CBS News confirms multiple breaches of Sharyl Attkisson’s computer

Taylor said:

Of course, with this administration such a denial could mean they had nothing to do with it, but could just as easily mean that they simply chose to provide "the least untruthful answer" regarding their criminal intrusion.

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Helix said:

Moderator's Warning:

Threads merged.

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pbrauer said:

Here is what the report said:

Eugene H. Spafford, a Purdue University professor and specialist in computer security, said that Attkisson’s initial statements about computer intrusions left open a wide field of possibilities, from viruses to botnet activity to acquaintances to criminal gangs to the government. The Erik Wemple Blog asked Spafford for his take after looking over the CBS News statement. “The details given are too sparse to really be able to say anything new,” he responded.​

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American said:

Limbaugh Theorem - nothing touches Obama. But Obama hires people that are fanatics, and take action on their own maybe. Of course he didn't know this when he hired them. :roll:

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Wehrwolfen said:

By Erik Wemple,
June 14, 2013

CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson revealed in May that her computer had been compromised. When asked about the situation, CBS News responded with a statement that it was conducting an investigation.

That investigation has reached the following conclusions, according to CBS News spokeswoman Sonya McNair:

“A cyber security firm hired by CBS News has determined through forensic analysis that Sharyl Attkisson’s computer was accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions late in 2012. Evidence suggests this party performed all access remotely using Attkisson’s accounts. While no malicious code was found, forensic analysis revealed an intruder had executed commands that appeared to involve search and exfiltration of data.


(Excerpt)

Read more:
CBS News confirms multiple breaches of Sharyl Attkisson’s computer

Now why would the DOJ issue a response regarding the hacking of Ms. Attkisson's computers? I wonder if her phones and those of her family were also tapped too?

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American said:

Limbaugh Theorem - nothing touches Obama. But Obama hires people that are fanatics, and take action on their own maybe. Of course he didn't know this when he hired them. :roll:

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LowDown said:

Mob bosses never have to say "kill that guy."

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Wehrwolfen said:

By Erik Wemple,
June 14, 2013

CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson revealed in May that her computer had been compromised. When asked about the situation, CBS News responded with a statement that it was conducting an investigation.

That investigation has reached the following conclusions, according to CBS News spokeswoman Sonya McNair:

“A cyber security firm hired by CBS News has determined through forensic analysis that Sharyl Attkisson’s computer was accessed by an unauthorized, external, unknown party on multiple occasions late in 2012. Evidence suggests this party performed all access remotely using Attkisson’s accounts. While no malicious code was found, forensic analysis revealed an intruder had executed commands that appeared to involve search and exfiltration of data.


(Excerpt)

Read more:
CBS News confirms multiple breaches of Sharyl Attkisson’s computer

Now why would the DOJ issue a response regarding the hacking of Ms. Attkisson's computers? I wonder if her phones and those of her family were also tapped too?

Click to expand...

Fenton said:

This type of illegal activity along with a desperately ill economy and destructive Fed policies are going to be the sum total of Obama's legacy.

A reminder for future Americans of just how important a vote is.

I'm going to make the prediction that soon after 2016 a mathmatical formula is going to be applied to all elections that weeds out the chronic stupidity of Democrat voters.

Nah, but it would be nice.

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Fenton said:

This type of illegal activity along with a desperately ill economy and destructive Fed policies are going to be the sum total of Obama's legacy.

A reminder for future Americans of just how important a vote is.

I'm going to make the prediction that soon after 2016 a mathmatical formula is going to be applied to all elections that weeds out the chronic stupidity of Democrat voters.

Nah, but it would be nice.

Click to expand...

pbrauer said:

Here is what the report said:

Eugene H. Spafford, a Purdue University professor and specialist in computer security, said that Attkisson’s initial statements about computer intrusions left open a wide field of possibilities, from viruses to botnet activity to acquaintances to criminal gangs to the government. The Erik Wemple Blog asked Spafford for his take after looking over the CBS News statement. “The details given are too sparse to really be able to say anything new,” he responded.​

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code1211 said:

It will be interesting if the mid terms reflect the weight of the abuses going on right now.

I haven't seen any member of the Administration talking on the TV lately that is not trying to explain why secrecy is good, lying is good, deception is good, theft is good, power is good, abuse of that power is good, international impotence is good, debt is good or anything else that we were raised to know is bad is suddenly good.

What is going on here?

