Posted on 01/11/2017 2:28:43 PM PST by Red Badger
New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan appeared to be unaware during a Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday that a Washington Post story about Russian hacking into the Vermont power grid has been completely debunked and retracted.
“Two weeks ago The Washington Post reported that a hacking group connected with the Russian government managed to infiltrate the Burlington Electric power company in Vermont,” Hassan said to retired Marine Gen. John Kelley during his confirmation hearing to head the Department of Homeland Security.
Hassan, who took office this month after serving as governor of New Hampshire, showed no indication during the questioning that she was aware that The Post’s story has been found to be “fake news.”
She continued her statement based on the premise that the Russian government had targeted and infiltrated Vermont’s power grid.
In its article, entitled “Russian hackers penetrated U.S. electricity grid through a utility in Vermont, officials say,” The Post reported that Russian hackers had found their way into Burlington Electric’s computer systems and its power system controls.
But the power company issued a statement saying that it had not been compromised. The truth of the matter was much less serious. The company flagged suspicious activity on its computer systems after running a search based on a list of IP addresses provided by the federal government.
When Burlington Electric ran the check, it found that a computer that was not hooked up to power supply controls had accessed one of the flagged IP addresses. And while the IP address was sometimes used during cyber attacks, that was not always the case. Burlington Electric shared the information with federal authorities out of an abundance of caution. One of the federal authorities then appeared to leak the information to The Post without the proper context.
The newspaper published a follow-up article several days later noting that its initial report was nearly completely inaccurate and that Russian agents neither infiltrated the Vermont system nor attempted to do so.
Hassan seemed clueless about any of those developments in the story.
“I think we all agree that foreign infiltration into our utility infrastructure, into any of our infrastructure, is unacceptable,” she told Kelly.
“With DHS being responsible for securing critical infrastructure from both physical and cyber attack I’m just curious about what steps DHS needs to be taking to prevent cyber attacks on critical infrastructure and confronting foreign nations’ espionage efforts.”
Kelly did not correct Hassan in his response to the Democrat.
I WISH he had corrected Hassan. Every time our side lets a lie stand, more people believe the LIE.
New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan is an ignorant political slut.
That would have caused a furor on the Dems side. They still believe in it and would have gone ballistic.................
Exactly. If he didn’t correct her, another senator should have.
Exactly. If he didn’t correct her, another senator should have.
Clueless.
“Hassan” ???
HAHAHAHAHAHA! That’s what Democrats get for relying on FAKE NEWS.
She should have been called out on it. Did no one there know it had been debunked?
My first reaction also
That's cuz they just read WaPo, NYTimes and watch the MSM...............
She is there because an equally clueless and cowardly ex-senator backstabbed the President-Elect.
Her husband claims “Hassan” is Irish.
Si........................
Kelly did not correct Hassan in his response to the Democrat.
And if it was a Republican touting VERIFIED FAKE NEWS in a Senate Confirmation Hearing, it would be the LEAD STORY every 15 Minutes for 3 days, making fun of Him.
Do you think the Presstitute Corp might be biased?
That’s a woman?
Oo, that’s unfortunate. I hope she has a good personality.
Somebody should send that woman a gift certificate for Avon. She definitely needs her door bell rung. The late Clara Peller used to ask, “Where’s the beef.” Well Maggie, “Where’s your makeup?’
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