Winner’s Worthless NSA Document on Alleged Russian Election Hacking

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The NSA document stolen and published two days ago tying Russians to election hacking is worthless as proof of anything. It’s a definite maybe in the unnamed analysts’ judgement.

The Intercept published the top secret intelligence documents stolen by the 25-year old liberal, anti-Trumper, Reality Leigh Winner.

All the reports about the stolen documents claim this is detailed proof of Russia hacking because they want to delegitimize Trump’s election win.

The stolen documents continue the Russian hacking narrative. If Putin is hacking elections, that is very serious, however, consider how the story is being used and the possible political motivations as well as the quality of the document.

ABC News reports that the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Claire McCaskill, today said that “we now have verified information” showing that Russian intelligence services were in fact behind last year’s cyber-assault on the U.S. election.

That’s categorically untrue. It proves nothing and it is not verified information.

Actually, does it matter if Russians leaked? Our own people are leaking all our intel and threatening national security.

The Intercept story based on her leaked document, titled, TOP-SECRET NSA REPORT DETAILS RUSSIAN HACKING EFFORT DAYS BEFORE 2016 ELECTION, claims the documents show Russian military intelligence have engaged – possibly successful – in more extensive hacking efforts than we’ve previously been told.

The authors of the article admit, however: A U.S. intelligence officer who declined to be identified cautioned against drawing too big a conclusion from the document because a single analysis is not necessarily definitive.

That’s disingenuous, it’s not definitive at all because it is unverified and it’s one opinion by people unidentified.

The article assures the reader the report: states unequivocally in its summary statement that it was Russian military intelligence, specifically the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, that conducted the cyber attacks described in the document.

However, the word “likely” appears in the summary [emboldened by Sentinel]:

Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate actors … executed cyber espionage operations against a named U.S. company in August 2016, evidently to obtain information on elections-related software and hardware solutions. … The actors likely used data obtained from that operation to … launch a voter registration-themed spear-phishing campaign targeting U.S. local government organizations.

The NSA document which they uploaded is unverified and, while it comes from an NSA agent, it is also hypothetical.

The Russian military – ostensibly – stole credentials and spearphished to breach the VR systems, a Florida-based vendor of electronic voting services and equipment whose products are used in eight states.

Popular Technology editor and computer analyst Andrew K forwarded the following in an email and it has merit but you decide:

Look at the graphic on the last page of the released NSA document and it says in the legend… “Yellow Line = Analyst Judgement”

The graphic with no verifiable evidence claims that the hackers (operators) were…”Probably within <- (Yellow Line) -> Russian GRU”

The rest of the document is filled with more hypothetical language that would be considered worthless by any competent cyber-security professional. The following is copied word for word from the document…

“…likely used data obtained from the operation to…”
“…potentially used to…”
“…presumably to…”
“…presumably with the purpose of…”
“…appeared to be designed to…”
“…probably trying to obtain…”
“It is unknown whether the aforementioned spear-fishing deployment successfully compromised all the intended victims, and what potential data from the victim could be exfiltrated.”
“…it was likely that…”
“It[s] possible that…”
“This likely indicates…”
“…was not confirmed.”
“…it was likely that…”
“It is unknown whether…”
“…an unknown payload…”
“…probably running…”
“The unknown payload very likely installs…”
“…it is unknown if there was…”
“…it was likely intended for…”
“…sent what appeared to be…”
“It appeared the threat actors intent was…”
“…presumably with the purpose of…”

Following is the graphic or view it here.

The spy, Reality Winner, has been charged and arrested under the same espionage act that the former FBI Director Jim Comey said couldn’t be used against Hillary Clinton.

Her Twitter and Facebook feeds are very left and very anti-Trump. Like most Millennials today, she has been indoctrinated and much of her mutterings on social media are outlandish.

The underlying tone of media reporting is the revelations may have been worthwhile in what they reveal about the Russia hacking case. That’s absurd because there were other legal routes she could have taken.

The Trump-hating Winner, now spy, leaked to the far-left magazine, The Intercept, which is run by Glenn Greenwald who coached Edward Snowden.

Her parents now claim she was in fear for her life, afraid she’d disappear. Perhaps that will be her defense for spying and leaking what really is proof of nothing.


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