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Russian Invasion of Ukraine Is ‘Almost Certain,' Cyber Expert Says

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Re: Russian Invasion of Ukraine Is ‘Almost Certain,' Cyber Expert Says

#11
post #9

How much of this is Washington’s drumming for defence contractors to get rich? And if Russia does invade Ukraine, why do we care? Specifically as a US citizen how does it affect me? Honest question. I either don’t understand geopolitics or there is something seriously wrong with our government and media trying to get us into pointless conflict.

Crowdstrike is one the best and most expensive EDR systems on the market. I doubt he'd put their name in jeopardy with misinformation. Personally as a European I wouldn't mind if Eastern Ukraine (Donbas in particular) rejoins Russia. The people in the region sure want it, and that's what freedom is about, making your own choices. If they don't it'll be an unstable area of insurgency for decades anyway. It's been a wa…

While I agree with most of your comment, one sentence triggered me.

> I doubt he'd put their name in jeopardy with misinformation.

His company's top officers lied to the public during the campaign in 2016 (and ever since) that the DNC servers was hacked by the Russian Government [1], but then, when asked about it in a court of law in 2017, retractied themselves that any data trace even existed [2]. However the testimony was kept classified. Nevertheless, they continued to tell the same false story in public when asked until the testimony was unclassified in 2020 [3].

This was outright disinformation, and lies, not misinformation. As the saying goes, the first victim in war is truth. And this war is being prepared since 2014.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/politics/russia-hack-e...

[2] https://mate.substack.com/p/indicted-clinton-lawyer-hired-cr..., see trial transcripts in the middle of the article

[3] https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/05/13/...

Re: Russian Invasion of Ukraine Is ‘Almost Certain,' Cyber Expert Says

#12
post #9

How much of this is Washington’s drumming for defence contractors to get rich? And if Russia does invade Ukraine, why do we care? Specifically as a US citizen how does it affect me? Honest question. I either don’t understand geopolitics or there is something seriously wrong with our government and media trying to get us into pointless conflict.

Crowdstrike is one the best and most expensive EDR systems on the market. I doubt he'd put their name in jeopardy with misinformation. Personally as a European I wouldn't mind if Eastern Ukraine (Donbas in particular) rejoins Russia. The people in the region sure want it, and that's what freedom is about, making your own choices. If they don't it'll be an unstable area of insurgency for decades anyway. It's been a wa…

yea but the problem is that it likely won't stop there right

Re: Russian Invasion of Ukraine Is ‘Almost Certain,' Cyber Expert Says

#13
post #11
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crowdstrike is one the best and most expensive EDR systems on the market. I doubt he'd put their name in jeopardy with misinformation. Personally as a European I wouldn't mind if Eastern Ukraine (Donbas in particular) rejoins Russia. The people in the region sure want it, and that's what freedom is about, making your own choices. If they don't it'll be an unstable area of insurgency for decades anyway. It's been a wa…

While I agree with most of your comment, one sentence triggered me. > I doubt he'd put their name in jeopardy with misinformation. His company's top officers lied to the public during the campaign in 2016 (and ever since) that the DNC servers was hacked by the Russian Government [1], but then, when asked about it in a court of law in 2017, retractied themselves that any data trace even existed [2]. However the testim…

I don't know the ins and outs about the DNC stuff. Here in Europe all that news got lost in the turbulence around Trump. But I thought Russian influence in that case was certain, the Wikipedia page also mentions it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_National_Committe... and also the NYT article you quote is all about Russian involvement in that case.

And evidence in cyber security cases is super hard. There's just too much misdirection and ways to obfuscate traffic. Especially for state sponsored actors. Attribution to threat actor groups is often based on methodology and toolsets (also referred to as tactics and techniques) and not on hard traceable evidence.

However I have no political stake in this as a European (who never even visited the US) and it's just what I read. Perhaps I'm wrong. But I know in terms of capability as an EDR product crowdstrike is very highly regarded. I agree the secrecy around this testimony is very weird.

And like I said I do agree with most of his points. Something is brewing there.

Re: Russian Invasion of Ukraine Is ‘Almost Certain,' Cyber Expert Says

#14
post #9

How much of this is Washington’s drumming for defence contractors to get rich? And if Russia does invade Ukraine, why do we care? Specifically as a US citizen how does it affect me? Honest question. I either don’t understand geopolitics or there is something seriously wrong with our government and media trying to get us into pointless conflict.

Crowdstrike is one the best and most expensive EDR systems on the market. I doubt he'd put their name in jeopardy with misinformation. Personally as a European I wouldn't mind if Eastern Ukraine (Donbas in particular) rejoins Russia. The people in the region sure want it, and that's what freedom is about, making your own choices. If they don't it'll be an unstable area of insurgency for decades anyway. It's been a wa…

> I don't really understand why they view us and NATO as such a t[h]reat. We'd never invade Russia.. Nobody would ever want to.

I guess it's a paranoia which he's supported with cherry-picked info from history. Someone else better has written that world politics is about who has the most influence, e.g. USA and Europe used to be able to decide almost everything everywhere ("we'll give you development loans, in return you'll have to buy our products"). China is doing that in Africa now, and from Putin's perspective Eastern Europe now has "puppet" governments controlled by USA/Germany (in the guise of EU), I wouldn't be surprised if he thinks their democratic elections are as rigged as Russia's ones, with the media under control of the rulers.

I guess Putin is worried that Russia could fall under that sphere of influence, although I don't know how missiles pointed at Moscow would make the country more democratic... Maybe he sees them as a persuasion tools, after all that's also what he uses his forces for.