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j-mac said:

There are more rational people in this country than those rubes that voted this crap in....The problem is that those like us that see the corruption, and lies have to quit going off in 100 different directions, and stand together against this "Fundamental Transformation" to something other than what we are as Americans.....

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trfjr said:

does liberals not know how to connect the dots? its not that difficult to do so there is a pattern with a half dozen instances to conform that pattern. stop playing ignorant because i really shouldn't expect some one to be that dumb

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code1211 said:

It will be interesting if the mid terms reflect the weight of the abuses going on right now.

I haven't seen any member of the Administration talking on the TV lately that is not trying to explain why secrecy is good, lying is good, deception is good, theft is good, power is good, abuse of that power is good, international impotence is good, debt is good or anything else that we were raised to know is bad is suddenly good.

What is going on here?

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notquiteright said:

Probably because most of that rant is ridiculous, however the director of the NSA/head of US Cyber Command, General Alexander was before the Senate this past Wednesday disputing some of Snowden's biggest's big brother claims. he also defended why secrecy was good but that the phone number surveillance program should be further explained to the American people. he said several terror plots have been thwarted due to the NSA programs.

Now some are kicking around another Oxcy Rush intellectual thief and that is amusing. The way I heard it the theory was the Reagan Theory of Deniability.

Back in 1984 there was a botched attempt to trade arms for 7 hostages held by Iran. Israel sent the TOW (2500) and HAWK (18 plus several shipments of spare parts) missiles to Iran and the USofA resupplied Israel. Col. North used the funds to get around the Boland Amendment that prohibited further funding for the Contras, at the time accused of having become little more than right wing death squads.

After the story broke large amounts of the scandal's documentation was destroyed hampering the investigation. There was a handwritten note from then SoD Wienberger saying President Reagan could answer charges of illegality on arms transfers but not for not attempting to free the hostages. Further evidence did point to Reagan knowing of a potential trade of weapons for hostages with 'moderate' elements in the Iran Government.

In 1987 Reagan went on TV to take full responsibility for actions he was supposedly unaware of and that what had been a 'strategic opening with Iran' had become just an arms for hostages deal. No charges against Reagan, 14 of his administration officials were indicted, 11 convicted, ALL pardoned in the last days of GHW Bush's Presidency. Bush, who had at one time been director of the CIA and the VP during the scandal, was never implicated.

The biggest share of the blame fell on the NSA with Director Admiral Poindexter saying he acted without Presidential approval. The shipments of arms had already started before the Admiral took over for McFarlane as NSA Director. At this time Ollie North in the National Security Counsel concocted a direct sales method using funds from the Sultan of Burnei among others, the plan was uncovered when Fawn Hall, Ollie's cute little secretary transposed secret Swiss bank account numbers and sent the funds to the wrong account, that account holder notified authorities of the 10 MILLION dollar error.

Leaks about the arms for hostages program didn't create near the fuss the downed plane load of arms for Contras did in Nicaragua. That ripped it wide open.

So there you have major arms sales to what was then a hated and much campaigned against enemy, Iran. Huge diversions of funds through secret account with CIA assistance to provide arms for a merc unit cut off from funding by Congress, it lasted at least 3 years and would have gone on longer but for leaks and mis-steps by secretaries, with everyone from the SoD, NSA, and the CIA involved.... some indication the President knew of at least PART of the Iran side of the deals...

But the President is held to not have know enough to be included in the indictments. :shock:

So Oxcy Rush stole the theorem from a few decades ago, typical- the guy has no original thoughts, and a MASSIVE series of arms deals were conducted without 'anyone' knowing for YEARS...

So Reagan knew nothing about the illegal parts of Irangate but Obama MUST know everything about whatever scandal the right is working on this week???

Let's see how this lays out first, what I see is a desperate attempt to win back the Senate and not lose anymore seats in the House by the GOP at a time when they are knife fighting among themselves and very vulnerable. the right wing knows if the TeaBaggers go into full revolt and can win some primaries a repeat of the slaughter could happen again in both house and Senate, about the only insurance card the GOP leadership has is to attack the democrats as viciously and as widely as can be done.

And it appears done it shall be.

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General Alexander was before the Senate

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During a March 2012 congressional hearing, NSA Director Keith Alexander told Georgia Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson - 14 times - that his agency wasn't engaged in collecting the kind of domestic digital data that has now become the subject of embarrassing disclosures.

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On March 12, James Clapper, director of national intelligence, testified at an open congressional hearing. Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, asked him whether the National Security Agency collects “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.”

