(HUH?): Obama cyber chief confirms 'stand down' order against Russian cyberattacks in summer 2016

Soooooo, what should we think about this? Me personally, I think that maybe these ‘cyber attacks’ were allowed to continue so that in the event a certain candidate lost they would be the perfect excuse to try to either pull a ‘soft coup’ and/or delegitimize Trump if he won. Of course, I have quite the imagination and I’m very cynical and jaded so I would think this. And t would explain the Clinton Dossier and the shits who were footing the bills to pay for it.

First words I thought of were ‘insurance policy’.

Obama cyber chief confirms 'stand down' order against Russian cyberattacks in summer

Michael Isikoff
Yahoo NewsJune 20, 2018

WASHINGTON — The Obama White House’s chief cyber official testified Wednesday that proposals he was developing to counter Russia’s attack on the U.S. presidential election were put on a “back burner” after he was ordered to “stand down” his efforts in the summer of 2016.

The comments by Michael Daniel, who served as White House “cyber security coordinator” between 2012 and January of last year, provided his first public confirmation of a much-discussed passage in the book, “Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump,” co-written by this reporter and David Corn, that detailed his thwarted efforts to respond to the Russian attack.

*

Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, asked about a “Russian Roulette” passage in which one of Daniel’s staff members, Daniel Prieto, recounted a staff meeting shortly after the cyber coordinator was ordered by Susan Rice, President Obama’s national security adviser, to stop his efforts and “stand down.” This order was in part because Rice feared the options would leak and “box the president in.”

“I was incredulous and in disbelief,” Prieto is quoted as saying in the book. “It took me a moment to process. In my head, I was like, did I hear that correctly?” Prieto told the authors he then spoke up, asking Daniel: “Why the hell are we standing down? Michael, can you help us understand?”

*

After the November 2016 election, in which Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, Obama did impose new sanctions on Russia’s intelligence services and expelled diplomats. But Nuland testified that most in the administration saw that as only a beginning of what needed to be done. “It’s fair to say that all of us in the process assumed what was done in December and January would be a starting point for what the incoming administration would then build on.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/obama-cyber-chief-confirms-stand-order-russia...

I don’t think RUSSIA! threw the election to Trump. What I do think is that The Empty Suit saw a way to make the ineffectual attempts by Russia to pull the same crap we do when it comes to messing with foreign elections to provide the perfect excuse (and ‘evidence’) to create the conditions where even if Trump somehow did win they could use it to impeach Trump or to keep his administration tied up for 4 years in investigations.

EDIT: to add author and date

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

snoopydawg's picture

Sorry, but Michael R. Isikoff is involved in spreading Russia Gate. Isokoff got duped into writing an article by Fusion GPS which was full of false information that was based off the Steele dossier. Fusion's whole motto is to spread false information to clean up their client's reputation. David Corn and Michael R. Isikoff have also written a book about this crap.

But with so damn much propaganda being thrown at us who knows what is true or not anymore? The only thing I was sure of today was what Barry posted on his FB page. Did he even write it? ?

up
0 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Amanda Matthews's picture

@snoopydawg

in the open that Obama let it happen.

FACT CHECK: Why Didn't Obama Stop Russia's Election Interference In 2016?

February 21, 20181:08 PM ET

Obama administration officials have said they worried about appearing to put their thumb on the scales for Clinton. Combined with Obama's belief that Clinton would win, their political calculus appears to have boiled down to: Let's ride this out.

Obama himself said in December 2016 that he wasn't convinced that he should have done anything different.

"There have been folks out there who suggest

somehow if we went out there and made big announcements and thumped our chests about a bunch of stuff, that somehow it would potentially spook the Russians," he said. "I think it doesn't read the thought process in Russia very well."

https://www.npr.org/2018/02/21/587614043/fact-check-why-didnt-obama-stop...

Facing a Russian Cyber Attack, Obama Officials Struggled To Respond

As the administration continued to weigh its options, some in Congress began to grow inpatient. On Sept. 22, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) the top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committees, released their own statement calling on Putin to halt Russian interference.

We were unsuccessful in persuading the administration to speak out at the time,” Schiff told FRONTLINE, adding that the White House should have discussed placing sanctions on Russia prior to the election. “We took the extraordinary step of speaking out ourselves, of making our own attribution, which doesn’t carry the same weight, obviously, as if the president were doing it.”

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/facing-a-russian-cyber-attack...

Top Democrat says Obama shares responsibility for Russia's meddling

Just a month ago at the same venue, former Vice President Joe Biden defended the administration for not being more forceful in warning the public about Russia's activities. He said President Barack Obama was constantly walking a political "tightrope" in not wanting to be seen as politicizing a foreign threat, but also that the full scale of Russia's efforts was not fully known until after the election.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/top-democrat-says-obama-s...

