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The Intercept: NSA report details Russian hacking effort days before 2016 US election

They are only doing this to test their impact at this time. I expect a much more widespread attack going fwd

Even if there isn't, it's still a win for Russia because everyone will be second guessing the results regardless. Our countries faith in democracy is shook.
 

Allard

Member
Would this be the first time that they immediately caught the leaker?

I'm not liking that they figured out who leaked it that quickly.

I imagine removing a classified NSA report is probably one of the surest ways to get caught, the damn agency's purpose is to check for irregularities like someone getting into information she 'doesn't need to know' or her downloading the information without permission. Also it sounds like they didn't catch her right away, according to that report she did this in early May, she was arrested last week before this news broke.
 

Arttemis

Member
“I would worry about whether an attacker who could compromise the poll book vendor might be able to use software updates that the vendor distributes to also infect the election management system that programs the voting machines themselves,” he added. “Once you do that, you can cause the voting machine to create fraudulent counts."

Fuck.
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Even if there isn't, it's still a win for Russia because everyone will be second guessing the results regardless. Our countries faith in democracy is shook.

As it should be.
 
The constant negative narrative hasn't effected Trump in the slightest bit. Republican leadership still lick his boots. His fan base will never, ever want to kick him out of office, they believe the Trump/Russia story is "Fake News".

Hasn't affected him one bit except it has. You want me to go down the list?

1) Trump's approvals have been trending downward

2) Every special election that we have had has shown a consistent 14-15 point swing towards the democrats. If that holds for the midterms, the Dems will take back the House.

3) Trump has had both of his travel bans struck down because he keeps fucking up his own narrative about them

4) Trumpcare is widely unpopular to such a degree that the GOP wants absolutely nothing to do with it

5) Democrats have been getting record numbers of donations as a result of Trump and his fuck ups.

6) Fox News has gone full-breitbart and as a result has now dipped in ratings below CNN and MSNBC.

7) Constant leaks are happening from the IC, the FBI, and even the White House itself, because Trump as a leader does not inspire confidence. When Comey was fired, the Washington Post LITERALLY had 30 (yes THIRTY) different sources from the FBI all lining up to talk to them about the firing. Think about that for a moment THIRTY DIFFERENT SOURCES.

Like, yes Trump's hardcore fanbase would literally jump off a cliff if Trump told them to, but Trump and the GOP didn't win last year off of just those voters.
 

G0523

Member
Voter registrations were tampered with in Arizona. I know someone who has lived and voted there for years but in the past election their ballot was made provisional. I absolutely believe this was done.

I kind of wonder if they more specifically tried to hack voter registrations in swing states, especially ones where they went red by a narrow margin (like my home state of Ohio at 51%), or if they just went for the shock of typical blue states like Pennsylvania to make them turn red.
 

Tovarisc

Member
O2HMgmM.png

https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/871840455830491136

Edit: caught and prosecuted
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Can't wait for the Trump fans I know to simultaneously call the report fake and scream for Ms. Winner to be burned at the stake.

Also can't wait to later hear them claim that fraudulently programming voting machines is not "hacking voting machines".
 
Her name is Reality Winner.

I can't anymore.

The events of the past few months should have made it indisputably clear that we are, in fact, living inside a computer simulation and whatever sentient beings are running that simulation are just fucking with us at this point...
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Also, this girl is a goddamn hero and needs to "accidentally" be put on a plane to a non-extradition country.
 
Can't wait for the Trump fans I know to simultaneously call the report fake and scream for Ms. Winner to be burned at the stake.

Also can't wait to later hear them claim that fraudulently programming voting machines is not "hacking voting machines".

They'll say, "She was spreading fake news, just like the lying media, and should be punished."
 
The events of the past few months should have made it indisputably clear that we are, in fact, living inside a computer simulation and whatever sentient beings are running that simulation are just fucking with us at this point...

Look, I'll only believe this if the next leaker is called "SOLIPSISM IS REAL".
 
Reality Winner trying to stop a nation from losing touch with reality -- fighting the good fight to make facts matter.

Like all things Trump and election related, this wouldn't have made it past the writers' room.
 

Gutek

Member
Reality Winner trying to stop a nation from losing touch with reality -- fighting the good fight to make facts matter.

Like all things Trump and election related, this wouldn't have made it past the writers' room.

Looks like Reality Winner is now Reality Loser.
 
Not really, at most what I said was a wish that looks like it could never even happen anyway. If the Russians did mess with the ballots enough to influence the election, she still wouldn't be prez. It would go to the next person in line.

That can't possibly be right. If Trump's win was not legitimate, Pence, Ryan, Hatch or anyone else becoming president does not remotely correct for that. Especially Pence, of course, because that's the same illegitimate win.


Because stuff is actually coming out of all of this.

"Stuff", yes. But impeachment is still a long shot, and removal still a near-impossibility. I'd think a Supreme Court ruling and new election, as crazy as that sounds, is probably still more likely than removal through impeachment, at this point.

Even with Nixon, some Republicans were necessary to get the votes for removal, and that was with a strong Democratic majority. Some Republicans were on record as seeking the truth, and willing to impeach Nixon. What Republicans today are willing to do the same? We'd need 17 GOP Senators willing to remove a GOP president. Good luck.
 

pigeon

Banned
Reality Winner? This plotline has the worst fucking writers ever.

Not really. We've just entered into a new era of history -- the Age of Trolling.

Why is her name Reality Winner? Because it's a prank bro. Everything is a prank or a meme or an ironic joke now and soon the history books will be full of a generation worth of pranks and memes. Donald Trump himself is a prank. Gone wrong, gone sexual.

