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On March 19 of this year, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta received an alarming email that appeared to come from Google.
The email, however, didn't come from the internet giant. It was actually an attempt to hack into his personal account. In fact, the message came from a group of hackers that security researchers, as well as the US government, believe are spies working for the Russian government. At the time, however, Podesta didn't know any of this, and he clicked on the malicious link contained in the email, giving hackers access to his account.
Months later, on October 9, WikiLeaks began publishing thousands of Podesta's hacked emails. Almost everyone immediately pointed the finger at Russia, who is suspected of being behind a long and sophisticated hacking campaign that has the apparent goal of influencing the upcoming US elections. But there was no public evidence proving the same group that targeted the Democratic National Committee was behind the hack on Podesta—until now.
The data linking a group of Russian hackers—known as Fancy Bear, APT28, or Sofacy—to the hack on Podesta is also yet another piece in a growing heap of evidence pointing toward the Kremlin. And it also shows a clear thread between apparently separate and independent leaks that have appeared on a website called DC Leaks, such as that of Colin Powell's emails; and the Podesta leak, which was publicized on WikiLeaks.
All these hacks were done using the same tool: malicious short URLs hidden in fake Gmail messages. And those URLs, according to a security firm that's tracked them for a year, were created with Bitly account linked to a domain under the control of Fancy Bear.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday October 21 2016, @05:17PM
"You are presuming that the guys who did it are russian security agents and not just free-lance contractors who pick up a lot of work from Moscow. They may even have done it "on spec" but I gotta assume that once they got ahold of Podesta's email they went directly to Moscow with it and the decision to give it to wikileaks rather than just keep it for intelligence purposes was directed from Moscow."
You are presuming that the guys who did it are russian security agents and not just free-lance contractors who pick up a lot of work from Beijing. They may even have done it "on spec" but I gotta assume that once they got ahold of Podesta's email they went directly to Beijing with it and the decision to give it to wikileaks rather than just keep it for intelligence purposes was directed from Beijing.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Interesting) by dyingtolive on Friday October 21 2016, @05:30PM
Or anyone else who would have a vested interest in making sure that Russia and the US do not ever form a cozy relationship and do something crrrraaaaaazy like work together to try to stabilize the middle east or something.
Honestly, this one feels like those responsible are not trying to fuck up Hillary for the election, they're trying to piss her off enough to set the stage for Cold War II. Admittedly, I tend to chase shadows, so I'm going to be forward and just admit that it's my pet conspiracy theory, it probably belongs somewhere like zero hedge, and I'm probably crazy for suggesting it. Hey, that's cool though, I'll own that.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Friday October 21 2016, @08:45PM
and I'm probably crazy for suggesting it.
Remember kids, post Snowden, crazy-paranoid is the new pragmatic.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Friday October 21 2016, @09:24PM
Well, way I figure is that if it somehow turns out I'm right, I get to feel super hip and laugh about it over beers with friends. If I'm wrong, well, being crazy doesn't really change much in the long run.
I do think I need to disconnect from the news though. The last year and half or so of deliberately looking at any article claiming to be news no matter how mainstream or sketchy (including comments) has admittedly had a pretty negative impact on me. I wanted to see what it was like to have as many viewpoints on as many issues as I could crammed into my head all at once. Sort of some effort to try to be able to figure out where the line was between "well-informed" and just thinking you are. I think it's just got me less sure of, well, pretty much everyone's mental state, myself included.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @03:04AM
Surprise, quantity over quality is a losing proposition.
You have to find sources that are trustworthy and also understand their limitations.
Uncredentialed bloggers should be the first on the trash-heap because they rarely know enough about a topic to even realize where the holes are in their own knowledge.
Anything that gets trumpkins and their alt-right fellow travelers worked up, next on the trash-heap because that crowd is so profoundly tribal that they refuse to type the word "debunk" into google since it would demolish 99% of their world view.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2016, @06:30PM
> You are presuming that the guys who did it are russian security agents and not just free-lance contractors who pick up a lot of work from Beijing.
Do you have any evidence that they have also free-lanced for Beijing in the past?
No, I did not think so.
There is plenty of evidence that the same group has done a lot of work for Moscow.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday October 21 2016, @07:32PM
Okay, show me this evidence.... but it has to be evidence NOT touched in any way by U.S. intelligence agencies.
I know intelligence agencies NEVER lie, but
HAHAHAHA.... couldn't keep it together, there. Sorry.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2016, @07:48PM
Oh please. Yours is the logic of conspiracy theories. As a rule intelligence agencies do not lie to the civilian management of the US government. If they do lie, there is a huge stink. If you believe they regularly lie. then you can basically make up your own reality.
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Friday October 21 2016, @08:50PM
As a rule intelligence agencies do not lie to the civilian management of the US government.
Have you lived under a rock for the last... erm... forever?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 22 2016, @02:20AM
> Have you lived under a rock for the last... erm... forever?
Citations? Because the OP of this sub-thread claims about WMDs have already been debunked in other posts.
I can also point you at the recent case of analysts raising holy hell about what they consider to be manipulation of their reports. [thedailybeast.com] The fact that they are complaining loudly is the huge stink I was referring to, and which you elided from your quote.