Generational Dynamics World View

[John J. Xenakis]

*** 31-Dec-16 World View -- Hacking of Democratic National Committee computers - I blame the victim

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Obama and Putin play bizarre diplomatic game after expulsion of Russian spies
  
• It's almost always the victim's fault when computer networks are hacked
  

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**** Obama and Putin play bizarre diplomatic game after expulsion of Russian spies
****


Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin

So President Obama is pissed off because Russian hackers hacked into
the Democratic National Committee, and so, just three weeks before
he's leaving office, he ordered 35 Russian diplomats to leave the
country.

Russia's president Vladimir Putin, who always permits his security
people to threaten and harass American diplomats just for the fun of
it, announced on Friday that Russia would not reciprocate. Instead,
Putin invited the children of US diplomats in Moscow to a New Year's
party in the Kremlin.

In the back and forth between Obama and Putin, I sometimes feel as if
I'm watching the psychodrama of delusional politicians -- a tale
rooted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched in one-sided peace
negotiations over Ukraine and Syria over eight long years -- played
out on the international stage. Russia Direct (5-May) and Belfast Telegraph

Related Articles

• Barack Obama to Boomers: Drop dead! (23-Jan-2007)
  

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**** It's almost always the victim's fault when computer networks are hacked
****

As a Senior Software Engineer who has developed many web sites, I'm
pretty much in the camp of "blame the victim" when a company's
networks get hacked. At one company where I worked several years ago,
I told my managers that they needed to encrypt the social security
numbers in their database, and I even told them how to do it easily.
I reminded them again after one of their servers got hacked. But the
problem is that protecting your networks doesn't generate sales, and
Gen-X managers think that when a Boomer software engineer tells them
what to do, they'd rather eat mud than do it.

So that's one reason there's a news story almost every week about
another company whose networks have been hacked. I write about these
every now and then.

However, the real monster hack, the mother of all hacks, was announced
last year. Chinese hackers stole the personal and security
information of many millions of Americas from the servers at the
U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Department of the
Interior. That hack included the SF-86 forms that everyone fills out
when applying for security clearances.

There is little doubt that the Chinese military is still sifting
through this massive amount of data and using it in a variety of ways
-- from simple blackmail and extortion of individuals to the creation
of sophisticated "spear phishing" e-mail messages used to hack into
networks of other agencies and corporations. This massive collection
of espionage data will be a powerful weapon in any future military
confrontations.

OK, so the DNC hack hurt President Obama's feelings, while the OPM
hack is putting the survival of the country at risk. So which is more
important? Why, the DNC hack is more important, because President
Obama's feelings are always more important than the survival of the
country. That's why there have been no expulsions of Chinese
diplomats.

I was really appalled when I read the stories about Hillary Clinton's
home server and other flagrantly stupid violations of common sense.
Apparently the same stupidity pervaded all of the networks of the
Democratic National Committee, so it's not surprising at all that they
got hacked. The CIA and other intelligence agencies have concluded
that the perpetrators were linked to Russia's government, and I
believe them, but the DNC servers were apparently so poorly protected
that the hacker could have been from anywhere.

I last wrote about the hack of the DNC's computers in July. At that
time, I made the following points:

• No self-respecting hacker would attack the Democratic party
  servers without also attacking the Republican party servers. However,
  there have been no leaks of Republican party e-mails.
  
  
• If the hacker's intent was to help Trump beat Hillary, then
  releasing the e-mails was risky because it might have backfired, and
  created sympathy for Hillary.

So my personal conclusion is that most likely explanation of what
happened was that the hacker tried to hack both parties' servers, but
succeeded only with the Democratic party servers, and then released
the e-mails because that's what hackers do, and probably didn't care
who won the election.

It's not always the victim's fault when computers are hacked, of
course. Hacking is a huge worldwide industry, and hackers are always
finding new ways to get around firewalls or to install malware or
ransomware. A good idea is to keep separate backups of all your data,
so that if you're hacked then you still have the backup. All you can
do is reduce the probability that you'll be hacked, and for that you
need to be totally paranoid. Lawfare (11-Mar-2016)

Related Articles

• FBI investigates alleged Russian hacking of Democrats' servers (31-Jul-2016)
  
  
• Hackers steal thousands of employee W-2 tax documents from Seagate Inc. (10-Mar-2016)
  
  
• Speculation grows about China's purpose in giant OPM hacking breach (06-Jun-2015)
  
  
• Anthem health insurance data breach puts even non-customers at risk (02-Mar-2015)
  
  
• U.S. charges China's People's Liberation Army with cyber espionage (20-May-2014)
  

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Russia, Vladimir Putin,
U.S. Office of Personnel Management, OPM,
Department of the Interior, SF-86, China

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John J. Xenakis
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