This is the world we have memed.
 
This is off-topic, but man, calling Trump 45 or number 45 is the dumbest shit ever. Just call him Trump if you don't want to say President Trump.

Anyway, on topic, this is awful, but I'm not surprised at all at this point. It's pretty obvious now that we're basically at cyber war with Russia, their winning, and there's no one with enough power who cares to fight back. I really don't know where we go from here. Until the GOP is affected in a major way from this, they'll continue to shrug it off. If the Dems manage to get the House maybe they can push through some kind of legislation, but I can't imagine it will survive passe the Senate or President.

Feels pretty helpless for at least another 3.5 years. Even if Trump finally gets ousted in some form or fashion, we're still stuck with an apathetic President to all this.
 

Lambtron

Unconfirmed Member
This is off-topic, but man, calling Trump 45 or number 45 is the dumbest shit ever. Just call him Trump if you don't want to say President Trump.
His name is literally his brand. I don't even want to speak his name. Cantaloupe Catastrophe will have to work.
 

Vixdean

Member
https://twitter.com/markberman/status/871841372239802368

Mark Berman‏Verified account
@markberman
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Replying to @markberman @theintercept
According to the FBI, a news outlet contacted a govt agency on May 30, that agency told the FBI on June 1, and Winner was arrested June 3

Ummmm, am I reading this right? Did Greenwald turn in a leaker? I've always thought he was a giant piece of shit, but now he's giant piece of shit and a hypocrite.
 
Anyway, on topic, this is awful, but I'm not surprised at all at this point. It's pretty obvious now that we're basically at cyber war with Russia, their winning, and there's no one with enough power who cares to fight back.

I asked this back when Obama authorized the the NSA to give its intel to other Intelligence Agencies around December:

"What if I told you that "dick-pics boogeyman" NSA were probably the ones who had the dirt on Trump and Russia already?"

At this point that question is rhetorical, but my point is that there ARE people with power who care enough to fight back, but they aren't going to be the goody-two-shoes allies you were hoping for. They are going to be the slimy, shady Intelligence Community made up of some truly sociopathic individuals, because at the end of the day those sociopaths are smart, very smart in fact. So smart that they know if Trump and Russia aren't stopped, they won't have their jobs anymore.

https://twitter.com/markberman/status/871841372239802368



Ummmm, am I reading this right? Did Greenwald turn in a leaker? I've always thought he was a giant piece of shit, but now he's giant piece of shit and a hypocrite.

From the Intercept article itself, Greenwald needed to contact the NSA to get corroborations of the important details. The sources he contacted agreed to corroborate most of what Greenwald had been originally given if he agreed to retract some key details (which he says in the article he did).

The NSA sources that Greenwald contacted apparently must have then figured out who leaked the documents and turned that info over to the FBI.
 

Taker666

Member
Depends very precisely on what "this kind of thing" is. Still no evidence of voter machines being hacked, but there were trojanized Word documents sent to election officials with instructions on how to install the software that lets them check voter registration.

So if a bunch of registered Democrats in targeted districts suddenly showed up as not having been registered, that would be what this report is about.

That they were so certain it was Russian Military Intelligence directly is a big deal too
.

The thing I don't get with claims like this... is how are they so certain? I mean is it a fact?..or just belief? (believing someone did something is very different to have the proof they actually did it).

Tracking specific hackers certainly isn't easy if they know what they are doing. You'd think if Russian Military Intelligence are that good at hacking, then surely they should be just as good at covering their tracks? We know the CIA has the ability to make it look like their hacks were done by Russia/China/whoever...so you'd think Russia would have the same skill set/ability. Unless Russia wants the US to know it was them.
 
I asked this back when Obama authorized the the NSA to give its intel to other Intelligence Agencies around December:

"What if I told you that "dick-pics boogeyman" NSA were probably the ones who had the dirt on Trump and Russia already?"

At this point that question is rhetorical, but my point is that there ARE people with power who care enough to fight back, but they aren't going to be the goody-two-shoes allies you were hoping for. They are going to be the slimy, shady Intelligence Community made up of some truly sociopathic individuals, because at the end of the day those sociopaths are smart, very smart in fact. So smart that they know if Trump and Russia aren't stopped, they won't have their jobs anymore.

Well, I guess I should have been clearer in meaning, no one in any major way. I mean, I am sure that are groups within the IC that are doing all kinds of things on the down low that we don't know about, and probably will never know about. But this shouldn't really be a shadow fight. We should have a President and a Congress who are thinking about how to stop and fight this. We don't. At best, we have a President and Congess who don't give a shit, and at worst, one that may very well be part of it in direct and indirect ways.
 
Hacking voter registration is very interesting and actually seems plausible. There's no same day registration so people would show up to find out they can't vote. Still if they did this in any degree of scale there would be backlash. You can't manipulate 1000s of registrations and expect there to be no scandal or investigation.

Happened to people during the primary in my exes district and dozens walked away until people threw a shit fit and got "provisional" ballots that probably got thrown in the fucking trash. When she and others posted about it on FB people called them liars and tin foil hat crazies.
 
Sure seems like it.

Edit: Not so much "turned in" but didn't protect her.

From the Intercept article itself, Greenwald needed to contact the NSA to get corroborations of the important details. The sources he contacted agreed to corroborate most of what Greenwald had been originally given if he agreed to retract some key details (which he says in the article he did).

The NSA sources that Greenwald contacted apparently must have then figured out who leaked the documents and turned that info over to the FBI.
 
Just saw a report about this on CBS. Fuck. This is a real assault on our country. Trump will probably give Putin a medal for it, though.
 
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