Fired CISA Director Chris Krebs, who was oblivious to the biggest government hack in history, said the US election was secure

NOQ Report ^ | 12/18/2020 | JD Rucker

[SeekAndFind]

Chris Krebs has stated in the past and testified yesterday that there was no voter fraud through “hacking” that occurred during the 2020 election. For complete transparency, I did not watch his testimony nor have a read a transcript. Why would I? This is the same guy who didn’t notice the largest cyber-attack in world history happening against multiple federal agencies for months.

Krebs was fired last month from his position as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The agency is tasked with preventing the exact type of massive cyberattack that has been underway since March, perhaps earlier. But over the last nine months, he and his agency were completely in the dark about the SolarWinds Orion hack that affected multiple government agencies and large businesses, including Microsoft. And it’s actually worse than most people realize. According to CNBC:

---

The scale of a sophisticated cyberattack on the U.S. government that was unearthed this week is much bigger than first anticipated. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in a summary Thursday that the threat “poses a grave risk to the federal government.”

It added that “state, local, tribal, and territorial governments as well as critical infrastructure entities and other private sector organizations” are also at risk.

CISA believes the attack began at least as early as March. Since then, multiple government agencies have reportedly been targeted by the hackers, with confirmation from the Energy and Commerce departments so far.

“This threat actor has demonstrated sophistication and complex tradecraft in these intrusions,” CISA said. “Removing the threat actor from compromised environments will be highly complex and challenging.”

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There may actually be a silver lining for Trump supporters that could ironically come back to bite Krebs and the Democrats. SolarWinds, the company at the heart of the hack, also happened to be connected to Dominion Voter Systems, the company at the heart of voter fraud. Their offices were raided this week, meaning we may have the Dominion data we’re seeking to prove voter fraud. That would be, as our I noted earlier, the “MOAB” (Mother Of All Bombshells.)

The most severe hacks against the U.S. government in history have been ongoing since March under Chris Krebs’ watch and he didn’t have a clue. This is the guy Democrats are using to vouch for the security of the 2020 elections.

[Paladin2]

Trade him to the Rooskies for Edward Snowden.

[TigerLikesRoosterNew]

His stupid remarks gave liberals a good excuse to dismiss vote fraud claims as kooky conspiracy theories. Maybe it was intentional because he later admitted that voting machines are actually hooked to Internet during Congressional hearing.

[null and void]

Words mean things.

Definition of secure (Entry 1 of 2)
1a ...
1d : free from risk of loss

Not the most honest election ever, not the most accurate election ever, but the election most free from fear of loss...

[null and void]

Is he Maynard’s kid?

[MAGAthon]

30m to 38m07s: Dick Durbin. RussiaRussiaRussia. a massive cyber security breach. BBC: evidence?
Durbin: doesn’t have any, but there’s a pattern. interfered in 2016 election.
BBC: an act of war?
Durbin: a virtual one. Trump’s silence (echoing Romney). Trump’s friend Putin.
BBC: why do you think Trump hasn’t commented - he has said Putin is his friend?
Durbin: blah blah.
BBC: you are suggesting some sort of conspiracy. is there any evidence of that?
Durbin: I don’t have a body of evidence, but I do have proof of in-action over and over and over again by the Trump admin etc.
COVID: forget Christmas.

AUDIO: 52m59s: 18 Dec: BBC Newshour: James Menendez
Also in the programme: US Senator Dick Durbin on the cyber attacks on government agencies and private companies, and whether the incoming Biden administration should retaliate...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w172x2z33qb8tjr

[rfp1234]

Chatsworth Osborne III would have done a better job running cybersecurity.

[Texas Fossil]

Still More #ComDem_Insanity!!

You simply cannot make this crap up. Head shake.

[rlmorel]

Yep.

The most secure election ever.

This is part of the finding of the forensic analysis of ONE Dominion system that they were allowed to get their hands on. Just ONE. Any of you IT folks out there (as I am) look at this analysis below, and see much professional security out there? Anyone?

What do YOU think of this? This is verbatim from the report (I formatted it just a bit differently for readability, but the text is exact):

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1. SERVER OVERVIEW AND SUMMARY

• Our initial audit on the computer running the Democracy Suite Software showed that standard computer security best practices were not applied. These minimum-security standards are outlined the 2002 HAVA, and FEC Voting System Standards – it did not even meet the minimum standards required of a government desktop computer.
  
  
• The election data software package USB drives (November 2020 election, and November 2020 election updated) are secured with bitlocker encryption software, but they were not stored securely on-site. At the time of our forensic examination, the election data package files were already moved to an unsecure desktop computer and were residing on an unencrypted hard drive. This demonstrated a significant and fatal error in security and election integrity. Key Findings on Desktop and Server Configuration: - There were multiple Microsoft security updates as well as Microsoft SQL Server updates which should have been deployed, however there is no evidence that these security patches were ever installed. As described below, many of the software packages were out of date and vulnerable to various methods of attack.
  
