave a false trail. "False Flag" - ever heard of it? And the false pointers left do not have to be in the least subtle; the mass media aren't critical.

        1. GrapeBunch

          Re: There are lots of people poring over the logs.

          sec.service@ - Hari Seldon will be turning in his grave. Garçon, next one a bit drier, please.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: There are lots of people poring over the logs.

      'At The DNC Breach and the Hijacking of Common Sense we read that "other cybersecurity companies including FireEye, Kaspersky Lab, ESET, TrendMicro, Microsoft, iSight Partners, and AlienLab have made similar claims of attribution to the Russian government."'

      For those who didn't follow that link - which I recommend, as it has some good and interesting material - here is a relevant passage.

      'I chose to look at Fancy Bear (APT28 in FireEye’s ecosystem). The most comprehensive report on that threat actor was written by FireEye and released last October, 2014 so I started with that. To my surprise, the report’s authors declared that they deliberately excluded evidence that didn’t support their judgment that the Russian government was responsible for APT28’s activities:

      '“APT28 has targeted a variety of organizations that fall outside of the three themes we highlighted above. However, we are not profiling all of APT28’s targets with the same detail because they are not particularly indicative of a specific sponsor’s interests.” (emphasis added)

      'That is the very definition of confirmation bias'.

  8. Gene Cash Silver badge
    Go

    It's funny

    Putin gives more of a shit about the US elections than most Americans.

    Hell, I'd vote for Putin over Hillary. At least he's an honest bastard.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It's funny

      And too be honest, I'm sure that my local "western" medias reporting is a skewed as russias media, so I do not believe that the picture I see of Putin in the news is relevant at all. So yes, he may be a criminal, but I'm not at all sure that he is that much of a criminal as he is portrayed to be in the west.

      After all, just look at our own politicians. Without the sweet, sweet, alliance between media and politicians in the west, they would surely be in jail most of the times.

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: It's funny

      Hell, I'd vote for Putin over Hillary. At least he's an honest bastard.

      I'm not sure you'd say that if you'd spent any time in Putin's Russia. Corruption is endemic in Russian politics and Putin isn't immune: he's squirrelled billions away himself.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: It's funny

        "Putin isn't immune: he's squirrelled billions away himself".

        Er, citation? Evidence of some kind? (And by the way, "Everyone knows it's true" does not count as evidence).

        I do know for sure that many (perhaps almost all) Western political leaders turn out to become exceedingly rich - usually soon after retiring from politics. Mrs Clinton, for example, with her "speaking engagements". https://consortiumnews.com/2016/01/05/the-clintons-paid-speech-bonanza/#comment-208950

        1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

          Re: It's funny

          Featured prominently in the Panama leaks. See https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/panama-papers-money-hidden-offshore

        2. harmjschoonhoven
          Childcatcher

          Re: It's funny

          "Putin isn't immune: he's squirrelled billions away himself". Er, citation? Evidence of some kind?

          https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/panama-papers-money-hidden-offshore An unprecedented leak of documents shows how this money has made members of Putin's close circle fabulously wealthy. Though the president's name does not appear in any of the records, the data reveals a pattern - his friends have earned millions from deals that seemingly could not have been secured without his patronage.

          http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-capitalism-propertymanager-idUSKCN0WX1MU Last year, Reuters reported that Putin's daughter Tikhonova, who holds a senior position at Moscow State University, is personally advised by some of Putin's oldest friends. She is also married to Kirill Shamalov, son of billionaire Nikolai Shamalov, an associate of Putin's.

          Baevsky has previously attracted little attention. His connection to Putin was uncovered by investigative journalist Roman Anin who was conducting research for the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an East European media network. Public records show that companies co-owned by Baevsky have benefited from state construction contracts worth at least 6 billion rubles ($89 million) in the past two years.

          http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/russia-capitalism-shamalov/ The man who married Putin's daughter and then made a fortune. The story of Kirill Shamalov, the celebration of his wedding to the Russian president's younger daughter, and the loan from a politically well-connected bank that helped make him a billionaire. Kirill Shamalov, son of an old friend of Vladimir Putin, was able to borrow about $1.3 billion via a new company wholly-owned by him.

          Etc, Etc.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: It's funny

            Yah, any *credible* evidence?

