Documents Reveal Successful Cyberattack in California Congressional Race

[swag]

Source: Rolling Stone

The FBI investigated hacking attempts targeting a Democrat who ran against “Putin’s favorite congressman”
By Andy Kroll

WASHINGTON — FBI agents in California and Washington, D.C., have investigated a series of cyberattacks over the past year that targeted a Democratic opponent of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). Rohrabacher is a 15-term incumbent who is widely seen as the most pro-Russia and pro-Putin member of Congress and is a staunch supporter of President Trump.

The hacking attempts and the FBI’s involvement are described in dozens of emails and forensic records obtained by Rolling Stone.

The target of these attacks, Dr. Hans Keirstead, a stem-cell scientist and the CEO of a biomedical research company, finished third in California’s nonpartisan “top-two” primary on June 5th, falling 125 votes short of advancing to the general election in one of the narrowest margins of any congressional primary this year. He has since endorsed Harley Rouda, the Democrat who finished in second place and will face Rohrabacher in the November election.

Cybersecurity experts say that it’s nearly impossible to identify who was behind the hacks without the help of law enforcement or high-priced private cybersecurity firms that collect their own threat data. These experts speculate that the hackers could have been one of many actors: a nation-state (such as Russia), organized crime, so-called e-crime or a hacktivist with a specific agenda. The FBI did not respond to requests for comment on its involvement or any findings.

Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/california-election-hacking-711202/

[Sophia4]

1. If Rohrabacher were an honest man, he would drop out of the race.

Of course, . . . . I leave it to you to finish my sentence, but it ends with "isn't."

[Hortensis]

5. And if he were free to. I'm not making that assumption either.

[Sophia4]

6. Good point.

[worstexever]

8. Waste of time to use "Rohrabacher" and "honest man" in the same sentence n/t

[ck4829]

25. +1

[pecosbob]

2. Paper......

Last edited Wed Aug 15, 2018, 02:56 PM - Edit history (2)

but anyway this is more about politicos realizing that they all have bounties on their heads out on the electronic frontier. In the era of big data this seems inevitable. On the bright side the Republicans finally have generated some new jobs...troll farms and hackers and bot-wranglers.

[Leghorn21]

3. A "nation-state...organized crime" - yeah, I gotta go with "Putin/Mogilevich" on this one

But please don’t allocate any funds to fight cyber warfare, CONGRESS

Not one fucking penny!!!




jfc

[red dog 1]

16. + 1

[Hortensis]

4. The media take on Keirstead's race seems to have been

that problems were all "self-inflicted wounds" by Democrats. Including, btw, Rolling Stone's own prior account.

Now, who would follow up a successful cyber derailment of a candidacy by spreading a meme that the loss was due to Democratic incompetence?

[swag]

7. Author elucidates in Twitter thread

Link to tweet

[watoos]

9. Democrats need to

make paper ballots one of their top priority talking points. What are Republicans afraid of if we go to paper ballots, hammer them on the issue.

[Lonestarblue]

11. We also need a system to verify counting.

A system where voters could complete their paper ballot and then instantly scan it would prevent some ballots from being tossed in the trash or “accidentally” lost. A computerized count has f the scanned ballots could then be made at the same time as a manual count is made of the actual paper ballots. Representatives of both parties should participate in the manual count. If the totals are materially different between the two counts, i.e., would change winners or cause a race to be too close to call, recounts would be mandatory.

[Brother Buzz]

12. California already has paper ballots, and this story has nothing to do with election fraud

[turbinetree]

10. Paper Ballots..................without the scanning machine..............hand count..

why the hell not.....................elections do not have to be certified until December, this is not some rating game for the media, to broadcast the results at 11:00 PM......................


So, Florida think that Bill Nelson is also correct or is it his imagination, even though this was in California, how about Georgia, they don't have anything for paper ballot audits......................


As for this Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) asshole:


Solution:

https://www.harleyforcongress.com/

[xxqqqzme]

13. I voted for Dr Keirstead.

Rouda was a republican until he moved to California.

[suffragette]

14. Ominous follow-up.

Link to tweet

[red dog 1]

18. Thanks for the link

Ominous indeed!

[red dog 1]

20. Here's something that we can DO about these despicable actions by Putin & his GOP/Trump enablers

Those of us who have Twitter accounts can re-tweet Andy Kroll's 11 tweets.
(Start with the Twitter link provided in Suffragette's reply above, # 14)

I know it probably won't make much difference (unless you have thousands of Twitter followers),
but at least it's something that we can "do"...besides !) Contacting our elected representatives, 2) Clicking on the Twitter link for this OP, 3) Sending out our own tweets, 4) Clicking on the Facebook link if you have Facebook, as well as 5) Posting the entire Rolling Stone article on your Facebook page, along with all 11 of Andy Kroll's tweets.

[suffragette]

21. Good ideas. Maybe contact state election officials as well.

[red dog 1]

23. Yes!

[C Moon]

15. A vision of our November 2018 election.

[turbinetree]

17. Since this Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) jerk has been in office,

I just gotta ask out of the 30 years sitting in Congress, how many times have the Russian get him elected, no one really knows, they really don't know......................and then now Californians get this ................and in Florida, Nelson is saying something................the RED LIGHT is BLINKING.................

[red dog 1]

19. K&R

"falling 125 votes short of advancing to the general election"?

I wonder if Dr. Keirstead asked for a recount?

[Shumi]

22. Rohrabacher

Putin’s Puppet.

[ck4829]

24. Kick