Either way, it’s too soon to tell. But the news has prompted Trump to raise a legitimate question: “Obama was President up to, and beyond, the 2016 Elections. So why didn’t he do something about Russian meddling?” Indeed, if all this happened under Barack Obama’s watch, shouldn’t Trump’s predecessor be the one shouldering the blame for Russian interference? And the answer, up to a point, is yes.

The U.S. government under Obama knew what the Russians were doing. Obama was warned repeatedly by Eastern European governments that Russia was meddling in their own elections. And while Latvian elections don’t exactly rank high on the list of an American president’s priorities, the White House could have guessed what the Russians were gearing up to do — and should have sent them a forceful message to knock it off. Obama apparently issued a direct warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin when they met in person in September 2016, but it came too late and had little effect.
http://time.com/5170954/trump-russia-election-hacking-obama-blame/

The RUSSIANS! were messing around trying to see what was what in the Clintom/Trump election. Just like we do every time Russia holds an election. But nothing they did was effective. They didn’t rig or throw the election. And I know who Michael Isikoff is, as well as David Corn. My OP, even though written by Isikoff, is taken from testimony in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee, not their book.

From my OP

They came during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing into how the Obama administration dealt with Russian cyber and information warfare attacks in 2016, an issue that has become one of the more politically sensitive subjects in the panel’s ongoing investigation into Russia’s interference in the U.S. election and any links to the Trump campaign.

The view that the Obama administration failed to adequately piece together intelligence about the Russian campaign and develop a forceful response has clearly gained traction with the intelligence committee.

The RUSSIAN! snooping is no surprise. In fact, it’s to be expected. Where this gets really weird is that the Obama Administration knew what was going on and told our cyber experts to let it go. They didn’t tell Congress or the Senate. They didn’t tell the American people. They sat on that information until AFTER the election and then they started spinning it for all it was worth.

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Deja's picture

@Amanda Matthews
You sure it wasn't Obama saying "stand down" 'or else you'll find out THERE WAS NO RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE AND IT'S ACTUALLY OUR OPS?

Sorry to shout, but Jesus Christ. Nothing but corporate media links to substantiate it? Nope! Ain't buying it.

up
0 users have voted.
Amanda Matthews's picture

@Deja

was Russian ‘INTERFERENCE’.

I said, per testimony under oath to the Senate Intelligence Cimmittee by Obama’s own cyber expert that Russian snooping was detected and Obama chose NOT to do anything about it because why waste a good (fake) crisis when it could be used to further an agenda to screw with Trump in the event that he won?

Now if you can show me where I said there was INTERFERENCE, I’d be grateful because that was NOT what I was trying to say.

And please explain how testimony under oath to a Senate panel is ‘fake news’. You mean it 1) didn’t happen; or, 2) the guy is lying?

And do you think that Russia didn’t try trolling for information during the election. If so, why?

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Deja's picture

@Amanda Matthews
Here's what you said,

Soooooo, what should we think about this? Me personally, I think that maybe these ‘cyber attacks’ were allowed to continue so that in the event a certain candidate lost they would be the perfect excuse to try to either pull a ‘soft coup’ and/or delegitimize Trump if he won.

You said cyber attacks, after you asked what we think of it. Maybe you could qualify the first sentence with a disclaimer stating it's actually a rhetorical question, unless we agree with the content.

And, I never said YOU said INTERFERED. So, you should read it again. Because Obama knew there was no "cyber attack", of course he wouldn't want a legit hound sniffing around, lest DNC's/Obama's own fuckery be discovered. Hence, the stand down order.

I don't trust that anything I see or hear from politicians, CIA, FBI, NSA, etc, etc, etc, including their minions. It's not in any of their interests to tell the truth. Hell, "stand down" might be a complete fabrication. Every single President takes an oath. Cops do too, and we see how that's worked out in keeping things on the up and up.

Still not buying it. There were no "cyber attacks". Ask Assange. That's someone I DO believe.

up
0 users have voted.

and others downthread on this. Without knowledge of whether this is true or not, any RUSSIAN interference is, from my perspective, more likely to be CIA maneuvering in false attribution than Russia.

What was the great surveillance Russia was supposed to be doing, anyway? Spying on the DNC? We're back to revealing truth being an attack on democracy.