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            @harmjschoonhoven - Re: It's funny

            Close, but still no Putin! This reflects more of your desire to paint him in a bad color than the real facts.

            Putin's name is not present in those Panama papers and the rest of your argument is about his son in law.

            Can you please try again ?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It's funny

      Some did it, for example, at Mussolini and Hitler times. Most of them, those who didn't die earlier, regretted it... remember Putin changed the Russian law that dictated a two terms limit there too. These are the kind of people you vote once, and then have to bear forever... unless they die - like Stalin - or are killed. Be careful...

    4. bombastic bob Silver badge

      Re: It's funny

      "I'd vote for Putin over Hillary. At least he's an honest bastard."

      I'd vote CTHULHU or SATAN over Mrs. Clinton. Either would be the LESSER evil.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Trump Was Right the Whole Time

    Everyone's ignoring the truth that the system is rigged.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Trump Was Right the Whole Time

      If he gets in you'll get to see how you can really rig a system.

    2. sabroni Silver badge
      Meh

      Re: Trump Was Right the Whole Time

      Yeah, funny how easy that is when you argue both sides of every point: I don't believe in violence but I'll pay your court bills if your beat up that protestor, I think it was right to go into Iraq but obviously going into Iraq was a massive mistake, women are pigs but some of my closest family members are women and they don't sound quite as insane as me.....

    3. chivo243 Silver badge

      Re: Trump Was Right the Whole Time

      Sooo... the system works as planned. Rigged from the beginning, the only difference is someone exposed the rigging?

      Next up: The Electoral College vs. Popular Vote

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Really?

    Let's see ... " the box's SSH server fingerprint – 80:19:eb:c8:80:a1:c6:ea:ea:37:ba:c0:26:c6:7f:61 – is unique to its SSH public key. This fingerprint can therefore be used to find other machines on the internet that share the same public key." Asymmetric cryptosystems rely on public/private key pairs, one or more on each client and server, that must be used together to successfully protect information. Each public key is shared far and wide, while the corresponding private keys are held as closely as possible, since that's the key (sorry) for how these systems work. Finding the same public key on multiple hosts means exactly nothing except that each got a copy of that public key and is able therefore to interact securely with the owner of the private key.

    That's one example of multiple "leaps of faith" that folks are grasping for in their almost frantic desire to find a "more evil that us" story that draws attention away from the contents of the stolen emails. Others are there as well, but reality doesn't matter to the masters of the art of political alchemy. Practiced by adherents of both parties, this rare branch of alchemy doesn't transform metals into gold, it focuses on transforming BS into truth through the chant-like repetition of fanciful stories until they magically become accepted as fact, no matter how patently ludicrous they are.

    Mr. Trump is brash, rude, petty, and cannot seem to form a thought that isn't immediately communicated without benefit of editing or external advice. It is this very nature that largely mitigates the risks of him becoming president. Even if he is totally serious about some weird action, his chances of executing that impulsive act are minimized by his need to broadcast his concepts, even to those around him who are trusted by us to balance the powers of the presidency. While I truly hate the idea of supporting his ascendancy to that role, I can live with it. Anyone else remember LBJ?

    The opposing triumvirate, O'Billery, is another story. They are more polished and guarded with their intent. They are more skilled at the underhanded techniques of today's politician. And they are surrounded by vast supportive cushions of like-minded elitists. One sociopath is a troubling instance for society. An entire ruling class of them is a disaster in progress. As long as they stand together, they are above such petty things as rules, laws, ethics, and simple moral responsibilities. To Hillary, the use of insecure and unapproved IT resources simply to cater to her preferences for ease of use is simply her right as one of the "above it alls". And nobody seems to link all of these little trivial points into one disturbing possibility ... that the SecState probably received a message via these resources from one of her ambassadors on the 11th of Sep a couple of years ago. It certainly contained that ambassador's misgivings about the lack of sufficient security at his location. It, or another nearby message, probably also contained that ambassador's itinerary for his trip ... that would be normal for the SecState to be told. I wonder if Chris Stevens knew how little his boss cared about making sure that information was shared only with those in positions of trust.

