• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

What we know about the 21 states targeted by Russian hackers

Rogue Valley

Rogue Valley

Lead or get out of the way
DP Veteran
Joined
Apr 18, 2013
Messages
94,171
Reaction score
82,449
Location
Barsoom
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Independent
What we know about the 21 states targeted by Russian hackers

By Callum Borchers September 23, 2017

imrs.php


The Department of Homeland Security was short on details when it said Friday that it had notified 21 states of Russian efforts to hack their election systems in 2016. For one thing, the department didn't publicly identify the states. For another, it didn't say how many of the hacking attempts were successful — or to what degree. Based on reporting by The Washington Post, Associated Press and other news outlets — plus statements issued by some state officials — we now have a complete list of the affected states. The Fix has mapped and categorized them, according to what we know about the success or failure of the cyberattacks....

continued @ link above
Click to expand...

The article details what is currently known about Russian hacks into the 2016 state election processes.
 
I see my home state of Indiana wasn't breached. No surprise there as my state put Trump over the top in the primaries so no need to tamper.
 
EnigmaO01 said:
I see my home state of Indiana wasn't breached. No surprise there as my state put Trump over the top in the primaries so no need to tamper.
Click to expand...


Thanks for bobble head Pence!
 
Rexedgar said:
But Russia hacks is nothing more than a hoax! Fake news! Did DHS clear this with the White House?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/22/russia-hoax-trump-facebook-investigation-ads
Click to expand...

Actually from your own citation....

Trump has regularly characterized as a “hoax” and “witch hunt” anything linking his election campaign to evidence or suggestions it sought and obtained help from Russia.
Click to expand...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/22/russia-hoax-trump-facebook-investigation-ads

While there may be evidence that Russia could have been hacking this past (and perhaps prior) election cycle, there has yet to be shown any evidence the Trump campaign was directly involved.

Major nations, including the Unite States, have been attempting to fiddle with the elections of other nations for quite some time now. Sometimes with the support of those they are trying to get elected, sometimes not.

Until the investigation shows Trump's campaign was cooperating with such interference, and that Mr. Trump was aware and supportive of it?

It will remain a "hoax/ witch hunt" pursued solely to justify the loser's belief that Trump could only have overturned their pre-conceived election victory by cheating.
 
OP link is behind a paywall. What does "sorta breached" mean? If these cyber wizards are able to tell precisely who "sorta breached" their systems then why could they not secure those systems from access by these (known to be unauthorized?) users?
 
holbritter said:
What was the hackers purpose? Their goal? And what does "sorta breached" even mean?
Click to expand...

Of course it's impossible to know for certain, but I think the Russian purpose here was to "get the lay of the land" or as we say in the military "shape the battlefield". They wanted to see what protections (if any) exist on state electoral systems and knowing such information would simplify engaging in more aggressive future attacks. Trumps 'hoax' stance on this matter will only serve to encourage the Russians ... there being no disincentive to not up the ante in 2018/2020.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
OP link is behind a paywall. What does "sorta breached" mean? If these cyber wizards are able to tell precisely who "sorta breached" their systems then why could they not secure those systems from access by these (known to be unauthorized?) users?
Click to expand...

Arizona was "sorta breached". The Russian hackers did not compromise the state voter registration system or even any county system. They did, however, steal the username and password of a single election official in Gila County, state officials said.”
 
Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette (D) told me on Saturday that although a cyberattack on his state was unsuccessful, hacking is "for sure" a greater concern than voter fraud, which President Trump has called a "big problem."​

Really?

How many votes were affected in the "hacking"?
 
Rogue Valley said:
Arizona was "sorta breached". The Russian hackers did not compromise the state voter registration system or even any county system. They did, however, steal the username and password of a single election official in Gila County, state officials said.”
Click to expand...

The horror! No wonder Hillary lost the election.
 
I wonder when DHS is going to notify states of US government attempts to hack their election systems?


 
Mycroft said:
I wonder when DHS is going to notify states of US government attempts to hack their election systems?
Click to expand...


Wasn't this one a journalistic error?

Where the definition of "hacking" was stretched to cover some more innocuous, SOP, activity?

Forgive me it's hard and nearly pointless to keep up with all of the "nothing burgers" in the world.