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@Linda Wood

It sounds so asinine that the president would know that another country is mucking with our elections and not doing anything about it. This would be the biggest abdication of duty, IMO. I'm also thinking this because what Obama told us right before the election when Trump was saying that he wouldn't accept the election results if he lost. Obama said that our elections were safe from outside interference. Besides it was Hillary and Podesta who came up with the "Russia hacked the DNC computers after she found out that Wikileaks was going to release the DNC information on how they rigged the primary. I think that the biggest head fake on Russia Gate is that silly idea that the FB ads had a big effect on swinging people's votes. The websites here have been pushing Russia Gate, but like I stated, I could be wrong.

up
0 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg .

And coming now, in the midst of the re-living of the oozing disingenuousness of Comey's testimonies before Congress that he felt so passionately that he had to protect the elevated reputation of the honorable FBI by interfering in the election against and for Clinton, so it wouldn't look like he was trying to protect Clinton, it has the same BOGUS human interest story, I didn't want it to look like I was partisan, that we heard from Comey. As if that were legal. As if that were meaningful. As if that were intelligent.

The Party's desperate attempts to explain their behavior in this soap opera just keep getting staler and stupider.

up
0 users have voted.
Amanda Matthews's picture

@snoopydawg

It sounds so asinine that the president would know that another country is mucking with our elections and not doing anything about it.

Of course he would if he knew that it was Rusdian was trolling for info and that they had not been successful in actually penetrating the electoral databases. Obama lied and screwed the American people the entire time he was in office. Like NSA spying. And communicating with TCC on her private server. OR HELPING FINANCE THE STEELE DOSSIER.

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Michael Daniel is using the RUSSIA!!! crap to inflate his importance and position himself in a hoped for Corruptocrat administration. (or junta)
Meanwhile Isikoff is supporting the RUSSIA!!! crap for his own agrandisement and position as a "loyal" or "leading" member of the "resistance".

up
0 users have voted.

On to Biden since 1973

this being more BS intended to make the 'Putin hacked the election and cheated Trump in' line seem more plausible - potentially with this Obama cyber chief being thwarted (if he really was) before he or someone else involved in this belated attempt at securing the systems perhaps noticed that, in example, any attacks carrying a 'Russian signature' did so by something along the lines of using CIA Vault 7-type fakery to make it appear so, as it's possible, I suppose, that he was not complicit in this.

But the NSA was determined to get into those state electoral systems - and we know how vulnerable virtually everyone's personal computers, cell phones and other devices have been made, to make hacking, infection and spying on the population, duplicated by however many entities/contractors/random criminals, easy.

The term 'security' is as an Orwellian a label as can be applied to the CIA, NSA and myriad other spy agencies which are typically focused on watching/recording every move every civilian makes around the globe.

Apparently, they have seen their enemy, and their enemy is us. And that theory makes the notion of a 'stand-down' order on any protection of electoral infrastructure make sense, just as does the 'stand-down' order of Cheney on 9/11 regarding not scrambling planes after that incoming plane make sense when everything else is included to conclude that at best, 9/11 was 'allowed' to occur as an excuse for the War On The World which TPTB want to take over - a goal of totalitarian fascist Global Domination which can no longer be plausibly denied.

As far as I recall, multiple 'scanning attempts' of electoral systems had been traced back to the NSA at the time, by various Secretaries of State,

to cover which intrusive oddity, this 'security' institution variously produced mutating stories, one being that this had been done by a single contractor and later changed to the next claim, (a bit vague as to the other stories at the moment, but seem to recll that there were several story changes required in short order,) none of which were plausible, especially with

the NSA waiting a year to announce that 'the Russians did it' - and that the NSA simply didn't bother to advise any Secretaries of State for a whole year following the election that their electoral systems had been purportedly under attack by a foreign State, been left supposedly vulnerable since, with a falsified result successfully elected President.

Wouldn't that, if true, make the NSA complicit in a foreign attack resulting in a successful and unchallenged foreign coup against their own government?

I believe that year-long wait was to give the public time to forget what had actually happened and been reported at the time, while news stories on this were pushed to the background over time, so that the 'Russians hacked the election - must invade/attack/nuke multiple countries!' story-line might seem more plausible.

Some extremely belated claims of breaches having been achieved had to be dropped as only some Secretaries of States, as far as I currently recall, among those who had willingly allowed the NSA access to their State electoral systems, went with the official story while others had long since verified the basic fact of the NSA being responsible - but the NSA took over all US electoral infrastructure anyway, neatly shutting off any hope of publicly-verifiable elections ever occurring, all electoral detail to be now Top Secret between NSA and unspecified 'interested private parties'.

The American public need not apply to know anything about 'Their Betters' political Selections, just shut up and either put out or get out. Because buzzwords: 'RUSSIANS!!!'/'9/11!'/'Exceptionality!! USA!!! We're No 1!!!'