    Back to the point ... those in a position to know should strive to point out the logical inconsistencies in the "blame Putin" distraction effort. While it may well turn out to be correct, it's a bit disconcerting to hear congress-critters, political hacks, and the news (oops, entertainment) industry reps so enthusiastically making up the baseline, fleshing out the salacious details, and pinning a "collaborating with the enemy" star on Mr Trump's forehead without the benefit of any basis other than unnamed experts. Sorry, but I've been in the business since long before "cyber" referred to anything but sex. And the breadcrumbs they're so frantically clutching at don't add up to a slice, much less a full loaf.

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: Really?

      "each got a copy of that public key and is able therefore to interact securely with the owner of the private key."

      Well, yeah. They're all managed by Elite VPN. They are probably all VM clones of the same machine.

      C.

      1. bombastic bob Silver badge

        Re: Really?

        "They're all managed by Elite VPN. They are probably all VM clones of the same machine."

        that's pretty sloppy, though. re-generating a server key isn't that hard...

        ssh-keygen -A [I think that's right]

        if you delete the old ones first, this should give you all of the ones you need. It would be a good idea, if you plan on using a hosted server to anonymize you, to re-generate the keys periodically... UNLESS you *INTEND* for people to "find" you.

        1. Sir Runcible Spoon

          Re: Really?

          "that's pretty sloppy, though. re-generating a server key isn't that hard..."

          You are making the assumption that the same people manage the clone as the original.

  11. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    These emails are boring

    I think the ones on the Republican Party server would be a lot more interesting given the venomous statements from loyal Republicans about Trump.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The reg is certainly pushing the Russian connection hard, I never knew Correct the Record was an author.

  13. Slx

    Maybe it's Skynet's first move ...

  14. Cuddles

    "Russians" or "The Russians"

    There's a rather big difference between saying someone in Russia probably did it, and that it was an attack carried out by the Russian government. The evidence seems to support the former (although it's far from conclusive), but there doesn't seem to be anything at all to support the latter. This may surprise some people, but Putin doesn't actually have personal control over every single criminal in the country. Plus it's worth bearing in mind that this is much too early to try pushing a political scandal to affect the election; if you want voters to actually remember an issue it needs to be a couple of weeks before the date, not months earlier before the candidates are even official. Whatever flaws Putin and his cronies may have, political naivety is not one of them.

    1. Wade Burchette

      Re: "Russians" or "The Russians"

      I was at a customer's house Monday and she had on one of the annoying all-women talk shows where all they do is sit around and jabber on as if their opinion was wise when, in fact, just the opposite. I was trying to focus on fixing this computer, but the TV was loud. One of the blowhards said the Russians did this to benefit Trump. The reasoning went: no bank loans to Trump because of all his bankruptcies, ergo Trump had to borrow money from somewhere, ergo he borrowed from Russia, ergo the Russians want Trump to win because they will control him. And the audience clapped with delight. While my blood started to boil as if I had seen yet another attack ad.

      I simply think this was simply a crime of opportunity. Hillary was in the news because she had her own email server. Let us not go further with that issue. But, you just know whoever put in that email server is not would not have it locked down as much as the US government or political party servers are. I would not be surprised if they hacked Hillary's email server and used that to find a weakness higher up in the Democrat command. I do not know, it is just pure speculation.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Its obvious

    It was Snowdon wot done it.

  16. strum

    Cui bono

    That's all.

    1. Anonymous Coward
  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I did it

    as a Bernie supporter, and listening to her threaten his life, I had to.

    1. pete 22
      Mushroom

      Re: I did it

      The DNC needs to be called out hard and repeatedly about this. They go on about the Russians "influencing US Elections" but what about the Saudi family? What about the Israelis? What about the entire Fortune 500 -- all influencing the DNC ? Nope, nary a peep about all that....

      --disgusted US voter

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I did it

        And so interesting to hear that "Madeleine" "Albright" can't be Pres, for the same reason as Arnie!

  18. DonW

    Why only one?

    Everyone assumes that there was only one person/organization that invaded the DNC,. or Hillary's server for that matter. Who amongst us doesn't know of a young lady in our past that had several paramours?

    Both servers were very visible and tempting targets. I think they each may have had more than one visitor. And, just like the young lady mentioned earlier, when something very inconvenient arises there is a general scramble to deny involvement.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    tl;dr DNC e-mail dump

    Unpacking the DNC Emails

    What's in those emails and also:

    The same people on the Clinton team who made enormous efforts to claim her private email server—which operated unencrypted over the Internet for three months, including during trips to China and Russia, and which contained top-secret national-security data—was not hacked by the Russians now are certain that the DNC server was hacked by the Russians

  20. Donn Bly
    Holmes

    Russian Connection?

