Russia Did It

Michigan Insists It Wasn’t Hacked As Data From State Voter Rolls Turns Up On Russian Forum

Here’s yet another story of critical national security import that has been, unsurprisingly, played down by the mainstream media. Michigan’s Department of State denied on Tuesday it had been the victim of a data breach after voter information that was clearly stolen from somewhere surfaced on a platform used by Russian hackers.

The data was first discovered and shared by GQ correspondent Julia Ioffe. Amusingly, the hackers who “stole” this data managed to use it to win a “reward” from the Trump State Department.

Obviously, somebody screwed up here: Either the data was stolen and the State of Michigan is lying, or this really was a scam, and the hackers managed to successfully take advantage of Democrats’ hysterical demands for ‘evidence’ of more Russian electoral interference.

Russian journalists have discovered data from Michigan voter data rolls—including the personal info of 7.6 million Michigan voters—on a Russian hackers’ platform. It also includes voter info from other swing states, including Florida and NC https://t.co/EIiWioTbkF— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) September 1, 2020

The hilarious—and extremely Russian—part of this is that these hackers were apparently using this data to get that reward money that the State Department was offering for information on election interference. https://t.co/3DWVjzoxx3— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) September 1, 2020

One hacker wrote in the dark web forum that they managed to get $4,000 from the State Department.— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) September 1, 2020

NB: As some people have correctly pointed out, this is publicly available information. A lot of it has been floating around for a while. It’s just unclear what these hackers are using it for, other than scamming the State Department.— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) September 1, 2020

UPDATE: Michigan responds to the @kommersant story, says they were not hacked and that the info is publicly available. https://t.co/NuHnFDYiWv— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) September 1, 2020

This makes it even more crazy that some hackers were able to reward money from the State Department for this…— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) September 1, 2020

Remember, Democrats in Congress have persistently played down stories of Russian election meddling that occurred during the closing months of President Obama’s term. Why? Because it shows that Obama dropped the ball when it came to defending America’s electing infrastructure. Alternatively, it suggests that these types of attacks aren’t important. For Democrats, this is a sophie’s choice: Admitting Obama dropped the ball would reinforce the notion that ‘Russian interference’ wasn’t a problem until Trump won the election and Dems needed a narrative to explain away his victory as anything other than ‘winning a fair, free and open election’.

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