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United States Politics

NSA and CIA Have Classified Evidence the Russians Had Placed Malware in the Election Registration Systems of at Least Two Florida Counties, Bob Woodward Reports (cnn.com) 291

Posted by msmash from the breaking-news dept.
Legendary journalist Bob Woodward reports in his new book new details on Russia's election meddling, writing that the NSA and CIA have classified evidence the Russians had placed malware in the election registration systems of at least two Florida counties, St. Lucie and Washington. From a report: While there was no evidence the malware had been activated, Woodward writes, it was sophisticated and could erase voters in specific districts. The voting system vendor used by Florida was also used in states across the country.
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NSA and CIA Have Classified Evidence the Russians Had Placed Malware in the Election Registration Systems of at Least Two Florid More

NSA and CIA Have Classified Evidence the Russians Had Placed Malware in the Election Registration Systems of at Least Two Florid

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  • If there's anything to this... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by bjdevil66 ( 583941 ) on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @02:38PM (#60489338)

    ...then this is the first time that the Russians have meddled in an American election in a way that is genuinely dangerous to our country. This isn't an indirect attack on us via an email server hacking, or the spread of disingenuous Facebook stories. This is a DIRECT attack on our democratic system, and any evidence that this occurred should be brought to light immediately to expose the bad actors.

    If this is true, Russia should then be sanctioned economically up to the gills by our allies. This can't go unanswered. (Will they risk having their energy supply to do this? Not likely... but they should because if they don't, the bad actors will just go after them, too.)

    • Re:If there's anything to this... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by willy_me ( 212994 ) on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @03:52PM (#60489670)

      Russia should then be sanctioned economically up to the gills by our allies

      The same allies that were screwed over time and time again by the Trump administration? Good luck with that.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by skids ( 119237 )

        Well, they wouldn't do it for us at this point, but the more novichok incidents that keep cropping up, the more likely they are to respond to those.

        I guess though at this point the Russian power structure has decided they are such a pariah they have nothing left to lose.

    • Re:If there's anything to this... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @03:56PM (#60489692) Homepage Journal

      Russia knows you aren't going to do anything, that's why they are getting bolder. Trump recently questioned if they poisoned Alexei Navalny with Novichok, helping them deny trying to murder an opposition leader. Trump wants them to interfere because he knows they will help him, so good luck stopping it.

    • either way. They're actively trying to undermine support for our government and it's institutions. There's a fair amount of crazies out there and one of the goals is to wind them up and send them off to commit acts of violence.

      There's an old Sci-Fi book by Bruce Sterling called "Distractions" that touches on this idea. e.g. that you could actually "call out a hit" on somebody just by putting it out on the net that they ought to be shot. We've got some of those loons right out in the open lately. And don [azcentral.com]

  • Seriously? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @02:56PM (#60489422)

    With all of the bombshells in Woodward's new book, including the significant fact that Trump himself said at the onset that Covid-19 was deadly but in order to "reduce panic", Trump abdicated responsibility and sought to downplay the health risks, along with other really damning revelations on Trump really being the worst person for the job, and the one thing you want to report here is two small Florida counties have malware installed?

    • That is a very good point and it summarizes the last four years.
      The Woodward book is sure to prove that Trump's presidential record is abysmal. But instead all the attention goes to Russia claims which - and I've looked into them, have nothing substantial of truth in them, often are made up, and will end up putting FBI people in jail.

  • First, why is it possible to infect the machines? If you want to see actual security, look at Vegas slot machines. Audited code, write on Roms potted into the board so any change is very tamper evident and requires a dremel and hours of time.

    Second, is this targeted or just drive-by malware because the systems are just that badly protected?!?
    Were these systems compromise allowed so that methods could be observed by intel agencies?
    Past Russian actions were designed to sow confusion/discord/division vs ac

    • Re:Why is this possible? Direct attack? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @03:35PM (#60489614)

      First, why is it possible to infect the machines? If you want to see actual security, look at Vegas slot machines. Audited code, write on Roms potted into the board so any change is very tamper evident and requires a dremel and hours of time.

      Money. Having secure voting machines costs those that produce (Diebold et al) and use the machines (local govs) money. Whereas with slot machines, having secure machines means the owners of the machines (casinos) actually save (or rather, make) money.

  • And I'm not even talking about this petty crap here. I'm not talking about the news. Or what doubles as news these days. I'm talking about the comments. Look at this garbage.

    A while ago, a very smart man (you may guess who) said that at this point, the US has hegemony. There is nobody that could stand up against the US and face it without getting beaten to a pulp. The only thing that could possibly push the US from its throne is it itself.

