Calling it now: Dems snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in 2016.

[Cain]

Oh, and check this out

https://www.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-hacked-emails-of-dnc-oppo-researcher-point-to-russians-and-wider-penetration-154121061.html

Just weeks after she started preparing opposition research files on Donald Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort last spring, Democratic National Committee consultant Alexandra Chalupa got an alarming message when she logged into her personal Yahoo email account.

"Important action required," read a pop-up box from a Yahoo security team that is informally known as "the Paranoids." "We strongly suspect that your account has been the target of state-sponsored actors."

Chalupa — who had been drafting memos and writing emails about Manafort's connection to pro-Russian political leaders in Ukraine — quickly alerted top DNC officials. "Since I started digging into Manafort, these messages have been a daily oc­­­­currence on my Yahoo account despite changing my p­­a­ssword often," she wrote in a May 3 email to Luis Miranda, the DNC's communications director, which included an attached screengrab of the image of the Yahoo security warning.

This is a widespread sabotage campaign of your elections.

If the US doesn't respond to this, you may as well roll over and let Russian hackers gut your entire country.

[LMNO]

I'm amazed how quiet everyone's being about this.

[Cain]

Kick up a storm yourself.  It's what I've been trying to do, via social media.

The press is finally starting to stir, thanks to Josh Marshall and Dan Drezner.  NYT, Daily Beast, WaPo, Atlantic...everyone's discussing Trump's potential links to Russia now, and what a Russian hack and Russian manipulation of the American elections actually means. 

So I'd start with those publications.  Spread them around, get people talking.  Beyond this being a chance to bury Trump (which is no small thing), it's also about your national security.  Russia is manipulating your elections.  It's not going to stop, it's going to get worse.  Unless they're held accountable and made to pay for their actions.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

OK.  I'm feeling less like I'm on crazy pills now.

Though Trump was asked about the DNC hack, and basically said "I hope Putin has Clinton's emails too".  And talked about her VP "Tom Kean", advocated torture and withdrawal from the Geneva Convention.

Godwin's Law doesn't apply if you're talking about actual Nazis.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'm amazed how quiet everyone's being about this.

It's the new normal.  It's what we wanted.

[Junkenstein]

Almost makes you wonder if they (Russia) have taken any interest in any other recent votes.

Surely that's just silly and paranoid.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Almost makes you wonder if they (Russia) have taken any interest in any other recent votes.

Surely that's just silly and paranoid.

*looks at congress*

Not actually necessary until now.

[Bruno]

Seems like a good time to start Trump: Secret Russian^TM memes that parody the Obama: Secret Muslim^TM stuff.

[Cain]

Almost makes you wonder if they (Russia) have taken any interest in any other recent votes.

Surely that's just silly and paranoid.

*looks at congress*

Not actually necessary until now.

I think Junk was referring to a recent referendum in the UK, where at least one of the major parties involved is lead by a man who openly admires Putin, and whose European, eurosceptic allies are often funded by Russian money.

[Cain]

That said I don't recall any suspicious leaks of data which could have been of benefit.

[Junkenstein]

That's no guarantee that funding didn't drift through though.

And to be honest, I was just thinking about anywhere where Russia's interests would be advanced with certain parties/policies. I could point a finger at more than a few in Europe. I'm sure there's some kind of overt lobby group in the US for Russian interests too.

As for congress, there must be at least a couple there on Putin's payroll, surely?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

That's no guarantee that funding didn't drift through though.

And to be honest, I was just thinking about anywhere where Russia's interests would be advanced with certain parties/policies. I could point a finger at more than a few in Europe. I'm sure there's some kind of overt lobby group in the US for Russian interests too.

As for congress, there must be at least a couple there on Putin's payroll, surely?

Probably not.  We're plenty spastic enough to do that without their assistant.  Seriously, it's really hard to explain to an outsider.

[Pergamos]

I'm inclined to believe they weren't edited, because quite frankly if they were the revelations would be a lot more damaging.  But Wikileaks does not give any fucks either way regarding the possibility, apparently, or else they would have noticed the same thing and asked for the raw files.

Wikileaks aside for the moment, is not the hack in and of its-self, regardless on contents revealed, an indication of general security arrangements? Clinton has had plenty of shit of late over email severs and possible security lapses so I'd suggest that part of the motive is just to feed that narrative more. "Oh look, now they've left X accessible, she can't possibly be trusted with national security". I think this may be one of those unusual hacks where it's not so much about any information, just pointing out that X is not as secure as X claims, indirectly boosting Y's credentials.

The fun will really start if there's some kind of Trump hack because you just know so much of his material is going to be quite libellous.

There won't be.

Why not?  There are plenty of hackers on the left who despise Trump.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'm inclined to believe they weren't edited, because quite frankly if they were the revelations would be a lot more damaging.  But Wikileaks does not give any fucks either way regarding the possibility, apparently, or else they would have noticed the same thing and asked for the raw files.

Wikileaks aside for the moment, is not the hack in and of its-self, regardless on contents revealed, an indication of general security arrangements? Clinton has had plenty of shit of late over email severs and possible security lapses so I'd suggest that part of the motive is just to feed that narrative more. "Oh look, now they've left X accessible, she can't possibly be trusted with national security". I think this may be one of those unusual hacks where it's not so much about any information, just pointing out that X is not as secure as X claims, indirectly boosting Y's credentials.

The fun will really start if there's some kind of Trump hack because you just know so much of his material is going to be quite libellous.

There won't be.

Why not?  There are plenty of hackers on the left who despise Trump.

*looks around*

Yeah?

[Cain]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/07/27/by-november-russian-hackers-could-target-voting-machines/

Retaliation is politically fraught and could have serious consequences, but this is an attack against our democracy. We need to confront Russian President Vladimir Putin in some way — politically, economically or in cyberspace — and make it clear that we will not tolerate this kind of interference by any government. Regardless of your political leanings this time, there's no guarantee the next country that tries to manipulate our elections will share your preferred candidates.

Even more important, we need to secure our election systems before autumn. If Putin's government has already used a cyberattack to attempt to help Trump win, there's no reason to believe he won't do it again — especially now that Trump is inviting the "help."

Over the years, more and more states have moved to electronic voting machines and have flirted with Internet voting. These systems are insecure and vulnerable to attack.

But while computer security experts like me have sounded the alarm for many years, states have largely ignored the threat, and the machine manufacturers have thrown up enough obfuscating babble that election officials are largely mollified.

We no longer have time for that. We must ignore the machine manufacturers' spurious claims of security, create tiger teams to test the machines' and systems' resistance to attack, drastically increase their cyber-defenses and take them offline if we can't guarantee their security online.