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> The DNC had NGP VAN software installed on their system so I used the 0-day exploit and then deployed my backdoor. I was the tech director for Bernie 2016, an

> The DNC had NGP VAN software installed on their system so I used the 0-day exploit and then deployed my backdoor. I was the tech director for Bernie 2016, and this part tripped my bullshit meter as well. The VAN is a SaaS, not an on-premise solution. The DNC has some servers that have tight integrations with VAN (e.g. direct db access as opposed to using the API) but saying they had "NGP VAN software installed on their system" is a stretch at best, and those certainly aren't the same servers that the DNC uses to store their oppo research and such. NGP-VAN does run on Azure though, FWIW. I don't know what OS the DNC's servers run on, but it wouldn't shock me if it was Windows as well. If I had to guess, this whole part is a red herring. I'm sure either guccifer social-engineered folks at the DNC and/or the DNC was storing their oppo research on old servers with shitty security. The NGP VAN was an easy name to throw out and divert attention since their own security issues have been well-publicized in the past.

fapjacks 10y ago
This is totally off-topic, but I tried a few times to get a hold of someone (anyone really) in the campaign to volunteer my technical skills, and every person I talked to was like "Yeah, that sounds awesome! Call this person and say you want to volunteer!" And that other person was just someone in charge of phonebanking and only knew other phonebanking volunteers. It was tedious and impossible to get escalated to someone that might be more useful.
- schneidmaster 10y ago
  Well, part of my job description involved helping to organize tech volunteers, so I guess at the end of the day that falls on me. Really it's a general problem with a widely distributed yet generally meagerly staffed campaign. There's a lot of autonomy with regional/field staffers and in turn they don't necessarily know about everything going on at the national core (where our digital/tech efforts happened). The way to help was primarily either through finding a project to help with at https://github.com/Bernie-2016 https://github.com/Bernie-2016 or getting involved with Coders for Sanders (https://coders.forsanders.com); https://coders.forsanders.com); I originally was a volunteer with CFS and then joined the campaign full-time after completing a few larger volunteer projects for them. But of course there's no way for a random person wanting to get involved to really know that. I'm rambling now; I don't have a good answer per se, other than that I'm sorry you had a bad experience and I wish we'd found a way to solve this problem. Somewhat related, I've started helping out a bit with an OSS project called Code Corps that may help with this sort of thing in the future. The basic idea is that you input your interests (education, environment, economy, etc.) and your tech skills and then get matched with political/nonprofit orgs that need your skills. https://www.codecorps.org/ https://www.codecorps.org/, https://github.com/code-corps https://github.com/code-corps
  - fapjacks 10y ago
    Cool project! Thanks for the links!

fapjacks 10y ago

This is totally off-topic, but I tried a few times to get a hold of someone (anyone really) in the campaign to volunteer my technical skills, and every person I talked to was like "Yeah, that sounds awesome! Call this person and say you want to volunteer!" And that other person was just someone in charge of phonebanking and only knew other phonebanking volunteers. It was tedious and impossible to get escalated to someone that might be more useful.

schneidmaster 10y ago
Well, part of my job description involved helping to organize tech volunteers, so I guess at the end of the day that falls on me. Really it's a general problem with a widely distributed yet generally meagerly staffed campaign. There's a lot of autonomy with regional/field staffers and in turn they don't necessarily know about everything going on at the national core (where our digital/tech efforts happened). The way to help was primarily either through finding a project to help with at https://github.com/Bernie-2016 https://github.com/Bernie-2016 or getting involved with Coders for Sanders (https://coders.forsanders.com); https://coders.forsanders.com); I originally was a volunteer with CFS and then joined the campaign full-time after completing a few larger volunteer projects for them. But of course there's no way for a random person wanting to get involved to really know that. I'm rambling now; I don't have a good answer per se, other than that I'm sorry you had a bad experience and I wish we'd found a way to solve this problem. Somewhat related, I've started helping out a bit with an OSS project called Code Corps that may help with this sort of thing in the future. The basic idea is that you input your interests (education, environment, economy, etc.) and your tech skills and then get matched with political/nonprofit orgs that need your skills. https://www.codecorps.org/ https://www.codecorps.org/, https://github.com/code-corps https://github.com/code-corps
- fapjacks 10y ago
  Cool project! Thanks for the links!