His answer: “No sir.” Then he added: “Not wittingly.”

It was a lie, as everyone now knows from the articles about the N.S.A.’s data-mining program.

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notquiteright said:

Probably because most of that rant is ridiculous, however the director of the NSA/head of US Cyber Command, General Alexander was before the Senate this past Wednesday disputing some of Snowden's biggest's big brother claims. he also defended why secrecy was good but that the phone number surveillance program should be further explained to the American people. he said several terror plots have been thwarted due to the NSA programs.

Now some are kicking around another Oxcy Rush intellectual thief and that is amusing. The way I heard it the theory was the Reagan Theory of Deniability.

Back in 1984 there was a botched attempt to trade arms for 7 hostages held by Iran. Israel sent the TOW (2500) and HAWK (18 plus several shipments of spare parts) missiles to Iran and the USofA resupplied Israel. Col. North used the funds to get around the Boland Amendment that prohibited further funding for the Contras, at the time accused of having become little more than right wing death squads.

After the story broke large amounts of the scandal's documentation was destroyed hampering the investigation. There was a handwritten note from then SoD Wienberger saying President Reagan could answer charges of illegality on arms transfers but not for not attempting to free the hostages. Further evidence did point to Reagan knowing of a potential trade of weapons for hostages with 'moderate' elements in the Iran Government.

In 1987 Reagan went on TV to take full responsibility for actions he was supposedly unaware of and that what had been a 'strategic opening with Iran' had become just an arms for hostages deal. No charges against Reagan, 14 of his administration officials were indicted, 11 convicted, ALL pardoned in the last days of GHW Bush's Presidency. Bush, who had at one time been director of the CIA and the VP during the scandal, was never implicated.

The biggest share of the blame fell on the NSA with Director Admiral Poindexter saying he acted without Presidential approval. The shipments of arms had already started before the Admiral took over for McFarlane as NSA Director. At this time Ollie North in the National Security Counsel concocted a direct sales method using funds from the Sultan of Burnei among others, the plan was uncovered when Fawn Hall, Ollie's cute little secretary transposed secret Swiss bank account numbers and sent the funds to the wrong account, that account holder notified authorities of the 10 MILLION dollar error.

Leaks about the arms for hostages program didn't create near the fuss the downed plane load of arms for Contras did in Nicaragua. That ripped it wide open.

So there you have major arms sales to what was then a hated and much campaigned against enemy, Iran. Huge diversions of funds through secret account with CIA assistance to provide arms for a merc unit cut off from funding by Congress, it lasted at least 3 years and would have gone on longer but for leaks and mis-steps by secretaries, with everyone from the SoD, NSA, and the CIA involved.... some indication the President knew of at least PART of the Iran side of the deals...

But the President is held to not have know enough to be included in the indictments. :shock:

So Oxcy Rush stole the theorem from a few decades ago, typical- the guy has no original thoughts, and a MASSIVE series of arms deals were conducted without 'anyone' knowing for YEARS...

So Reagan knew nothing about the illegal parts of Irangate but Obama MUST know everything about whatever scandal the right is working on this week???

Let's see how this lays out first, what I see is a desperate attempt to win back the Senate and not lose anymore seats in the House by the GOP at a time when they are knife fighting among themselves and very vulnerable. the right wing knows if the TeaBaggers go into full revolt and can win some primaries a repeat of the slaughter could happen again in both house and Senate, about the only insurance card the GOP leadership has is to attack the democrats as viciously and as widely as can be done.

And it appears done it shall be.

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code1211 said:

That's all interesting and ancient to the considerations of today.

What is the connection to what I wrote?

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he said several terror plots have been thwarted due to the NSA programs

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Two prominent Senate critics of the NSA's dragnet surveillance have challenged the agency's assertion that the spy efforts helped stop "dozens" of terror attacks.

Mark Udall and Ron Wyden, both members of the Senate intelligence committee, said they were not convinced by the testimony of the NSA director, General Keith Alexander, on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, who claimed that evidence gleaned from surveillance helped thwart attacks in the US.

"We have not yet seen any evidence showing that the NSA's dragnet collection of Americans' phone records has produced any uniquely valuable intelligence," they said in a statement released on Thursday ahead of a widely anticipated briefing for US senators about the National Security Agency's activities.

"When you're talking about important liberties that the American people feel strongly about, and you want to have an intelligence program, you've got to make a case for why it provides unique value to the [intelligence] community atop what they can already have," Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, told the Guardian in an interview on Thursday.

