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Election Day Cyber Mayhem
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/white-house-readies-fight-election-day-cyber-mayhem-n677636
"The U.S. government believes hackers from Russia or elsewhere may try to undermine next week's presidential election and is mounting an unprecedented effort to counter their cyber meddling, American officials told NBC News.
The effort is being coordinated by the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, but reaches across the government to include the CIA, the National Security Agency and other elements of the Defense Department, current and former officials say.
Russia has been warned that any effort to manipulate the actual voting or vote counting would be viewed as a serious breach, intelligence officials say.
"The Russians are in an offensive mode and [the U.S. is] working on strategies to respond to that, and at the highest levels," said Michael McFaul, the U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014.
Officials are alert for any attempts to create Election Day chaos, and say steps are being taken to prepare for worst-case scenarios, including a cyber-attack that shuts down part of the power grid or the internet.
But what is more likely, multiple U.S. officials say, is a lower-level effort by hackers from Russia or elsewhere to peddle misinformation by manipulating Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms.
For example, officials fear an 11th hour release of fake documents implicating one of the candidates in an explosive scandal without time for the news media to fact check it. So far, document dumps attributed to the Russians have damaged Democrats and favored Trump.
The Russians "want to sow as much confusion as possible and undermine our process in ways they've done elsewhere," said a senior Obama administration official. "So this is to make sure that we have all the tools at our disposal and that we're prepared to respond to whatever it is that they do."
"We need to be prepared on every front, not just technical but messaging, and so on," the official added, saying the details were classified. "Because any reporting irregularity could be incredibly disruptive. … They can cause tremendous chaos, and by the time we are able to attribute, the damage may have already been done."
Officials were reluctant to discuss how they might be respond to such "influence operations," other than to say they will make efforts to counter misinformation and keep open communication nodes.
The U.S. intelligence community and the Department of Homeland Security assess that it would be extremely difficult for even a nation-state actor to alter actual ballot counts or election results by cyber-attack, a second senior administration official told NBC News.
"This assessment is based on the decentralized nature of our election system in this country and the number of protections state and local election officials have in place," the official said. "States ensure that voting machines are not connected to the Internet, and there are numerous checks and balances as well as extensive oversight at multiple levels built into our election process."
However, a Department of Homeland Security official said, other possible hacks pose "the potential for causing confusion and misperception" around the election.
For example, "Somebody could tamper with voter registration information or unofficial election night reporting."
While multiple intelligence officials told NBC that they have no specific warning about an Election Day attack, they also say they consider the massive and sophisticated internet disruption of Friday, Oct. 21, a potential dry run.
The "distributed denial of service" attack on equipment provided by the company DYN, which took down popular internet sites like PayPal and Amazon for hours, "had all the signs of what would be considered a drill," said Ann Barron-DiCamillo, former director of Homeland Security's computer emergency readiness team.
If a similar attack began unfolding on Election Day, DHS would work with big internet providers such as Comcast (owner of NBC Universal) and Verizon to try to mitigate it, Barron-DiCamillo said. Since most of the internet is owned by private companies, the government relies on the private sector to help stop attacks, she said.
(cont.)
"The U.S. government believes hackers from Russia or elsewhere may try to undermine next week's presidential election and is mounting an unprecedented effort to counter their cyber meddling, American officials told NBC News.
The effort is being coordinated by the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, but reaches across the government to include the CIA, the National Security Agency and other elements of the Defense Department, current and former officials say.
Russia has been warned that any effort to manipulate the actual voting or vote counting would be viewed as a serious breach, intelligence officials say.
"The Russians are in an offensive mode and [the U.S. is] working on strategies to respond to that, and at the highest levels," said Michael McFaul, the U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014.
Officials are alert for any attempts to create Election Day chaos, and say steps are being taken to prepare for worst-case scenarios, including a cyber-attack that shuts down part of the power grid or the internet.
But what is more likely, multiple U.S. officials say, is a lower-level effort by hackers from Russia or elsewhere to peddle misinformation by manipulating Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms.
For example, officials fear an 11th hour release of fake documents implicating one of the candidates in an explosive scandal without time for the news media to fact check it. So far, document dumps attributed to the Russians have damaged Democrats and favored Trump.
The Russians "want to sow as much confusion as possible and undermine our process in ways they've done elsewhere," said a senior Obama administration official. "So this is to make sure that we have all the tools at our disposal and that we're prepared to respond to whatever it is that they do."
