Throwaway because I work in a related field. Folks, now is the time that we need to make it clear that posturing and PR statements do not constitute valid, ind

Throwaway because I work in a related field. Folks, now is the time that we need to make it clear that posturing and PR statements do not constitute valid, independently verifiable evidence. As a citizen of the United States, I am beyond terrified that our government has made public statements, buttressed by newspaper articles supported by nothing but anonymous sources[1], vilifying Russia for a nation-state-level cyberattack. The support for such claims, as presented, is the "sophistication" of the attack, which is not evidenced here (phishing is not a particularly sophisticated means of entry). At best, this is a mistake, and at worst, it wreaks of anti-Russia propaganda that will only serve to escalate tensions between the two countries. Every single person who absorbs a report like this without seeking supporting evidence (note that this report immediately starts by claiming Russia's involvement, and never provides support) is, to some extent, culpable in a hypothetical reality where the US Government is blatantly wrong about this one. There's only one thing we can do at this point: File Freedom of Information requests. The fine folks at Muckrock[2] make this absurdly easy. Send requests to the CIA and FBI -- hold them accountable to their statements, which have to date been unsupported, that Russia as a nation-state entity was behind anything. 1: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/us/obama-russia-election-hack.html?_r=1 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/us/obama-russia-election-h... 2: https://www.muckrock.com https://www.muckrock.com