Microsoft Reveals First Known Midterm Campaign Hacking Attempts (politico.com) 163
An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft detected and helped block hacking attempts against three congressional candidates this year, a company executive said Thursday, marking the first known example of cyber interference in the midterm elections. "Earlier this year, we did discover that a fake Microsoft domain had been established as the landing page for phishing attacks," said Tom Burt, Microsoft's vice president for security and trust, at the Aspen Security Forum. "And we saw metadata that suggested those phishing attacks were being directed at three candidates who are all standing for election in the midterm elections."
Burt declined to name the targets but said they were "people who, because of their positions, might have been interesting targets from an espionage standpoint as well as an election disruption standpoint." Microsoft took down the fake domain and worked with the federal government to block the phishing messages.
Burt declined to name the targets but said they were "people who, because of their positions, might have been interesting targets from an espionage standpoint as well as an election disruption standpoint." Microsoft took down the fake domain and worked with the federal government to block the phishing messages.
But... (Score:4, Insightful)
But Trump said they weren't hacking us..............
Re: But... (Score:1)
Its not them, its us - Canada, you hosers.
Oh, and sorry.... Eh.
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Hey friend, over here Dude.
Re: But... (Score:1)
Yeah why did Obama do nothing about this? He knew about it and it still happened.
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And what is Trump doing about it?
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Not going into a war because of it? USA trying to whine about Russia engaging in subversion like any rational competing government does, and much like USA does whenever there's Russian elections, is hilarious considering USA's own fucked up meddling in world governments, one of which lead to the emergence of a fundamentalist Iran that would never happen had USA never been involved in fucking up the Iranian people during and after Mosaddegh. Another fine historical meddling is USA putting Saddam into office
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Remember the result of the First Free Elections in Iraq, after deposing Saddam?
The Iraqi Nation voted. They choose a major religious fundamentalist choice, in genuine, free, honest elections. Then USA decided they didn't like their choice, dismissed the result of the elections and set up a government of their own.
There's a rather lengthy list [wikipedia.org] of cases where USA was sticking their fingers into foreign government choices.
Panama. Guatemala. Bolivia. Afghanistan. Nicaragua.
The hypocrisy is staggering.
Re: But... (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah why did Obama do nothing about this? He knew about it and it still happened.
He attempted to do something about it... unfortunately it failed.
Obama tried to warn off Putin (as if that would work by itself). He then went to congressional leadership, trying to establish some sort of bipartisan response - but was rebuffed.
Now, after that failed, I think he should’ve still done something - even if it were just a televised address to the nation. Frankly, I do think he dropped the ball - and badly. But pretending he just sat on the knowledge is ignoring the facts - fake news, as it were.
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He also introduced sanctions against Russia.
I'm not sure anything he said in public would have made a difference. Nothing he would have said would have convinced anybody who wasn't already convenced. Thus, the only reason for him to say something would be so that later (about now) he could say "I told you so". He never was that kind of guy, and I like that in him.
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I'm not sure anything he said in public would have made a difference.
At a minimum, it would've altered the US national dialog on the subject to some degree.
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I'm guessing that the dialog would have been altered to Obama meddling in the election to support Hillary by making up Russian collusion to hurt Trump.
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I'm guessing that the dialog would have been altered to Obama meddling in the election to support Hillary by making up Russian collusion to hurt Trump.
Absolutely. That's exactly what would have happened. And everyone involved knew it.
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"even if it were just a televised address to the nation"
And the next day he would have been impeached for attempting to manipulate the election.
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Don't worry. Change the subject to voter IDs and suddenly both sides will change their tune on whether our votes are our votes...
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He said they didn't hack the elections. Election day is different than campaigns. But anyway I get phishing mails spam all day long. I would hardly categorize that as hacking.
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Trump was the only one saying the election was going to be hacked during the election.
Hillary, the DNC and CNN were all saying it couldn't happen.
