This afternoon, United States cybersecurity experts, including the F.B.I., are looking into the possibility of Russia being behind the hacked emails of the Democratic National Committee.
“Just because you find an AK-47 at a crime scene doesn’t mean a Russian pulled the trigger,” said J.J. Thompson, chief executive of Rook Security, an Indianapolis-based firm.
Throughout this afternoon, during the chaos and intense rumors of ruptures with “speaker confrontation” scheduled for tonight’s activities at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, there, also, has been an undercurrent of speculation (nothing of which has been substantiated as I post this) surrounding the initial theft of the DNC files may have been perpetrated by sophisticated Russian hackers.
In an article published today, the New York Times reported that researchers at CrowdStrike, an Irvine, Calif.-based cybersecurity firm, had concluded the breach was the work of two Russian intelligence agencies, or people working for or with them.
Crowdstrike declined to comment on such speculation. However, in May and June, they made comment(s) that an analysis it had completed of the long-known intrusion into the DNC’s computer network was the work of Russian intelligence-affiliated adversaries, one of whom it called Cozy Bear and, the other, Fancy Bear.
However, cybersecurity experts within the industry, say it’s extremely difficult to know exactly who is behind an attack without the kind of on-the-ground surveillance that only government agencies are able to provide.
“Identifying attackers by the digital tools they use is NOT easy. While intrusions tend to leave traces — digital DNA — these can sometimes be spoofed,” said Mark McArdle, chief technology officer with eSentire, a Canadian computer security company with offices in the United States.
In law enforcement investigations of such criminal activity, the questions are always who had the means, the motive, and the opportunity.
In this instance, the pool of those with the means is very small. McArdle limited it to the Israelis, the Chinese, the North Koreans, the Russians, and, a few extremely sophisticated criminal groups (which were unnamed).
The F.B.I. said in a statement that it was investigating the intrusion into the DNC’s computer network, and was “working to determine the nature and scope of the matter.”
Exactly how long the F.B.I. has been investigating the matter is unknown.
Can you just imagine the story it would be if The Weave has “willing partners” in BOTH Julian The Great, and his bromance buddy, Vladimir “Cozy Bear” Putin to go after Grandma Hillary?
Only in the movies, aunts and uncles, so calm down.
Lobster on the Prairie 