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DHS has said they know they're already trying to hack into various voting machines to alter ballets. They felt confident that even if they did, the decentralize

by 6DM 7y ago

DHS has said they know they're already trying to hack into various voting machines to alter ballets. They felt confident that even if they did, the decentralized nature of our voting process would make it to arduous to be effective [1]. Voting machines have made rounds here before, mainly due to their lack of security [2]. Let's not forget that there were other hacks designed to sway voter confidence in Trumps favor [3]. All the while social media has been lit on fire through various efforts, such as inflammatory meme's [4], actual paid advertising campaigns [5], and funding for extremist groups [6]. Yes, there's no direct proof that they hacked our voting ballots. I think there is some evidence, but that agencies assumed they just weren't effective AND witheld the information in an effort to prevent Russia's ultimate motive of undermining democracy entirely. This is why nobody is showing evidence and choosing to rely on "faith". [1] https://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/10/07/joint-statement-department-homeland-security-and-office-director-national https://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/10/07/joint-statement-departme... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18093568 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18093568 [3] https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/26/us/2016-presidential-campaign-hacking-fast-facts/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/26/us/2016-presidential-campaign... and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uUfYtHfw3A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uUfYtHfw3A [4] https://www.wired.com/story/russia-ira-propaganda-senate-report/ https://www.wired.com/story/russia-ira-propaganda-senate-rep... [5] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/us/politics/russia-2016-election-facebook.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/us/politics/russia-2016-e... [6] https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/08/russia-is-co-opting-angry-young-men/568741/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/08/russia-is-...

zaroth 7y ago
There was widespread vulnerability scanning of election websites (not sure how they distinguish this from the scanning that happens on every IPv4 address). In some cases there was attempts to do SQL injection on these sites. In a couple instances there is evidence that voter rolls were accessed. There is no evidence of any vote tampering, and any suggestion that there was is just a conspiracy theory.
m0zg 7y ago
>> to prevent Russia's ultimate motive of >> undermining democracy entirely I do not believe Russia has such a motive. I do believe they do want to weaken the US (just as the US wants to weaken its own geostrategic opponents, including Russia), but they couldn't really care less if the US is a democracy or something else. That's why FB ads were targeted at both sides, to rile them up against each other. And that's also why they organized protests after Trump won. For the past 2 years or so, the entirety of the democratic party and mainstream press have been helping them to undermine and divide the US, so I figure it's working according to their plan. The US is exactly where Putin wants it to be: unproductive squabbling in the Congress and Senate, executive branch is partially paralyzed, half the US hates the other half due to basically lies fed to them by the mainstream press. The rest of your post underscores my point perfectly: it's a faith-based argument.

by 6DM 7y ago

zaroth 7y ago

There was widespread vulnerability scanning of election websites (not sure how they distinguish this from the scanning that happens on every IPv4 address). In some cases there was attempts to do SQL injection on these sites. In a couple instances there is evidence that voter rolls were accessed. There is no evidence of any vote tampering, and any suggestion that there was is just a conspiracy theory.

m0zg 7y ago

>> to prevent Russia's ultimate motive of >> undermining democracy entirely I do not believe Russia has such a motive. I do believe they do want to weaken the US (just as the US wants to weaken its own geostrategic opponents, including Russia), but they couldn't really care less if the US is a democracy or something else. That's why FB ads were targeted at both sides, to rile them up against each other. And that's also why they organized protests after Trump won. For the past 2 years or so, the entirety of the democratic party and mainstream press have been helping them to undermine and divide the US, so I figure it's working according to their plan. The US is exactly where Putin wants it to be: unproductive squabbling in the Congress and Senate, executive branch is partially paralyzed, half the US hates the other half due to basically lies fed to them by the mainstream press. The rest of your post underscores my point perfectly: it's a faith-based argument.