Strong Evidence Of A Hack Attempt Against A Democrat Considered Vulnerable This Year
According to the Daily Beast, Missouri Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill was the subject of an apparently unsuccessful hack attempt by Russian Military Intelligence, using very similar methods to the successful breach of DNC servers during the Clinton campaign. The Daily Beast based its reporting on a speech by a Microsoft executive last week, in which he said the company had intercepted and intervened in attacks against 3 midterm candidates, but did not identify the candidates.
McCaskill has now confirmed that she was one.
“Russia continues to engage in cyber warfare against our democracy. I will continue to speak out and press to hold them accountable. While this attack was not successful, it is outrageous that they think they can get away with this. I will not be intimidated. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, Putin is a thug and a bully.”
Interestingly, Microsoft was only able to block this and other attempts after it received an injunction from a federal judge against Russian government hackers, allowing the company to take over the web address of any spoof site that masquerades as a Microsoft supported site.
But jeez, why would Russia be targeting McCaskill? They’re gonna be really red faced when they learn she’s a Democrat! After all, President Trump just told us that Republicans are in Russia’s crosshairs this year and Russia is “pushing very hard for Democrats” because “no President has been tougher on Russia than me”.
Even so, you don’t go seeing him calling Putin a “thug and a bully”.
A Little Interlude:
While we usually avoid things like this, since the 2016 Election has been beaten to death, the New York Times is out with a truly fascinating interactive map that voters from all sides should be able to appreciate. It shows the political preference of the area in which you live down to a very minute level. What surprised us is not that we are currently in a district that went 70% for Clinton, but that we’re a long (but manageable) bicycle ride away from a district that went for Trump!
We put a link here:
Meanwhile, Trump Floated A New Theory: It’s China That’s Most Interested In Trying To Influence The U.S. Elections, Of Course Also In Favor Of Democrats
That’s because Trump’s being so tough on them on trade. Trump made that claim during a speech at a steel factory in Illinois. Here’s the clip:
(Of course, as we said he would, Trump also boasted about how he just opened up Europe, but that wasn’t a super-difficult thing to predict. He also made a telling comment about EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Trump saying: “He’s actually a very tough, very smart, very good man. If I didn’t make a deal with him, I wouldn’t be saying that. I’d say he’s a terrible person.”)
Anyway here’s an idea: why not let Russia and China battle it out for who runs the U.S.? That seems to be where this is headed anyway…