The last revelatory material on “rosegate” (the term used in USA to describe the scandal about the alleged links of members of the election headquarters of Donald trump with Russia — approx. ed.) received from the online publication The Intercept, which was created by Glenn Greenwald (Glenn Greenwald) and Jeremy Scahill (Jeremy Scahill). This website is the source of many news stories based on stolen or leaked as a result of leakage of government documents. Among them are materials provided by Edward Snowden (Edward Snowden). The newspaper also publishes a typical journalistic investigations concerning very serious crimes and other offences committed by the US government. Among these are publications and materials developed by the Obama administration’s program of political assassinations and articles on very recent events — for example, how the White house distorted the facts and spread misinformation about military action in Yemen, which killed the member of spetsnaz, the US Navy.
Yesterday, an article appeared under the headline “top-secret NSA report revealed details about the actions of the Russian hackers a few days before the elections in 2016”. This report is published on the fifth of may. The informant’s reality Whether Winner (Winner Reality Leigh), who worked in the state of Georgia under contract with the NSA, has come to the attention of the relevant authorities after journalists The Intercept before the article appealed to the Agency for review. They were asked not to publish the material. The publication does not agreed, but was ready to remove from some parts of it. The winner is calculated by identifying the marks on the paper on which was printed the document. They took the security services a copying machine, which she used. Winner was arrested. She was charged on the basis of the espionage act. She became the first informant, who was prosecuted under President trump.
This article caused quite a stir among people like me, who sincerely believes that “rashahat” is basically a lie and a fraud with political overtones. But she startled and those who are on the other side of the fence, and said that Moscow did not interfere in the recent presidential election to help Donald Trump.
Risking everything is too simplified, I would briefly outlined the content of the article and the underlying document by the NSA as follows. The report speaks of two cyber attacks, which the authors attributed to the NSA, the GRU — Russian military intelligence. The first attack, the purpose of which was “apparently to obtain information about programs and ustroistva used in the voting system”, was made on 24 August 2016 in respect of the company, which is engaged in the production of programmes for voter registration.
The second attack was made about a week before the elections and directed against 122 members of local electoral commissions. It is supposed, has occurred in eight States, employing that company.
For the implementation of the cyber attacks was used a phishing email. In such an attack a user by using fake e-mails are forced to go to the link or open attachments of documents, which are mounted on the user’s computer malware. Fake e-mails supposedly sent via the two providers of e — mail, Gmail (Google), and outlook.com (Microsoft).
This was done to ensure that the American people did not doubt the security mailing lists.
According to the report, the NSA first cyber attack on U.S. company (which, as it turned out, called VR Systems located in Florida) were successful. The information obtained was used to create emails that seemed genuine to the recipients during the second wave of cyber attacks that began on 31 October and first of November. In the report of the second series of cyber-attacks described as “phishing campaign aimed at getting information about voter registration, are directed against local government organizations in the United States”.
The software, developed by VR Systems used by election commissions in the States of California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, new York, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.
“The report says Russian hackers may have infiltrated the voting system of the US is deeper than previously thought”, — wrote in his article, the journalists of The Intercept. If all the report says is true, then the conclusion of the journalists is correct and is contrary to the recent strong statement of Russian President Vladimir Putin that the elections in the USA, his country did not intervene.
In an article published in The Intercept, referred to an unnamed intelligence official, who “advises not to do based on this document too serious conclusions, since the results of one analysis are not necessarily final and conclusive”.
And I would add a few additional comments on what conclusions arise after reading the report and the article in The Intercept. First, there is the question of scope and timing. There is no evidence that Russians (or anyone who has spent these hacker attacks) was able to manipulate the actual voting process or the counting process. Moreover, the report of the NSA, any such possibility is rejected. Secondly, for the fraud in such a large country as the United States, where the electoral system is heavily decentralized, a week before voting would not attack 122 local officials, and much more. So, judging by the fact that the report of the NSA of the intent to disrupt the elections or change their results in favor of one candidate clearly was not.
I would also like to note that the report does not provide any facts to support the claim that these attacks were done by GRU. Would a professional intelligence service to act so openly during the operation, which obviously would be considered top secret? I think not. In order to confuse the issue, the involvement of intermediaries.
All this does not mean that the Russian government did not or was not ordered to do it. But it seems to me that the actions referred to in the report of the NSA, almost does not extend beyond the sampling operations for the collection of information, which are an integral part of the activities of the foreign intelligence service of any professional security services.
Wondered if anyone in Moscow that quite useful to have some idea of how to intervene in election technologies of the United States, if such information may be useful in the future? It is quite possible. It should be noted that the national security Agency USA illegally collecting vast amounts of information about ordinary Americans, but not the fact that it is going to use this information for improper purposes. It is the source of the information which it is desirable to have, and the intelligence agencies always act so as to expand its sphere of influence.
Is it possible to say that Russian intelligence gathering information, getting into the electoral system of the United States? It’s possible that Yes. And it should be a concern to every American because it shows the vulnerability of the electronics, the registered information on how we vote. But if Russia interfered in the elections or sought to use cyber attacks to elect a particular candidate? Definitely not. The article and the document on which it is based, should serve as a Wake-up call for those who are not concerned with safety and security of our technology. But at the political level, we went back to the past where hysterical accusations are very often becoming an integral part of the storm in the media and in politics, which today we call the “raahat”.
Philip Giraldi — former CIA officer, Executive Director of the NGO Council for the National Interest.