"We need to be prepared on every front, not just technical but messaging, and so on," the official added, saying the details were classified. "Because any reporting irregularity could be incredibly disruptive. … They can cause tremendous chaos, and by the time we are able to attribute, the damage may have already been done."
Officials were reluctant to discuss how they might be respond to such "influence operations," other than to say they will make efforts to counter misinformation and keep open communication nodes.
The U.S. intelligence community and the Department of Homeland Security assess that it would be extremely difficult for even a nation-state actor to alter actual ballot counts or election results by cyber-attack, a second senior administration official told NBC News.
"This assessment is based on the decentralized nature of our election system in this country and the number of protections state and local election officials have in place," the official said. "States ensure that voting machines are not connected to the Internet, and there are numerous checks and balances as well as extensive oversight at multiple levels built into our election process."
However, a Department of Homeland Security official said, other possible hacks pose "the potential for causing confusion and misperception" around the election.
For example, "Somebody could tamper with voter registration information or unofficial election night reporting."
While multiple intelligence officials told NBC that they have no specific warning about an Election Day attack, they also say they consider the massive and sophisticated internet disruption of Friday, Oct. 21, a potential dry run.
The "distributed denial of service" attack on equipment provided by the company DYN, which took down popular internet sites like PayPal and Amazon for hours, "had all the signs of what would be considered a drill," said Ann Barron-DiCamillo, former director of Homeland Security's computer emergency readiness team.
If a similar attack began unfolding on Election Day, DHS would work with big internet providers such as Comcast (owner of NBC Universal) and Verizon to try to mitigate it, Barron-DiCamillo said. Since most of the internet is owned by private companies, the government relies on the private sector to help stop attacks, she said.
(cont.)
You know it is bad when Jon Stewart starts putting you down, and guess what CNN, even HE sees that you are no longer a news organization. OMG, the media bias. Whether you like Trump or you like Clinton and think she should have won over Trump, CNN and all associated with it are so obnoxious for their non reporting of 'news' that it's appalling. Are we really supposed to know how a reporter feels about things? Are we really supposed to have an entire news outlet focused on one thing . . . putting down Trump or making us think the whole country is against him (which is clearly not the case)? I have always felt like they were at least fair, have listened to and watched CNN for years. Had to turn it off! While I'm not a Trump fan, the guy won. And in my opinion, Hilary was no good either. So, now it's over. But the crying and moaning, OMG. I've never seen anything like this and SUPPORTED by the news media. When Fox starts sounding like real news and CNN sounds like a political group on a mission to sway opinions . . . they HELPED lose this election for their candidate. (and are we supposed to know that a media outlet has a candidate they clearly want to win?) They have fed into my own mistrust of politics and media and the desire for something different. My local paper was very public about who they endorsed. I just really feel like they should report the news and let people decide. It's hard to find a good place to turn to in order to 'just' get the facts or information. And I'm tired of wanting to know what ELSE is going on in the world or our country as they play the same things over and over about Trump. If I have to watch the videos of those going to meet with him post election, I might scream. (okay, it's not that bad. I just turn it off). But is it a bad thing he is meeting with people? I mean really. Let's move on and hope for the best. THAT is the best thing for this country. Not keeping us stuck in bad feelings.
Whew, end of my long rant. Ha ha
Whew, end of my long rant. Ha ha
1 Comments
The democrats told the world that there was "no such thing as voter fraud". The also were telling the world that, "Obama is now our leader so quit crying and get on board and support your President." Boy how the tides have turned, and you know there is a problem with their favorite news source when a guy like Jon Stewart comes out crying BS about said source....
What I didn't see coming is Trump winning. I did however foresee the crying in the aftermath.
What I didn't see coming is Trump winning. I did however foresee the crying in the aftermath.
Dee, you are right. This has been really ugly,and, sigh, remains so.
This has been such an ugly election process.
I don't remember experiencing this in the past.
Does anyone remember anything like this?
Thanks
I don't remember experiencing this in the past.
Does anyone remember anything like this?
Thanks
1 Comments
Yeah, I do. 4 & 8 years ago. It wasn't quite this strange but it strange enough. And it will remain strange because the democrats are hurt.
Maybe its just me, but I find something about this as kind of funny. (Funny isn't the right word.) The last 2 elections, democrats where laughing at the republicans when they were complaining about possible interference. They basically said there was "0 chance" and now its them complaining...... Truly tragic times.
