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And the latest indictments are rich with details that likely come from intercepting command-and-control boxes (in effect, bugging those getaway cars) and have nothing to do with physical access to the DNC’s servers. Investigators want access to the attack infrastructure-the equivalent to a chain of getaway cars of a team of burglars. (Besides, there wasn’t just one server, but 140.)Īn advanced investigation of an advanced hacking operation requires significantly more than just access to servers. By physically handing over a server to the FBI as Trump suggested, the DNC would in fact have destroyed evidence. It’s the difference between watching a house over time, carefully noting down who comes and goes and when and how, versus handing over a key to a lonely boarded-up building. Live hard drive and memory snapshots of blinking, powered-on machines in a network reveal significantly more forensic data than some powered-off server removed from a network. For the purposes of an investigation of this type, images are much more useful than handing over metal and hardware, because they are bit-by-bit copies of a crime scene taken while the crime was going on. And a close read of it all shows why Trump’s “DNC didn’t give the server to the FBI” conspiracy theory makes no sense.įirst off, CrowdStrike, the company the DNC brought in to initially investigate and remediate the hack, actually shared images of the DNC servers with the FBI. The FBI named-and-shamed two specific GRU units, their commanding officers and 10 subordinate officers while revealing stunning details of Russia’s hacking tradecraft. The indictment is historically unprecedented in scope and detail. election, including by hacking into the DNC. Three days earlier, special counsel Robert Mueller published an indictment of 12 officers from the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service, for interfering in the 2016 U.S. The ongoing tit-for-tat between the FBI and DNC stretches back to the bureau’s investigation of 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s private email server.Īlong the way, the FBI turned its attention to the hacking of DNC servers in July, after Crowdstrike said it had proof that Kremlin-backed hackers were involved.įollow on Twitter for the latest computer security news.Trump’s view is unmoored from reality in several ways. When BuzzFeed News attempted to reach the official after the FBI statement came out, he declined to comment. The DNC source also brushed off the idea that it was the DNC that refused to let FBI access the server. “I just don’t think that that’s really material or an important thing,” the source continued. The fact that the FBI didn’t have direct access to the servers was not “significant,” the source said. Ali Watkins, the Buzzfeed News national security correspondent who broke the original story, wrote in her follow-up article:Ī DNC source familiar with the investigation tried to downplay that report on Thursday, hours before the FBI statement was issued.
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The FBI reportedly outsourced the investigative work to third-party tech security company CrowdStrike.Įven before the FBI statement was released, the DNC was beginning to backtrack on Walker’s claim. But, he said, “The FBI never requested access to the DNC’s computer servers. These actions caused significant delays and inhibited the FBI from addressing the intrusion earlier.Įarlier, DNC deputy communications director Eric Walker told Buzzfeed News that the DNC had several meetings with representatives of the FBI’s Cyber Division and its Washington (DC) Field Office, the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, and US Attorney’s Offices, and it responded to a variety of requests for cooperation. This left the FBI no choice but to rely upon a third party for information. The FBI repeatedly stressed to DNC officials the necessity of obtaining direct access to servers and data, only to be rebuffed until well after the initial compromise had been mitigated. In a statement, the FBI said the real problem was DNC foot-dragging: The FBI has fired back at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) over claims the bureau never asked to access servers that were reportedly breached by Russian hackers.