Sounds to me like the DNC didn't WANT Intel agencies pawing over their compromised servers. Needed a "friendly" investigator to spin a yarn... Someone ring up Clapper.. Ask him how long they EXAMINED the primary evidence.
Instead, the FBI outsourced the computer forensics analysis to IT security company CrowdStrike which first pointed the finger at Moscow in May.
“CrowdStrike is pretty good. There’s no reason to believe that anything that they have concluded is not accurate,” one intelligence official told BuzzFeed, insisting that the company was
“confident” Russia was behind the hacks.
“Beginning at the time the intrusion was discovered by the DNC, the DNC cooperated fully with the FBI and its investigation, providing access to all of the information uncovered by CrowdStrike — without any limits,” Walker added.
‘What is going on?’ Trump wonders why FBI never requested access to the DNC’s ‘hacked servers’
There is a lot in the report we are not privy to.
FBI/Intelligence outsources a lot because, quite frankly, private companies have far better and more up to date tools and technology. All federal agencies do now. Not sure why it should suddenly be an issue. Didn't Crowdstrike also work with the Sony servers when they got hacked by NK? Why didn't anyone demand more evidence? Why didn't anyone question why the FBI didn't examine Sony directly?
ANYTIME the source is suspected to be foreign intelligence services, it should be handled by the MASSIVE, and EXISTING dozen agencies for Counter Cyber. We're adding NEW groups every year. More and more people and labs and capabilities. And PRIVATE contractors should ONLY be used if they have the clearances and access to handle espionage level intrusions. Sorry Sony -- but we need access to your server. We'll send you a cleaned copy. You have no choice. It's now a matter of National Security.
I'm fuming because I've waiting to see what the government reaction was to all these clues that were known PUBLICLY for months, maybe a year. And NO ONE can tell how all these multi-$BILL agencies were mobilized and USED to obtain and REAL evidence. It appears that everything known about the DNC hack came from a Google funded group. So FIRE all these resources you think are totally inferior and unable and unaware.
I agree with you, and your questions.
First-off, Sony was NOT a matter of national security, so CrowdStrike is welcome to investigate. I have no issues with them doing that.
However, the hack of the DNC has national repercussions. In my opinion, it was not wise to have them investigate what happened at the DNC. A left leaning organization, owned by leftist billionaires, investigating for a losing Democrat candidate, by a Liberal administration, on servers not taken into evidence, leads the results to be questioned for accuracy. All in all, what could go sideways with all of that?
I also concur with your position that since the government doesn't have enough faith in their own cyber security experts to do a top notch job, they need to shit can the entire lot and go strictly with private companies.
When the DNI says "We assess...", assessments can be wrong. (Example: I assess rightwinger is a nutjob, BUT I COULD BE WRONG.) When he didn't say "We know..." or "We can prove...", it leaves the results wide open for debate.
At this moment, the whole thing isn't passing the smell test.
