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I tire of being a modern-day Cassandra — but whatever. Such is the curse the Fates have laid at my doorstep. You know, as ridiculed as she was, Debbie-Downer often had a point …
Russian Targeting of Election Infrastructure During the 2016 Election: Summary of Initial Findings and Recommendations
May 8, 2018
Overview
In 2016, cyber actors affiliated with the Russian Government conducted an unprecedented, coordinated cyber campaign against state election infrastructure. Russian actors scanned databases for vulnerabilities, attempted intrusions, and in a small number of cases successfully penetrated a voter registration database. [...]
o Almost all of the states that were targeted observed vulnerability scanning directed at their Secretary of State websites or voter registration infrastructure. Other scans were broader or less specific in their target.
o In at least six states, the Russian-affiliated cyber actors went beyond scanning and conducted malicious access attempts on voting-related websites.[2] In a small number of states, Russian-affiliated cyber actors were able to gain access to restricted elements of election infrastructure. In a small number of states, these cyber actors were in a position to, at a minimum, alter or delete voter registration data; however, they did not appear to be in a position to manipulate individual votes or aggregate vote totals.
Here are a sampling of what those hacked Voter Registration systems, might look like in the “real world” — a world where quite often Victory hinges on a small sliver of votes, on the margin here and there.
Russians Hacked Two U.S. Voter Databases, Officials Say
by Robert Windrem, William M. Arkin and Ken Dilanian, NBCnews.com -- Aug. 29, 2016
[...]
The breaches included the theft of data from as many as 200,000 voter records in Illinois, officials say.
The incidents led the FBI to send a “flash alert” earlier this month to election officials nationwide, asking them to be on the lookout for any similar cyber intrusions.
One official tells NBC News that the attacks have been attributed to Russian intelligence agencies.
“This is the closest we’ve come to tying a recent hack to the Russian government,” the official said.
That person added that “there is serious concern” that the Kremlin may be seeking to sow uncertainty in the U.S. presidential election process.
[...]
“The FBI is requesting that states contact their Board of Elections and determine if any similar activity to their logs, both inbound and outbound, has been detected,” the alert said.
[...]
The bulletin does not identify the targeted states, but officials told NBC News they were Illinois and Arizona. Illinois officials said in July that they shut down their state’s voter registration after a hack. State officials said Monday the hackers downloaded information on as many 200,000 people.
[...]
Those incidents led Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to host a call earlier this month with state election officials to talk about cybersecurity and election infrastructure.
[...]
That sounds like more than a “sliver” to me. Simply changing a Registration’s Zip Code is probably enough to get Voter placed in the Ineligible-to-Vote pile. Deleting say 10000 Registrations with D in the Preference box, would likely do the trick elsewhere.
Imagine what Putin’s Pals could do with a comprehensive list ahead of time. Running some AI algorithms, on some routinely-supplied internal campaign polling data, can do wonders for your attempts “to sow uncertainty” micro-targeting operation. Such a “playful” intrusion might even change a state’s results or two.
[Hey citizens of Milwaukee, Detroit, did anyone ever get back with you about those outbreaks of registration anomalies, back in Nov 2016? (as I contemporaneously recall) No, of course not. Below the radar is where hackers like to fly. Why make waves if the SOS is willing to certify the results, eh?]
Estimated 35 Million Voter Records For Sale on Popular Hacking Forum
October 15, 2018 | Anomali Labs
Anomali Labs researchers in close partnership with Intel 471, a leading cybercrime intelligence provider, have uncovered a widespread unauthorized information disclosure of US voter registration databases. To be clear, this voter information is made generally available to the public for legitimate uses. Anomali and Intel 471 researchers discovered dark web communications offering a large quantity of voter databases for sale. The databases include valuable personally identifiable information and voting history. The disclosure reportedly affects 19 states and includes 23 million records for just three of the 19 states. No record counts were provided for the remaining 16 states, but do include prices for each state. We estimate that the entire contents of the disclosure could exceed 35 million records. Researchers have reviewed a sample of the database records and determined the data to be valid with a high degree of confidence.
[...]
The voter records affect citizens of:
Georgia
Idaho
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Minnesota
Mississippi
Montana
New Mexico
Oregon
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Purportedly, these records contain voter data including full name, phone numbers, physical addresses, voting history, and other unspecified voting data.
Hmmm, what in the world does your friendly neighborhood hacker (and international pen-pal) need your voting history for?
Un-curious minds don’t really want to know. That’s somebody else’s problem. Surely DHS officials are all over it. Right?
When Kirstjen Nielsen was the secretary of Homeland Security, she reportedly wanted to warn the White House about Russian interference in the 2020 election, but chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told her not to bring it up to President Donald Trump.
According to a report from The New York Times, Mulvaney made it clear to Nielsen that the president still believes any discussion about Russia's election interference undermines his 2016 election victory.
[...]
Nielsen reportedly eventually gave up on her effort to organize a meeting of cabinet secretaries at the White House to come up with a strategy protect the 2020 election.
www.businessinsider.com — April 24, 2019
Never-mind!
So the Trump-administered shit-show continues … unabated, unfettered, untethered from reality, unmindful of History.
— Except for one case. What Putin wants, Putin generally gets. And the world is none the wiser.
But don’t despise me … I’m only the court jester in these, all too real Games of Sovereignty.
Sent in to annoy the audiences, who were otherwise having a jolly-old time — dreaming of 2020.
But whatever … it’s only Democracy hanging the cyber-balance.
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Personally, I’d rather be out hiking a forested mountain trail, taking photos, and finding my Zen.
If we ever get some serious adult supervision (with their hackles-up) in this country again, maybe I can return back to my previously scheduled life-goals. Before I get too old to do anything about it …
Oh and sorry for the inconvenience. Of being a patriotic citizen, in an existential crisis.
“Adult supervision” seems to have left the building. And are perfectly happy to wait this one out.
Very much to my angst-ridden chagrin.
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