    And this is what we're witnessing right now. 170 years ago a presiden

  • Covid revelations (Score:5, Insightful)

    by stabiesoft ( 733417 ) on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @03:19PM (#60489536) Homepage
    For me, the covid revelations are more damning. Trump admits to Woodward he knew, and then lied, and lied and lied some more. People are dying, and he lies some more. And then does anyone really believe he did NOT say the WWI soldiers who died were losers and suckers? Anyone?

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by stabiesoft ( 733417 )
      Ahh the Russians are already downvoting. That was fast.

    • The covid revelations are more damning indeed.
      The claim from Jeffrey Goldberg is made up. Because it's Goldberg, he makes up stuff to suit his agenda. Several people, even walrus mustache said Trump didn't say these things. Is it plausible? Sure. Trump has probably said worse than that.

      • The claim from Jeffrey Goldberg is made up. Because it's Goldberg

        False. "Hours after the Atlantic story broke, the Associated Press had two unnamed sources - a senior Defense Department official and senior Marine Corps officer - confirm the report. Per the AP, Trump decided not to visit the cemetery in France after receiving his daily briefing on November 10, 2018, the day of the planned trip. And while members of the National Security Council and the Secret Service told Trump he could still drive to th

        • Yeah, Glenn Greenwald wrote about that new meaning for the word 'confirm':https://theintercept.com/2020/09/05/journalisms-new-propaganda-tool-using-confirmed-to-mean-its-opposite/

          People told Goldberg something and then also told other journalists the same thing and then it's called confirmation. Confirmation is supposed to be independent. The aim of the quote is to push military and pro-military people away from Trump.
          And Bolton and others undercutting the story is significant because Trump not going is lin

  • The florida hacks were analyzed in this article a few years back. Segment "NSA Finds a GRU Election Plot " in
    https://consortiumnews.com/201... [consortiumnews.com]

  • so we'll need to wait for the next whistleblower to find out it's a load of crap?

  • Bigger story is that Trump knew COVID was deadly (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @03:47PM (#60489648)
    Even while he was actively downplaying it. Experts agree that had Trump not down that thousands [vanityfair.com] of lives [cnn.com] would have been saved.

    I've asked this before, but how much is it going to take? Trump's polls are back up. The 538 average has him at 43.6% with likely voters. Shutting down the post office is likely to cost the other side thousands of key votes and trump is calling for poll watchers [cnn.com] which if you know anything about politics means threats of violence and intimidation.

    For the people still on the fence, is there any line that can be crossed?

  • More reasons elections should be manual (Score:3)

    by edi_guy ( 2225738 ) on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @04:14PM (#60489758)

    If not the Russians then someone else. I used to be pro-electronic voting, even vote by app. But I've done a 180 and am for paper ballots counted by hand. Hanging chads and all. Waiting for a few days for results is a much better option than the outright hacking that is inevitable.

    Would also be great if Facebook and Twitter would voluntarily shut down for 30 days prior to vote.

    • A manual election wouldn't help this problem. The problem is that they had access to create or erase registrations. Erasing registrations would invalidate manual votes. You'd have to go to full paper registration and not using computers at all to make registration lists but instead checking every voter back to the original paper. That's a nightmare with the population we have. The near impossible to fully man polling stations would become truly impossible.

      I do wonder if they've been checking identification

  • Legendary journalist Bob Woodward

    And in Warcraft, what is the color of Legendaries?

    Oh come on, man! That's funny! To hell with you if you get bent out of shape over it.

  • Turnabout Is Fair Play (Score:5, Funny)

    by organgtool ( 966989 ) on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @04:24PM (#60489822)
    If Russia really has hacked our voting equipment and is actively manipulating voter data, then I say we do the same thing to Russia. We'll see how Putin likes it when he only gets 139% of all votes.

  • It now appears the con artist and his cabal deliberately altered intelligence reports on threats to this country [cnn.com] posed by Russia to fit the con artist's narrative.

    The whistleblower claims that acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf instructed DHS officials earlier this year to "cease providing intelligence assessments on the threat of Russian interference" and, instead, focus their efforts on gathering information related to activities being carried out by China and Iran.
    . . .
    Separately, both Wolf and Cuccinelli also tried to alter a report to downplay the threat posed by White supremacists and instead emphasize the role of leftist groups due to concerns about how the initial language would reflect on the President, according to a source familiar with the claims raised by the whistleblower.

    Despite the attempts by Wolf and Cuccinelli to alter the report, the report clearly shows DHS considers white supremacists are the greatest terror threat to this country [politico.com].

    In looking at the con artist's antics, it is clear both articles are true. The con artist has never said a word about Russian interference and has even gone on record as saying h

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