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

snoopydawg's picture

CIA Vault 7. Are you saying that you think they were another fake out or something else? This was what Wikileaks released, but just a very small percentage of what he knew about them. I'll look for the article I read about that.

up
0 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg

and if his investigation really was thwarted, it would likely be to prevent him or anyone on his team finding out that this sort of fake-'signature' hackery as the CIA had (and which was leaked to the public) was used to make an attack appear to be from a Russian source - but which might be traceable right back to the real perps.

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

travelerxxx's picture

Here's the entire problem:

Michael Isikoff
Yahoo NewsJune 20, 2018

WASHINGTON — The Obama White House’s chief cyber official testified Wednesday that proposals he was developing to counter Russia’s attack on the U.S. presidential election...

The article is based on this lie:

...to counter Russia’s attack...

There was no attack. As soon as you read the claim that there was, you're done. Full stop. It's over. Any and all words following that statement are hogwash. No matter who said what, did what, wrote whatever ... does not matter as the foundation is untrue. Not only that, but at some level the people behind this article know it's a lie.

Sorry, Amanda. I just can't buy it.

up
0 users have voted.

and its hatred of all things Russian since WWII.. coupled with the Wikileaks revelations on Vault 7 demonstrating that the CIA can make any computer source appear to be what it is not is just about all we need to know about the incredible nonsense we are being fed about the computer hacking/election hacking "story".

up
0 users have voted.

"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

sources and I for one will never believe Russia "hacked" our election, it does make me wonder why the PTB are "allowing" this information to come out now? So by doing this, they keep Russia gate going and will somewhat legitimize it by throwing their hero under the bus? That's the angle I don't get but there has got to be some plan for what comes next, lame as this latest attempt at legitimacy is, they always have some kind of plan behind what they do. At least that's what my tin foil hat is telling me today...

up
0 users have voted.

Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

edg's picture

@lizzyh7

Maybe a few indictments of Obama admin officials are near and this is an ass-covering exercise.

up
0 users have voted.

@lizzyh7 .

Timeliness is a constant in this ping pong game of REVELATIONS. Listening to the Inspector General's testimony to Congress this week, it was clear the IG is looking at the Russia "investigation", if that's what it is, in terms of what kind of search led to what sort of justification for warrants, etc. That's one thing that's timely. Maybe someone's asking, wait, when did our government know of what kind of hacking or trolling or phishing or advertising? Why didn't they do anything about it if it existed and warranted an investigation? Where and when is the actual evidence of any and all foreign interference?

If someone in law enforcement is now, now that suspect lead investigators have been walked out of FBI headquarters, asking those questions, maybe now is the time for some flimsy answers, if there are no good answers.

up
0 users have voted.

@lizzyh7

low-level worker walk off with something 'classified' which purportedly backed their 'RUSSIA!!!' claims and they threw the book at her in verification of their 'RUSSIA!!!' claims?

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Amanda Matthews's picture

election with planted cyber propaganda. I DID say Russia probably got caught trying to snoop into election databases. Just like WE have people trying to do the exact same thing. Instead of making a federal case out of what was going on at the time Obama and Co. decided that instead of doing something about the snooping the situation could be used as an ‘insurance policy’ to delegitimize Trump’s presidency in the event that he won.

I DID NOT SAY THAT RUSSIA THREW THE ELECTION. I said that Obama and Co. saw that snooping and figured out how to use it to Clinton’s advantage. And that is based on TESTIMONY to the Senate Intelligence Committee. It’s not some puff piece if typical journalistic bullshit cover Obama’s ass, it is testimony given under OATH and it does not benefit either Obama or Clinton. In fact it’s another indication of how they manipulated what is probably standard attempts at spying into a fake meme that Russia threw the election.

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

@Amanda Matthews .

As you said in an earlier response about whether Obama would do nothing about known interference,

... Of course he would if he knew that it was Rusdian was trolling for info and that they had not been successful in actually penetrating the electoral databases.

That does make sense in terms of accounting for the cyber guy's testimony. But I am such a hard headed believer that everything the CIA says is false that I still figure any suggestion by the CIA that hacking occurred is false and therefore everything that is supposed to add to that premise, like puppy ads, or trolling, or attempting to access voter data, is also false. So whether this cyber guy who testified actually believes the CIA suggestions, I can't say. So I can't know whether he was speaking truthfully or not.

So I think I understand you to mean that Obama and the powers that be knew there was harmless trolling by Russia and allowed it to continue because they could use it as a cover for any number of their own crimes.

My problem, though, is that I think the effort to access voter databases was being done by the DNC, possibly even by Seth Rich. So I still think the accusation that Russia did anything they suggest is baseless, given that there is no evidence of it.

up
0 users have voted.

@Linda Wood @Linda Wood

Shouldn't comment when I'm too tired to try searching, which would save me a lot of comments when I'm that tired, lol.

https://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/08/homeland-security-tied-to-attempted-hack...

