Experts had warned Democrats about cybersecurity gaps

 

Bloomberg reported July 27  that experts had warned the Democratic National Committee  last fall that its computer network was open to attacks by state-sponsored and other hackers but it didn’t follow the  cyberexperts’ security advice.

The revelation is  another blow to party officials humiliated by the theft and public disclosure of e-mails that have led to a political firestorm. The hacking was done by Russians working for the regime of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

Bloomberg reported: “Computer security consultants hired by the DNC made dozens of recommendations after a two-month review, the people said. Following the advice, which would typically include having specialists hunt for intruders on the network, might have alerted party officials that hackers had been lurking in their network for weeks — hackers who would stay for nearly a year.

“Instead, officials didn’t discover the breach until April. The theft ultimately led to the release of almost 20,000 internal e-mails through WikiLeaks last week on the eve of the convention.” Wikileaks is run by Julian Assange, who is an ally of Mr. Putin.

To read the Bloomberg article, please hit this link.

Putin regime seen behind hack of Democrats

 

Many experts think that the the regime of  Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to throw the U.S. presidential election to Donald Trump, who has expressed admiration for Mr. Putin and other dictators.

Cybersecurity experts, as well as the Hillary Clinton campaign, are now saying the Russians did last month’s hack of the Democratic National Committee. Mr. Putin, a former KGB agent, and his police state have been hard at work carrying out a cyberwar against parts of the U.S. public and private sectors for several years.

Bob Gourley, a former chief technology officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency and now the co-founder and partner Cognitio, a cybersecurity consultancy, told Bloomberg:

“The software code that I have seen from the hack had all the telltale signs of being Russian, including code re-used from other attacks. This is a really big deal. Some people in the community are saying this is the Russians pretending to be a hacker, then giving that information to Julian Assange is all part of an operation.” (Assange founded WikiLeaks.)

To read the Bloomberg story, please hit this link.