Alexander testified before the Senate appropriations committee that maintaining a database of millions of Americans' phone records was critical to thwarting "dozens" of plots. One of the examples Alexander mentioned, the case of would-be New York subway bomber Najibullah Zazi, appears to have been prevented by conventional police surveillance, including efforts by UK investigators.

"Gen Alexander's testimony yesterday suggested that the NSA's bulk phone records collection program helped thwart 'dozens' of terrorist attacks, but all of the plots that he mentioned appear to have been identified using other collection methods," Wyden and Udall said in a statement. "The public deserves a clear explanation."

"I have real reservations that the argument that they can't be evaluated separately," Wyden said. "If a program provides unique value, the people running it ought to explain it. I'm certainly open to doing that in a classified setting, and I know of a program where they haven't done it."

Wyden said he could not elaborate on what that program is, citing its classified nature.

"If they claim that this program has lots of safeguards, wouldn't you expect they would detail them – 'Here are the procedures for following up on an individual'?" Wyden said. "This is certainly an issue I have a strong interest in."

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Lawyers and intelligence experts with direct knowledge of two intercepted terrorist plots that the Obama administration says confirm the value of the NSA's vast data-mining activities have questioned whether the surveillance sweeps played a significant role, if any, in foiling the attacks.

In the case of Zazi, an Afghan American who planned to attack the New York subway, the breakthrough appears to have come from Operation Pathway, a British investigation into a suspected terrorism cell in the north-west of England in 2009. That investigation discovered that one of the members of the cell had been in contact with an al-Qaida associate in Pakistan via the email address sana_pakhtana@yahoo.com. British newspaper reports at the time of Zazi's arrest said that UK intelligence passed on the email address to the US. The same email address, as Buzzfeed has pointed out, was cited in Zazi's 2011 trial as a crucial piece of evidence. Zazi, the court heard, wrote to sana_pakhtana@yahoo.com asking in coded language for the precise quantities to use to make up a bomb.

Eric Jurgenson, an FBI agent involved in investigating Zazi once the link to the Pakistani email address was made, told the court: "My office was in receipt – I was notified, I should say. My office was in receipt of several email messages, email communications. Those email communications, several of them resolved to an individual living in Colorado."

Michael Dowling, a Denver-based attorney who acted as Zazi's defence counsel, said the full picture remained unclear as Zazi pleaded guilty before all details of the investigation were made public. But the lawyer said he was sceptical that mass data sweeps could explain what led law enforcement to Zazi. "The government says that it does not monitor content of these communications in its data collection. So I find it hard to believe that this would have uncovered Zazi's contacts with a known terrorist in Pakistan," Dowling said.

Further scepticism has been expressed by David Davis, a former British foreign office minister who described the citing of the Zazi case as an example of the merits of data-mining as "misleading" and "an illusion". Davis said that the discovery of the sana_pakhtana@yahoo.com email – and in turn the link to Zazi – had been made by traditional investigative work in the UK. He said the clue-driven nature of the inquiry was significant, as it was propelled by detectives operating on the basis of court-issued warrants. "You can't make this grand sweeping [data collection] stuff subject to warrants. What judge would give you a warrant if you say you want to comb through vast quantities of data?"

In July 2009, British intelligence began tracking Headley, a Pakistani American from Chicago, who was then plotting to attack Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in retaliation for its publication of cartoons of the prophet Mohammed. Information was passed to the FBI and he was thereafter, until his arrest that October, kept under targeted US surveillance. An intelligence expert and former CIA operative, who asked to remain anonymous because he had been directly involved in the Headley case, was derisive about the claim that data-mining sweeps by the NSA were key to the investigation. "That's nonsense. It played no role at all in the Headley case. That's not the way it happened at all," he said. The intelligence expert said that it was a far more ordinary lead that ensnared Headley. British investigators spotted him when he contacted an informant.

The Headley case is a peculiar choice for the administration to highlight as an example of the virtues of data-mining. The fact that the Mumbai attacks occurred, with such devastating effect, in itself suggests that the NSA's secret programmes were limited in their value as he was captured only after the event.

Headley was also subject to a plethora of more conventionally obtained intelligence that questions the central role claimed for the NSA's data sweeps behind his arrest. In a long profile of Headley, the investigative website ProPublica pointed out that he had been an informant working for the Drug Enforcement Administration perhaps as recently as 2005. There are suggestions that he might have then worked in some capacity for the FBI or CIA. Headley was also, ProPublica found, the subject of several inquiries by agents of the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force. A year before the Mumbai attacks his then wife, Faiza Outalha, reported on him to the US embassy Islamabad, saying he was on a secret mission in India and was a "drug dealer, terrorist and spy".

