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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Hackers from the Dutch intelligence service AIVD have provided the FBI with crucial information about Russian interference with the American elections. For years, AIVD had access to the infamous Russian hacker group Cozy Bear. That's what de Volkskrant and Nieuwsuur have uncovered in their investigation.
It's the summer of 2014. A hacker from the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD has penetrated the computer network of a university building next to the Red Square in Moscow, oblivious to the implications. One year later, from the AIVD headquarters in Zoetermeer, he and his colleagues witness Russian hackers launching an attack on the Democratic Party in the United States. The AIVD hackers had not infiltrated just any building; they were in the computer network of the infamous Russian hacker group Cozy Bear. And unbeknownst to the Russians, they could see everything.
That's how the AIVD becomes witness to the Russian hackers harassing and penetrating the leaders of the Democratic Party, transferring thousands of emails and documents. It won't be the last time they alert their American counterparts. And yet, it will be months before the United States realize what this warning means: that with these hacks the Russians have interfered with the American elections. And the AIVD hackers have seen it happening before their very eyes.
The Dutch access provides crucial evidence of the Russian involvement in the hacking of the Democratic Party, according to six American and Dutch sources who are familiar with the material, but wish to remain anonymous. It's also grounds for the FBI to start an investigation into the influence of the Russian interference on the election race between the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and the Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Translated by: Lisa Negrijn
It's quite an interesting read.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by edIII on Monday January 29 2018, @08:45PM
Ultimately a bad idea anyways. Essentially suppressing the expression of views, which also happen to result in foreign economic contributions. The former is antithetical to American values, the latter is very much in line with American Capitalism.
There are two things here with the election that matter. Hacking, and Influencing. Hacking is something we should consider an attack on our sovereignty, but that hasn't been proven anymore than massive voter fraud. Hacking in the context of "gaming" or manipulating the votes is widely practiced by everyone in the US anyways. Influencing should be completely legal and protected by the 1st. Let Kimmie buy airtime in San Francisco espousing the values of Juche. Who gives a shit? American company got paid. Maybe 1 or 2 crazy marginalized people decided to defect to NK.
My feeling is at this point, if we were manipulated like that and we voted for Trump, we're responsible. It wasn't hacked, I actually cast my own vote.
What concerns me is fake news, and by that, I mean the promulgation of shit known to be false and created simply to manipulate people with falsities. That is handled by slander and libel laws I would imagine, and the state could possibly sue somebody for spreading a lie that could cause harm. The point being we have ways to deal with people spreading lies already. What greatly concerns me is that it seems Trump did collude with the Russians, and he never disclosed his interests. So more conflicts of interest concerns than that we convinced Cletus, a Deplorable, to vote for Trump by spreading lies about Hillary's evil kiddie porn basement.
Perhaps the greatest lesson from all of this is that a good percentage of us are just plain stupid and can be controlled via social media and their handlers, the shinies.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.