1 Comments
http://www.politicususa.com/2016/11/25/report-thousands-wisconsin-votes-trump-recount-begins.html
"Donald Trump’s margin of victory in Wisconsin appears to be shrinking even before the state’s recount gets underway, according to a new report that cites a number of precincts padding the vote count in Trump’s favor.
According to the Palmer Report, some precincts realized the numbers were padded to benefit Trump and had to revise their numbers. As a result, 5,000 votes were essentially wiped out of Trump’s column in an instant. What’s particularly puzzling, the report noted, is that Clinton’s numbers remained virtually unchanged, despite Trump losing thousands of votes from his total.
If this pattern remains consistent across the state, it’s feasible – though unclear how likely – that Clinton could end up on top in Wisconsin.
More from the report:
Even ahead of the forthcoming recount in Wisconsin, Donald Trump’s lead has already shrunk to just 22,525 votes. That means 18% of his “lead” has already vanished, based on precincts catching some of their own incorrect numbers, and internet gawkers catching others. But the second thing that jumps out is that the revisions have served to erase thousands of votes from Trump, while affirming that Clinton’s vote total was essentially correct to begin with.
Donald Trump has gone from originally having 1,409,467 votes to now having just 1,404,536 votes in Wisconsin. In other words, a total of 4,931 votes were reported for Trump on election night that never existed. In contrast Hillary Clinton has gone from 1,382,210 votes down to 1,382,011 votes, a difference of less than two hundred votes. In other words, Wisconsin essentially had Clinton’s vote total correct all along, but is now acknowledging that nearly five thousand of the supposed votes for Trump simply never existed. Where did these votes come from? Who originally padded his numbers and how? If this was indeed due to an organized effort to pad Trump’s voting totals in various precincts across the state, the recount should fully expose it
While Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes are in Trump’s column for the time being, his margin in the state could be incredibly fragile if the discrepancies found in a few areas turn out to be a statewide phenomenon. A few more precincts uncovering the same errors could easily tip the state in Clinton’s favor.
At this point, much of this is just speculation, but the good news is that this is exactly why recounts exist – not just to expose any vote tampering, but also to give the American people confidence that the electoral process is fair and can be trusted."
"Donald Trump’s margin of victory in Wisconsin appears to be shrinking even before the state’s recount gets underway, according to a new report that cites a number of precincts padding the vote count in Trump’s favor.
According to the Palmer Report, some precincts realized the numbers were padded to benefit Trump and had to revise their numbers. As a result, 5,000 votes were essentially wiped out of Trump’s column in an instant. What’s particularly puzzling, the report noted, is that Clinton’s numbers remained virtually unchanged, despite Trump losing thousands of votes from his total.
If this pattern remains consistent across the state, it’s feasible – though unclear how likely – that Clinton could end up on top in Wisconsin.
More from the report:
Even ahead of the forthcoming recount in Wisconsin, Donald Trump’s lead has already shrunk to just 22,525 votes. That means 18% of his “lead” has already vanished, based on precincts catching some of their own incorrect numbers, and internet gawkers catching others. But the second thing that jumps out is that the revisions have served to erase thousands of votes from Trump, while affirming that Clinton’s vote total was essentially correct to begin with.
Donald Trump has gone from originally having 1,409,467 votes to now having just 1,404,536 votes in Wisconsin. In other words, a total of 4,931 votes were reported for Trump on election night that never existed. In contrast Hillary Clinton has gone from 1,382,210 votes down to 1,382,011 votes, a difference of less than two hundred votes. In other words, Wisconsin essentially had Clinton’s vote total correct all along, but is now acknowledging that nearly five thousand of the supposed votes for Trump simply never existed. Where did these votes come from? Who originally padded his numbers and how? If this was indeed due to an organized effort to pad Trump’s voting totals in various precincts across the state, the recount should fully expose it
While Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes are in Trump’s column for the time being, his margin in the state could be incredibly fragile if the discrepancies found in a few areas turn out to be a statewide phenomenon. A few more precincts uncovering the same errors could easily tip the state in Clinton’s favor.
At this point, much of this is just speculation, but the good news is that this is exactly why recounts exist – not just to expose any vote tampering, but also to give the American people confidence that the electoral process is fair and can be trusted."
