Posts by BillG

Wow, look out, hackers: Trump to order 60-day cybersecurity probe

Re: Time for a Great Firewall

The Obama Administration recognized the fact that the vast majority of the internet lies in private hands...

In 2011 Chinese government hackers got into U.S. Steel's computer systems and stole trade secrets related to a new, lightweight, high strength steel process for automobiles, military vehicles, and ships. Chinese steel makers copied these techniques and started producing identical lightweight steel products. U.S. Steel lost contracts, market share, and jobs. Obama did nothing.

Chain has been attempting to hack U.S. and U.K aircraft carriers. Of course these ships use the same internet that we do.

The Internet is vital to any country's economy, as well as its national security. When these things happen it is vital that the government step in to protect its people. Trump is treating internet security as seriously as how the U.K and most other nations treat interest security.

Trump signs 'no privacy for non-Americans' order – what does that mean for rest of us?

Re: Yet ANOTHER Trump story?

@truckle wrote: You are trying to make their (the black offenders, the torturers) motives to be about Trump when they clearly appear to be racial rather than political. ...

But I thought it was about Facebook and technology and streaming video... the same way some other Trump stories here are about Twitter... right?

Re: Yet ANOTHER Trump story?

@diodesign, then, I have to ask, why didn't you cover those anti-Trumpers that earlier this month tortured a handicapped kid, forced him to curse Trump, all while streaming it live on Facebook?

It involved technology, and dominated the news. It involved Facebook. It involved streaming video. You could have knocked Zuck again.

It involved a handicapped kid mercilessly tortured and bullied by anti-Trumpers while he begged and pleaded for them to stop.

El Reg could have asked the question "Why is it that nobody who witnessed this live Facebook event called the police"?

Was this story against your slant? Or maybe you did cover this story and I missed it.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/04/us/chicago-facebook-live-beating/

"A young woman who broadcast the beating and racial taunting of a man on Facebook Live has been arrested with three others in connection with the gruesome attack, Chicago police said Wednesday.

The disturbing 30-minute video shows a man tied up and his mouth covered, cowering in the corner of a room. His attackers laugh and shout "f*ck Donald Trump" and "f*ck white people" as they kick and punch him.

The video shows someone cutting into his scalp with a knife, leaving a visibly bald patch."

So, Nothing Has Changed?

In an executive order focused on illegal immigrants that was signed by the president this week, one section specifically noted that privacy protections would not be extended past US citizens or permanent residents in America.

Wasn't this overtly Obama's position, too?

President Trump tweets from insecure Android, security boffins roll eyes

Re: @DavCrew

Oddly enough, the NY Times doesn't cite a source for the article. They don't even say "an unnamed source" or "an anonymous source". That's rare for the Times.

I've got a brand new combine harvester and I'll give you the API key

Farms and Networking in the 1990's

I worked for various semiconductor companies in the 1990's. One company based in Silicon Valley, I had to argue relentlessly to get them to invest in farm networking. They visualized farms as backwards technology with no computers. They were very wrong.

The reality was starkly different - each tractor, combine, harvester was fitted with a small computer with a GPS. They communicated back to the main house via a wireless network (not WiFi 802.11/?) so that the GPS could report exactly when, where, and what was planted, seeded, fertilized, mowed, harvested. Crop diseases were mapped and tracked over time. Exact maps of when, where, and what was watered, including rain, was critical because water was a massive expense. Which animals were fed, from what feed lot they were fed, and when was logged. The amount of milk per cow per time of day was measured. Electronics were everywhere. It was a massive investment in semiconductors.

Only "the company previously known as Motorola" and Texas Instruments had an investment in farms and they did a very smart job of hiding that from their competitors. Very interesting technology.

Plump Trump dumps TPP trade pump

The Trans-Pacific Partnership

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement was never real. Obama signed an EO to move forward, but since all treaties need to be ratified by Congress both the Obama and Trump EOs don't mean much.

The purpose of the treaty was to create an EU type organization for certain Pacific-bordered countries: Japan, USA, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Peru. China declined to participate.

You have to remember that, except for Japan, countries do not sign trade agreements primarily because they want to import cheap stuff. In the end, they sign to increase their exports, while keeping that value higher than imports. Why Obama agreed to this stumped even his own party.

The treaty pretty much guarantees that manufacturing jobs would go to countries with the lowest labor rate, since the treaty does not allow for any normalization of import/exports by tariffs. Yeah, the countries have to commit to certain minimum labor standards like not having work environments where laborers want to jump off buildings, but look how well that works in China.

