A never-published Sept. 15 letter, emailed to an online journalist, suggests Iran is still trying to compromise the Trump campaign.
  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    733·
    2 months ago

    I’m kind of leaning towards the idea that the US government should offer secure IT services to campaigns, because this is a problem for the country, not just the people involved.

    Like, a campaign alone probably cannot counter nation-state intelligence agencies acting against them.

    And the problem is larger than just “a country might try to undermine someone’s campaign”.

    Having damning material to blackmail a President would be a problem, even if the material comes from activity prior to time as a President. We do not want that.

    EDIT: l’d also add that this isn’t just a problem for the US. Leaders in general, but particularly leaders of democracies, where popularity determines who holds power, face that as a risk factor.

    It’s not an entirely new problem in the Internet era, but I think that the problems are tremendously exacerbated by having a lot of sensitive information living on very complicated machines connected to a globally-accessible network.

    • tinfoilhat@lemmy.mlEnglish
      321·
      2 months ago

      I’m of the opinion that the alleged billionaire with his own cryptocurrency and publicly traded tech company should be able to afford a security guy.

      Why not just hire cyber ninjas?

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
      221·
      2 months ago

      US government should offer secure IT services to campaigns

      They already do. Part of the problem is that the candidates themselves don’t want to comply, for fear of someone in the secret service leaking.

      This goes back to Clinton sneaking around behind the back of his detail to get head and Cheney maintaining a secret vault of physical files to skirt rules on disclosure.

      Having damning material to blackmail a President would be a problem

      J. Edger Hoover would consider it extremely useful, particularly if he needed to tighten the leash.

      Depending on who you believe, your bosses having Compromat on you is practically a prerequisite for climbing the ladder.

    • barsquid@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      2 months ago

      You can have the best cybersecurity team in the world and they still wouldn’t be able to do anything about a dementia patient this stupid. His passwords are dumb shit like “MAGA2020” maybe with an exclamation mark.

      • big_slap@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        cybersecurity is only as strong as its weakest link. I don’t expect him to follow anything that he is recommended to do by experts for something as complicated as computers, lol

    • Treczoks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      This is not about the need for government support, this case is solely a case of gross incompetence in IT.

      If one gets hacked, one makes dead sure that the hole where the attacker entered and all the holes the attacker created afterwards are thoroughly taken care of.

    • Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      The government buys IT services from the same companies that everyone else does: Google, Microsoft and Amazon. They all offer special government offerings with stricter security.

      I guarantee Trump is getting hacked because he and his team refuse to listen to IT and won’t let them turn on basic security features because they’re a slight inconvenience.

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      21·
      2 months ago

      Having damning material to blackmail a President would be a problem, even if the material comes from activity prior to time as a President. We do not want that.

      Yes, I do not want a president. The fact that they can all be blackmailed is just one reason among countless.

    • Gigasser@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 months ago

      Might be able to do that by extending the responsibilities of the secret service for such things. Or having the NSA on top of that shit.

  • formergijoe@lemmy.worldEnglish
    15·
    2 months ago

    “For the last time, Roger, there aren’t hot swingers in your area!” Trump campaign IT to Roger Stone, probably.

  • psycho_driver@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    They’re probably trying to get in and proofread/polish the material. I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t love a second Trump presidency.

    • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
      211·
      2 months ago

      Nah, my understanding from past reading is that Iranian intelligence has generally sought to undermine Trump’s campaign.

      Remember that Trump knocked off the second-in-command guy in Iran a few years back and is generally more supportive of Israel, which is in active conflict with Hezbollah and Hamas, who are Iranian proxies.

      Some stuff in the news about it recently, remember:

      https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/iranian-hackers-stolen-trump-campaign-material-biden-campaign/story?id=113826314

      Iranian hackers sent ‘stolen’ Trump campaign material to individuals associated with Biden campaign: FBI

      The FBI said there is “no indication” those individuals replied.

      Russian intelligence, on the other hand, has been supportive of Trump’s campaign.

      I think that the real takeaway here is that we seriously need to improve the state of information security on political campaigns. We’ve had repeated compromises so far. There are a number of countries out there with an interest either in who becomes the next leader of the US or in swiping private material on whichever that might be useful for blackmail purposes down the line. China, for example, might not try to swing the election, but I am confident that Chinese intelligence would be interested in having compromising information on an American president.

    • TallonMetroid@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      2 months ago

      Definitely not. Remember the nuclear deal that Obama got with Iran? The one that lifted sanctions in return for allowing UN inspectors in to ensure compliance? President Convict unilaterally torpedoed it and reinstated sanctions. Iran would love to resume the deal, which may or may not happen with Harris, but absolutely would not happen if President Convict gets into the White House again.