Homeland Security tied to attempted hack of Georgia's election database: Report
Antonio José Vielma | @AJ_Vielma
Published 4:47 PM ET Thu, 8 Dec 2016 Updated 10:17 AM ET Fri, 9 Dec 2016

An attempted hack into Georgia's voter registration database was traced back to the Department of Homeland Security, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

A third-party security firm working for the state detected the unsuccessful breach and linked it to an IP address associated with DHS, the report said. Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp reportedly sent a letter to Homeland Security asking the department to confirm whether an attempt was made. ...

Oddly enough, hordes of accounts from several States seem to be harder to find than they were, and accounts of 'Russian hacks' seem to be popular. The internet was nice while it lasted. Although this may be due to my search terms, as well.

And indeed it was!

http://wbaa.org/post/secretary-state-department-homeland-security-hacked...

Secretary of State: Department of Homeland Security 'Hacked' Indiana Electoral System
By Stephanie Wiechmann • Feb 24, 2017

Indiana’s Secretary of State says the federal Department of Homeland Security accessed the state’s electoral system without Indiana’s permission before and after November’s presidential election. ...

...In an article in The Daily Caller – a news website founded by Fox News personality Tucker Carlson – Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson says officials with the federal agency scanned the state’s electoral system nearly 15,000 times.

The scans came between November 1 of last year - before the November 8 presidential election – and through December 16.

Secretary of State spokesperson Valerie Warycha on Thursday confirmed Lawson’s statements, saying DHS IP addresses – those string of numbers that identify a computer to other computers – were scanning the state system without permission.

Lawson told The Daily Caller that the DHS scans, which she called “hacking attempts” did not breach Indiana’s voter registration system. ...

... Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp has asked the DHS Inspector General to investigate unauthorized scans of that state’s electoral system. And Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denney says DHS may have also tried to hack Idaho’s system around November 8. ...

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3173032/cybercrime-hacking/indiana...

Security Is Sexy

By Darlene Storm, Computerworld | Feb 22, 2017 7:40 AM PT

Indiana joins Idaho in claiming DHS tried to hack their election systems
Indiana claims DHS scanned the state's electoral system tens of thousands of times without permission.

Indiana is the newest state to accuse the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of trying to hack its state electoral system.

The state’s IT team claimed that a DHS IP address repeatedly scanned Indiana’s system. The attempted hacks occurred tens of thousands of times over a period of 46 days, beginning while Vice President Mike Pence was still the governor of Indiana.

“We know that between November 1 and December 16, we were scanned with about 14,800 scans, nearly 15,000 different times,” DHS Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson told The Daily Caller.

Like Georgia, Indiana did not give DHS permission to scan. ...

... Indiana isn’t alone with such recent DHS hacking claims as Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denney said he believes DHS may have attempted to hack its state election website around Nov. 8. It wasn’t a Russian IP address mucking around in the state’s affairs, but an IP address belonging to DHS, he said.

When Idaho “looked at IP addresses that tried to get into our system,” it didn’t find “a single IP address from a foreign country,” but one from “our own Department of Homeland Security.” ...

... Similar hacking accusations by states that gave DHS permission to probe

After Georgia accused DHS of trying to hack its computer network and voter registration database, and DHS denied it, West Virginia Secretary of State-Elect Mac Warner accused DHS of attempting to hack West Virginia election records too, just as agency had allegedly tried to hack Kentucky's.

Kentucky later claimed the alleged DHS IP address did not access “public voter information and online voter registration websites.” Kentucky had granted DHS permission to conduct regular scans and concluded the “IP address made no attempt to scan, attack, or infiltrate our system and that the visits appeared to be regular web traffic.”

Warner’s claims about the West Virginia election records hack by DHS were disputed by then Secretary of State Natalie Tennant. Unlike Georgia, Indiana and Idaho, Tennant said West Virginia did grant DHS permission to do a “cyber-hygiene scan prior to the election.”

Tennant said Warner’s statements about the DHS hack were false. “The IP address did not access anything of concern and after discussions with DHS about our specific traffic here in West Virginia, we have no indication at this time that the visits were malicious.”

(Emphasis mine, from a yuuuuuge and widely sourced article, and not limited to information that's one-winged, even if the person compiling all this so beautifully may appear to be.)

http://hardnoxandfriends.com/2018/02/08/russia-er-obama-hacked-state-ele...

Russia, er, Obama Hacked US State Elections In 2016
By SafeSpace | February 8, 2018

Twenty-one states. Remember that number, friends.