  
  1. Computer initial configuration on 10/03/2018 13:08:11:911
     
     
  2. Computer final configuration of server software on 4/10/2019
     
     
  3. Hard Drive not Encrypted at Rest
     
     
  4. Microsoft SQL Server Database not protected with password.
     
     
  5. Democracy Suite Admin Passwords are reused and share passwords.
     
     
  6. Antivirus is 4.5 years outdated
     
     
  7. Windows updates are 3.86 years out of date.
     
     
  8. When computer was last configured on 04/10/2019 the windows updates were 2.11 years out of date.
     
     
  9. User of computer uses a Super User Account.
  
  
  
• The hard drive was not encrypted at rest – which means that if hard drives are removed or initially booted off an external USB drive the files are susceptible to manipulation directly. An attacker is able to mount the hard drive because it is unencrypted, allowing for the manipulation and replacement of any file on the system.
  
  
• The Microsoft SQL Server database files were not properly secured to allow modifications of the database files.
  
  
• The Democracy Suite Software user account logins and passwords are stored in the unsecured database tables and the multiple Election System Administrator accounts share the same password, which means that there are no audit trails for vote changes, deletions, blank ballot voting, or batch vote alterations or adjudication.
  
  
• Antivirus definition is 1666 days old on 12/11/2020. Antrim County updates its system with USB drives. USB drives are the most common vectors for injecting malware into computer systems. The failure to properly update the antivirus definition drastically increases the harm cause by malware from other machines being transmitted to the voting system.
  
  
• Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) Offline Update is used to enable updates the computer – which is a package of files normally downloaded from the internet but compiled into a program to put on a USB drive to manually update server systems.
  
  
• Failure to properly update the voting system demonstrates a significant and fatal error in security and election integrity.
  
  
• There are 15 additional updates that should have been installed on the server to adhere to Microsoft Standards to fix known vulnerabilities. For the 4/10/2019 install, the most updated version of the update files would have been 03/13/2019 which is 11.6.1 which is 15 updates newer than 10.9.1 This means the updates installed were 2 years, 1 month, 13 days behind the most current update at the time. This includes security updates and fixes. This demonstrated a significant and fatal error in security and election integrity.
  
  
  1. Wed 04/10/2019 10:34:33.14 - Info: Starting WSUS Offline Update (v. 10.9.1)
     
     
  2. Wed 04/10/2019 10:34:33.14 - Info: Used path “D:\WSUSOFFLINE1091_2012R2_W10\cmd\” on EMSSERVER (user: EMSADMIN)
     
     
  3. Wed 04/10/2019 10:34:35.55 - Info: Medium build date: 03/10/2019 16
     
     
  4. Found on c:\Windows\wsusofflineupdate.txt
     
     
  5. *WSUS Offline Update (v.10.9.1) was created on 01/29/2017 *WSUS information found here https://download.wsusoffline.net/
  
  
  
• Super User Administrator account is the primary account used to operate the Dominion Election Management System which is a major security risk. The user logged in has the ability to make major changes to the system and install software which means that there is no oversight to ensure appropriate management controls – i.e. anyone who has access to the shared administrator user names and passwords can make significant changes to the entire voting system. The shared usernames and passwords mean that these changes can be made in an anonymous fashion with no tracking or attribution.

  ---

  To any IT professional, these things would constitute nearly criminal negligence done by a total incompetent and be a fire-able offense.
  
  Except that this was NOT criminal negligence done by a total incompetent. This was CRIMINAL malfeasance, done intentionally and is prosecutable.
  
  And this was ONE system. ONE node out of probably thousands in this country.

[Pontiac]

Chris Krebs has stated in the past and testified yesterday that there was no voter fraud through “hacking” that occurred during the 2020 election.

For what it’s worth I think he is being completely honest.

Hacking is when an individual not authorized by the owner of a computer gains access to that computer.

I believe that those that gained access to the voting computers were granted access to those computers by those running the election. No hacking occurred.

The actions of those that were granted access were completely illegal but the fact that they would access the computers to perform those actions was known well before hand.

Access was granted before the act, those in charge knew it would happed; no Hacking

[redinIllinois]

.

[mad_as_he$$]

I agree. He answered the question that was “asked”.

[Texas Fossil]

Agree. It is a crime. A big Crime.

[BiglyCommentary]

This blind squirrel couldn’t find a nut even if wandering around a Planters warehouse.

[Jeepers43]

I'm not gonna' do the search again, but there is a wealth of DHS, CISA, and NIST material which directly critiques the three major election companies on various technical and operational grounds. These published reports go back as long as ten years.

Certainly the genius head of CISA was aware of these, but acted like any seasoned lawyer/bureaucrat and spewed meaningless gobbledygook rather than do his duty as a public servant.

It is unfathomable that any of these elections systems got any kind of green light or certification based on any sound (or even sloppy) technical, operational, and management/financial review. There was plenty of concern they were dirty going back a full decade.

Yeah, it was right to fire Krebs lickety split. Because the biggest insider threat at CISA was the director Krebs himself.

[Jeepers43]

"For what it’s worth I think he is being completely honest."

In DC, and especially for DC lawyers, it's a fine art to be completely honest to questions posed, while lying one's a&& off with the questions never asked.

[eyedigress]

Its all Semantics

Go Ahead, Fuck My World.

[Pontiac]

It depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is.

To quote a former occupier of the Oral Office.

[EVO X]

Our initial audit on the computer running the Democracy Suite Software showed that standard computer security best practices were not applied.

Thanks for the report. I suspected as much. I doubt any local IT people ever touch these machines.

[ronnie raygun]

Fired, nuff sed