After Trump won, suddenly it was Russian hacking 24/7.
this is true, and also... (Score:5, Interesting)
Trump was the only one saying the election was going to be hacked during the election.
Hillary, the DNC and CNN were all saying it couldn't happen.
After Trump won, suddenly it was Russian hacking 24/7.
After Trump won, suddenly he does an about face and says there was no meddling in the election.
One side changed their stance based on evidence. Well... I guess they both did.
Trump is the president, election meddling or not. Please STOP talking about Hilary and the DNC. It's past, gone, they lost.
It has nothing to do with them anymore. All that matters now is how our president handles things. Which is embarassing.
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The DNC still matters because they are still shitting on democracy. They are still refusing to support actual leftist candidates, and still attacking the ones that manage to get on a ballot (like ocasio Cortez)
If we are to make progress as a nation, we need to repair or replace the DNC.
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1. Who? TFA doesn't identify the attackers in any way.
2. Whom? TFA doesn't mention affiliation of the candidates.
Supposedly your side is against stereotyping, jumping to conclusions and presuming guilt basing on nationality/ethnicity?
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Your grammar seems a bit odd. Is English not your first language?
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> Didn't the repubtards say Hillary would cause us to goto war with Russia. So somehow it's still her fault even tho trump is in bed with them?
This pandering moron quite literally promised a direct confrontation with our planet's other nuclear superpower a full year after they had deployed SB-400s into Syria to deal with Turkey having the gall to defend it's own airspace.
It is not at all clear that Trump is the bigger idiot.
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The Russian monarchy will cause the free world to go to war with Russia.
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Republicans aren't retards, but they are some of the most highly tribalistic people on the planet, much moreso than those who self-label as Democrats. They are perfect followers, which is precisely why the Russian government has hitched its wagon to that party, not because their ideologies align perfectly.
why is windows on a voteing system? (Score:1, Troll)
why is windows on a voteing system?
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The hacking isn't nearly as troubling... (Score:5, Interesting)
As the electorate that pursues their greed and cruelty to such a degree, that they would throw away the any pretense of defending democracy in the face of open attack.
That's like 42% of likely voters.
What happened to America. I'm not a democrat myself - I'm just amazed that this is what conservatism has allowed itself to become. Beyond any ideals, just driven by cruelty to hurting the other side, at all costs.
Ryan Fenton
Re:The hacking isn't nearly as troubling... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: The hacking isn't nearly as troubling... (Score:4, Insightful)
And the same way libertarians will give to charity just as soon as social security is dismantled. Every party is packed with hypocrites and liars, many of them clearly misanthropic. Nothing I can do about that, so I'll just smoke my weed.
Re: The hacking isn't nearly as troubling... (Score:5, Funny)
Show me on the straw man where the libertarian hurt you.
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Show me on the map of the USA where a libertarian helped anyone.
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Sure, easy! ...wait, you mean, other than himself?
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> And the same way libertarians will give to charity just as soon as social security is dismantled.
That's as compared to liberals... which is NEVER.
Liberals like to talk a good game but they don't want to take any responsibility for this stuff. If you point out how their lord and savior (the government) has screwed the pooch, they refuse to hear it.
They think they're "superior and enlightened" but ultimately they end up victimizing the people the claim to help.
Liberals view the nanny state as a way to av
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>>Republicans are conservative in the same way Putin is communist.
True - but all the institutions of conservative power are WORSE at every point of consideration. Talk radio conservatives, internet conservatives - every place with a passion for conservatism is pushing right in line with Trump.
The problem isn't republicans - they're being carved up and reshaped by conservatism itself in the US.
It's not a team vs. team thing - it's a definite corruption in what conservatism means here.
Ryan Fenton
lol (Score:2)
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Obama being American or not is completely besides the point.
Obama was a puppet, doing what he was told. You'd be hard-pressed finding anything he did that was good for "the people".
