Ooopsie

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign said Saturday that some of its internal communications had been hacked.

[...]

On July 22, POLITICO began receiving emails from an anonymous account. Over the course of the past few weeks, the person — who used an AOL email account and identified themselves only as “Robert” — relayed what appeared to be internal communications from a senior Trump campaign official. A research dossier the campaign had apparently done on Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, which was dated Feb. 23, was included in the documents. The documents are authentic, according to two people familiar with them and granted anonymity to describe internal communications. One of the people described the dossier as a preliminary version of Vance’s vetting file.

[...]

The person also sent part of a research document about Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who was also a finalist for the vice presidential nomination.

The person said they had a “variety of documents from [Trump’s] legal and court documents to internal campaign discussions.”

[...]

The acknowledgment came after POLITICO began receiving emails from an anonymous account with documents from inside Trump’s operation.

The campaign blamed “foreign sources hostile to the United States,” citing a Microsoft report on Friday that Iranian hackers “sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign.”

  Politico

Yeah, so maybe that's the fault of the high-ranking official or the lack of good cyber security on the Trump team?

“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,” [Trump campaign spokesperson, Steven] Cheung said.

[...]

Asked how they obtained the documents, the person responded: “I suggest you don’t be curious about where I got them from. Any answer to this question, will compromise me and also legally restricts you from publishing them.”

Can't wait to see them.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 08/12/2024:

UPDATE 08/13/2024:

Uh-oh

DC Health Link, the health insurance exchange for Washington, D.C., suffered a data breach on Tuesday that, according to House chief administrative officer (CAO) Catherine L. Szpindor, stole account data and personal identifiable information (PII) belonging to hundreds of House lawmakers and staff.

[...]

Top leaders in the House said the scope of the data breach at DC Health Link, a program that administers health care plans for members of Congress and their staff, remains unknown.

[...]

Additionally, the Senate Sergeant at Arms told Senate email account holders that the breach “included the full names, date of enrollment, relationship (self, spouse, child), and email addresses.”

[...]

“Thousands of House Members and employees from across the United States have enrolled in health insurance through DC Health Link for themselves and their families since 2014.”

“The size and scope of impacted House customers could be extraordinary.”

[...]

In their letter on Wednesday, [House leader Kevin] McCarthy and [minority leader Hakeem] Jeffries said the FBI was able to purchase the stolen PII on the “dark web.” They added that the hack “significantly increases the risk that Members, staff, and their families will experience identity theft, financial crimes, and physical threats — already an ongoing concern.”

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Ron Wyden statement on government-wide hack

“Finance Committee staff was briefed today on the SolarWinds hack, and I appreciate Treasury and IRS officials sharing what they know as they continue to learn more. According to IRS, there is no evidence that IRS was compromised or taxpayer data was affected. However, the hack of the Treasury Department appears to be significant."

  Senate Committee on Finance

Why should we believe IRS wasn't "compromised" when so many other agencies were?

"Microsoft notified the agency that dozens of email accounts were compromised. Additionally the hackers broke into systems in the Departmental Offices division of Treasury, home to the department’s highest-ranking officials. Treasury still does not know all of the actions taken by hackers, or precisely what information was stolen.

“Finally, after years of government officials advocating for encryption backdoors, and ignoring warnings from cybersecurity experts who said that encryption keys become irresistible targets for hackers, the USG has now suffered a breach that seems to involve skilled hackers stealing encryption keys from USG servers.”

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

His final days will be throwing people under the bus

In 45 tweets this week (so far) the president has not said a single word about the record deaths from COVID. Or economic stimulus. Or the Russian hack. Not. One. Word. Instead, it is an endless litany of complaints, self-aggrandizement, and conspiracy theorizing.

  Bulwark

Well, he has now.

I don't know why he tagged Ratcliffe, but I know why he tagged Pompeo.  Perhaps Ratcliffe was involved in the decision to close the consulates.

Yhoo News article

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

P.S.  Note that the Twitter warning label does not say on this tweet as previous ones that the tweet claims are disputed".  It flat out says Joe Biden is the certified winner.