The noose must be getting tighter around the necks of the leftist bureaucrats in the Deep State. What makes me think that? Well, just within the past 24 hours — in an apparent reaction to the release of the FISA and Nunes memos — paid DHS cyber-security chief and toady extraordinaire Jeanette Manfra announced that DHS has evidence that Russia “successfully penetrated” the voter rolls in twenty-one US states prior to the 2016 election.
DHS cyber chief: Russia ‘successfully penetrated’ some state voter rolls

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/372816-russia-successfully-penet...

7 February 2018: Jeanette Manfra, the head of cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), told NBC News that Russia targeted 21 states and “an exceptionally small number of them were actually successfully penetrated.”

DHS previously notified the 21 states that Russia had attempted to hack their elections systems before the 2016 election.

It was Manfra who first revealed to the Senate Intelligence Committee last June that the states had their systems targeted by Russian hackers ahead of the election.

It was previously known that voter registration databases in Arizona and Illinois were breached by hackers. Alabama, California, Colorado, Wisconsin and Florida are among the other states that have confirmed they were targeted.

Officials told NBC there is no evidence any of the voter rolls were altered in any way.

Homeland Security formally notified election officials in the states that were targeted. Officials said then that most of the targeting amounted to mere preparations for hacking, such as probing for vulnerabilities.

The targeting was part of a broader effort by Moscow to meddle in the presidential election, according to the U.S. intelligence community. The systems targeted were not involved in vote tallying. ...

... But wait … Then-President Obama authorized the very same DHS to “test” the hackability of twenty-one US states’ voter rolls and balloting systems prior to the 2016 election. And among others, the Secretary of State of the great state of Georgia was pissed off when he learned about it:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-14/georgia-confirms-homeland-secu...

Georgia Confirms Homeland Security Attempted To Hack Election Database 10 Separate Times by Tyler Durden 14 December 2016

Last week we noted a letter from Georgia Secretary of State, Brian Kemp, to the Department of Homeland Security questioning why someone with a DHS IP address (216.81.81.80) had attempted to hack into his state’s election database on November 15, 2016 at 8:43AM. Now, according to WSB-TV in Atlanta, we learn that Georgia’s election systems were actually the target of hacking by DHS on 10 separate occasions.

The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office now confirms 10 separate cyberattacks on its network were all traced back to U.S. Department of Homeland Security addresses.

In an exclusive interview, a visibly frustrated Secretary of State Brian Kemp confirmed the attacks of different levels on his agency’s network over the last 10 months. He says they all traced back to DHS internet provider addresses.

“We’re being told something that they think they have it figured out, yet nobody’s really showed us how this happened,” Kemp said. “We need to know.”

Kemp told Channel 2’s Aaron Diamant his office’s cybersecurity vendor discovered the additional so-called vulnerability scans to his network’s firewall after a massive mid-November cyberattack triggered an internal investigation.

Meanwhile, Kemp pointed out that all of the attempted hackings occurred around critical registration and voting deadlines calling into question whether “somebody was trying to prove a point.”

The Secretary of State’s Office manages Georgia’s elections, and most concerning for Kemp about the newly discovered scans is the timing.

The first one happened on Feb. 2, the day after Georgia’s voter registration deadline. The next one took place just days before the SEC primary. Another occurred in May, the day before the general primary, and then two more took place in November, the day before and the day of the presidential election.

“It makes you wonder if somebody was trying to prove a point,” Kemp said.

Of course, the Obama administration, a pillar of “transparency” for sure, has confirmed the attacks originated at the DHS but has refused to provide a straight story on why the attempted hackings occurred. Furious with the lack of answers, Kemp has now written a letter to the Trump administration asking for a formal review after his inauguration next month.

Last week, the DHS confirmed the large Nov. 15 attack traced back to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection internet gateway. But Kemp says the DHS’ story about its source keeps changing.

“First it was an employee in Corpus Christi, and now it’s a contractor in Georgia,” Kemp said. Unsatisfied with the response he got from DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson this week, Kemp fired off a letter Wednesday to loop in President-elect Donald Trump.

“We just need to ask the new administration to take a look at this and make sure that we get the truth the people of Georgia are deserving to know that and really demanding it,” Kemp said.

Kemp says several of those scans came around the same time he testified before Congress about his opposition to a federal plan to classify election systems as “critical infrastructure,” like power plants and financial systems.

As we’ve said before, despite all the media attention on “Russian hackers,” this cyberattack, originated from within our own Department of Homeland Security, is the only actual confirmed case of hacking related to the 2016 election.

Here is what Zero Hedge wrote the preceding week after the initial hacking was discovered.

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp is anxiously wondering, as are we, why someone with a Department Of Homeland Security IP address would try to hack into his State’s voter registration database. Even though DHS offered cyber security help to states prior to the election, the Wall Street Journal notes that Georgia was one of the states that specifically denied assistance.