This was a golden chance for Malaysia, Vietnam, and Singapore, who pay their workers peanuts, to flood the TPP market with cheap goods.

Even the U.S Democrats said the treaty would kill U.S. jobs. And since the combined population of all those countries are almost twice that of the EU, the TPP would eventually be a real economic danger to Europe.

So good riddance, TPP.

Samsung set a fire under battery-makers to make the Galaxy Note 7 flaming brilliant

Re: Pushing the envelope too hard

@MrT wrote: From the way Samsung is behaving, I'd say it's likely that there are emails/meetings etc. where the engineers raised concerns but were actively denied or rebutted, not just ignored. It's also likely that there are similar records that show the pressure placed on the battery manufacturers to work even further down below the price agreed as part of the contract bidding process.

That is exactly how it looks to me, and I've seen this situation oh too many, so many times.

From the article: Collectively, the three found that the two battery-makers who supplied kit to the Note 7 did a lousy job. Manufacturing defects such as bent electrodes that touched, absent insulating tape, too-dense designs, bad welds and easily-breakable internals created ideal conditions for a short-circuit and runaway failures.

Unlikely, as if this was true, Samsung's supplier QC checks would have found these issues years ago. In addition, "manufacturing defects" that are identical between two suppliers are highly unlikely, as one reason why you have a 2nd source manufacturer is to minimize manufacturing defects. More likely it is a DESIGN defect, right?

In the interest of disclosure, I am somewhat closer to this situation than most. So here it is: as Reg already reported, the battery was fine except for plates that were too long and would overhang too near the edge of the package. The real issues is, as Reg already reported, that Samsung did not follow standard battery safety practices, and left no room for battery expansion.

Representatives of three firms also concluded that the Note 7's own electronics did not cause the batteries to misbehave and indeed contained fail-safes that exceeded industry best practice.

Incorrect from my perspective. IMO Samsung's battery electronics was completely off-the-shelf industry standard. IMO they did not want to pay for any more for the electronics than they needed.

Disclaimer: These are my opinions alone, I do not represent my employer's position or anyone else's.

IT team sent dirt file to Police as they all bailed from abusive workplace

Re: Uhhhmmmmm

@imanidiot wrote: I think we are going to have "that" discussion again. Why accept the abuse for years on end before collectively resigning?

Obligatory xlcd cartoon:

xlcd: Settling - Life Scorecard (I'm not really happy here but maybe this is the best I can expect)

Is Qualcomm price gouging phone makers? Not everyone thinks so

Re: Bull.

Tsk. It's *patented* IP, so they have had to publish (as part of the patent application) enough details that a skilled practitioner (that is, any company likely to compete) can make widgets based on the IP, so while it might be proprietary, it *isn't* secret.

Not exactly. While the patent contains the "what", the secret sauce of semiconductor IP is in the "how". As in How do you route the traces, and How do you keep the power domains from interfering with each other. Sure you can decap the chip, everyone does it, but it's now common practice to put in false traces or even have some of the chip self-destruct when decapped.

Bull.

I've been in the semiconductor industry all my adult life and I've seen this type of play before. Apple, or someone else, is making the unreasonable demand that they want to know the cost of Qualcomm's chips so they can determine (cough, cough) if they are being paid a fair price. This is, of course, bullshit. I've had this demand made of me before and I politely tell them "no".

The price of something is the market value that people are willing to pay for it. I learned this in high school. If you have something nobody else has, you can charge a premium for it. Duh.

Also, you don't license your most competitive IP to your competitors because they get to see your proprietary IP and put you out of business.

Last, I doubt Apple is being given a "rebate". Apple is being given a standard volume discount, but since Apple buys in such huge quantities the discount may not be figured out until later.

It looks like somebody in the FTC has been paid off, big-time.

Lord of the Dance set to deliver high kicks at Trump’s big ball

Re: Other theories are available

Michael Flatley will parachute in his Lord of the Dance troupe to Friday’s virtually celeb-free inauguration.

The best quote on Celebrities & Politics

Well, that sucks: China's Tencent so sorry after vid emerges of faux blowjob office game

Re: yikes

Ian wrote: Your humble Reg hack is old enough to remember when such games... were commonplace

Same here. But there was an intensely informal air of camaraderie back then, like being in an office of your best friends. You always looked forward to going to work. Young folks today might be surprised to learn that these games often originated from the women, and the flirting of the women in the office might be seen as sexual harassment today.

