Why Experts Are Sure Russia Hacked the DNC Emails

[Native]

Source: NBC News

Many U.S. officials and cyber security experts in and out of government are convinced that state-sponsored Russian hackers are the ones who stole 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee and leaked them to the public just in time to disrupt the Democrats' national convention in Philadelphia.

Here's why the experts are so confident the Russians did it:

*GEOGRAPHY: At least one of the hacker groups attacking the DNC appeared to cease operations on Russian holidays, and its work hours aligned with a Russian time zone, cybersecurity company FireEye concluded in a report.
*LANGUAGE: The hackers also left an obvious digital fingerprint, one cybersecurity expert said, perhaps on purpose: a signature in Russia's Cyrillic alphabet.
*FORENSIC EVIDENCE: After a different batch of hacked Democratic emails was released last month, a wide spectrum of cyber-security experts concluded that it was the work of Russian intelligence agencies through previously known proxy groups known as COZY BEAR or APT 29, and FANCY BEAR or APT 28. "We've had lots of experience with both of these actors … and know them well," according to the DNC's own contract cybersecurity firm, Crowdstrike, which blogged that one of the two groups had already gained illegal access to the White House, State Department and even the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
*MOTIVE: Given their mutual and very public bromance, Putin would much prefer a Trump presidency to a Clinton one, and the timing suggests the leak was timed for maximum embarrassment to the Democrats and their presumptive nominee. Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said the campaign was told by cyber experts that Russian hackers stole and released the emails to help Trump. "I don't think it's coincidental that these emails were released on the eve of our convention here," said Mook, "and I think that's disturbing."
*HISTORY: U.S. intelligence officials, including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, said they had previously seen evidence of foreign hackers spying on U.S. presidential candidates, including some state-sponsored ones, and that such cyber-intrusions would become even more commonplace.


Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/why-experts-think-russia-hacked-dnc-emails-n616486?cid=sm_tw

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Several paras of comments from Stavridis are also in the article.

[grahamhgreen]

1. It's my Party and our info, we should have access to these emails.

[Igel]

10. Everything belongs to the kolkhoz, everything belongs to me.

Words to an old song.

Taken to legitimize theft of things and money. Or privacy. It's my Party, I own those workers.

Most of us wouldn't like our bosses looking at every email we send. Yet we want to subject those poor employees to having millions of bosses.

If every bit of DNC communication should be public for (D), and anybody can claim to be (D), then the DNC can do nothing that isn't known to (R). People will spend their time being careful about what they say, because everything's going to be read out of context. And spend a lot of time figuring out how to actually do their jobs, which would require no email or coded emails.

[grahamhgreen]

11. Primaries over. Emails should be accessible, in my view.e

[NuclearDem]

26. Some communication has to be compartmentalized and held as confidential for a reason.

Some people may be just fine with letting the Republicans know how the DNC operates and manages its campaigns so long as they get to continue playing the victim, but I'd rather not.

[lewebley3]

2. The tech expert says that Russia left three finger prints: Putin owes money to Trump!

We need hearings! This is Mussolini and Germany in the 40's again

and don't for get that Trump is mobbed form New Jersey to New York:
he lets mob employees stay for free in his towers.

Trump said he will eliminate problems on his 1st day: how can he do this
without eliminating people. He has already threaten and kidded out the press
at his rallies. (Washington post)( the KKK are saying their times has come).

To arms again my fellow Americans: we need to fight fascism in own back your
time.

We need to expose Trump under belly he is hiding! and warn the people of
his villainy and treachy he has in mind for the American people. (Like Moussioni
hid).

[DFW]

3. But, but, but......

I read all sorts of posts on Alternet that the Russians had nothing to do with all this, and the Alternet posters know better than anyone.

Don't they?

I was in Germany before and after the wall fell, and I witnessed first hand the disillusionment when it was revealed in the archives of the East German Secret Police (Stasi) that they had been behind the scenes, pulling the strings, both financial and strategic, of many of the West German far left groups. I'm not talking about the SPD, I'm talking about the DKP (Deutsche Kommunistische Partei), KPD (a separate group), and the "Fundi (fundamentalist)" wing of the Greens. Putin, stationed in East Germany and fluent in German, was there at the time, so he knows how this game is played, and he is many years away from retirement.

[Cosmocat]

4. Can you imagine the furor if this had happened to the RNC

in this way?

[SunSeeker]

5. K & R for exposure.

[uawchild]

6. "The rush to blame Russia for the DNC email hack is premature"

It’s amazing how quickly the media are willing to forgo any skepticism and jump to conspiracy-tinged conclusions where Putin is involved. He has been linked to everything from Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn, Greece and Spain. People treat him like an omnipotent mastermind who secretly and effortlessly controls world events. Here’s an idea: maybe we should stop giving him so much credit?

Yes, there is some circumstantial evidence that the hack may have originated in Russia, but there are also many questions that haven’t been resolved. As Adam Johnson detailed, when you look closely, the evidence is shoddy and often contradictory. Even in the New York Times article that spent dozens of paragraphs speculating about Russian involvement concluded at the bottom: “It may take months, or years, to figure out the motives of those who stole the emails, and more important, whether they were being commanded by Russian authorities, and specifically by Putin.”