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"and what would you have them do ? "
Stop making so much stuff up and represent the people a little more, and themselves and big business a lot less, same as for the democrats.
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Are your Congressmen representing you and your interests? Mine seem to be doing okay. Not great. Nothing to be upset about.
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True - but all the institutions of conservative power are WORSE at every point of consideration. Talk radio conservatives, internet conservatives - every place with a passion for conservatism is pushing right in line with Trump.
Because they've decided that their ends justify the means ...
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It's not a team vs. team thing
Yes it is. If you don't think that nearly everyone takes part in "their" team then you are naive. People push the team thing even if they are completely ignorant of a subject. Maybe they are accidentally correct but people are more concerned about signaling to their "teammates" than finding truth. This has become more common place.
pushing right in line with Trump.
Could it be that people can view the same thing and come to a different conclusion? This whole Helsinki outrage is a good example. I am really confused on what Trump was supposed
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The thing about being conservative is that it all comes down to, what are you trying to conserve? Conserve is one of those words that doesn't really stand on it's own, to protect something but what? We all know what it means to conserve and we each have our own view of what is important and needs to be protected. To simply call someone conservative says nothing except that there is something that they want to protect.
Re:The hacking isn't nearly as troubling... (Score:4, Insightful)
> Talk radio conservatives, internet conservatives - every place with a passion for conservatism is pushing right in line with Trump.
So you've never actually paid any attention to any of that stuff then.
Conservatives are not nearly the mindless hive mind that liberals are. Talking heads even from the same outlet can have different points of view. Conservatives have a bigger tent (than liberals) these days.
Considering what nonsense "liberals" have been latching onto lately, it's not really that hard to be considered a heretic by them.
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Yesterday I had an interesting discussion with a Liberal.
"The figure of 4.5% of people working two jobs seem way low."
"Politifact claims it's correct! [link]"
"Politifact lies here. It cites a specific study and picks out one single figure: people who work exactly one full-time job and one part-time job. There are people who work two jobs in different configurations. Two full-time jobs, three part-time jobs, etc. It's all in [the study] linked by Politifact."
" "Politifact lies here. Don't believe ANYTHING. T
nothing new (Score:2)
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perhaps true but we were talking about perception. 1917-1990 is a hell of a long time to NOT make the same impression as 1920-1945. The american ambassador was literally seeing the showtrials in Moskov and still wasn't getting it :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] :
"In view of the character of the accused, their long terms of service, their recognized distinction in their profession, their long-continue
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This is the reason why the #WalkAway movement is going strong and the whole "blue wave" thing is a myth. The Democrats have successfully turned their party toxic. They've made it quite clear that if you believe in the American Dream, that if you believe in hard work, that if you believe that everyone is truly equal: you have no place in their party. If you cannot find some "minority identity" to be instead of just being an American, you are not welcome. It's unclear if there even will be a Democratic Party
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4chan, trolls trolling trolls.
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#Walkaway is mostly fake and it is one of the major pushes that the Russian bots [securingdemocracy.org] have been making lately. Plenty of useful idiots to aid them and provide a fertile ground, however. The right-wingers are clueless if they think this is a major moveme
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Re:The hacking isn't nearly as troubling... (Score:5, Interesting)
erm, no... (Score:1)
we are a US ally. Not going away any time soon. Nobody alienated except those who were from the start so. Please park a few batallions here, he have nice looking women also.
K, thx, bye.
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Our "allies" also somehow have stiff barrier tariffs, and can't be bothered to pay the agreed upon percentage of their income for their own defense, instead relying on the largesse of the US taxpayer, and creditors of the US government. All while telling us how ass-backwards the US is. The current tightening of the bolts is providing them with a reason to reconsider such reckless behavior.
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Don't you mean that other countries don't waste money on military pork and don't subsidize farmers nearly as much as the USA. I know that you want more pork, "lets get our allies to spend billions on a piece of shit aircraft and open up their borders so we can dump subsidized milk, corn and soy on them and wipe out their farmers, we can borrow more money" seems to be the American message.
