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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWas There a Connection Between a Russian Bank and the Trump Campaign?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/15/was-there-a-connection-between-a-russian-bank-and-the-trump-campaignA team of computer scientists sifted through records of unusual Web traffic in search of answers.
By Dexter Filkins
In June, 2016, after news broke that the Democratic National Committee had been hacked, a group of prominent computer scientists went on alert. Reports said that the infiltrators were probably Russian, which suggested to most members of the group that one of the countrys intelligence agencies had been involved. They speculated that if the Russians were hacking the Democrats they must be hacking the Republicans, too. We thought there was no way in the world the Russians would just attack the Democrats, one of the computer scientists, who asked to be identified only as Max, told me.
<Snip>
Lichtblau had done breakthrough reporting on National Security Agency surveillance, and he knew that Maxs findings would require sophisticated analysis. D.N.S. lookups are metadatarecords that indicate computer interactions but dont necessarily demonstrate human communication. Lichtblau shared the data with three leading computer scientists, and, like Max, they were struck by the unusual traffic on the server. As Lichtblau talked to experts, he became increasingly convinced that the data suggested a substantive connection. Not only is there clearly something there but theres clearly something that someone has gone to great lengths to conceal, he told me. Jean Camp, of Indiana University, had also vetted some of the data. These people who should not be communicating are clearly communicating, she said. In order to encourage discussion among analysts, Camp posted a portion of the raw data on her Web site.
<Snip>
For some, the most baffling part of the puzzle was the way that the lookups stopped. The Trump domain vanished from the Web on the morning of Friday, September 23rd, two days after the Times presented its data to B.G.R., Alfa Banks lobbyists in Washington, but before it called Trump or Cendyn. In Maxs view, this was evidence of direct contact between Alfa Bank and Trump. One researcher whom Foer interviewed put it vividly: The knee was hit in Moscow, the leg kicked in New York. There is, however, at least one possibility that doesnt involve Moscow: the lobbyists in Washington could have passed along a warning to Trump, as a courtesy. But B.G.R. denies doing this, calling the idea ridiculous on its face.
<Snip>
The parties might also have been using Webmaile-mail that leaves few digital traces, other than D.N.S. lookups. Or, Paul and Leto said, they could have been communicating through software used to compose marketing e-mails. They might have used a method called foldering, in which messages are written but not sent; instead, they are saved in a drafts folder, where an accomplice who also has access to the account can read them. This is a very common way for people to communicate with each other who dont want to be detected, Leto told me. David Petraeus, when he was the director of the C.I.A., used this method to exchange intimaciesand to share classified informationwith his lover, Paula Broadwell. In June, an attorney for the Mueller investigation accused Paul Manafort of using foldering to facilitate secret communications.
<Snip>
Lichtblau had done breakthrough reporting on National Security Agency surveillance, and he knew that Maxs findings would require sophisticated analysis. D.N.S. lookups are metadatarecords that indicate computer interactions but dont necessarily demonstrate human communication. Lichtblau shared the data with three leading computer scientists, and, like Max, they were struck by the unusual traffic on the server. As Lichtblau talked to experts, he became increasingly convinced that the data suggested a substantive connection. Not only is there clearly something there but theres clearly something that someone has gone to great lengths to conceal, he told me. Jean Camp, of Indiana University, had also vetted some of the data. These people who should not be communicating are clearly communicating, she said. In order to encourage discussion among analysts, Camp posted a portion of the raw data on her Web site.
<Snip>
For some, the most baffling part of the puzzle was the way that the lookups stopped. The Trump domain vanished from the Web on the morning of Friday, September 23rd, two days after the Times presented its data to B.G.R., Alfa Banks lobbyists in Washington, but before it called Trump or Cendyn. In Maxs view, this was evidence of direct contact between Alfa Bank and Trump. One researcher whom Foer interviewed put it vividly: The knee was hit in Moscow, the leg kicked in New York. There is, however, at least one possibility that doesnt involve Moscow: the lobbyists in Washington could have passed along a warning to Trump, as a courtesy. But B.G.R. denies doing this, calling the idea ridiculous on its face.
<Snip>
The parties might also have been using Webmaile-mail that leaves few digital traces, other than D.N.S. lookups. Or, Paul and Leto said, they could have been communicating through software used to compose marketing e-mails. They might have used a method called foldering, in which messages are written but not sent; instead, they are saved in a drafts folder, where an accomplice who also has access to the account can read them. This is a very common way for people to communicate with each other who dont want to be detected, Leto told me. David Petraeus, when he was the director of the C.I.A., used this method to exchange intimaciesand to share classified informationwith his lover, Paula Broadwell. In June, an attorney for the Mueller investigation accused Paul Manafort of using foldering to facilitate secret communications.
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Was There a Connection Between a Russian Bank and the Trump Campaign? (Original Post)
.99center
Oct 2018
OP
SunSeeker
(51,705 posts)1. K & R for exposure.
anarch
(6,535 posts)2. yes of course there was
triron
(22,020 posts)3. Tea Pain has researched this (see his twitter feed)
Or Louise Mensch back in 2016, 2017.
Botany
(70,584 posts)4. " ... but there's clearly something that someone has gone to great lengths to conceal,"
I want to vomit every time i hear the words President Trump.