CrowdStrike: Five Things Everyone Is Ignoring About The Russia-DNC Story
The Democratic Party and mainstream media have become increasingly consumed with the narrative that Donald Trump’s election win is largely influenced by Russian hacking.
The narrative is centered around two hacks–the hack of a DNC server that led to the release of embarrassing emails during the Democratic National Convention, and the hack of John Podesta’s email which led to several embarrassing moments for the Clinton campaign in October 2016. Both are supposedly the result of the Russians.
The Russia story is back in the headlines once again after reports surrounding former President Barack Obama’s attempts to “punish” Russia for its interference.
However, there is still a cloud of doubt hanging over the DNC’s Russia narrative on the breach of the DNC servers.
The analysis that alleged that Russia was behind the DNC server breach was carried out not by the U.S. government, but by the private security group CrowdStrike.
CrowdStrike is the
sole source of this claim, with their June 2016 report, “
Bears in the Midst: Intrusion into the Democratic National Committee” being the basis of the DNC’s Russian hacking allegations.
Here are five key points about CrowdStrike that the mainstream media is ignoring:
1. Obama Appoints CrowdStrike Officer To Admin Post Two Months Before June 2016 Report On Russia Hacking DNC
In April 2016, two months before the June report that alleged a Russian conspiracy, former President Barack Obama appointed Steven Chabinsky, the general counsel and chief risk officer for CrowdStrike, to the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity.
CrowdStrike co-founder George Kurtz said at the time, “We wish Steve and the rest of the Commissioners every success in this important effort. Their dedicated and thoughtful leadership on these issues holds great potential for promoting innovation and the benefits of technology, while lowering the very real security risks we are facing today.”
2.
The FBI Never Looked At The DNC’s Servers — Only CrowdStrike Did
As far as we know, the FBI still has not examined the DNC server that Russia allegedly hacked.
There has been no corroboration or second opinion on who may have hacked the server. The only source for this claim is CrowdStrike, who began monitoring the DNC system on May 5th, 2016, according to DailyMail.com.
The DNC also reportedly paid $168,000 to CrowdStrike.
3. Comey Contradicted The DNC’s Story On The FBI Asking To See The Server
The DNC claimed in January that the reason the FBI never examined their hacked server was simple–the FBI never requested to do so. Yet, DNC deputy communications director Eric Walker gave told BuzzFeed News in an email,
“The DNC had several meetings with representatives of the FBI’s Cyber Division and its Washington (DC) Field Office, the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, and U.S. Attorney’s Offices, and it responded to a variety of requests for cooperation, but the FBI never requested access to the DNC’s computer servers.”
However, t
this claim was contradicted by then-FBI director James Comey, who said in a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in January that there were “multiple requests at different levels” to look at the DNC’s servers. Instead, Comey said a “highly respected private company” got access to the servers–meaning CrowdStrike.
A senior FBI official told WIRED in January,
“The FBI repeatedly stressed to DNC officials the necessity of obtaining direct access to servers and data, only to be rebuffed until well after the initial compromise had been mitigated.”
“This left the FBI no choice but to rely upon a third party for information. These actions caused significant delays and inhibited the FBI from addressing the intrusion earlier.”
As Josephine Wolff of Slate pointed out, “…whether because they were denied access or simply never asked for it, the
FBI instead used the analysis of the DNC breach conducted by security firm CrowdStrike as the basis for its investigation. Regardless of who is telling the truth about what really happened, perhaps the most astonishing thing about this probe is that a private firm’s investigation and attribution was deemed sufficient by both the DNC and the FBI.”
http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/24/c...ryone-is-ignoring-about-the-russia-dnc-story/