
U.S. Punishes Russia for Election Hacking - helloworld
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/29/us/politics/russia-election-hacking-sanctions.html
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canadian_voter
Trump's cavalier response to this is shocking. These are serious allegations.
His statement is mind melting on so many levels:

Asked on Wednesday night at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., about
reports of the impending sanctions, Mr. Trump said: “I think we ought to get
on with our lives. I think that computers have complicated lives very greatly.
The whole age of computer has made it where nobody knows exactly what is going
on. We have speed, we have a lot of other things, but I’m not sure we have the
kind, the security we need.”

~~~
BigChiefSmokem
He is not winning any friends with the non-investor, blue-collar coder crowd
with his arrogance that's for sure. I don't think he realizes we and those who
follow are the future of manufacturing, the people who actually breath soul
into the "automation" Joe J. Miner so desperately fears and lusts after.

~~~
threatofrain
Whether or not US manufacturing continues upward per prediction, that Joe the
Miner isn't going to get those new manufacturing jobs -- his children maybe
can, but not him. That Joe the Miner may realise that as Americans, we are
truly not in the same boat, and neither are our children. While one American
sinks, another sails to millionairedom.

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marcoperaza
Whether this is the right course of action or not (which I don't think anyone
outside of the government is informed enough to have a valid opinion on), I
don't like the idea of an outgoing President making major foreign policy
maneuvers in their last month of office, especially with the incoming
President not being in agreement.

It's like if George W. Bush had started invading Iran in December of 2008.

~~~
1024core
George H.W. Bush did enter Somalia in December 1992[1].

In this case, Obama's in a tough situation. On paper, he's the President till
January 19th. He has to act on the results of the investigation. He can't just
sit back and say "well, my days are almost over, so I'll just let the next guy
handle it".

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Task_Force](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Task_Force)

~~~
MrZongle2
I'm no fan of Obama, but I agree completely. And think your inclusion of Bush
41's actions are on-target.

After January 19th, if Trump feels that any of Obama's actions are
inappropriate, he can take steps to undo them. But if time is of the essence,
then it is better for the sitting President to take action rather than let a
bad situation get worse.

I don't know if this case in particular fits the bill, but if you start
hamstringing the incumbent, then you might as well swear in the new President
the day after the election.

~~~
marcoperaza
> _But if time is of the essence_ , then it is better for the sitting
> President to take action rather than let a bad situation get worse.

Agreed. But is time of the essence?

~~~
MrZongle2
Well, that's why I said that I didn't know if this case fits the bill. That's
certainly debatable, at least outside of access to any classified material
that supports the assertion that Russia was directly involved.

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gressquel
I am really worried. Worried about the Russian propaganda that is being spread
in Norway. Comments sections are filled with anti-US rhetorics by facebook
users whom profile looks empty (0 friends, few posts made this year).

Some of the comments are obviously written in other language and translated to
Norwegian.

I may have to contact the chief editors to discuss strategies against it.

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helloworld
_Mr. Obama decided to expand an executive order that he issued in April 2015,
after the Sony hacking. He signed it in Hawaii on Thursday morning,
specifically giving himself and his successor the authority to issue travel
bans and asset freezes on those who “tamper with, alter, or cause a
misappropriation of information, with a purpose or effect of interfering with
or undermining election processes or institutions.”_

Are there any lawyers here who might explain whether this kind of executive
order is unusual? The "giving himself and his successor the authority" part
seems, well, undemocratic. Isn't it the Congress (as constrained by the
Constitution) that typically gives the executive branch authority to do new
things?

~~~
marcoperaza
Without reading the order, my guess is that it lays out an administrative
process to issue those travel bans and asset freezes, as opposed to requiring
a fresh executive order for each.

The President has wide authority to conduct foreign policy flowing from both
the Constitution and various Acts of Congress.

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rfrank
Here's the full statement from the White House, via NPR:
[https://twitter.com/NPR/status/814551976935559168](https://twitter.com/NPR/status/814551976935559168)

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strictnein
> "...the “Autonomous Non-commercial Organization Professional Association of
> Designers of Data Processing Systems,” whose lengthy name, American
> officials said, was cover for a group that provided specialized training for
> the hacking."

Holy cow, now that's a company name, although it appears they go by ANO PO
KSI. And their website looks like a website for a shell company in a 1997
Hollywood movie:

[http://www.poksi.ru/homeeng.html](http://www.poksi.ru/homeeng.html)

~~~
Gargoyle
I see nothing unusual about their website. It looks like the sites for
5,000,000 other companies that don't sell things online.

~~~
strictnein
There's millions of tech companies that do $20 million a year in revenue (per
Hoover's) with a website like that?