The bulk of the “evidence” has come from the statements of cybersecurity firms FireEye and Crowdstrike, both of which have lucrative contracts with the US government. As FireEye’s CEO once made clear, his company has a financial stake in nation-state hacking tensions.

If the allegations involving Russia are true, there are plenty more logical motivations besides evil genius-level electioneering, and the media should probably stop feigning shock that a country would stoop to this level. As Edward Snowden pointed out on Twitter with an accompanying NSA document, “Our government specifically authorized the hacking of political parties.” The US has also considered hacking and then releasing sensitive and embarrassing information in China in retaliation for cybersecurity attacks, as the New York Times reported last year.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/25/russia-blame-dnc-email-hack-premature

The selective outrage, sometimes, is just truly truly stunning. So it goes.

[Native]

7. I respect the Guardian, but they don't have all the pieces. The hack has also been corroborated by

Yahoo. A DNC staffer's personal email account was hacked. She received an email from a Yahoo chief stating that a State Sponsored group was responsible (per MSNBC).

They are also looking at this in a vacuum - none of Trump and Putin's connections have been mentioned (Manafort and the 2 other "pro-Russia" campaign staffers, debt owed to Russian banks and Russian individuals, the change in the RNC platform, etc.).

[pnwmom]

8. The willingness by some to be duped as to the motives of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange

is truly stunning.

[Tempest]

14. You're quick to discount the evidence

Which is overwhelming that the Russian government was involved. The IP address and VPN network used is the same one the Russian government used to hack federal government web sites in 2014. The technique used matched that of the Russian government's hack of Ukrainian servers and the VPN network used was the same as the one used against the DNC. And more.

http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2016/07/how-putin-weaponized-wikileaks-influence-election-american-president/130163/

[Tempest]

15. US intelligence agencies have high confidence Russian government behind hack

American intelligence agencies have told the White House they now have “high confidence” that the Russian government was behind the theft of emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee, according to federal officials who have been briefed on the evidence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/us/politics/spy-agency-consensus-grows-that-russia-hacked-dnc.html

[uawchild]

17. The Guardian article debunked your talking points

Most likely
Probably
With high confidence

Lol so no proof? Even your own articles that you have posted just say that server was one "for Russian online scams"

You just have no definitive proof the Russian government was behind the hack. If you did you would post it. Lol

I will wait until the FBI releases an actual report, if they ever do.

[Tempest]

19. Sure, just keep ignoring the evidence

It's what you're good at.

[uawchild]

20. Why are you ignoring the Guardian article?

Because it doesn't fit your narrative?

I suppose so.

[Tempest]

21. Well, this could explain why you're ignoring the evidence

http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-internet-trolls-and-donald-trump-2016-7

[uawchild]

24. That's all you have is personal insults? lol

Here, let me quote the Guardian article you are ignoring:

"The rush to blame Russia for the DNC email hack is premature"

It’s amazing how quickly the media are willing to forgo any skepticism and jump to conspiracy-tinged conclusions where Putin is involved. He has been linked to everything from Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn, Greece and Spain. People treat him like an omnipotent mastermind who secretly and effortlessly controls world events. Here’s an idea: maybe we should stop giving him so much credit?

Yes, there is some circumstantial evidence that the hack may have originated in Russia, but there are also many questions that haven’t been resolved. As Adam Johnson detailed, when you look closely, the evidence is shoddy and often contradictory. Even in the New York Times article that spent dozens of paragraphs speculating about Russian involvement concluded at the bottom: “It may take months, or years, to figure out the motives of those who stole the emails, and more important, whether they were being commanded by Russian authorities, and specifically by Putin.”

The bulk of the “evidence” has come from the statements of cybersecurity firms FireEye and Crowdstrike, both of which have lucrative contracts with the US government. As FireEye’s CEO once made clear, his company has a financial stake in nation-state hacking tensions.

If the allegations involving Russia are true, there are plenty more logical motivations besides evil genius-level electioneering, and the media should probably stop feigning shock that a country would stoop to this level. As Edward Snowden pointed out on Twitter with an accompanying NSA document, “Our government specifically authorized the hacking of political parties.” The US has also considered hacking and then releasing sensitive and embarrassing information in China in retaliation for cybersecurity attacks, as the New York Times reported last year.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/25/russia-blame-dnc-email-hack-premature

[Native]

9. Two Words: Economic Sanctions

http://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2016/07/trump-time-capsule-57-russia-and-taxes/493031/

These new developments underscore the importance of an old, familiar point: now, more than ever, Donald Trump must release his tax returns. To put it differently, the press should no longer “normalize” his stonewalling on this issue.

As another veteran figure in the defense world and political affairs wrote to me this morning:

In normal times, this [the Russian hacking] would be the lead on all network news. But these are not normal times.

