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Clinton Campaign, Democratic Officials Now Say They Were Hacked, Possibly By The Russians
By
David Colon
Published Jul 30, 2016
Modified Jul 30, 2016
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By
David Colon
Published Jul 30, 2016
Modified Jul 30, 2016
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It's accepted wisdom that you should never tweet. What about email though? Should people just give up on email entirely as well, seeing as how it can blow up in your face whether you're a high-powered politco or just a cruel boss who doesn't understand ADHD? Maybe not, but with the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announcing that, like the DNC, they too have been hacked, possibly by the Russians, people should try only sending emails when the recipient has a complicated cipher that will reveal the true meaning of the message.
According to the New York Times, the Clinton campaign said that hackers accessed an analytics program that the campaign uses to study voter data, while Reuters reports that hackers accessed the entire network used by the DCCC (which manages campaigns for House Democrats). While it's early to say if both hacks came from the same source, law enforcement sources told the Times that they believe the DCCC hack came from a hacking group known as Fancy Bear, which experts believe is linked to the G.R.U., Russia's military intelligence service. The same source told the Times that investigators are convinced the same group is behind both the DNC and DCCC hacks.
As for the Clinton campaign hack, a campaign aide told the paper that the voter data the hackers accessed contained no Social Security or credit card numbers, which was a controversial piece of the Wikileaks DNC data dump. Wikileaks is still dealing with criticism for the inclusion of non-redacted financial information, which even king of leakers Edward Snowden lightly criticized the website for.
Ultimately though, the world still has no idea who's been responsible for the hacks. While the Clinton campaign and its allies are blaming the Russian government for attempting to swing the election to Donald Trump (and Trump isn't exactly helping things), the F.B.I. hasn't definitively named Russian intelligence as responsible for the hacks. And while there are also cybersecurity experts who have no problem pointing to Russia, another cybersecurity expert, Jeffrey Carr, urged caution in assigning blame, pointing out what he considers holes in the case against Russia at the moment.
Ultimately, it's all just another batshit piece of the most batshit election of our lifetimes, so be prepared to hear something like the ancient undersea kingdom of Atlantis is actually behind the hack.
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cyber hacking
dccc
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non-metaphorical political hacks
David Colon
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