Did Russian Hackers Alter Votes?

kikazaru said:

Because this deals with Russia I'm putting it here (and also I hate starting new threads)

But I'm feeling more and more that we are living in an alternate universe - or a movie. Or perhaps there is an April Fools Day in August and no one mentioned it, I just don't really know anymore.

So apparently Steven Seagal (yes that one - the puffy, has-been action hero) is now a Russian citizen and a close friend of Vlad's. He's just been appointed The Russian Ministry's Special Representative, to promote US-Russian relations.

Seriously, there is so much unbelievable stuff going on that my "give a crap" meter is permanently broken but this has me agape. It's like "The Onion" has teamed up with Alice in Wonderland to write world politics. What the everloving hell??

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/04/politics/steven-seagal-russia-special-representative/index.html

I need a drink. And not vodka.

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ap123 said:

Truly, these are insane days. *passes gin*

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shakeysix said:

I have the bottle. Gilbey's--not the top of the line but it will do. I am toasting Giuliani for the bang up job he is by doing defending Trump. A little tonic, a squeeze of lime and you have the drink that fueled the British Empire. Also the best drink for a 101* Kansas Sunday afternoon. I will pass the bottle on as soon as I have a second gin and tonic. It was good old marijuana that got me through Watergate but now, I no longer smoke dope--hard on the resp system and a little embarrassing to be busted at my age. --s6

PS-- Gin Buck is good too--gin and gingerale.

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Hackers probed 21 state systems during the lead-up to the 2016 election and gained access to one. But the federal government and states don’t appear to have made great strides to ensure that this doesn’t happen again. To do so, they’d need to deal with not only their own cybersecurity deficits but also those of the private companies that help states administer elections.

Voting machine manufacturers and the makers of election software and electronic poll books (which are lists of eligible voters) are crucially intertwined with state election systems. All states, to some extent or another, rely on these private companies for election products. But despite the central role these companies play, state regulations of them are relatively lax. That’s a problem, especially at a time when these companies are, along with state governments, targets of foreign agents of chaos.

The recent indictment of Russian military intelligence officers as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation aligned with previous reports that VR Systems, a company that provides electronic poll books and voter registration management systems to eight states, had been hacked via a phishing scheme aimed at compromising employee login credentials. The compromise of VR Systems allowed the hackers to create convincing emails for phishing attacks, this time on state election officials who used the company’s products. Many state officials appeared not to learn of the compromise until news reports about it last summer. Emails obtained by The Intercept reveal that state officials who use VR Systems responded to the breach by seeking guidance from the Department of Homeland Security.

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It’s Brian Benczkowski, confirmed last week to a pivotal position as assistant attorney general. He has almost no relevant experience for the job, unless you count passing the bar.

What he does have, as former staffer and close friend of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is the president’s ear from his prior spot on his transition team as well as ties to Russia’s Alfa Bank at a time when Russia’s assumed Most Favored Nation status in the White House.

It was his representation of Alfa Bank that made his nomination one of the most hard fought of the administration. In early 2017, with the transition over, Benczkowski returned to his private law practice. He said yes to representing Alfa Bank as it fought charges that it had suspicious contact with a Trump Organization server. He also sued BuzzFeed on Alfa’s behalf for printing the Steele Dossier.

In June 2017, Trump nominated Benczkowski to headJustice’s Criminal Division. Rather than disclose his work for Alfa, Benczkowski kept it secret. When Democrats on Judiciary discovered that Alfa was a client in an FBI confidential file and confronted him. Benczkowski said he wasn’t being secretive but had been abiding by a clause in his contract which the client subsequently waived.

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