I am having trouble getting through to some people that this is a real thing. The very people who always say “follow the money” with regard to the Pentagon [or other boondoggle bureaucracies] don’t see that (a) Trump has been kept afloat for about 15 years by Russian oligarchs; and (b) Russia has a powerful incentive to see a US president who will end economic sanctions.

[grahamhgreen]

12. Oh yeah... Forgot we need to go to war with Russia to make money for the hoarding class.

[Melissa G]

13. Snopes has a lot

http://www.snopes.com/2016/07/25/what-we-know-so-far-about-wikileaks-dncleaks/





snip

Still, it’s worth being clear that there’s zero evidence that Trump or Manafort has direct ties to the Russian government. On the other hand, there is significant circumstantial evidence that the attacks on the DNC were closely linked to Russian intelligence agencies. Multiple security researchers have looked at forensic evidence from the attacks and concluded that the attackers used the same kind of techniques that Russian intelligence agencies have used against other targets around the world.
snip
WikiLeaks also weighed in on the claims, repeatedly maintaining anyone claiming to know the source of the leaks was lying:

Wikileaks also suggested the leak might have come from inside the DNC. Similarly, in a July 2016 interview with Democracy Now! Assange insinuated that the leaks were internal in nature. Moreover, Assange stated that the DNC's "Russian spies" claim did not itself agree with the dates it provided for breaches. Assange referenced the above-embedded interview [audio] between Robby Mook and Jake Tapper; Assange stated that the clip was cut off early, and Mook was unable to name the "experts" referenced:

AMY GOODMAN: So, that was Robby Mook citing experts saying the DNC emails were leaked by the Russians. You were the one who released these 20,000 emails, Julian Assange. Where did you get them? JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, what’s not in that clip there by Robby is that, just afterwards, he was asked by Jake Tapper, "Who are these experts? Can you name them?" The answer was no, a refusal to name the experts. But we have seen one of the experts, so-called experts, that the Democratic Party is trying to base its incredible conspiracy theory on about WikiLeaks. And that is this—what we jokingly refer to as the NSA dick pic guy. He’s a former National Security Agency agent who started to produce conspiracy theories about us in 2013, when we were involved in the Edward Snowden rescue, as a means to try and undermine the Snowden publications, subsequently embroiled in some amateur pornography scandal. That’s why they don’t want to name their experts, because they are people like this. In relation to sourcing, I can say some things. A, we never reveal our sources, obviously. That’s what we pride ourselves on. And we won’t in this case, either. But no one knows who our source is. It’s simply speculation. It’s, I think, interesting and acceptable to speculate who our sources are. But if we’re talking about the DNC, there’s lots of consultants that have access, lots of programmers. And the DNC has been hacked dozens and dozens of times. Even according to its own reports, it had been hacked extensively over the last few years. And the dates of the emails that we published are significantly after all, or all but one—it’s not clear—of the hacking allegations that the DNC says have occurred.

[newthinking]

16. Yep, as does FAIR. Seems though that facts don't matter much

if it is convenient politically.

This is very dangerous. Considering that we ourselves have meddled in Russia and all over the world: Even if it were true it should not be unexpected. But doing this when we are still in the campaign is going to severely increase tensions.

The Neocons, specifically Robert Kagan, have said that he wants NUCLEAR WAR with Russia. This is absolutely nuts.


What Fair.org (Fairness and Accuracy in the Media) says

The actual culpability of Russia for those leaks, it’s worth noting, is still unproven. The only three parties that have audited the hack are contractors for the US government, and the DNC’s initial story has since changed considerably. At first the DNC (and by extension their security firm CrowdStrike) said ”no financial, donor or personal information appears to have been accessed or taken,” but this later turned out not to be true at all.

Six weeks since the hack was first revealed by the Washington Post (6/14/16), no one in the US government, including the FBI and White House (who have reportedly reviewed the situation in detail), have implicated or even suggested Russian involvement in the leak–neither on the record nor anonymously. Thus far, all suggestions to this effect have taken place outside the organs of the United States government — a common and deliberate conflation that even led to this correction in the Vox recap of the situation (7/23/16):

Thus far, the Obama administration has avoided any such claims. Indeed, if one reads carefully, so have the security firms in question. Buried in the followup report by the Washington Post (6/20/16) alleging “confirmation” of Russian involvement is the admission by the three firms (the “experts” Clinton’s camp refers to) that they cannot be sure WikiLeaks’ alleged source Guccifer 2.0 is Russian, let alone an agent of “Putin”:

[Nihil]

18. My, what a coincidence ...

> The only three parties that have audited the hack are contractors for the US government

Amazing how so many people are not only incapable of reading beyond a headline (to find
that the content says the opposite) but are also so quick to deflect any event into a way
to revive the Cold War ...

[Melissa G]

23. Thanks for the follow up.

DU used be be good about digging for Truth and posting linked articles that way. It was what I really respected about this community.

[Grey Lemercier]

22. Although it looks at first glance to be the Russians I feel we all need to wait for definitive proof

I abhor rushes to judgement on either side.

[workinclasszero]

25. This story is huge!

Russian intelligence agencies hacking into the DNC to benefit Trump!?

Wow!

Watergate is small potatoes compared to this!