It's worse

The huge government hack has been reported as including Commerce, Treasury and DHS.  Now, they're admitting the Department of Energy was also hacked.  The Department of Energy is in charge of nuclear  weapons.

Agencies within the Department of Energy (DOE), including portions of the agency charged with maintaining the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, were breached as part of a massive hack on an IT group that has hit almost a dozen federal agencies, officials said Thursday.

[...]

"At this point, the investigation has found that the malware has been isolated to business networks only, and has not impacted the mission essential national security functions of the Department, including the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)."

  The Hill

Sure, we believe you.

They found suspicious activity in networks belonging to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories in New Mexico and Washington, the Office of Secure Transportation at NNSA, and the Richland Field Office of the DOE.

[...]

NNSA is responsible for managing the nation's nuclear weapons, and while it gets the least attention, it takes up the vast majority of DOE's budget. Similarly, the Sandia and Los Alamos National Labs conduct atomic research related to both civil nuclear power and nuclear weapons. The Office of Secure Transportation is tasked with moving enriched uranium and other materials critical for maintaining the nuclear stockpile.

[...]

The attack on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission may have been an effort to disrupt the nation's bulk electric grid. FERC doesn't directly manage any power flows, but it does store sensitive data on the grid that could be used to identify the most disruptive locations for future attacks.

[...]

The hackers have been able to do more damage at FERC than the other agencies, and officials there have evidence of highly malicious activity, the officials said, but did not elaborate.

The officials said that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which has been helping to manage the federal response to the broad hacking campaign, indicated to FERC this week that CISA was overwhelmed and might not be able to allocate the necessary resources to respond.

[...]

The hackers are believed to have gained access to the federal agencies’ networks by compromising the software company SolarWinds, which sells IT management products to hundreds of government and private-sector clients.

[...]

[T]he people said, noting that the investigation is ongoing and they may not know the full extent of the damage “for weeks.”

  Politico

US government hacked - Update

Remember when Trump said he and Putin were going to have a joint cyber program?

A breakdown of what is known to date.

"Many agencies don’t know how on fire they are yet.”

Hmmmmm

Hackers backed by a foreign government have been monitoring internal email traffic at the US treasury department and an agency that decides internet and telecommunications policy.

[...]

There is concern within the US intelligence community that the hackers who targeted the treasury department and the commerce department’s national telecommunications and information administration used a similar tool to break into other government agencies, according to three people briefed on the matter. The people did not say which other agencies.

The hack is so serious it led to a national security council meeting at the White House on Saturday.

[...]

Staff emails at the agency were monitored by the hackers for months, sources said.

[...]

“This is a nation state,” said a different person briefed on the matter. “We just don’t know which one yet.“

[...]

The investigation is still in its early stages and involves a range of federal agencies, including the FBI.

  Guardian

Hmmmmm.

From The Washington Post.

The Russian government hackers who breached a top cybersecurity firm are behind a global espionage campaign that also compromised the Treasury and Commerce departments and other U.S. government agencies, according to people familiar with the matter.

  WaPo

The agency within the Commerce Department that was hacked was said to be the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is in charge of advising the president on telecommunications issues. According to Reuters, those briefed on the matter fear that other government agencies could have been hacked as well.

  Daily Beast

The government's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said it has been working with other agencies “regarding recently discovered activity on government networks. CISA is providing technical assistance to affected entities as they work to identify and mitigate any potential compromises.”

President Donald Trump last month fired the director of CISA, Chris Krebs, after Krebs vouched for the integrity of the presidential election and disputed Trump’s claims of widespread electoral fraud.

[...]

Last Tuesday, prominent U.S. cybersecurity firm FireEye said that foreign government hackers with “world-class capabilities” broke into its network and stole offensive tools it uses to probe the defenses of its thousands of customers. Those customers include federal, state and local governments and top global corporations.

The hackers “primarily sought information related to certain government customers,” FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia said in a statement, without naming them.

  Boston 25

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Update:

Remember when Trump said he and Putin were going to have a joint cyber program?