Re: Russian Invasion of Ukraine Is ‘Almost Certain,' Cyber Expert Says

#15
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree with most of your comment, one sentence triggered me. > I doubt he'd put their name in jeopardy with misinformation. His company's top officers lied to the public during the campaign in 2016 (and ever since) that the DNC servers was hacked by the Russian Government [1], but then, when asked about it in a court of law in 2017, retractied themselves that any data trace even existed [2]. However the testim…

I don't know the ins and outs about the DNC stuff. Here in Europe all that news got lost in the turbulence around Trump. But I thought Russian influence in that case was certain, the Wikipedia page also mentions it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_National_Committe... and also the NYT article you quote is all about Russian involvement in that case. And evidence in cyber security cases is super hard. There'…

> However I have no political stake in this and it's just what I read.

Sorry about my tone earlier. It was uncalled for. I edited my comment.

> Wikipedia page also mentions it:

The "talk" section of the page shows vigorous exchanges, as various editors are constantly fighting to erase or put back that part of the story. As the whole case was central to the fight around Trump being an orange but also Russian menace for 4 years, you can easily divine the editors are probably operatives of both parties.

> NYT article you quote is all about Russian involvement in that case.

Yes, that was the first time they publicly lied about it.

Re: Russian Invasion of Ukraine Is ‘Almost Certain,' Cyber Expert Says

#17
post #12
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crowdstrike is one the best and most expensive EDR systems on the market. I doubt he'd put their name in jeopardy with misinformation. Personally as a European I wouldn't mind if Eastern Ukraine (Donbas in particular) rejoins Russia. The people in the region sure want it, and that's what freedom is about, making your own choices. If they don't it'll be an unstable area of insurgency for decades anyway. It's been a wa…

yea but the problem is that it likely won't stop there right

I don't think so. The remaining countries in that area are not very pro-Russian. Thinking of the Baltics, Romania..

It's one thing to take a territory where most of the population wants you there. It's another to take an unwilling territory by force.

But it will lead to more military tension all over Europe that's for sure.

Re: Russian Invasion of Ukraine Is ‘Almost Certain,' Cyber Expert Says

#18
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know the ins and outs about the DNC stuff. Here in Europe all that news got lost in the turbulence around Trump. But I thought Russian influence in that case was certain, the Wikipedia page also mentions it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_National_Committe... and also the NYT article you quote is all about Russian involvement in that case. And evidence in cyber security cases is super hard. There'…

> However I have no political stake in this and it's just what I read. Sorry about my tone earlier. It was uncalled for. I edited my comment. > Wikipedia page also mentions it: The "talk" section of the page shows vigorous exchanges, as various editors are constantly fighting to erase or put back that part of the story. As the whole case was central to the fight around Trump being an orange but also Russian menace fo…

I understand. I had no idea how heavily this was politicized.

For us the DNC thing was just in the news when it happened and quickly overwhelmed by other news in that period.

Thanks for the links, I don't have time now but I'll read them in the days to come. I want to know more about this case. Especially because we use the product at work.

Re: Russian Invasion of Ukraine Is ‘Almost Certain,' Cyber Expert Says

#19
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Radio Free Europe is a CIA funded propaganda outlet. No different than RT.

Russia Today (RT) has been sanctioned as a propaganda service by international journalism organisations for years. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty does not have this reputation unlike Russia Today.

> Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty does not have this reputation unlike Russia Today.

Wholly untrue and easily disproven.

RFE used to be one of the more important propaganda tool of the US against the Soviets. It was directly managed by the CIA until 1973.

If you look at their wikipedia page [1], you'll even see several references to it that used to be in their own "history" page. Strangely enough, all Wayback machine version now point to the current version since last year.

Nevertheless, at this point it's even been the subject of academic works [2].

RFE is now nominally financed by the US Congress, and overseen by a governmental agency called the Broadcasting Board of Governors, who are all directly named by the US president. The organisation it belongs to used to be called the United States Information Agency [3] until the 90's, and were the explicit international propaganda arm of the US. Trump changed the name and internal organistaion to the US Agency for Global Media [5].

It might not be an outright CIA shop anymore, but it is still following the editorial line of the US government at least as late as 2016 [6].

They also "coincidentally" often open subsidiary offices generally in the year before a conflict in the country next to said conflict (Kosovo in 1999, Afghanistan and Iraq in 2002). Same for anti-communist revolutions, where RFE was instrumental for example in spreading the Romanian orphan story which led to the fall of Ceaucescu [7].

[1] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Europe/Radio_Libert...

[2] https://www.jstor.org/stable/43134017

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Information_Agen...

[4] https://www.csmonitor.com/1983/0620/062048.html

[5] https://www.usagm.gov/

[6] https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R43521

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_orphans

Re: Russian Invasion of Ukraine Is ‘Almost Certain,' Cyber Expert Says

#20
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However I have no political stake in this and it's just what I read. Sorry about my tone earlier. It was uncalled for. I edited my comment. > Wikipedia page also mentions it: The "talk" section of the page shows vigorous exchanges, as various editors are constantly fighting to erase or put back that part of the story. As the whole case was central to the fight around Trump being an orange but also Russian menace fo…

I understand. I had no idea how heavily this was politicized. For us the DNC thing was just in the news when it happened and quickly overwhelmed by other news in that period. Thanks for the links, I don't have time now but I'll read them in the days to come. I want to know more about this case. Especially because we use the product at work.

> Especially because we use the product at work.

Used to be in the industry, 10+ years ago. Friends tell me goods things about it too.

And anyways, I'm pro-neither party. Both are corrupt to the core. I just hate it when propaganda and lies at this scale works too well.

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