At least you have allies like Greece that spend lots on their military and are great help when you need it.
Re: The hacking isn't nearly as troubling... (Score:2)
Well, I guess then they donâ(TM)t need NATO. No love will be lost if it is dissolved then, right? Except of course Putin will then have an army thatâ(TM)s much more capable than anything Europe can put forward in the foreseeable future. So no wonder they bowed to our demands and agreed to pay their share. Next thing to demand is that they send more than a token force to joint military operations.
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I thought Putin was the new American Ally.
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states were found guilty
You're not even using remotely correct legal language, which suggests you don't understand the topic at all.
has produced numerous indictments
Not a single one of which involves the Trump campaign, which you know, otherwise you wouldn't be using such vague, hand-wavy language about it in a effort to do EXACTLY what I was talking about. That only works on low-information people in your own echo chamber. Why do you think nobody else understand the basic facts of the matter? You seem happy that there are indictments, but you're pretending to
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Re:The hacking isn't nearly as troubling... (Score:4, Insightful)
Let me tell you what is at least as big a threat, if not more so, than the foreign agents who are meddling in our electoral process: malicious natural U.S. citizens who are only really interested in 'pissing off liberals', and they don't care if they destroy the United States in the process, so long as they get their pound of flesh. CBS News conducted a poll [cbsnews.com] that shows that even in the wake of Trump virtually selling out the U.S. Government to Vladimir Putin -- a shameful debacle that both sides of the Congressional aisle universally condemned -- Republicans are still supporting Trump. Even Congressional Republicans won't criticize him for long, because they're more interested in retaining their majority in Congress than they're interested in what's good for the entire country, so they let this train wreck of an Administration continue, even as Trump makes nice with one of the biggest villians on the planet today, an unmistakable enemy of the United States. That's why everything is so bad, that's why it all so completely fucked up, and until the GOP no longer has a majority in at least the House or the Senate it'll all just get worse and worse as time goes by. By 2020 there may not be much of a country left.
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"The America we all grew up thinking we were living in? IT NEVER EXISTED IN THE FIRST PLACE. Maybe it did for the first few months or years in the 18th century,"
You mean when we had slavery and women couldn't vote? Yeah, paradise right?
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You mean when we had slavery and women couldn't vote? Yeah, paradise right?
STFU and go drink your 40. :p
I will accept that as your concession of defeat.
TFA does not point at _Russian_ interference (Score:2)
What "attack"? $100K in Facebook ads that primarily contained existing democratic talking points (gun control, BLM, etc), and that even the tainted Mueller investigation can't prove affected anything at all? The only thing they managed to do is sow division and boost identity politics, but as the past 2 years have shown, the Democratic party excels at that even without any Russian help.
I mean the US State Dept _re-elected Yeltsin_ in Russia, and done so openly, in broad daylight. They've also funneled money
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Probably less than China and Mexico. Mexico has _13 million_ citizens here in the US. Anyone who thinks they in no way "interfere with our democracy" is dangerously naive.
Perpetual negation machine... (Score:2)
happens all the time (Score:2)
attempted hacking is a day to day occurance (Score:1)
are there ANY IT people as early commenters on threads here? or are there too many non IT people in here who simply don't know what sysadmins face day to day?
come on now - Hacking 'news' is the latest Red Scare.
*sigh*
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24 years ago I installed my first copy of Slackware. The moment I got that PC online, it logged break in attempts.
You don't really need a pronouncement from Microsoft to know that all manner of miscreants are trying to break into pretty much everywhere.
This is a generalized computer security problem that's been turned into a political circus that largely distracts from the real issues that aren't limited to politicians or elections.
WTF (Score:2)
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She's still trying, and considering the current rabid protests against Trump maintaining peace with Russia, she's doing so quite actively.