It was good to know that when push came to shove, whether it was business or outside the office, your coworkers always had your back (no pun intended).

Microsoft sued by staff traumatized by child sex abuse vids stashed on OneDrive accounts

Counseling?

Microsoft began providing counseling for members of the Online Safety Team, to address a condition the company allegedly referred to as "compassion fatigue." But the complaint claims the services were inadequate.

If the counseling is anything like what is provided to U.S. troops with PTSD, all they do is throw drugs at them. A good friend of mine, U.S. Army veteran, was given two anti-depressants and two sleeping pills. All it really does is put his emotions on hold.

Best therapy? Just listen and be a friend.

Weaky-leaks: Furious fans roast Assange in web interview from hell

Re: Questions questions questions

There was a film with Michael Caine and some magicians, did anyone get this alleged rapist (I believe at least some charges are outstanding) get his mother's maiden name?

Good movie, super surprising ending.

"So Mr. Assange, why aren't you open with your own details? What's your mother's maiden name? What street did you grow up on? What was the name of your first grade teacher and your pet as a child?"

Dieselgate: VW pleads guilty, will cough up $4.3bn, throws 6 staff under its cheatware bus

Re: PR FTW!

That would be "Don't get caught."

No, that's the motto of Parliament.

UK Parliament suddenly remembers it wants to bone up cyber security *cough* Russia *cough*

You Are Number 127.0.0.6

I am not an IP address! I am a free man!

This'll be the next thing Trump crows about: Apple assembling servers on American soil

Re: What's old is new again

Apple loaned GT $350m to build glass-making factories in Mesa, Arizona, and Salem, Massachusetts, to secure a supply of glass for the iPhone. But in bankruptcy hearings, GT’s former COO Daniel Squiller claimed his company had fallen for a “classic bait-and-switch strategy" that had driven his company into the ground...As part of the loan agreement with Cupertino, GT had to commit to supplying glass almost exclusively to Cook & Co – although Apple had no obligation to buy any of it.

Back in the day, if I remember correctly Intel used to do the same thing - loan out money to companies with the initial terms that the company had to be an exclusive supplier to Intel, and if the company went bust Intel took all their assets. Turned out that it was Intel's first offer - you could say "no" to those terms and counter with more friendly terms where you could sell elsewhere to keep the company alive. But too many companies were too intimidated by Intel to just say no.

Too much landfill, too little purpose: CES 2017

Re: Who shit in your cereal?

I've been to CES a few times and it is usually filled with a lot of "Me Too" products. I recall years back when every booth had video phones, or digital cameras, or LCD TVs, or first-person shooter games. Today it's drones and VR.

Corrupt NHS official jailed for £80k bribe over tech contract

The prosecution evidence showed that Lewis had approached Moxon for a bribe...

Buyers are often shameless when demanding bribes from suppliers.

Florida Man sues Verizon for $72m – for letting him commit identity theft

Re: The time has come .......

Filing a lawsuit is not the same as winning a lawsuit...

Reminds me of something my lawyer once said to me: "Can you sue? Yes, you can always sue. But can you win?".

Assange confirmed alive, tells Fox: Prez Obama 'acting like a lawyer'

Playing the Press

He could have dumped the whole lot out at once...

When Ronald Reagan was caught with Iran/Contra, and when Bill Clinton was caught for whatever (except for Lewinsky), they dumped it out all at once. This let the press have a feeding frenzy that lasted a short time, then fizzled out, then PEOPLE FORGOT (like I did).

So if you want your information to get attention, you drizzle the info out bit by bit over time. This is the only way to get people, especially sheeple, to remember.

Save This Post

Unless of course his source was someone in the DNC...

Assange pretty much said that in the interview.

In which case, Obama falsely accusing Russia of hacking the DNC takes on a very sinister meaning.

I predict that when Trump gets in and the CIA has to admit that Russia didn't do it, the Dems will scream "Coverup!", which was probably their plan all along.

Re: A bit transparent...

As if it doesn't work both ways. The left was in love with Assange back in the day, now they hate his guts. The right hated Assange back in the day, now they're falling all over him.

True. But let's look at it from Assange's POV: Obama, Hillary, and the DNC would like to see him locked up and forgotten and that is never, ever, going to change.

It COULD BE interpreted that Assange is now courting the favor of the incoming Trump administration. With the DNC on his ass, can you blame him? Trump is really his only chance of getting off that couch in the embassy.

