“Drats!” RNC Announces They Foiled Russian Hacking Attempt

Well, now we know why there wasn’t a Wikileaks dump of hacked RNC emails this summer, and it wasn’t for lack of trying on behalf of the Russians.

It’s because, amazingly, the RNC had a better email filter, which blocked the same type of malicious emails that had been sent to the Democratic National Committee, the Wall Street Journal reports. After the DNC hack came to light in June:

RNC officials, concerned they too might have been compromised, called a private computer security firm, which in turn called the FBI and obtained information about what kinds of malicious emails to look for, the person said. Upon inspection, the RNC found that its electronic filters had blocked emails sent to a former employee matching the description they’d been warned about.

It appears that only one email address at the RNC was targeted, while a more robust attempt was made at the DNC. And, once the DNC’s leaks revealed their interference in the primary process, perhaps the Russians decided they had more than enough material to cause a problem in the election process in-hand and didn’t try so hard to find more?

Similar techniques were used – and succeeded – at state-level GOP organizations and on Lindsey Graham’s campaign email system:

On Wednesday, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told CNN his campaign email system was hacked by Russian operators. Mr. Graham plans to hold hearings about the hacks, which all U.S. intelligence agencies said in a rare public statement in October were directed by the highest-levels of the Russian government to interfere with U.S. elections.

Whoops.

The entire episode underscores the need for tighter network security (as if the Sony and Office of Personnel Management hacks didn’t) at all levels of corporate and government organizations. It is truly a national security crisis, and should be handled as one.

*But none of it cost Hillary the election. She did that all by herself.

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