I also read that Texas, New York and Virginia could be the sites of al Qaeda terror attacks on Monday...
As is standard for major national events, all six federal cyber centers will be up and running, closely monitoring network traffic and hunting for malware.
"Given (the Russians') past behavior in other contexts, we understand the way they like to go about potentially causing confusion and so we want to make sure that we are mitigating that potential," the DHS official said.
A current Obama administration national security official said that a White House working group has been watching Russia's apparent intervention in other foreign elections with growing concern.
A recent case study, the official said, was the October 16 parliamentary election in Montenegro, a small Balkan nation straddling East and West.
The incumbent Democratic Party of Socialists narrowly won, but fell short of an absolute majority after facing stiff and well-financed opposition from a pro-Russian coalition that opposes the country's proposed membership in NATO — a position also held by Putin.
In the run-up to the election, U.S. officials believe Russia secretly funneled money to opposition parties and either set up or co-opted friendly media outlets and "influencers" to undermine the pro-West party and highlight the risks of joining NATO, the official said.
During the election, Russia launched a coordinated disinformation campaign using traditional and social media to allege widespread voting irregularities, including that dead people had been registered to vote, according to the Obama national security official. Social media networks were so bombarded with complaints and accusations that Montenegro ordered telecom operators to temporarily shut down WhatsApp, Viper and similar messaging apps, creating even more questions about the election, the official said.
A network of anti-censorship bloggers also reported that the website of Montenegro's top election observation NGO, the Center for Democratic Transitions (CDT), was knocked out for part of Election Day, raising concerns among U.S. officials about Russian interference.
Montenegro's state election commission released the final results Oct. 29 — and certified the pro-NATO party's win — despite protests by the pro-Russian opposition party, which cited the very irregularities the U.S. blames on Russia as reason to doubt the vote totals.
"It's the kind of thing that we are anticipating that they will try here," the official said. "But they will target whatever they can — voting infrastructure, putting out false stories about the Democratic Party intentionally manipulating the results. That's what they do."
Montenegro's leaders publicly accused Russia of meddling in the election. Russian officials and opposition party members denied any interference, but Russia's foreign minister said NATO was being "irresponsible" for supporting admission for Montenegro, which could come as soon as Spring 2017.
Russia has also denied any involvement in recent hacks of U.S. political groups and operatives."
"Given (the Russians') past behavior in other contexts, we understand the way they like to go about potentially causing confusion and so we want to make sure that we are mitigating that potential," the DHS official said.
A current Obama administration national security official said that a White House working group has been watching Russia's apparent intervention in other foreign elections with growing concern.
A recent case study, the official said, was the October 16 parliamentary election in Montenegro, a small Balkan nation straddling East and West.
The incumbent Democratic Party of Socialists narrowly won, but fell short of an absolute majority after facing stiff and well-financed opposition from a pro-Russian coalition that opposes the country's proposed membership in NATO — a position also held by Putin.
In the run-up to the election, U.S. officials believe Russia secretly funneled money to opposition parties and either set up or co-opted friendly media outlets and "influencers" to undermine the pro-West party and highlight the risks of joining NATO, the official said.
During the election, Russia launched a coordinated disinformation campaign using traditional and social media to allege widespread voting irregularities, including that dead people had been registered to vote, according to the Obama national security official. Social media networks were so bombarded with complaints and accusations that Montenegro ordered telecom operators to temporarily shut down WhatsApp, Viper and similar messaging apps, creating even more questions about the election, the official said.
A network of anti-censorship bloggers also reported that the website of Montenegro's top election observation NGO, the Center for Democratic Transitions (CDT), was knocked out for part of Election Day, raising concerns among U.S. officials about Russian interference.
Montenegro's state election commission released the final results Oct. 29 — and certified the pro-NATO party's win — despite protests by the pro-Russian opposition party, which cited the very irregularities the U.S. blames on Russia as reason to doubt the vote totals.
"It's the kind of thing that we are anticipating that they will try here," the official said. "But they will target whatever they can — voting infrastructure, putting out false stories about the Democratic Party intentionally manipulating the results. That's what they do."
Montenegro's leaders publicly accused Russia of meddling in the election. Russian officials and opposition party members denied any interference, but Russia's foreign minister said NATO was being "irresponsible" for supporting admission for Montenegro, which could come as soon as Spring 2017.
Russia has also denied any involvement in recent hacks of U.S. political groups and operatives."
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