Re: A pardon?

I watched the interview last night. I have to admit that I have a new respect for Assange. If he is to be believed, the leaked DNC emails was completely an inside job, coming from people inside the DNC. There was no Russian involvement.

He also claimed that the charges against him in Sweden didn't come from the women, but were brought and forced by the government of Sweden, which yeah, looks very suspicious. If that's true - then, Julian, I too owe you an apology for how I've treated you on El Reg.

Obama has made it clear that he is hostile to whistle blowers like Assange, and has issued multiple executive orders against Snowden, even having a jet stand by to kidnap/rendition him and drag him to the US.

A pardon? Has Assange been charged with any crimes? If he hasn't been charged with anything, then he can't be pardoned, can he?

Regular or premium? Intel pumps out Optane memory at CES

Re: I must be missing something

I had to research this for a job assignment. According Intel's numbers, for a copy from an internal drive to an external drive. the NAND SSD to NAND SSD copy speed was 284MBytes/sec while the OPTANE SSD to OPTANE SSD copy speed was 1.93GBytes/sec.

This was hard drive storage.

Uh-oh. LG to use AI to push home appliances to 'another dimension'

Re: What exactly the “deep learning” technology in the devices might be....

The continuous gathering of data has been raised as a security concern, but in a statement, LG's president of LG Electronics and Home Appliance & Air Solutions Company, said “performance and convenience do not mean having to sacrifice security and privacy”.

To quote a Ferengi Rule of Acquisition: "Once they have your personal information, they will ignore laws and EULAs and exploit it at will.".

LG Deep Learning Technology? I'll pass.

Trio charged with $4m insider trading by hacking merger lawyers

Re: Lawyers lose small change behind the sofa

No, the thing is, only a select few are allowed to perform insider trading, the top 1%, anybody else who is not a member of the club gets hung, quartered, and drafted for that.

True. The U.S. Congress is exempt from insider trading laws (Nancey Pelosi got caught big time for doing that). Seriously.

@Version 1.0 wrote: Mr BebopWeBop, they have a saying in Chicago: "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."

I like that, it's a variation of the "three strikes you're out" rule.

This is a similar saying about if a girl blows you off: "The first time she's forgetful, second's accidental, but three means it's all intentional".

@BebopWeBop wrote: Intriguing to find out how they cottoned on to this - I would guess that the most probable answer is that the perps raised their heads on other activities related to insider trading?

Someone always talks.

US healthcare under siege: Got good insurance?

Doctor/Patient Privacy - NOT!

@bombastic bob wrote: On a related note, having everyone's medical records in a national [crackable] database isn't a good thing, either.

A few years back I wanted to take out a sizable insurance policy on myself. It required a blood test and a form I had to sign "acknowledging" that my test results would be sent to a federal database.

Read that again - I wasn't signing away permission, they weren't asking for permission, my test results were going to be sent to a federal database and I was just acknowledging I was informed it would be sent! I was told that if, I took the blood test, the results would be sent whether I signed the form or not.

I did not take out the policy. It was too scary that intimate details of my health were now required by law to be sent up to the U.S. government.

Doctor/Patient Privacy - NOT!

@bombastic bob wrote: On a related note, having everyone's medical records in a national [crackable] database isn't a good thing, either.

A few years back I wanted to take out a sizable insurance policy on myself. It required a blood test and a form "acknowledging" that my test results would be sent to a federal database.

Read that again - I wasn't giving permission, they weren't asking for permission, my test results were going to be sent to a federal database and I was just acknowledging I was informed it would be sent! I was told that if, I took the blood test, the results would be sent whether I signed the form or not.

I did not take out the policy. It was too scary that intimate details of my health were now required by law to be sent up to the U.S. government.

How Rogue One's Imperial stormtroopers SAVED Star Wars and restored order

Re: on that (lack of) accuracy claim:

Accurate =/= Precise

Accurate ≠ Precise

(as long as we are discussing accuracy and precision)

Which has the best bad character - is it calculating Commander Orson Krennic or bratty Kylo Ren?

Admiral Thrawn.

Oracle exec quits over co-CEO Safra Catz's promise to assist Trump

"Planned Register of Muslims" - NOT!

President-elect Donald Trump's team said today that he had never advocated for "any registry or system that tracks individuals based on their religion"

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-muslim-registry/story?id=43639946

A reporter from NBC actually invented the idea of a registry, suggesting it to Trump after a noisy rally. But Trumps' answer was instead about the wall never mentioning a registry. There is "speculation" that Trump did not hear the question correctly and thought it was about the wall.