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notquiteright said:

Probably because most of that rant is ridiculous, however the director of the NSA/head of US Cyber Command, General Alexander was before the Senate this past Wednesday disputing some of Snowden's biggest's big brother claims. he also defended why secrecy was good but that the phone number surveillance program should be further explained to the American people. he said several terror plots have been thwarted due to the NSA programs.

Now some are kicking around another Oxcy Rush intellectual thief and that is amusing. The way I heard it the theory was the Reagan Theory of Deniability.

Back in 1984 there was a botched attempt to trade arms for 7 hostages held by Iran. Israel sent the TOW (2500) and HAWK (18 plus several shipments of spare parts) missiles to Iran and the USofA resupplied Israel. Col. North used the funds to get around the Boland Amendment that prohibited further funding for the Contras, at the time accused of having become little more than right wing death squads.

After the story broke large amounts of the scandal's documentation was destroyed hampering the investigation. There was a handwritten note from then SoD Wienberger saying President Reagan could answer charges of illegality on arms transfers but not for not attempting to free the hostages. Further evidence did point to Reagan knowing of a potential trade of weapons for hostages with 'moderate' elements in the Iran Government.

In 1987 Reagan went on TV to take full responsibility for actions he was supposedly unaware of and that what had been a 'strategic opening with Iran' had become just an arms for hostages deal. No charges against Reagan, 14 of his administration officials were indicted, 11 convicted, ALL pardoned in the last days of GHW Bush's Presidency. Bush, who had at one time been director of the CIA and the VP during the scandal, was never implicated.

The biggest share of the blame fell on the NSA with Director Admiral Poindexter saying he acted without Presidential approval. The shipments of arms had already started before the Admiral took over for McFarlane as NSA Director. At this time Ollie North in the National Security Counsel concocted a direct sales method using funds from the Sultan of Burnei among others, the plan was uncovered when Fawn Hall, Ollie's cute little secretary transposed secret Swiss bank account numbers and sent the funds to the wrong account, that account holder notified authorities of the 10 MILLION dollar error.

Leaks about the arms for hostages program didn't create near the fuss the downed plane load of arms for Contras did in Nicaragua. That ripped it wide open.

So there you have major arms sales to what was then a hated and much campaigned against enemy, Iran. Huge diversions of funds through secret account with CIA assistance to provide arms for a merc unit cut off from funding by Congress, it lasted at least 3 years and would have gone on longer but for leaks and mis-steps by secretaries, with everyone from the SoD, NSA, and the CIA involved.... some indication the President knew of at least PART of the Iran side of the deals...

But the President is held to not have know enough to be included in the indictments. :shock:

So Oxcy Rush stole the theorem from a few decades ago, typical- the guy has no original thoughts, and a MASSIVE series of arms deals were conducted without 'anyone' knowing for YEARS...

So Reagan knew nothing about the illegal parts of Irangate but Obama MUST know everything about whatever scandal the right is working on this week???

Let's see how this lays out first, what I see is a desperate attempt to win back the Senate and not lose anymore seats in the House by the GOP at a time when they are knife fighting among themselves and very vulnerable. the right wing knows if the TeaBaggers go into full revolt and can win some primaries a repeat of the slaughter could happen again in both house and Senate, about the only insurance card the GOP leadership has is to attack the democrats as viciously and as widely as can be done.

And it appears done it shall be.

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notquiteright said:

Ahhh so those who fail to remember the past... , only applies when the Partisan Right wishes it to? :roll:

What you wrote was unfounded and highly Partisan conjecture. What I posted was history, I do see how some on the Radical Right fail to see the difference, especially if they are dismissive of anything not bolstering their version of 'history'.... :2wave:

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Eighty Deuce said:

BFD !! Iran Contra rates right up there with us sending arms to the Syrian rebels, which Obama has been doing for almost a year. That is way down the list of hot-topic scandals right now. Heck, while the Dems were all up in arms about Iran-Contra, there's not a peep out of them over Syrian Arms.

We've got the IRS, Benghazi, Fast and Furious, Spygate (AP and Fox) all of which which most Dems want to whitewash. Obama is far and away the most corrupt Admin of modern times. There's not even a close second. It would be LBJ if so.

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