~~~
Gargoyle
There are many companies that do much more in revenue with sites like that,
yes.

~~~
superplussed
Can you link a couple? This seems hard to believe.

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Rmilb
> a group that provided special training

Didn't Podesta get "hacked" through a simple spear phishing email?

Edit: Found the Homeland Security document outlining the payload it came with.
[https://www.us-
cert.gov/sites/default/files/publications/JAR...](https://www.us-
cert.gov/sites/default/files/publications/JAR_16-20296.pdf)

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chatmasta
Zerohedge has the actual list of individuals and organizations being
sanctioned: [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-29/us-announces-
sancti...](http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-29/us-announces-sanctions-
against-russia-expels-35-diplomats-retaliation-election-hacki)

~~~
gressquel
there is something sketchy with the list.

BOGACHEV, Evgeniy Mikhaylovich (a.k.a. BOGACHEV, Evgeniy Mikhailovich; a.k.a.
"Lastik"; a.k.a. "lucky12345";

this is no other than the infamous Zeus/p2p-zeus malware writer. He was FBI
wanted in 2014 I think. So he is still active and US has identified him??

~~~
gressquel
if anyone else is interested, I can tell you that back in the p2p-zeus days
Slavik/lucky12345/pollingsoon implemented a secret spy functionality in the
malware that only he knew of. It scanned files and mails for text related to
georgia (during russia-georgia conflict). It also scanned for specific words
on ukraine, turkey bots.

So one can assume he was already partly working for russian intelligence back
then.

Given he hasnt been caught yet its probable that Russian government is
protecting him in exchange for more "work"

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ianai
You would expect more. There's no chance at more happening when for the last 8
years the republicans have allowed nothing and they benefitted from the hacks.

~~~
thesis
Edit: not going to get into politics :)

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MrZongle2
I can't help but wonder: if 35 were identified as intelligence operatives, why
did the US gov't wait until now to eject them?

I can appreciate the need to perhaps keep a few known entities around to feed
bogus information, but allowing that many to just hang out seems like a recipe
for trouble. Unless this happens routinely, in which case it likely has
nothing to do with this "punishment".

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gressquel
more technical details emerge: [https://www.us-
cert.gov/sites/default/files/publications/JAR...](https://www.us-
cert.gov/sites/default/files/publications/JAR_16-20296.pdf)

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Mendenhall
I find it interesting they keep pushing "election hacking" which is not the
case. The DNC was hacked, which is vastly different from the "election" being
hacked.

Also the hack happened a long time before the election.

Edit: If you downvoted please correct me and show evidence of the election
being hacked.

~~~
ianai
We don't know the full specs yet as they have not been declassified and
divulged. If one part of a two party election benefits from something the
other part loses and vice versa. That's tampering and foreign entities
shouldn't be doing it.

~~~
mdekkers
> That's tampering and foreign entities shouldn't be doing it.

Surely you mean "That's tampering and foreign entities shouldn't be doing it
_to us_". Because the US does that all the time.

~~~
ianai
We shouldn't be doing that either but I left it out. Two wrongs don't make a
right.

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miklax
How about a focus on the content of emails revealed? More to explore there.

~~~
MrZongle2
We will have to wait for historians to provide a more detailed and (hopefully)
objective review of their contents in the decades to come.

Look how long it took for Deep Throat of the Watergate scandal to be
identified.

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1024core
It's funny how the US is getting its panties in a bunch over the hacking, when
they (i.e., we, as I'm a USC) themselves have been doing this all over the
world for many decades.