If you read the above article, you'll see that Trump never, ever, directly states that he wants to implement a Muslim database - but - at the same time, he slides in some innuendo, never giving a firm "no", either. Why? Because it's Trump baiting the media again! Once again,the joke's on them, got wound up and fell for it.

Everybody enjoys believing the worst about the opposition candidate.

IBM staff petition for right not to work on Trump's pet projects

We call on IBM to demonstrate commitment to our Business Conduct Guidelines and to prevent perceived influence peddling through Trump affiliated businesses.

But influence peddling through other businesses is O.K.?

Once you get out in the real world of government contracts, whether it's a new fighter jet or toys for children, you quickly discover government contracts are all about influence peddling. Every politician sourcing government contracts has an affiliated business.

There's also a call to “Respect our right to refuse participation in any U.S. contracts that violate constitutional and civil liberties”

Isn't that part of the vetting process by the government before a contract is solicited?

Companies in the quest for profit have no ethics.

I had a business mentor once tell me that any large company can be profiled as a sociopath.

“Prohibit perceived influence-peddling of elected officials by restricting IBM and its employees from using any Trump owned or Trump branded properties for business purposes...”

Wait, is IBM a company that allows employees on business travel to stay in ultra-luxurious hotels?

A single typo may have tipped US election Trump's way

What Did We Learn?

A single typo may have tipped US election Trump's way. DNC figure John Podesta told to follow phishing link, instead of link to enable 2FA

Yes, if it wasn't for that typo, we never would have learned that:

The Dem's primary was rigged against Sanders all along so that Hillary would win,

That the DNC was anti-Semitic,

That CNN gave Hillary the questions to a debate in advance,

A White House celebration of gay pride was actually a scheme to reward wealthy DNC donors,

How the biggest donors to Hillary's campaign were promised Federal board positions,

The Chariman of the DNC demanded that an anti-Clinton newscaster on MSNBC be fired

et cetera, et cetera...

If it wasn't for the hack, the truth would have remained buried.

Snowden: Donald Trump could get pal Putin to kick me out of Russia

@veti wrote: To be a successful fascist politician, you need to keep throwing red meat to the people you rely on to support you.

There, fixed it for ya!

Fake News Alert from Ian Again

Ian claimed: The ex-NSA IT nerd added the incoming White House administration – which has better relations with the Russian government than the Obama regime – may be able to get him kicked out of the country and delivered into the hands of Uncle Sam.

I browsed through the interview. I did not see anything that even remotely supports the above statement from Ian. I could not find anything Trump said RECENTLY that supports that statement. I did read from the interview the following statement:

"I'm not worried," Snowden said Tuesday in an interview with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who asked if he is worried a Trump presidency could lead to his imprisonment.

To quote Yahoo news: "There is no evidence that Putin is considering such a move"

Ian, I politely ask that you please produce a quote from the interview that supports your position.

CIA: Russia hacked election. Trump: I don't believe it! FAKE NEWS!

Re: @BillG

Fascism, the marriage of government and corporate interests, as pioneered by the hard-right dictator Benito Mussolini.

You need to read history instead of using dictionary definitions. Mussolini came from the Italian Socialist Party. His weapon was pure emotion. He eventually denounced orthodox socialism and sought to eliminate individual rights to be replaced by the needs of the masses, much like the DNC is doing today.

From Wikipedia:

In 1912 Mussolini was the leading member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI).[5] Prior to 1914, he was a keen supporter of the Socialist International, starting the series of meetings in Switzerland[6] that organised the communist revolutions and insurrections that swept through Europe from 1917

Fascism in theory is much different than it is in practice. It is an extreme leftist philosophy based on emotional manipulation of nationalism that crosses all class lines. In practice, "you will be tolerant of classes or you will be destroyed".

I grew up listening to my Italian grandfather (immigrated to the US from Italy in 1923) talk about how Benito M. wanted to bring everyone together through social integration, but he FORCED that integration by the extreme left-leaning philosophy of eliminating the rights of the individual to be replaced by the needs of the masses. He did this by threats, intimidation, and murder.

You can't understand Mussolini's extreme leftist philosophy without reading in detail. Take ten minutes and read this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Mussolini#Beginning_of_Fascism_and_service_in_World_War_I

If you have experience that contradicts mine, go ahead, downvote me. But if all you know of fascism is what you read on the internet, may I suggest that you do not have the EXPERIENCE to judge.