Maybe this wasn't one of them
 
Simon W. Moon said:
Wasn't this one a journalistic error?

Where the definition of "hacking" was stretched to cover some more innocuous, SOP, activity?

Forgive me it's hard and nearly pointless to keep up with all of the "nothing burgers" in the world.

Maybe this wasn't one of them
Click to expand...

It's against the law for the federal government to attempt to hack into a state's computer system...unless the state gives them permission.

Hardly a nothingburger.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
The horror! No wonder Hillary lost the election.
Click to expand...

The Russian hacks/probes of the states election systems did not affect the 20216 election whatsoever.

But since Trump has all but encouraged it (hoax etc), the Russian hacker-teams (Fancy Bear/Cozy Bear) will probably get much more serious in 20128/2020.
 
Mycroft said:
It's against the law for the federal government to attempt to hack into a state's computer system...unless the state gives them permission.

Hardly a nothingburger.
Click to expand...

If only this same attitude existed among Trump supporters concerning the Russian hacks.
 
Mycroft said:
It's against the law for the federal government to attempt to hack into a state's computer system...unless the state gives them permission.
Hardly a nothingburger.
Click to expand...

Iirc, the issue was over what actually constitutes "hacking".
Iirc, the definition was not met.

I may be wrong. Once I noticed it was nothing, I promptly proceeded to something else.


Do you recall what exactly happened?
Did some USG computer do a port-scan of the GA computer or something?

Iirc, the action didn't actually rise to the level of concern and was actually something innocuous that a politician seized upon and mis-labeled for political points.

[Shocking, inorite?
A politician and a journalist mis-understanding, mis-labeling, and mis-reporting technical events to sensationalize them.
(But bear with me as I roll down far-out conspiracy theory lane where this sort of thing happens with disconcerting regularity)]

But I may be wrong.
Do you recall the actual details of what happened?
[for lurkers playing along at home, "hacking" is not a detail]
 
Rogue Valley said:
If only this same attitude existed among Trump supporters concerning the Russian hacks.
Click to expand...

If only this same attitude existed among the left/Trump haters concerning the Obama administration using their governmental powers for political purposes.
 
Simon W. Moon said:
Iirc, the issue was over what actually constitutes "hacking".
Iirc, the definition was not met.

I may be wrong. Once I noticed it was nothing, I promptly proceeded to something else.


Do you recall what exactly happened?
Did some USG computer do a port-scan of the GA computer or something?

Iirc, the action didn't actually rise to the level of concern and was actually something innocuous that a politician seized upon and mis-labeled for political points.

[Shocking, inorite?
A politician and a journalist mis-understanding, mis-labeling, and mis-reporting technical events to sensationalize them.
(But bear with me as I roll down far-out conspiracy theory lane where this sort of thing happens with disconcerting regularity)]

But I may be wrong.
Do you recall the actual details of what happened?
[for lurkers playing along at home, "hacking" is not a detail]
Click to expand...

Here is the letter that the Georgia Secretary of State sent to DHS: https://www.documentcloud.org/docum...cretary-of-State-Letter-to-DHS-Secretary.html

It states there was an attempt to penetrate the Georgia Secretary of State's firewall.

I don't know...I guess people can quibble about what constitutes a hack, but trying to penetrate a State's firewall meets the definition in my opinion...as well as the opinion of the Georgia Secretary of State.
 
Rogue Valley said:
Of course it's impossible to know for certain, but I think the Russian purpose here was to "get the lay of the land" or as we say in the military "shape the battlefield". They wanted to see what protections (if any) exist on state electoral systems and knowing such information would simplify engaging in more aggressive future attacks. Trumps 'hoax' stance on this matter will only serve to encourage the Russians ... there being no disincentive to not up the ante in 2018/2020.
Click to expand...
This is it, exactly.

Trump is not carrying-out his first responsibility to the country: protection

Instead he dismisses the interference as a hoax, leaving us open to more! I call this dereliction of duty.

So now the question is, why does Trump do (dismiss) this?

1] At best, for political expediency.

2] At worse, well we better hope Mueller performs and Congress delivers.
 
Sorta breached? You either are or you are not. There is no inbetween. And what exactly was being hacked? Emails? Records? Voting machines? What? Can't read due to paywall.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom