Documents Reveal Successful Cyberattack in California Congressional Race

Well this will just get worse.  There of course was a day when most people got the information they needed to vote intelligently for better or worse from newspapers, and endorsements of civic organizations and unions and work and trade organizations they were affiliated with and of course actual public forums and debates and from door to door canvassers.  Then of course it became mostly television and an assortment of direct mail and then attack ads and then issue ads and attack ads by AstroTurf groups and now finally social media

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

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 timing of the attacks is significant. Last month, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said the warning lights for future cyberattacks aimed at the U.S. were “blinking red.” A week later, a senior Microsoft executive said that Microsoft had identified and helped block hacking attempts aimed at three congressional candidates during the 2018 midterms. The executive declined to name those candidates, but the Daily Beast reported that the Russian intelligence agency responsible for the cyberattacks in 2016 had attempted to hack the office of Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), who is running for reelection this year. (A Microsoft spokesperson declined to say if Keirstead was one of three people targeted by hackers, citing “customer privacy.”) Just last week, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) said that Russian hackers had “penetrated”county voting systems in Florida.

As I said this does not look good for democracy. At each turn of the technological communications screw the whole process go incrementally more deceptive and manipulative.  I have to say I see no way to fix this besides going back to door to door and silencing what has become of media.  At least the promise of a chicken in every pot was an honest bribe.



https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/51761-documents-reveal-successful-cyberattack-in-california-congressional-race