REPORT: Russia Stole NSA Data—Under Obama—In Most ‘Most Serious Cyberattack In Years’

Just when you thought reports of Russian hacking had subsided, details of another cyberattack have come to light. The Wall Street Journal says Russian hackers stole NSA cyber defense secrets that would allow Putin to infiltrate U.S. networks.

Wall Street Journal reports:

Hackers working for the Russian government stole details of how the U.S. penetrates foreign computer networks and defends against cyberattacks after a National Security Agency contractor removed the highly classified material and put it on his home computer, according to multiple people with knowledge of the matter. The hackers appear to have targeted the contractor after identifying the files through the contractor’s use of a popular antivirus software made by Russia-based Kaspersky Lab, these people said. The theft, which hasn’t been disclosed, is considered by experts to be one of the most significant security breaches in recent years. It offers a rare glimpse into how the intelligence community thinks Russian intelligence exploits a widely available commercial software product to spy on the U.S. The incident occurred in 2015 but wasn’t discovered until spring of last year, said the people familiar with the matter.

If you didn’t have enough to worry about between the Las Vegas shooter, North Korea and the Republican establishment, a new threat to America has emerged — hackers have officially gained direct access to power grid controls across the country.

WIRED reports:

IN AN ERA of hacker attacks on critical infrastructure, even a run-of-the-mill malware infection on an electric utility’s network is enough to raise alarm bells. But the latest collection of power grid penetrations went far deeper: Security firm Symantec is warning that a series of recent hacker attacks not only compromised energy companies in the US and Europe but also resulted in the intruders gaining hands-on access to power grid operations—enough control that they could have induced blackouts on American soil at will.

Symantec on Wednesday revealed a new campaign of attacks by a group it is calling Dragonfly 2.0, which it says targeted dozens of energy companies in the spring and summer of this year. In more than 20 cases, Symantec says the hackers successfully gained access to the target companies’ networks. And at a handful of US power firms and at least one company in Turkey—none of which Symantec will name—their forensic analysis found that the hackers obtained what they call operational access: control of the interfaces power company engineers use to send actual commands to equipment like circuit breakers, giving them the ability to stop the flow of electricity into US homes and businesses.

Recently AP reported the Department of Homeland Security told election officials of 21 states that hackers targeted their systems last year.

AP, contacted every state election office on Friday. While not all of them responded immediately those that said they were targeted were Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

The government didn’t say who was behind the hacks or what the hackers were looking for, however; the election officials said ‘they believe the attempts could be linked to Russia’.

Whatever that means.

Here’s why this is more Russian fake news hysteria by the left in order to keep the Russian collusion hoax alive.

The vote tallying software wasn’t breached.

According to AP, Federal officials said that in most of the 21 states, the targeting was preparatory activity such as scanning computer systems. The targets included voter registration systems but not vote tallying software. Officials said there were some attempts to compromise networks but most were unsuccessful.

Colorado election officials said the ‘hacking attempt’ wasn’t even an attack or a breach.

“It’s really reconnaissance by a bad guy to try and figure out how we would break into your computer,” said Trevor Timmons, a spokesman for the Colorado secretary of state’s office. “It’s not an attack. I wouldn’t call it a probe. It’s not a breach, it’s not a penetration.”

Furthermore, foreign countries trying to hack into our computer systems is nothing new. This report doesn’t even say whether other countries such as China attempted to hack because that would cloud the ‘Russians under every bed’ narrative.

 

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