Russia Hacking America started with Phishing Attacks
Russia hacks and the government waits till now to do something.
USA knew about the attacks early but apparently did nothing until the election was over.
I do not support interference from outsiders to our political process, but if the government knew it was happening maybe they should have tried to bring the American people up to speed. I do not think they had to give all the details, but explaining the perceived attack and what was being done with the information would have been a step in the correct direction to this onslaught of saying how the Political Process was hacked. Hacks, Viruses and Malware are the common terms in our industry it happens everyday and if you talk about Phishing most people know you are not talking about baiting a hook and throwing it in the pond. Ironically though that is exactly what Phishing is.
What we are learning in the ne reports is that we know that it has been happening since mid 2015 or earlier. Phishing attacks and others were used to compromise secured accounts and gain access to end users emails and credentials. The emails were not exposed until a time that would potentially be beneficial to the individuals that gained access to them. Some things that concern me is that the Government wants to say this is only a covert action taken on by the Russians. I am not necessarily taking that as an absolute fact we have organizations in the USA and every other country that take part in these types of activities and often utilize code bought in the underground and then used for that group’s agenda. In recent news and blogs I have even posted you can go out and by Attacks as a service just like you purchase software as a service. It is unfortunate that some of this may be prevented by more extensive education of end users, but we often get tied up in writing regulations on what security should do, look like, who should get fined etc. Instead we should look at efforts to utilize these wasted dollars in training both public sector and private sector employees, develop tools quietly again in cooperation with public and private sector input. So instead of being reactive and making moves that could start Geopolitical Wars we can say we’ve been there and done that. Legislation in this area is a financial burden to all but think tank cooperation could be a win-win situation.
Please read the article attached to learn more about the US position on the Russian interference with the Political process. Take time to review it based on the minimal information that is out it is not an attack on the Voting Equipment but it was an attack on information and the timely release of that information.
Bloomberg just wrote: “The attack against U.S. democracy began in the summer of 2015 with a simple trick: Hackers working for Russia’s civilian intelligence service sent e-mails with hidden malware to more than 1,000 people working for the American government and political groups. U.S. intelligence agencies say that was the modest start of Grizzly Steppe, their name for what they say developed into a far-reaching Russian operation to interfere with this year’s presidential election.”
Source: Russia Hacking America Started With Phishing Attacks
Voter tampering not voter fraud or equipment tampering.
If there is actual proof of voter equipment tampering then the government needs to say something now and not keep withholding the information. If we are talking about Voter Tampering in the sense of getting into the heads of the voter we need to look not just at the hackers but also the media outlets that let them have access to their audiences. However, we need to tread lightly here because one of the USA freedoms is speech and if we overtly try to prevent it than we are treading on the amendment for Free Speech. Law is a wonderful double-edged sword, so if we keep regulations simple and deal with issues when necessary simply in court rather than make everything an addendum to an existing law or regulation we may actually have better control of what we are trying to accomplish.
Are the Americans to blame themselves?
If you did not like the results of the election you may say it was not your fault and try to blame others. If you liked the results than you may not believe it existed. You may be in a group that might be the minority which I subscribe to. It is simple I am not surprised! I would not even be surprised to find that there may be equipment tampering. With technology and connectivity at the level we are at anything is possible until proven. Unfortunately our trust in the internet and concern for getting the information out there regardless of it being fact checked is now the norm. So is our overconsumption of information leading to this issue. It only takes a few clicks for me to send a story true or false out and have 100’s if not millions read it. So as the term is being bantered Fake news and in the case of the politically “Leaked” news we need to start blaming ourselves too. If we did not read and forward some of the sites might disappear and the leaks would not be worth as much as they are. But we are “Gawkers” always looking for the next big accident. So what can you do, research and if you can not find facts to validate you may want to cautiously or not even spread a story. Newspapers when they existed always wanted to be the first out and often had to retract statements when information disproved their claims, but the Internet does not have that same editorial value.
The Internet and facts.
Simple Not Everything on the Internet is Fact!
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