From Russia, With Love - And Response

  • Friday, December 30, 2016

I’ve been puzzled this week at the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, and their families, merely three weeks from the end of the Obama Administration. 

This issue highlights the lack of civics knowledge among our citizenry, and certainly emphasizes the dearth of technical knowledge among our elected representatives. 

I read every word of the “Grizzly Steppe Russian Malicious Cyber Activity Joint Activity Report” delivered as a combination double feature of the Department of Homeland Security and FBI.  There are numerous Americans walking around with the farcical notion that “Russia hacked both political parties and only released stuff on the Democrats.”  It is a narrative told to indicate that Russia intended to influence our election in favor of Donald Trump.   The accusations are serious, and if proven should be actionable.    

Our federal government is saying these things, shipping the fable through our elected legislators (many not that technically sophisticated), and I’m offended by the elementary folklore being passed off as legitimate by the Obama Administration.   

The problem is, in my best estimation, it currently stands somewhere between “hogwash” and “conjecture.”  In a nation with (allegedly) the most advanced and fair form of due process, we are not showing our best by showing these Russian diplomats the door.   

It is my belief this tortured report was crafted to give our outgoing president some cover for his, and his party’s, blistering attacks on Russia as part of a difficult task of laying blame for Hillary Clinton’s campaign loss somewhere other than her feet. 

Full disclosure:   I am a lifelong techie, but I am neither John McAfee nor (better yet) Ivan Kaspersky.   

I have been professionally responsible for securing information and networks protecting proprietary data for nearly 20 years in the field of biotech, with certain data retention and protection guidelines to FDA and other regulatory standards.  I am a functionally literate candidate for discussion in these matters, however I am by no means an expert in the field.    

The document provided by FBI/DHS is a concoction of limited value which, although the backstory is likely classified, tells an unconvincing tale which would be dismissed by summary judgment in any of our trial courts.   We’re better people than this, and certainly more technically capable of creating a convincing story of damnation if there is indeed a valid complaint with such hefty ramifications.   

The winding rumination begins with “APT 28/29”, two groups of Russian origin of which previous literature about them declares are “probably state sponsored.”   While this may very well be true, that “APT 28/29” are likely known within the nation they originate and may have either connections to or directives from the Russian government, nothing stated in this document gives me any just cause to defend the claims made by ‘our’ government, our President or our President’s actions to expel 35 diplomats and their families.  

The second problem I have with this document, beyond the limited scope of actual claims vs. our government’s scorched earth response, is the seeming limitation of “hacking” to “spearphishing” campaigns where email recipients are tricked into resetting passwords (thereby delivering their credentials to offenders while potentially installing malware on their machines.)   Spearphishing tactics, some highly sophisticated, are still largely the responsibility of the duped to prevent.   These nefarious methods of gaining access to systems will only become more, not less pervasive.

If we are not prepared for phishing attacks via email, we essentially have data security at the federal level as wide open as our border policy.  I see the entire “I can see Russian hackers from my house” foolishness from the Obama Administration as a rather translucent smoke screen between the public and the “real” problems which affected our national security:   Our Secretary of State conducted public business on a private server, lied about it, and national material worth keeping private ended up in Jon Podesta’s GMail account and Huma Abedin’s laptop alongside whatever questionable online material Anthony Weiner was consuming that day.     

My third problem with this document is the lack of specificity.   

While spearphishing and similar expeditions of technical hacktivism are certainly naughty, nothing released by FBI/DHS is any form of a smoking gun in terms of firm allegations supported by concrete proof.  This is a key diplomatic relationship being sacrificed for political foolishness, and the backstory reality is our State Department under Hillary Clinton had all the technical prowess of a room full of sieves.   

My fourth problem with this document is the fact it is primarily filler material.

When you run out of story, you go grab boilerplate jargon to run out the clock - or create enough pages for your cataclysmic fear paper to seem legitimate.  There was literally nothing here which hadn’t been discussed on tech blogs nearly two years ago, and absolutely nothing new which the Washington Post hadn’t discussed back in June.  There is a list of “Reported Russian and Civilian Intelligence Services” with no direct link to the matter at hand, which might as well be a list of “foreign nations whose capitol cities had changed throughout history."  It is completely useless from the standpoint of actionable data, and most certainly does not result in an Aha! moment which causes 35 diplomats and their families to start packing.   

The document also gives the recommendation to install and maintain firewalls.   Thanks for that, 1993.   

The comically underwhelming piece also offers “...when anyone or anything can access your network at any time, your network is more susceptible to being attacked. “   Gee whiz.  

Move along, there’s nothing to see here.   Let’s go back to funding opponents to Netanyahu and actually tampering with a foreign election, and completely opaque the real problems with the election we just endured:   

We had a problematic Secretary of State with sufficient audacity to detour our technology requirements while directly placing critical data at risk via an unprotected, poorly managed server on private property.   

If the Russians were cherry picking at all, the branches were very low.  

The Russian response to President Obama's actions, inviting children of U.S. diplomats to the Kremlin, only adds insult to the injury which has been our juvenile, unwieldy foreign policy.
Our election was not hacked, and this is the most important point which must be clearly made and understood.   

Jason M. Kibby
Chattanooga 

* * * 

Mr. Kibby, thanks for giving us non-techies a clear, well-written explanation of "Russian Hacking" caper.  I too am dubious of all the finger pointing at the Russians, given, to date, the lack of solid evidence.  Maybe they did do the deed or maybe, as Julian Assange claims, it came from elsewhere (such as a disgruntled DNC associate who delivered John Podesta's email to Wikileaks).  Conspiracy theories abound.  

The main takeaway here is not whether or not the Russians were guilty of somehow influencing the election, but rather the amateurish cybersecurity that the DNC and our federal government have practiced over the past few years.  For example, the fairly recent hack of the Office of Personal Management divulged millions of personnel records of federal employees.  And who knows if Hillary Clinton's private server, which allegedly contained classified documents, was hacked. 

Apparently, President Obama, in the waning days of his administration, wants to leave office with a bang.  He will surely be remembered for his last month in office when he not only stabbed PM Netanyahu and Israel in the back, but threw a temper tantrum at the Russians.  He can add these actions to his long list of foreign policy failures.  I am sure Mr. Obama has some fine qualities, however, having a thick skin, apparently, is not one of them. 

The one bright spot in all this nonsense is, thanks to whoever provided Mr. Assange with the DNC emails, that we finally got some of that transparency that Mr. Obama promised us eight years ago. 

Jim Nelson

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