Yeah, but...it's looking like they didn't do it...

Very nice!

Thank you, sir. It looks like they were making a general assessment that any one of a herd of "persistent threats" that they have assigned as Russian government, and therefore must be. I would also say a lot of these same attacks go all over the place, and the list they provide is long and indicates it is just the new face of espionage. You still have to open the door to them, and there are a whole lot of mitigation steps listed, apparently our government and the Dumbocraps seem inadequate to the task. Their own fault.

Oh yes, I agree that there is no perfect firewall. I also agree Clinton precipitated the issue in the way she handles anything, in an arrogant imperial command, and did bring it on herself. If the report is true, then the CIA and FBI as so full f Dumbocrap sh#t it isn't funny and they have been corrupted by the Obamanation as well. There are only a few hundred thousand hackers out there who are plying their trade to get money. The Chinese and North Koreans practice it was a form of warfare and industrial espionage, which is why China has mysteriously made huge leaps in the last 20 years on the backs of others basic engineering and plans.And, yes, the fact this was probably inflicted because Her Worship made it so is doubly satisfying.

Assange does the world a service I believe, in the way he handles it and protects his sources, his ability to prong the establishment elites in several countries is illustrated in the number of charges and the ferocity with which they pursue him.The all flag themselves as guilty, just as Obama has done by trying to blame Russia. The fact he used the CIA and FBI shows they are also corrupt and in need of draining.

Snowden did expose some really nasty things the NSA is doing and getting away with. One can tell by the vicious reaction of arrogant Obama, who didnt seem upset by what the NSA was up to, but just that HE was embarrassed by Snowden letting it out. I vote for a pardon for Snowden. He did us all a favor

Difficult question. While I generally agree, in Snowden's case, he broke the law, and did himself expect to go to prison.

Assange I don't think is guilty of anything, he's not subject to our laws. He may have broken others where he has lived, but I don't particularly have an opinion.

Assange has posted things that could bring great harm, embarrassment, or deaths, but he does seem diligent to redact the names, etc., though you wonder where the originals are. Those are people doing their job for their country, not screwing someone over.

https://www.scribd.com/mobile/documen...

The other possible offender could be one of the hackers in the NSA or some other intelligence agency who did not like Killery. These techno wizards know all the finger prints and the ins and outs to simply plant the evidence to look Russian.
With this administration we really can't believe much of what they leak out to us any way. I am still trying to figure out just exactly when Transparency became Translucent!

I live in his (Trent Franks) district. At least he did not start the stupid establishment blame game McCain is starting with his hearings to substantiate McCain's unfounded conclusion.

I work in IT, and the only firewall that is perfect is the one that doesn't let anything through! I've also read a report (in an IT journal) that said the same things scojohnson mentioned: that the successful spear-phishing attack that exploited the DNC was a result of someone opening an email and installing a virus on their computer.

I would also point out that if one looks at the modus operandi of the Hillary Clinton email server and the DNC itself (including Podesta), their IT teams were constantly being told to find ways to allow things that were operationally dangerous. I seriously doubt that these IT people didn't say "what you're doing isn't good practice" but it was also their paychecks! This was a problem caused primarily because the people involved view themselves as above the laws of others. That their own practices came back to bite them is enormously satisfying to me, personally! :)

Methinks spiteful Little Barry The Him operates under the delusion that making things as tough as possible for Trump before January 20 will somehow preserve the Marxist mess that is his legacy.
And that's just Defy Trump Phase One.
Phase Two is about how his toady lib media will all come a-hopping with mics extended to his still stickin' around Washington DC door every time The Donald so much as sneezes.

It does bother me that Trump isnt talking about pandoning Snowden and Assange. He should.

I agree, anyone who rats out those who would assume to be our rulers, is doing us a service.

You may be right, and again, as with others, someone close to Clinton ends up dead, and no one seemed to care, beyond neatly making up a story to fit the crime.

Exactly. While I do not have a large faith that Vlad is a lilly pure statesman, he does seem to have and equal measure of self interest and national interest, and is wanting of both. I would also suggest that another country was in a similar situation in the 1930's and ran the same framework: National pride and enlightened self interest. It did not work out well..

Dino, exactly right. Given their history, the Obamanation had a heavy burden of proof, and scojohnson says there is a report out (above), which would indicate it was more likely an amateur attack, or a fishing expedition by anyone of a dozen or hundred hacker groups out for money who got lucky.

Exactly. One reason Wikileaks came into being wwas to fight the widespread use of lies and innuendo, and character assassination that governments have adopted to skew the argument their weay. As we saw, what they leaked seem so fitting that it was hard not to believe they were real, and that just pissed them off more. The "Vlad did it" excuse was a feeble one, given that had they really done it, no one would have said anything, and a good team might have reversed engineered it back at them.

Please, sir, post a link to the report, I have yet to see one. However, the campaign you describe is a standard web fishing expedition any one of a thousand hackers, ransomware distributors etc use, in addition to about 50 variations. Given your statements, I would say that the IT people running security sabotaged them, or were incredibly incompetent, because their VPN lacked sufficient security controls to prevent that. I use a business VPN for a large company and , while I do not hold their overall security position to be one to hold high, their VPN vendor (Cisco) has not had one intrusion reported, yet we get constant intrusions via the exact same method. Email is the easiest human engineering method as people never seem to learn. They even send us fake emails, if you open them, you get a free 10 minute class on cyber security. I would lean towards an amateur person using that tool to get in and they got lucky, or really knew the situation from the inside and wanted to toast them for some other thing done to them. "Scorned Lover" breeches are just as common. Maybe the Dems need to look inside before outside, although outside is such a better blame game. Thank you.

If you call RT.com knowledge, please go look up the word "Propaganda". I would suggest your knowledge needs a wider sample base....but, being the Gulch, you are indeed free to have your own opinions and views. End of Problem.

Oh, my bad oh great one. Now please carry on, these are not the droids you are looking for, thanks for participating though...

I was thinking a former Bernie staffer.

I read the report, assuming there is any validity to it at all, it didn't require a state-sponsored hacking team to carry out.

It was a simple spear-phishing campaign. Send a web link to 1000 people, "Did you see your pic in this article?" 500 of them fall for it, some percentage of those think "updating their Adobe Flash to better view it" sounds fine and allows the installation - and then they have you. That program dials home to the hacker's web server and dumps everything. They don't need to "hack" anything. Firewalls wouldn't matter at all.

The report said that installing antivirus, or keeping the OS updated (or using a Mac or Linux) would have prevented it.

Draw your own conclusions there, but the take-away is a group of brain-dead buffalos with the technical skill of a bunny rabbit, the common sense of a bag of hammers, and being extremely gullible.

An interesting factoid, I knew (a particularly dumb) federal contracting officer that fell for one of those on her home computer (would never work on a government one), and then she used her home computer to access the web Exchange access for her office email and the hackers gained access to her federal email account. They were in there for several months, and she was given the choice to retire or be fired for violating computer policy.

So what the people at the campaign did would have excluded them from federal employment and security clearances anyway.