The secretary of state of Georgia is asking the Department of Homeland Security to explain what appears to be an attempted breach of the state’s voter registration database by someone in the federal government.

In a letter to Department of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson dated Thursday, Georgia’s Secretary of State Brian Kemp said the state had discovered an unsuccessful attempt to breach the firewall of state computer systems. That attempt was linked to an IP address associated with DHS, he said.

“At no time has my office agreed to or permitted DHS to conduct penetration testing or security scans of our network,” wrote Mr. Kemp, a Republican. “Moreover, your department has not contacted my office since this unsuccessful incident to alert us of any security event that would require testing or scanning of our network.”

The alleged attempted intrusion by the federal government on a state computer system responsible for election security was detected by a third-party security firm working for the state of Georgia. The attempt was unsuccessful, according to the state. The computers also house information about company incorporations.

According to a letter written by Kemp to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, the attempted intrusion occurred 1 week after the election on November 15, 2016 at 8:43AM and came from an IP address associated with DHS (216.81.81.80).

Meanwhile, the potential hacking followed threats from Jeh Johnson leading up to election day to declare election systems “critical infrastructure” which would have given the federal government more authority over state databases.

The Department of Homeland Security made a major push in advance of November’s elections to help states secure election systems against possible hacking, as fears of foreign interference in the U.S. election process reached a fever pitch in the months leading up to Election Day.

The department also considered declaring election systems “critical infrastructure,” which would have given the federal government additional authority to protect the systems. DHS didn’t take that step, however, as many states expressed concern about additional federal authority over their election systems and said the constitution provided states the right to run their own elections. ...

... Twenty-one states … and here are details from the great state of Indiana, where the DHS efforts also set off red alerts. Mike Pence, former Governor and at that time Donald Trump’s nominee for Veep, was particularly critical of Feh Johnson and the entire fed interference scheme:

http://dailycaller.com/2017/02/21/exclusive-obamas-feds-tried-to-hack-in...
Obama’s Feds Tried to Hack Indiana’s Election System While Pence Was Governor by Richard Pollock 21 February 2017

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials tried to hack Indiana’s state electoral system with at least 14,800 “scans” or hits between Nov. 1, 2016, to Dec. 16, 2016, The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group has learned.

The attacks are the second confirmed IT scanning assault by DHS officials against states that resisted then-President Barack Obama’s attempt to increase federal involvement in state and local election systems by designating them as “critical infrastructure” for national security.

Members of the National Association of Secretaries of State voted Saturday at their winter meFormer Indiana Gov. Mike Pence was also Trump’s vice presidential-elect during much of the period covered by the DHS scans of the Indiana system.

Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson, the incoming president of the association, told TheDCNF Tuesday that, “we know that between November 1 and December 16 we were scanned with about 14,800 scans, nearly 15,000 different times.”

The state’s IT team traced the intruder to a DHS computer’s IP address. The same DHS unit attempted 10 times in 2016 to hack into the Georgia electoral system.

Federal officials are barred under DHS rules from trying to penetrate a state system without the express approval of the state. Neither Georgia nor Indiana approved the DHS scanning attempts.

The DHS inspector general has launched an official investigation into the Georgia breach attempt. ...

... Lawson said despite the scale of the scans, the DHS efforts to attack its election system was unsuccessful. “Our voter registration system was not penetrated.”

She said there was “one slight penetration on an (election) website that was actually old and out of date, so it didn’t go anywhere.”

Governmental deployment of IT technology could be an evolving new tool against political opponents or to impose censorship, according to James Scott, a senior fellow at the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology, a cybersecurity think tank.

“Censorship has always been an issue in the brick-and-mortar world. So, censorship in the digital landscape is simply just transference of methods,” Scott said. “I think within federal agencies it is possible to imagine that there are some overreaching, aggressive managers.”

Indiana officials have not yet asked the DHS IG to look at their state’s situation. “We’re taking the matter under consideration,” Lawson said, adding that “we have sent letters to our congressional folks, our governor, and others to make them aware this happened. I’m very concerned, very concerned.”

A DHS spokesman told TheDCNF that, “we take the trust of our partners in the public and private sectors seriously and will work with them to address any concerns. DHS does not conduct scans of networks or systems without the cooperation and consent of the system owner. ...

...So why bring up ancient history about Feh Johnson’s DHS from 2016? Because the modus operandi used by the DHS — at the express direction of The Brown Clown — exactly parallels the pattern of claimed attacks made by Russia. Twenty-one states, hacks into voter rolls and balloting processes, and well-concealed trails … all the same.