    I doubt very much that a legitimate Russian security service would spell their directorate name in ENGLISH on a Russian-language mail server. That easily understood fact alone soundly discredits any "expert" that tries to claim or substantiate a Russian connection using that piece of information.

    If someone is skilled enough to compromise the supposedly-secure DNC email accounts and servers, and to do so for the extended period of time necessary to extract everything that they extracted, then there is a pretty good chance that any server or service that they are using to communicate with the world is similarly compromised.

    In short, there is no "Russian Connection". There is only the spreading of FUD after their dirty laundry was aired for the public to see.

  21. cd

    Are you sure it was Best Korea suspected of hacking SONY? Thought it was Worst Korea.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Guccifer 2.0 isn't necessarily the hacker, in fact probably isn't

    He just got his hands on it and apparently submitted it to Wikileaks.

    My hunch is that the Russian government hacked the DNC (and probably the RNC as well) as part of their normal process to see what the other guys are up. Some Russian billionaire(s) who have done business with Trump in the past managed to get their hands on it, figured it would hurt Hillary, and made sure it found its way to Wikileaks. Guccifer 2.0 is just the flunky they had do the handover, and speaks for them trying to deflect the source (because Putin would probably not be happy about Russian "property" getting leaked)

    Meanwhile, Assange gets his hands on it, and times the release to inflict damage on democratic party unity. He despises Hillary, because she wants him locked up for the state department cables leak, and stated he's the one who decided on the timing of the release.

    This was a Russian government op, but not one designed to take down Hillary. I don't think Putin probably cares all that much. Sure Trump praises Putin, but that's just because he dreams about having as much power as Putin - which he won't have even if he's elected president. He can talk about "rethinking NATO" or whatever, but Putin is smart enough to know that Trump can't renege on NATO treaty guarantees without congress, who would not go along with it.

    All things considered Putin might prefer Hillary as president - she's a known quantity who he has known personally for many years, while Trump is a wild card. He might want to be Russia's friend one day, and threaten war the next.

  23. John Savard

    The Inevitable Comment

    Well, if Hillary Clinton wasn't aware of how important it is to keep her E-mails from prying eyes before,

    she certainly is now!

    Presumably, if she is elected President, she will work closely with the NSA in getting a secure E-mail system put in that is both secure and genuinely usable in practice, so that high-ranking officials will no longer feel a temptation to go around it in order to get their work done.

  24. rtb61

    So it was a suspected IP address of Russian origin. So why exactly is that Russian IP address the final address in the route and just not another segment leading to say, someone with their own political axe to grind in the NSA or the CIA or Homeland Security or the FBI.

    All of them had much better access and of course setting up a Russian IP address they can access is not problem at all. Hell they can all hack the undersea cable junction point and inject that traffic right in their with what ever origin address they feel like putting in there.

    It seems there is quite a bit of fracturing going on with the NSA/CIA/FBI between career staffers, political appointees and corporate contractors. So much so, that they are becoming bogged down spying upon themselves. So my bet disaffected US hackers making use of hacks of Russian network infrastructure to attack the corruption within their own government.

    Now honestly who really believes the CIA/NSA/FBI were completely oblivious of what the US Secretary of State was doing with government communications, they want a puppet they can control and they certainly have way more dirt on Clinton than does the Russian government, however she might be way too distasteful for the career service people and hence the hack and public release.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Intent to Influence U.S. Election...Russian..maybe..But DNC...ABSOLUTELY!!!

    With all these rabbit trails leading to a possible actor with the inferred intent to influence a U.S. presidential elections...

    ...let's not lose track of the obvious...that the DNC's exposed e-mails ABSOLUTELY PROVE THAT THE DNC ITSELF WAS NOT ONLY INTENT ON INFLUENCING A U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, BUT ALSO, DID SUCCEED IN DOING SO TO THE BENEFIT OF HILLARY CLINTON.

    lf

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Intent to Influence U.S. Election...Russian..maybe..But DNC...ABSOLUTELY!!!

      I'd bet that the DNC leaked it themselves to detract from the fact Hillary is a criminal.

  26. This post has been deleted by its author

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