Voting in California

If you live in California and you are in the U.S. illegally, you can get a driver's license. If you are in the U.S. illegally and you have a driver's license you can register to vote (California New Motor Voter Act). Not only that, but in California there was an intense drive this year to get illegals to register to vote.

I stand corrected - you do not need a driver's license in CA to register to vote. All you need to do is go to this website: http://registertovote.ca.gov/ .

You do not need a driver's license, or street address, or SS number, you just need to fill out the form, claim to be born in the USA and include a county in CA. I was able to go all the way through the process and received a PDF Voter Registration Receipt with an affidavit number. Anyone mailing that in would be registered to vote in that county.

Scary.

Re: Trust Us - We're the CIA, We Wouldn't Lie to You!

Meanwhile, members of the Electoral College, which meets on December 19 to vote and confirm Trump into office, have asked for an intelligence briefing on the matter before they vote.

FAKE NEWS ALERT!

"members of the Electoral College" sounds like all of them, when in reality ten of the most partisan Democrats (out of 538) in the EC have asked for a briefing that they have absolutely no standing to ask for and will not change anything. 10 out of 538 = 1.7% of electors.

Thanks for the fake news, Ian! You should work fort CNN!

Re: The American Mirror?

The Alt-Right echo chamber, more like...

FYI, the "alt-right" is a false construct invented by CNN to defame the RNC via bad PR association. It does not exist, it is a media invention.

Keep in mind that the Right wants a weak central government where the power is kept locally in the states and there is weak corporate oversight. The Left wants a domineering central government that can dictate policy to the weakened states with burdensome corporate oversight. That's why fascism has always, always, historically come from the Left.

Great, isn't it: the man who unashamedly asserts that 'millions of illegals' voted for Clinton - without the barest shred of evidence

If you live in California and you are in the U.S. illegally, you can get a driver's license. If you are in the U.S. illegally and you have a driver's license you can register to vote (California New Motor Voter Act). Not only that, but in California there was an intense drive this year to get illegals to register to vote.

In Massachusetts if you have a utility bill in your name, you can register to vote. In most states homeless people can vote. It's simple for anyone in the USA illegally to vote.

Trust Us - We're the CIA, We Wouldn't Lie to You!

The CIA - these are the same people that said "No, no, we aren't spying on the American public"?

Since when has El Reg ever taken the CIA at their word? Is this the very first time?

Craig Murray, the UK's former man in Uzbekistan and WikiLeaks insider, says that the hacking claims are wrong. The Democratic emails didn't come from hacking, but from an individual in the campaign who leaked the data to WikiLeaks.

Much more likely. Especially since there was a very, very strong movement inside the DNC to see Hillary lose. Certainly Obama is no fan of hers as she was a royal pain in the arse to the Pres his entire term.

If you read the Washington Post article, you'll see it states: The bureau [FBI], true to its law enforcement roots, wants facts and tangible evidence to prove something beyond all reasonable doubt. The CIA is more comfortable drawing inferences from behavior.

From the rest of the article you'll see that the CIA has no facts on their side. "It could have been Russia, sure" becomes "it's Russia, game over'.

However, saying Russia did the hack does gives a future boost to the budgets of the CIA, DHS, defense, etc. Given that Trump wants to "drain the swamp", claiming Russia hacked the DNC (with zero proof offered) this is a brilliant strategic move on their part.

Russian hackers got Trump elected? Yeah, let's take a close look at that, says Obama

Re: We could do that too, if only

In other news police are still searching for the murderer of DNC staffer Seth Rich:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3724508/Parents-slain-DNC-staffer-Seth-Rich-ask-help-three-weeks-slain-DC-street.html

What's that bring the Clinton death tool up to? Is it five or six staffers killed under mysterious circumstances?

Re: We could do that too, if only

Excuse me, but do WE (El Reg readers) know anything about the hack other than the DNC has email and Russia allegedly hacked them? Are their servers Microsoft or Linux? Do they use a VPN? Were the emails pulled from the server(s) en masse or were they siphoned off over a period of time?

For IT people we have relatively little information, and it's all coming from non-technical people. Since when have El Reg readers blindly accepted anything the U.S. intelligence community has said? Do we just accept what we are being told, or do we dig a little deeper so we can do what we always enjoy doing, come to our own conclusions?