And which federal agency has now suddenly broadcast the formerly-secret story about the Russian efforts? Why, the DHS, the very same outfit who was behind the domestic attacks on US states. I may be speaking through my tin-foil hat, but I find this more than a leetle coincidental. What say you, gentle readers?

— SafeSpace —

And the US political parties and electronic voting machines are privately owned - who owns the rest? It can't be the American public, as their concerns are not being addressed by DHS. And neither are those concerns addressed of any politicians such as various Secretaries of State trying to protect the citizens they represent.

So, who exactly are these '...partners in the public and private sectors ...' whose concerns DHS is willing to address?

Too tired to do this properly, but the points and questions should leap out at anyone reading this.

But somehow we have to remember this stuff - I posted about this all over at the time and still somehow had the wrong agency spring to mind, although I did at least specify having rather vague memories at the time. And again, groggy-tired and going to bed, perchance to sleep at some point, lol.

Edit: only noticed I'd cleverly used block-quotes in several cases where I wanted bolding, added some more emphasis (it's like mascara, there is never enough, already! lol) and shifted over a misplaced letter. No idea what else I've messed up, but I'll save that for a surprise over morning coffee. if I live.

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@Ellen North

Where would we be without you? Thank you! This is a priceless collection of reporting that somehow got lost in the yogurt of media. You rock.

My favorite part is this:

The Department of Homeland Security made a major push in advance of November’s elections to help states secure election systems against possible hacking, as fears of foreign interference in the U.S. election process reached a fever pitch in the months leading up to Election Day.

So that explains why I was sweating and trembling leading up to the election. I had a fever caused by fears of foreign interference!

up
0 users have voted.

@Linda Wood @Linda Wood

I don't remember any high fever of public concern about Russian or other foreign electoral cheating except (mainly - Repubs also being traditionally chronic electoral cheaters and this being expected of them) regarding even more exceptionally blatant cheating from/on behalf of the Clinton campaign - but then again, they later said this 'RUSSIA!!! ELECTION HACK!!!' was a sekit back then. (The Clinton campaign still being in the planning stages on it.)

And I suppose that it must have been Putin who cheated the American public and the world out of Bernie and into Clinton in the Dem nomination, funding Hillary's lease of the DNC through the nomination in subverting the DNC to his evil will, to assure his unstable puppet, Trump, a Presidential win, since anyone could see that Hillary was too much of a widely known proven despicable factor to win.

Because, of course, Putin's evil desire is to have US puppets destroy democracy and life on the planet.

Edit: regarding the claims that DHS Ebil RUSSIANS!!! did not alter voter rolls in any way, one little example of what connections you're not supposed to make:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15tSrI2040U&index=99&list=PLXctIVhQimRKz...

Thousands Left Off Primary Day Rolls In Los Angeles
The Jimmy Dore Show

Published on 8 Jun 2018

About 119,000 people turned up to vote in California on June 5th…and were turned away.

But just in case you do, isn't it just like Putin to attack the (actual) left and support the establishment selections in this Ebil Russian Plot to destroy democracy and the world of life?

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

@Amanda Matthews but I know you know that Russia didn't hack or whatever. And I agree our owners are using it as some kind of ploy, the fact that it's all over the MSM confirms that for me. I just can't figure out their chess game yet. Never did learn to play chess. But I find it suspect that they'd even allow such talk about "the Greatest President since FDR" to circulate like that. Good catch. Always good to know what your enemy is doing when you can't bear to read their garbage.

up
0 users have voted.

Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

Pluto's Republic's picture

As I pointed out the other day:

I've learned a lot about the talent involved in

...capitalist news distribution. You'd be hard-pressed to find a notable journalist (or writer, or poet or painter) since WWII who was not an agent. Like Bill Moyer, many of them outed themselves during the Russian Hoax. Art has been deliberately changed, via the ruling patrons, of course. I know it sounds crazy. Until you start reading genealogies. Did you know the CIA has a library on their website? Interesting stuff. When you're at the tip-top of the art world looking down, like Hitler and his elite milieu, or Osama bin Laden for that matter, the power of it all starts makes sense. Henry Miller, William F. Burroughs, Jackson Pollack — they all start to make sense. Insiders make a vast fortune from the CIA's cultural "guidance" down through the generations of the classes, assuring their power immortality.

David Corn and Mother Jones outted themselves as agents early on in 2016 during the Russian Hoax. Crowdstrike is also an agent — the co-founder is the former head of cyber-security for the FBI. They were actively planting Russian "evidence" on the DNC servers as early as June 2016. Julian Assange is currently gagged, but when he did have a voice he told us all he received the emails from a DNC insider, not from the Russians. In 2016.

Let us not be gaslighted again.

up
0 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato