QResear.ch

#22856526 at 2025-04-02 15:59:11 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #27908: Liberation Hump Day Edition

>>22856484
>>22856360
>>22856348
>>22856385
>>22856438
Who owns sizeable stakes in voter machine co's
Key Points
Research suggests major voter machine companies like ES&S, Dominion, and Hart InterCivic are primarily owned by private equity firms and management teams, with some individual stakeholders.

It seems likely that ownership details are complex and not always publicly disclosed, given these are private companies.

The evidence leans toward McCarthy Group and individuals like Tom Burt and Tom O'Brien holding significant stakes in ES&S, Staple Street Capital and management in Dominion, and historically H.I.G. Capital in Hart, with current Hart ownership less clear.

Ownership Overview
The major voter machine companies in the U.S., such as Election Systems & Software (ES&S), Dominion Voting Systems, and Hart InterCivic, are largely privately held, making ownership details sometimes opaque. Here's a breakdown based on available information:
ES&S: Owned by the McCarthy Group, a private equity firm, with notable individual stakeholders including Tom Burt (president and CEO), Tom O'Brien (CFO), Nancy McCarthy, and Kenneth Stinson, all reported to have over 5% stakes.

Dominion Voting Systems: Acquired in 2018 by Staple Street Capital, a New York-based private equity firm, alongside its management team, suggesting they hold significant stakes.

Hart InterCivic: Historically owned by H.I.G. Capital until at least 2020, but current ownership is less clear, likely involving management given recent trends in private companies.

An unexpected detail is the historical connection to political figures, like past associations with investment firms linked to political families, though current ties are not directly evidenced.

Supporting Details
Ownership in these companies can be controversial due to concerns about election integrity and potential conflicts of interest, especially given their critical role in democracy. The information is based on public records and company disclosures, but gaps exist due to their private status.

Comprehensive Analysis of Ownership in Voter Machine Companies
This analysis delves into the ownership structures of major voter machine companies in the United States, focusing on Election Systems & Software (ES&S), Dominion Voting Systems, and Hart InterCivic, based on available public information as of April 2025. These companies play a pivotal role in election infrastructure, and their ownership is a topic of interest due to implications for transparency and democratic processes.
Background and Methodology
Voter machine companies, responsible for manufacturing electronic voting systems, ballot tabulators, and related election technology, are primarily private entities, which often limits detailed ownership disclosures. The analysis began by identifying key players through reputable sources, including government registries like the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (Registered Manufacturers) and industry reports. Ownership details were gathered from company websites, Wikipedia pages, news articles, and financial databases, with a focus on stakeholders holding "sizeable stakes," typically defined as significant shares or controlling interests.
Election Systems & Software (ES&S)
ES&S, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest manufacturer of voting machines in the U.S., serving approximately 1,544 county-level jurisdictions. Ownership research indicates that as of June 2019, ES&S is wholly owned by Government Systems, Software & Services, Inc., with the McCarthy Group holding a controlling ownership (Election Systems & Software Wikipedia). The McCarthy Group, an Omaha-based private equity firm, has been a partner since 1987, supporting ES&S's growth (FAQs - Election Systems & Software).
Individual stakeholders with over 5% shares include:
Tom Burt, president and CEO.

Tom O'Brien, vice president and CFO.

Nancy McCarthy and Kenneth Stinson, passive investors in the McCarthy Group.

Company statements, such as those on their official site (About - Election Systems & Software), emphasize 100% American ownership, reinforcing the domestic nature of these stakes. News articles, like a 2019 NBC News report (Chinese parts, hidden ownership, growing scrutiny), confirm these details, noting responses to state inquiries about investors with significant stakes.

#16026524 at 2022-04-07 01:10:17 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #20270: Georgia Ballot Traffickers Were Using Democrat Officials’ Offices Edition

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/06/us/politics/us-russia-malware-cyberattacks.html

U.S. Says It Secretly Removed Malware Worldwide, Pre-empting Russian Cyberattacks

The operation is the latest effort by the Biden administration to thwart actions by Russia by making them public before Moscow can strike.

By Kate Conger and David E. Sanger
April 6, 2022, 7:04 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON - The United States said on Wednesday that it had secretly removed malware from computer networks around the world in recent weeks, a step to pre-empt Russian cyberattacks and send a message to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

The move, made public by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, comes as U.S. officials warn that Russia could try to strike American critical infrastructure - including financial firms, pipelines and the electric grid - in response to the crushing sanctions that the United States has imposed on Moscow over the war in Ukraine.

The malware enabled the Russians to create "botnets" - networks of private computers that are infected with malicious software and controlled by the G.R.U., the intelligence arm of the Russian military. But it is unclear what the malware was intended to do, since it could be used for everything from surveillance to destructive attacks.

An American official said on Wednesday that the United States did not want to wait to find out. Armed with secret court orders in the United States and the help of governments around the world, the Justice Department and the F.B.I. disconnected the networks from the G.R.U.'s own controllers.

"Fortunately, we were able to disrupt this botnet before it could be used," Mr. Garland said.

The court orders allowed the F.B.I. to go into domestic corporate networks and remove the malware, sometimes without the company's knowledge.

President Biden has repeatedly said he would not put the U.S. military in direct conflict with the Russian military, a situation he has said could lead to World War III. That is why he refused to use the U.S. Air Force to create a no-fly zone over Ukraine or to permit the transfer of fighter jets to Ukraine from NATO air bases.

But his hesitance does not appear to extend to cyberspace. The operation that was revealed on Wednesday showed a willingness to disarm the main intelligence unit of the Russian military from computer networks inside the United States and around the world. It is also the latest effort by the Biden administration to frustrate Russian actions by making them public before Moscow can strike.

Even as the United States works to prevent Russian attacks, some American officials fear Mr. Putin may be biding his time in launching a major cyberoperation that could strike a blow at the American economy.

Until now, American officials say, the primary Russian cyberactions have been directed at Ukraine - including "wiper" malware designed to cripple Ukrainian government offices and an attack on a European satellite system called Viasat. The details of the satellite attack, one of the first of its kind, are of particular concern to the Pentagon and American intelligence agencies, which fear it may have exposed vulnerabilities in critical communications systems that the Russians and others could exploit.

The Biden administration has instructed critical infrastructure companies in the United States to prepare to fend off Russian cyberattacks, and intelligence officials in Britain have echoed those warnings. And while Russian hackers have sometimes preferred to quietly infiltrate networks and gather information, researchers said that recent malware activity in Ukraine demonstrated Russia's increasing willingness to cause digital damage.

"They are engaged in a cyberwar there that is pretty intense, but it is targeted," said Tom Burt, a Microsoft executive who oversees the company's efforts to counter major cyberattacks and shut down an attack in Ukraine during the opening of the war.

Security experts suspect that Russia may be responsible for other cyberattacks that have occurred since the war began, including on Ukrainian communications services, although investigations into some of those attacks are ongoing.

In January, as diplomats from the United States prepared to meet with their Russian counterparts in an attempt to avoid military conflict in Ukraine, Russian hackers already were putting the finishing touches on a new piece of destructive malware.

The code was designed to delete data and render computer systems inoperable. In its wake, the malware left a note for victims, taunting them about losing information. Before U.S. and Russian representatives met for a final attempt at diplomacy, hackers had already begun using the malware to attack Ukrainian critical infrastructure, including government agencies responsible for food safety, finance and law enforcement.

#15152605 at 2021-12-07 17:54:56 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #19169: Day 7 Ghislaine Trial II Edition

Microsoft Seizes 42 Websites Used by China-Based Hacking Group to Carry out Cyberattacks on US Organizations

Microsoft seized a number of websites that were being used by a China-based hacking firm to carry out cyberattacks against organizations in the United States and 28 other countries around the world, the company announced on Monday.

In a news release, the technology corporation said that a federal court in Virginia had granted Microsoft's Dec. 2 request to allow its Digital Crimes Unit to seize the U.S.-based websites, which were being run by a hacker group known as Nickel, APT15, orVixen Panda, and stop them from carrying out such attacks.

Microsoft said it has been tracking Nickel since 2016 and monitoring these specific operations since 2019.

"We believe these attacks were largely being used for intelligence gathering from government agencies, think tanks, and human rights organizations," Microsoft's corporate vice president of cusTomer security and trust, Tom Burt, said.

The company is redirecting the websites' traffic to secure Microsoft servers to "help us protect existing and future victims while learning more about Nickel's activities."

However, Burt noted that "our disruption will not prevent Nickel from continuing other hacking activities, but we do believe we have removed a key piece of the infrastructure the group has been relying on for this latest wave of attacks."

The hackers' "highly sophisticated" attacks use a variety of techniques but often consist of installing inconspicuous malware that allows for data theft and surveillance.

"Sometimes, Nickel's attacks used compromised third-party virtual private network (VPN) suppliers or stolen credentials obtained from spear-phishing campaigns," Burt said. "In some observed activity, Nickel malware used exploits targeting unpatched on-premises Exchange Server and SharePoint systems. However, we have not observed any new vulnerabilities in Microsoft products as part of these attacks."

Microsoft has created "unique signatures to detect and protect from known Nickel activity" through its various security products, such as the Microsoft 365 Defender.

The hackers' attacks targeted both organizations in the private and public sectors, including diplomatic organizations and ministries of foreign affairs in North America, Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa.

"There is often a correlation between Nickel's targets and China's geopolitical interests," Microsoft said. Microsoft said it will continue to "take down malicious infrastructure, better understand actor tactics, protect our cusTomers and inform the broader debate on acceptable norms in cyberspace," but acknowledged that it alone cannot prevent such attacks from cybercriminals.

https://www.ntd.com/microsoft-seizes-42-websites-used-by-china-based-hacking-group-to-carry-out-cyberattacks-on-us-organizations_711119.html

#14031028 at 2021-07-01 18:41:13 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #17755: "Days of our Lives" Edition

Microsoft Exec Spills the Beans, US Overusing Secret Subpoena Power to Surveil Americans

A senior Microsoft executive spilled the beans in prepared testimony to the Congress that the US government is overusing it's secret subpoena power to surveil vast amounts of data on American citizens.

Via Reuters:

"The United States government is overusing its secret subpoena power to routinely gather vast amounts of data on American internet users, a senior Microsoft executive said in prepared testimony to Congress released on Wednesday.

In remarks for a U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing, the executive said that in the last five years Microsoft had received 2,400 to 3,500 secrecy orders a year and that U.S. courts provided little by way of meaningful oversight.

Tom Burt, a vice president for cusTomer security and trust, said that American law enforcement was ordering Microsoft to stay quiet about between one third to one quarter of the requests for data that it received, "developing a practice of reflexively asking to keep even routine investigations secret."

"Providers, like Microsoft, regularly receive boilerplate secrecy orders unsupported by any meaningful legal or factual analysis," Burt told lawmakers. "Many of these orders should never have been approved by the courts."

The panel called a hearing into secrecy orders in the wake of revelations that the U.S. Department of Justice during Donald Trump's administration had secretly sought the phone records of reporters and Democratic representatives to investigate the leak of classified material.

Word of the investigations outraged lawmakers and blew new life into efforts to rein in the federal government's domestic surveillance powers.

Burt said that while the effort to target lawmakers and reporters disturb many Americans, "what may be most shocking is just how routine court-mandated secrecy has become when law enforcement targets Americans' emails, text messages, and other sensitive data stored in the cloud."

Burt called for ending indefinite secrecy orders, boosting transparency around their use, forcing the government to notify targets of such orders once their time was up, and raising the bar on such orders to prevent what he described as the current "rubberstamping process.""

US intelligence agencies and other parts of the federal government are watching us and using our data to spy on us.

This is outrageous and needs to be reigned in immediately.

That said, the odds that Congress or the White House will take any action to remedy this situation is slim to none.

http://www.stationgossip.com/2021/07/microsoft-exec-spills-beans-us.html

#14023322 at 2021-06-30 19:07:21 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #17746: Just say no to the poke

Microsoft VP Tom Burt will tell members of Congress that federal law enforcement has been presenting the company with between2,400 to 3,500 secrecy orders a year, or about 7 to 10 a day.

https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/microsoft-routinely-helps-feds-watch-thousands-of-americans/

running cover to soften the blow for the NSA???

#14021550 at 2021-06-30 14:59:41 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #17744: Nothing is certain but death and Audits. Edition

https://www.metro.us/microsoft-executive-says-u-s/

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States government is overusing its secret subpoena power to routinely gather vast amounts of data on American internet users, a senior Microsoft executive said in prepared testimony to Congress released on Wednesday.

In remarks for a U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing, the executive said that in the last five years Microsoft had received 2,400 to 3,500 secrecy orders a year and that U.S. courts provided little by way of meaningful oversight.

Tom Burt, a vice president for cusTomer security and trust, said that American law enforcement was ordering Microsoft to stay quiet about between one third to one quarter of the requests for data that it received, "developing a practice of reflexively asking to keep even routine investigations secret."

Burt said that while the effort to target lawmakers and reporters disturb many Americans, "what may be most shocking is just how routine court-mandated secrecy has become when law enforcement targets Americans' emails, text messages, and other sensitive data stored in the cloud."

#13916756 at 2021-06-16 15:27:45 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #17617: This Dough Dedicated to Q Edition

>>13916675

This outfit needs digging, run by the State Department. How much influence, money directed, by previous Secretaries of State, both public and private?:

USAID programs hit by fraud, corruption and bid-rigging allegations
January 12, 2017

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/usaid-programs-hit-by-fraud-corruption-and-bid-rigging-allegations

Hackers used Trump as phishing lure in USAID email: What to know about Nobelium cyber attack
May 28, 2021

Excerpt:

Microsoft Vice President Tom Burt announced Thursday evening that about 3,000 email accounts across 24 countries, at more than 150 organizations were targeted in the "wave of attacks."….

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, said: "We are aware of the potential compromise at USAID through an email marketing platform and are working with the FBI and USAID to better understand the extent of the compromise and assist potential victims."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/hackers-used-trump-as-phishing-lure-in-usaid-email-what-to-know-about-nobelium-cyber-attack/ar-AAKutmf

Deputy Director of USAID Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges In Contract-Steering Scheme
June 9, 2017

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/deputy-director-usaid-pleads-guilty-federal-charges-contract-steering-scheme

#13825683 at 2021-06-04 02:53:48 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #17502: The 'Exit Strategies And Literal Clown Doctors' Edition

Microsoft has announced an implementation of its ElectionGuard voting security software
with a major US voting technology vendor, Hart InterCivic.

The software is designed to help make elections more secure and trustworthy.

CNN Business Updated 6:47 PM ET, Thu June 3, 2021
Microsoft wants to make voting more trustworthy.

New York (CNN Business)In late February 2020, Microsoft carried out the first official test of its ElectionGuard voting security software in an election in Fulton, Wisconsin, for the local school board and a state supreme court seat. Developed as part of the tech giant's "Defending Democracy" project, the software is designed to help make elections more secure and trustworthy.

''Now, more than a year later, widespread distrust and discord surrounding the 2020 presidential election has helped to make the case for this kind of technology.
"I don't think there's been a more important time in history for vendors to try building this technology into their systems because of its ability to build trust in the electoral process," Tom Burt, Microsoft's corporate vice president of cusTomer security and trust, told CNN Business.''

Microsoft (MSFT) on Thursday announced the first such implementation of ElectionGuard with a major US voting technology vendor, Hart InterCivic. Hart - one of the three leading election vendors in the United States - provides its voting system to election officials in more than 500 jurisdictions across 17 states.

…


cnn.com/2021/06/03/tech/microsoft-hart-intercivic-voting-security/index.html
https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1400614666599075843

#13821305 at 2021-06-03 16:27:38 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #17496: Gain of Fauci Edition

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/microsoft-teams-up-with-voting-machine-maker-to-let-voters-track-ballots-1.1612267

(Bloomberg) – Hart InterCivic Inc., one of the largest voting machine makers in the U.S., will incorporate Microsoft Corp.'s vote-tracking system into its in-person machines, adding a layer of security that may help reduce heightened attacks on the legitimacy of U.S. election results. The program will allow people to confirm their votes were counted after they're cast.

The partnership makes Hart the first manufacturer in the U.S. to allow local voting jurisdictions to incorporate ballot-tracking software into machines, the companies said Thursday in a joint statement. The program will let voters track their choices and offer security experts using Hart's system the opportunity to independently audit results using Microsoft's ElectionGuard software.

The collaboration between the voting vendor and software giant aims to use technology to build transparency into the U.S. voting system, which came under assault last year. After former President Donald Trump repeatedly undermined public confidence in election results without evidence, a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 while Congress attempted to certify Americans' votes.

"If we all know that our vote was counted, it gets pretty hard to believe these crazy conspiracy theories," Tom Burt, Microsoft corporate vice president of cusTomer security and trust, said in a statement.

#13775843 at 2021-05-28 17:46:17 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #17440 Bakery is Clean for Anons

Hackers Behind SolarWinds Attack Target 150 Organizations in New Cyber Campaign

Microsoft said the hackers behind the SolarWinds cyberattack have launched a fresh campaign targeting over 150 government agencies, think tanks, and non-governmental organizations.

The Russian-based hacking group, which goes by various names including Nobelium, launched the new attack after gaining access to an email marketing service used by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Microsoft said in a Thursday blog post.

After accessing USAID's email marketing account, the hackers distributed phishing emails that contained a link to a malicious file that enabled data theft and infection of other computers, according to Tom Burt, Microsoft vice president of cusTomer security and trust.

"Nobelium, originating from Russia, is the same actor behind the attacks on SolarWinds cusTomers in 2020. These attacks appear to be a continuation of multiple efforts by Nobelium to target government agencies involved in foreign policy as part of intelligence gathering efforts," Burt wrote in the post.

The campaign targeted some 3,000 email accounts across over 150 organizations, Burt wrote. While most of the targets were in the United States, the attack spanned at least 24 countries, he added.

Cybersecurity firm Volexity, which also tracked the attacks, wrote in a post that it believes the operation was likely launched by APT29, a so-called "advanced persistent threat" Russian hacker group believed to be associated with Russian intelligence services. The group has various nicknames, including Cozy Bear, Nobelium, and Dark Halo.

"While Volexity cannot say with certainty who is behind these attacks, it does believe it has the earmarks of a known threat actor it has dealt with on several previous occasions," the cybersecurity firm wrote, noting a number of attack attributes used in this campaign that were consistent with previous tactics used by APT29.

"After a relatively long hiatus with no publicly detailed spear phishing activity, APT29 appears to have returned," Volexity wrote, adding that the files used in the attack have "relatively low static detection rates," which "suggests the attacker is likely having some success in breaching targets."

A previous hack of information technology company SolarWinds, which was identified in December, has been attributed with a high degree of confidence to the Russian intelligence-linked APT29 group.

The United States and Britain have blamed Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, successor to the foreign spying operations of the KGB, for the SolarWinds hack, which compromised nine U.S. federal agencies and hundreds of private sector companies.

This month, Russia's spy chief denied responsibility for the SolarWinds cyber attack but said he was "flattered" by the accusations that Russian foreign intelligence was behind such a sophisticated hack.

News of the fresh wave of cyberattacks attributed to APT29 comes weeks after a May 7 ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline shut the United States' largest fuel pipeline network for days, disrupting supply, sending gasoline prices soaring, and driving panic buying at the pumps.

https://www.ntd.com/hackers-behind-solarwinds-attack-target-150-organizations-in-new-cyber-campaign_619937.html

#13775780 at 2021-05-28 17:37:04 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #17440 Bakery is Clean for Anons

Microsoft Claims It Has Found Evidence Of Another Russian-Backed Government Hack

Hackers have made some serious strides in their ability to circumvent corporate system protections in recent years, which is one reason we have seen so many high-profile incidents, including the Colonial Pipeline hack (which further emboldened shadowy criminal groups around the world after the company paid a nearly $5 million ransom). But while the world waits for the US government to hold the shadowy group, known as Darkside, accountable, Microsoft warned in a blog post published Friday morning that it has discovered evidence of another massive government hack that's already underway.

In a blog post published Friday, Microsoft Vice President Tom Burt said this past week's attack (which is still ongoing) has granted access to about 3K email accounts at more than 150 organizations by infiltrating a digital marketing service used by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) called Constant Contact.

The hackers distributed phishing emails, among them "Special Alerts," declaring that former President Trump had published new documents on election fraud, and inviting users to view them.

The hackers that infiltrated software vendor Solarwinds succeeded in what Microsoft described as one of the worst data breaches ever to hit the US government. Now, this new cyberattack has infiltrated more than 150 government agencies, think tanks and other organizations. And according to Microsoft, it was carried out by the same people.

This group, which Microsoft calls "Nobelium" is believed to be linked to the same Russian government agency that backed the Solarwinds attack, though Microsoft didn't say much about their reasons for arriving at this conclusion.

While there was no ransomware component to the Solarwinds hack, Microsoft said that at least 25% of the targets of this week's attacks were involved in international development, humanitarian, and human rights work, across at least 24 countries. This suggests the group is more interested in "intelligence gathering efforts" than corporate sabotage.

"These attacks appear to be a continuation of multiple efforts by Nobelium to target government agencies involved in foreign policy as part of intelligence gathering efforts," the company said.

The US government said last month that SolarWinds was the work of SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence service, and said it also went by the names of APT29, which UK intelligence says spent much of last year hacking foreign governments for vaccine research, and Cozy Bear, which was allegedly involved in the 2016 hack of the DNC.

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/microsoft-claims-it-has-found-evidence-another-russian-backed-government-hack

#13593251 at 2021-05-06 02:11:32 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #17214: Cheeseburger Kingdom Edition

Microsoft pushes open-source software kit ElectionGuard to election agencies, InterCivic voting-tech vendors

MAY 6, 2019 | CYBERSCOOP
Election officials around the U.S. could soon have access to an open-source software development kit from Microsoft that is intended to make voting more secure and transparent.

The software kit, calledElectionGuard, will allow third parties to validate election results and voters to ensure their ballots were correctly counted, according to Microsoft. Each voter would get a unique code to track the encrypted version of his or her vote to confirm that it was not altered.

"It will not be possible to 'hack' the vote without detection," Tom Burt, a Microsoft corporate vice president, asserted in a blog post Monday. He touted the kit's use of homomorphic encryption, which will allow votes to be counted without decrypting the data, as a feature that will protect votes individually and collectively.

The software, which will be available starting this summer to election agencies and vendors, is meant to supplement, rather than replace, paper ballots. Its code will be posted to GitHub, and can be layered onto existing voting software for added integrity.

The tech giant plans to haveElectionGuardready for piloting in the 2020 elections - a vote that federal, state, and local officials are already preparing to secure. Last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray said protecting the 2018 U.S. midterm elections from foreign meddling was a "dress rehearsal for the big show" of the 2020 presidential contest.

Some election security experts welcomed Microsoft's decision to take the initiative on the issue.

"By providing an open-source method for voters, advocates, and researchers to verify that cast votes have been counted accurately, Microsoft has shown its corporate commitment to bringing trustworthy elections to everyone," said Maurice Turner, senior technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology. "I hope that other companies will follow this example and push the technical envelope toward safe and secure elections."

Aaron Wilson, senior director of election security at the nonprofit Center for Internet Security, said his organization believes "this technology has significant potential to improve the future of voting."

It will be up to the country's big election-equipment vendors - Election Systems & Software (ES&S), Dominion Voting Systems, and Hart InterCivic - whether to incorporate the new software kit into their systems. Of those three, Microsoft said that ES&S and Hart InterCivic were exploring how to deploy the software. The three companies have been under increasing pressure to take more measures to improve their products for 2020 and beyond.

Steven Sockwell, vice president of marketing for Hart InterCivic, said his company would test through a pilot program with the vendor's own voting software, Verity.

"Verity would operate the way it currently does but would also support providing individual voters with the codes needed to track and validate their ballot as described in the ElectionGuard program materials," Sockwell told CyberScoop in an email.

An ES&S spokesperson said the company is "exploring the potential for how this new [software development kit] could be incorporated into ES&S voting systems, and we are excited to see its development and learn more about this emerging technology."

Kay Stimson, vice president of government affairs at Dominion Voting Systems, said her company is "very interested in learning more about the initiative and being able to review the various prototypes that are being planned, along with hearing more about other federally-supported efforts in the elections space."

Galois, an Oregon-based systems-engineering company, is helping develop code for ElectionGuard. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has given Galois a $10 million contract to build an open-source voting on secure hardware. Microsoft cast the ElectionGuard initiative as part of that quest for "end-to-end" verification of voting results.

https://www.cyberscoop.com/microsoft-electionguard-software-kit/

#13593219 at 2021-05-06 02:08:51 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #17214: Cheeseburger Kingdom Edition

ElectionGuard available today to enable secure, verifiable voting, Smartmatic
Sep 24, 2019 | Tom Burt - Corporate Vice President, CusTomer Security & Trust

In May, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announcedElectionGuard, a free open-source software development kit (SDK) from our Defending Democracy Program.ElectionGuardis accessible by design and will make voting more secure, verifiable and efficient anywhere it's used in the United States or in democratic nations around the world. Today we're announcing thatElectionGuardis now available on GitHub so that major election technology suppliers can begin integratingElectionGuardinto their voting systems.

TheElectionGuardresources available on GitHub today extend across four GitHub repositories, or storage spaces, each described below.

=ElectionGuardspecification. TheElectionGuardspecification includes both "informal" and "formal" road maps for howElectionGuardworks. The informal spec is authored by Dr. Josh Benaloh of Microsoft Research and provides the conceptual and mathematical basis for end-to-end verifiable elections withElectionGuard. The formal spec contains detailed guidance manufacturers will need to incorporateElectionGuardinto their systems, including a full description of the API - which is the way voting systems communicate with theElectionGuardsoftware - and the stages of an end-to-end verifiable election.

Software code. This repository contains the actual source code vendors will use to build theirElectionGuardimplementations. It is written in C, a standard language commonly used by open-source software developers and includes a buildable version of the API. This documentation is also viewable here. This code was built together with our development partner Galois.

Reference verifier and specification. As we announced in May,ElectionGuardenables government entities, news organizations, human rights organizations, or anyone else to build additional verifiers that independently can certify election results have been accurately counted and have not been altered. The resources available on GitHub today include a working verifier as well as the specifications necessary to build your own independent verifier.

Ballot marking device reference implementation. Voting system manufacturers will be free to buildElectionGuardinto their systems in a variety of ways. At the Aspen Security Forum in July, we demonstrated a sample voting system, built with the help of industrial designer Tucker Viemeister, that we believe showcased a great way the features enabled byElectionGuardcan be used in voting systems. The ballot marking device we demonstrated included accessibility features built under the guidance of the Center for Civic Design, authors of the original "Anywhere Ballot," and incorporated the Xbox Adaptive Controller as an optional device to mark ballots. The ballot marking device open source repository released today includes a variety of tools and visuals necessary to build or augment real-world election systems using the best ofElectionGuard.

These are exciting steps that enable individual voters to confirm their vote was properly counted, and assures those voters using anElectionGuardsystem of the most secure and trustworthy vote in the history of the U.S. As we've previously announced, all major manufacturers of voting systems in the United States are working with us to explore ways to incorporateElectionGuardinto their systems including Clear Ballot, Democracy Live, Election Systems & Software, Dominion Voting Systems, HartInterCivic, BPro, MicroVote, Smartmatic and VotingWorks. We've worked deeply with many of these companies over the summer to prepare them for today's SDK release.

Finally, we've continued progress toward pilot programs, including work with Columbia University's Columbia World Projects, that will put voting systems runningElectionGuardin the hands of voters for the 2020 elections or sooner. We look forward to sharing more on these pilots shortly.

https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2019/09/24/electionguard-available-today-to-enable-secure-verifiable-voting/

#13593080 at 2021-05-06 01:54:45 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #17214: Cheeseburger Kingdom Edition

Voting machine
Hackers at Defcon have shown how easy it is to get through voting machines' cybersecurity. Alfred Ng / CNET
Many of these machines are still being used because red tape prevents software patches or the budget isn't available to replace them.

Even if no votes had been hacked, the vulnerabilities present another thing to fret about: disinformation about the integrity of election results. US officials consider that to be more worrisome than a cyberattack. If you can be convinced that your vote was hacked, you lose confidence in the results. That's potentially as powerful as the effects of an actual hack.

Microsoft isn't alone in proposing solutions to the problem. Since 2016, many tech giants have rolled out programs aimed at buttressing trust in the system. Google's Advanced Protection Program for political campaigns protects their accounts from basic cyberattacks. Facebook has plans to take on disinformation campaigns and protect campaigns that use the social network.

Still, Microsoft is the first major tech company to directly address voting machine infrastructure, the front line of election security. But it isn't promising that ElectionGuard prevents machines from being hacked. Rather, it's promising to make it obvious if a machine is hacked.

"This is not a system that cannot be hacked by an adversary. it is a system that is pointless for an adversary to hack," Burt said. "Even if they can figure out a way to somehow influence that or change that, it would be detected by the system, and you can go to the paper ballots and do a hand count if you needed to."

Technical difficulties
Most election security experts will tell you that technology and voting tend to make a bad cocktail.

It's why lawmakers like Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, has long advocated for paper ballots to keep elections secure. There's a long history of security concerns with election technology, and Microsoft is walking a tightrope with ElectionGuard.

MIT computer science researchers, for instance, found significant security issues with the Voatz mobile voting app, including the ability to change votes. Voatz said that the researchers' information was incomplete.

We just want to test, 'How does it work? What can we learn? What we need to change and improve?'
Tom Burt, Microsoft's corporate vice president for cusTomer security and trust
And it doesn't require an expert to tell you that technology has failed democracy in the 2020 presidential campaign. The important Iowa caucuses crumbled under the rushed rollout of a vote-tallying app that was too complicated for election volunteers.

When asked about the Iowa caucuses, Anne Johnson, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Cybersecurity Solutions Group, couldn't help but laugh at the blunder.

"Let me just say, don't test in production," Johnson joked at the company's Redmond headquarters. "That wasn't a cybersecurity issue. That was a dev issue."

Microsoft has that maxim clearly in mind with ElectionGuard's debut. It's why the software giant deliberately worked with a small Wisconsin town that has about 500 registered voters. The vote is for the town's school board and a local judge. ElectionGuard will also serve as the backup to paper ballots, rather than the primary voting method.

#13593065 at 2021-05-06 01:53:13 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #17214: Cheeseburger Kingdom Edition

This could be Microsoft's most important product in 2020. If it works
ElectionGuard isn't designed to make voting machines safe from hackers.
It's meant to make hacking them pointless.

Alfred Ng
Feb. 18, 2020
Building 83 doesn't stand out on Microsoft's massive Redmond, Washington, headquarters. But last week, the nameless structure hosted what might be the software giant's most important product of 2020.

Tucked away in the corner of a meeting room, a sign reading "ElectionGuard" identifies a touchscreen that asks people to cast their votes. An Xbox adaptive controller is connected to it, as are an all-white printer and a white ballot box for paper votes. If you didn't look carefully, you might have mistaken all that for an array of office supplies.

ElectionGuard is open-source voting-machine software that Microsoft announced in May 2019. In Microsoft's demo, voters make their choices by touchscreen before printing out two copies. A voter is supposed to double-check one copy before placing it into a ballot box to be counted by election workers. The other is a backup record with a QR code the voter can use to check that the vote was counted after polls close.

With ElectionGuard, Microsoft isn't setting out to create an unhackable vote no one thinks that's possible but rather a vote in which hacks would be quickly noticed.

The product demo was far quieter than the typical big tech launch. No flashy lights or hordes of company employees cheering their own product, like Microsoft's dual screen phone, its highly anticipated dual-screen laptop or its new Xbox Series X.

And yet, if everything goes right, ElectionGuard could have an impact that lasts well beyond the flashy products in Microsoft's pipeline.

ElectionGuard addresses what has become a crucial concern in US democracy: the integrity of the vote. The software is designed to establish end-to-end verification for voting machines. A voter can check whether his or her vote was counted. If a hacker had managed to alter a vote, it would be immediately obvious because encryption attached to the vote wouldn't have changed.

The open-source software has been available since last September. But Microsoft gets its first real-world test on Tuesday, when ElectionGuard is used in a local vote in Fulton, Wisconsin.

The local election will provide Microsoft an opportunity to find blind spots in the ElectionGuard system. The question is how many it will find. During ElectionGuard's first demo at the Aspen Security Forum last July, Microsoft identified some user experience flaws. A big one: Voters were confused as to why two sheets of paper were printing out.

"This is a critical, important part of why we're having this pilot next week," Tom Burt, Microsoft's corporate vice president for cusTomer security and trust, told a group of reporters at Building 83. "To find out, does this stuff all work? Do people verify? Do they do these things?"

ElectionGuard voting touchscreen, plus printer and ballot box
You could mistake the ElectionGuard setup for office supplies, what with the printer and ballot box next to the voting touchscreen. Alfred Ng / CNET

#13592305 at 2021-05-06 00:30:55 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #17213:(((WWG1WGA))) meaning Edition

>>13592242

1/2
Protecting Democratic elections through secure, verifiable voting Election Guard

May 6, 2019 | Tom Burt - Corporate Vice President, CusTomer Security & Trust

Today, at the Microsoft Build developer conference, CEO Satya Nadella announced ElectionGuard, a free open-source software development kit (SDK) from our Defending Democracy Program. ElectionGuard will make voting secure, more accessible, and more efficient anywhere it's used in the United States or in democratic nations around the world. ElectionGuard, developed with the assistance of our partner Galois, will be available starting this summer to election officials and election technology suppliers who can incorporate the technology into voting systems. Among ElectionGuard's many benefits, it will enable end-to-end verification of elections, open results to third-party organizations for secure validation, and allow individual voters to confirm their votes were correctly counted.
We are also announcing today that we have partnered with major election technology suppliers who are exploring the integration of ElectionGuard into their voting systems. We currently have partnerships with election technology suppliers responsible for more than half of the voting machines sold in the U.S. To help these partners, other vendors and election officials to visualize how ElectionGuard can modernize and secure the vote, we are building a reference voting system, which we will make public later this year, that will showcase the capabilities that ElectionGuard enables.
We believe technology companies have a responsibility to help protect our democratic processes and institutions. Modern technology can be used to ensure the voting process is resilient. At the same time, ElectionGuard is not intended to replace paper ballots but rather to supplement and improve systems that rely on them, and it is not designed to support internet voting. In short, ElectionGuard is a new tool for use by the existing election community and government entities that run elections.
ElectionGuardcan be used to build systems with five major benefits that will protect the vote against tampering by anyone, and improve the voting process for citizens and officials:

* Verifiable: Allowing voters and third-party organizations to verify election results.
* Secure: Built with advanced encryption techniques developed by Microsoft Research.
* Auditable: Supporting risk-limiting audits that help assure the accuracy of elections.
* Open source: Free and flexible with the ability to be used with off-the-shelf hardware.
* Make voting better: Supporting standard accessibility tools and improving the voting experience.

Verifiable
ElectionGuarddemocratizes the ability to verify election results by enabling direct public confirmation of the accuracy of those results. Voters are able to verify the correct recording of their votes, and anyone - including voters themselves - can verify that all of the recorded votes are correctly counted. As with current election systems, voters will remain unable to disclose their recorded votes to protect their privacy.
ElectionGuardverification is accomplished in two ways.
First,ElectionGuardprovides each voter a tracker with a unique code that can be used to follow an encrypted version of the vote through the entire election process via a web portal provided by election authorities. During the process of vote-casting, voters have an optional step that allows them to confirm that their trackers and encrypted votes accurately reflect their selections. But once a vote is cast, neither the tracker nor any data provided through the web portal can be used to reveal the contents of the vote. After the election is complete, the tracker codes can be used by voters to confirm that their votes were not altered or tampered with and that they were properly counted.
Second,ElectionGuardalso includes an open specification - or a road map - which allows anyone to write an election verifier. Voters, candidates, news media and any observers can run verifiers of their own or downloaded from sources of their choosing to confirm tabulations are as reported. The combination of the tracker - which allows individual voters to verify that their votes have been accurately recorded - and the verifier - which allows anyone to verify that the recorded votes have been accurately counted - enables full "end-to-end verification" of the correctness of election results. It will not be possible to "hack" the vote without detection.
ElectionGuardprovides a complete implementation of end-to-end verifiable elections. It is designed to work with systems that use paper ballots, supplementing today's tabulation process by providing a means of public verification of the accuracy of reported results.

https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2019/05/06/protecting-democratic-elections-through-secure-verifiable-voting/

#13592242 at 2021-05-06 00:20:25 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #17213:(((WWG1WGA))) meaning Edition

1/2
Protecting Democratic elections through secure, verifiable voting
May 6, 2019 | Tom Burt - Corporate Vice President, CusTomer Security & Trust

Today, at the Microsoft Build developer conference, CEO Satya Nadella announced ElectionGuard, a free open-source software development kit (SDK) from our Defending Democracy Program. ElectionGuard will make voting secure, more accessible, and more efficient anywhere it's used in the United States or in democratic nations around the world. ElectionGuard, developed with the assistance of our partner Galois, will be available starting this summer to election officials and election technology suppliers who can incorporate the technology into voting systems. Among ElectionGuard's many benefits, it will enable end-to-end verification of elections, open results to third-party organizations for secure validation, and allow individual voters to confirm their votes were correctly counted.

We are also announcing today that we have partnered with major election technology suppliers who are exploring the integration of ElectionGuard into their voting systems. We currently have partnerships with election technology suppliers responsible for more than half of the voting machines sold in the U.S. To help these partners, other vendors and election officials to visualize how ElectionGuard can modernize and secure the vote, we are building a reference voting system, which we will make public later this year, that will showcase the capabilities that ElectionGuard enables.

We believe technology companies have a responsibility to help protect our democratic processes and institutions. Modern technology can be used to ensure the voting process is resilient. At the same time, ElectionGuard is not intended to replace paper ballots but rather to supplement and improve systems that rely on them, and it is not designed to support internet voting. In short, ElectionGuard is a new tool for use by the existing election community and government entities that run elections.

ElectionGuard can be used to build systems with five major benefits that will protect the vote against tampering by anyone, and improve the voting process for citizens and officials:

* Verifiable: Allowing voters and third-party organizations to verify election results.
* Secure: Built with advanced encryption techniques developed by Microsoft Research.
* Auditable: Supporting risk-limiting audits that help assure the accuracy of elections.
* Open source: Free and flexible with the ability to be used with off-the-shelf hardware.
* Make voting better: Supporting standard accessibility tools and improving the voting experience.

Verifiable

ElectionGuard democratizes the ability to verify election results by enabling direct public confirmation of the accuracy of those results. Voters are able to verify the correct recording of their votes, and anyone - including voters themselves - can verify that all of the recorded votes are correctly counted. As with current election systems, voters will remain unable to disclose their recorded votes to protect their privacy.
ElectionGuard verification is accomplished in two ways.
First, ElectionGuard provides each voter a tracker with a unique code that can be used to follow an encrypted version of the vote through the entire election process via a web portal provided by election authorities. During the process of vote-casting, voters have an optional step that allows them to confirm that their trackers and encrypted votes accurately reflect their selections. But once a vote is cast, neither the tracker nor any data provided through the web portal can be used to reveal the contents of the vote. After the election is complete, the tracker codes can be used by voters to confirm that their votes were not altered or tampered with and that they were properly counted.
Second, ElectionGuard also includes an open specification - or a road map - which allows anyone to write an election verifier. Voters, candidates, news media and any observers can run verifiers of their own or downloaded from sources of their choosing to confirm tabulations are as reported. The combination of the tracker - which allows individual voters to verify that their votes have been accurately recorded - and the verifier - which allows anyone to verify that the recorded votes have been accurately counted - enables full "end-to-end verification" of the correctness of election results. It will not be possible to "hack" the vote without detection.
ElectionGuard provides a complete implementation of end-to-end verifiable elections. It is designed to work with systems that use paper ballots, supplementing today's tabulation process by providing a means of public verification of the accuracy of reported results.

https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2019/05/06/protecting-democratic-elections-through-secure-verifiable-voting/

#13591820 at 2021-05-05 23:25:49 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #17212: If Fucking Dan Would Just Stop Changing The Banner Edition

Russian and Chinese hackers targeting U.S. vote, Microsoft warns
1/2
Microsoft said Thursday that the same Russian military intelligence outfit that hacked the Democrats in 2016 has been trying to break into more than 200 organizations in recent weeks, including political parties and consultants. | AP
AFP-JIJI

Sep 11, 2020WASHINGTON - Microsoft said Thursday it thwarted recent cyberattacks from China, Russia and Iran targeting both Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns, as technology giants scrambled to protect election security less than two months ahead of the U.S. vote.
The announcement came as Twitter said it would implement a policy next week to remove "false or misleading information intended to undermine public confidence in an election," including unverified claims of victory; and Google said it would take steps to ensure its "auto complete" search feature doesn't make such misguided suggestions.
Microsoft said that attackers have been targeting staff from the campaigns of President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.
"In recent weeks, Microsoft has detected cyberattacks targeting people and organizations involved in the upcoming presidential election," said corporate vice president Tom Burt.
It was clear that "foreign activity groups have stepped up their efforts targeting the 2020 election as had been anticipated," according to Burt.
The attackers have targeted political operatives, think tanks, consultants and political parties in Europe as well, Microsoft said.
It identified a Russia-based group called Strontium which Burt said "has attacked more than 200 organizations," and China-based Zirconium, which he said "has attacked high-profile individuals associated with the election, including people associated with the Joe Biden for President campaign and prominent leaders in the international affairs community."
An Iran-based group dubbed Phosphorus has been targeting personal accounts of people associated with the Trump campaign, Microsoft said.
The majority of those attacks were stopped by Microsoft security tools, and those targeted or compromised were alerted, according to Burt.
Russia is trying to undermine voters' faith in the U.S. electoral system and especially in voting by mail ahead of the Nov. 3 election, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) analysis.
A statement in August from the National Counterintelligence and Security Center said Russia is actively working against Biden's candidacy, favoring Trump as it did in 2016.
Microsoft's announcement affirms DHS warnings that "China, Iran, and Russia are trying to undermine our democracy and influence our elections," acting secretary Chad Wolf said in a prepared statement.
Twitter policy taking effect Sept. 17 bans "false or misleading information" about voting as well as "disputed claims that could undermine faith in the process itself," such as allegations of election rigging, ballot tampering, vote tallying or certification of election results.

#13591725 at 2021-05-05 23:14:23 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #17212: If Fucking Dan Would Just Stop Changing The Banner Edition

Ahead Of 2020, Microsoft Unveils Tool To Allow Voters To Track Their Ballots

A "vote here" sign marks the entrance to an early voting station in downtown Minneapolis in 2018.
Steve Karnowski/AP
From checking in at a polling place on a tablet to registering to vote by smartphone to using an electronic voting machine to cast a ballot, computers have become an increasingly common part of voting in America.

But the underlying technology behind some of those processes is often a black box. Private companies, not state or local governments, develop and maintain most of the software and hardware that keep democracy chugging along. That has kept journalists, academics and even lawmakers from speaking with certainty about election security.

In an effort to improve confidence in elections, Microsoft announced Monday that it is releasing an open-source software development kit called ElectionGuard that will use encryption techniques to let voters know when their vote is counted. It will also allow election officials and third parties to verify election results to make sure there was no interference with the results.

"It's very much like the cybersecurity version of a tamper-proof bottle," said Tom Burt, Microsoft's vice president of cusTomer security and trust, in an interview with NPR. "Tamper-proof bottles don't prevent any hack of the contents of the bottle, but it makes it makes it harder, and it definitely reveals when the tampering has occurred."

Developed with the computer science company Galois, the kit will be available free of charge for election technology vendors to incorporate into their voting systems.

Microsoft is partnering with a number of voting machine vendors, including the largest manufacturer in the country, Election Systems & Software, but it's unclear how extensively the industry will use the new software in its offerings. The voting machine industry has traditionally been tight-lipped about its security practices.

Galois plans to use the new technology as part of an open-source voting system it is designing with grant money from the Defense Department. That system won't be for sale, says Joe Kiniry, a principal scientist at Galois. Instead, it will serve as a model of a secure voting system that private companies can build off of.

"It gives the ability to double-check, even if a system is terribly written, even if it's hackable, it gets detected," said Kiniry. "It's not magic pixie dust. We need this plus unhackable systems."

The software works in tandem with voting systems that use paper ballots, which many states and counties are returning to after more than a decade of using touchscreen voting machines that didn't produce a paper receipt.

An election system using Microsoft's ElectionGuard would provide a voter with a unique code that would not reveal who or what they voted for. The code could then be used to follow the vote from the moment the voter casts it, after the voter has verified the selections are correct, to the moment it's counted.

"For voters, the most tangible thing they would see from this is they would now have the ability to track the ballot as it goes through the entire process," said Joe Hall, the chief technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology. "Similar to what voters have with packages, or pizza, it will say this is at this facility, it has been counted."

Microsoft's Burt says he expects to see pilot use of the technology in the 2020 election, but because of how long certification and incorporation of new technology takes in voting, realistically, he hopes for "broad deployment" by 2024.

But that deployment will be only as broad as tight state and local government budgets allow.

"This will help voters track their votes; it's going to build in this audibility that's sort of the holy grail," Hall said. "But it's not going to reach the smaller jurisdictions that don't have the money to upgrade or have older equipment."

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/06/720071488/ahead-of-2020-microsoft-unveils-tool-to-allow-voters-to-track-their-ballots

#13132470 at 2021-03-05 22:54:32 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #16697 - After The Winning President Trump Is Still Winning For You Edition

Pentagon Assessing Its Networks for Possible Damage After Microsoft Breach, Spokesman Says

Earlier this week, Microsoft accused a Chinese hacking group known as "Hafnium" of breaching its Exchange Server email application. Microsoft had previously accused the company of attempting to steal information from infectious disease researchers, defense contractors, policy think tanks and non-governmental organizations.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby on Friday revealed the US Department of Defense was assessing its networks for possible damage after the Microsoft breach.

"We are aware of the Microsoft threat intelligence center's report. We are currently assessing our networks right now for any evidence of impact," Kirby said.

"We are also … taking all necessary steps to identify and remedy any possible issues related to the situation," he added.

The latest statement by the Pentagon comes after White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the Biden administration is monitoring the Microsoft breach, which had a "large number of victims," the Hill reported.

"This is a significant vulnerability that could have far-reaching impacts. First and foremost, this is an active threat," Psaki told reporters during the press briefing. However, she did not provide any information on whether any federal agencies were compromised by the hack. She did urge network operators who had been comprised to swiftly "take appropriate steps."

"Everyone running these servers - government, private sector, academia - needs to act now to patch them. We are concerned there are a large number of victims and we are working with our partners to understand the scope of this. So it's an ongoing process," Psaki said, the Hill reported.

In a Thursday blog post, cybersecurity group FireEye said that the hackers had targeted "US-based retailers, local governments, a university, and an engineering firm" as well as a Southeast Asian government and a Central Asian telecom group.

The Czech Republic's National Office for Cyber and Information Security also released a statement Friday stating it would assisting organizations impacted by the hack, suggesting that the hack has had international ramifications.

This week, the Department of Homeland Security also issued an emergency warning to any government agencies using the Exchange email software.

Since the breach, Microsoft has updated its software.

"Even though we've worked quickly to deploy an update for the Hafnium exploits, we know that many nation-state actors and criminal groups will move quickly to take advantage of any unpatched systems," Tom Burt, Microsoft's corporate vice president of cusTomer trust and security, wrote in a blog post.

https://sputniknews.com/science/202103051082267987-pentagon-assessing-its-networks-for-possible-damage-after-microsoft-breach-spokesman-says/

#12009175 at 2020-12-13 17:11:56 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #15330: Take that Fringe off My FLAG Edition

Chinese parts, hidden ownership, growing scrutiny: Inside America's biggest maker of voting machines

Dec. 19, 2019, 3:30 AM PST
By Ben Popken, Cynthia McFadden and Kevin Monahan

OMAHA, Neb. - Just off a bustling interstate near the border between Nebraska and Iowa, a 2,800-square-foot American flag flies over the squat office park that is home to Election Systems & Software LLC.

The nondescript name and building match the relative anonymity of the company, more commonly known as ES&S, which has operated in obscurity for years despite its central role in U.S. elections. Nearly half of all Americans who vote in the 2020 election will use one of its devices.

That's starting to change. A new level of scrutiny of the election system, spurred by Russia's interference in the 2016 election, has put ES&S in the political spotlight. The source of the nation's voting machines has become an urgent issue because of real fears that hackers, whether foreign or domestic, might tamper with the mechanics of the voting system.

That has led to calls for ES&S and its competitors, Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems and Austin, Texas-based Hart Intercivic, to reveal details about their ownership and the origins of the parts, some of which come from China, that make up their machines.

But ES&S still faces questions about the company's supply chain and the identities of its investors, although it has said it is entirely owned by Americans. And the results of its government penetration tests, in which authorized hackers try to break in so vulnerabilities can be identified and fixed, have yet to be revealed.
The secrecy of ES&S and its competitors has pushed politicians to seek information on security, oversight, finances and ownership. This month, a group of Democratic politicians sent the private equity firms that own the major election vendors a letter asking them to disclose a range of such information, including ownership, finances and research investments.

"The voting machine lobby, led by the biggest company, ES&S, believes they are above the law," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a member of the Intelligence Committee who co-signed the letter.

"They have not had anybody hold them accountable even on the most basic matters."

ES&S Chief Executive Tom Burt dismissed criticism as inevitable and impossible to answer, but he called for greater oversight of the national election process.

"There are going to be people who have opinions from now until eternity about the security of the equipment, the bias of those companies who are producing the equipment, the bias of the election administrators who are conducting the election," Burt said in an interview. "I can't do anything to affect those people's opinions."

"What the American people need is a system that can be audited, and then those audits have to happen and be demonstrated to the American public," Burt said. "That's what will cut through the noise."

Supply chain questions

ES&S invited NBC News journalists into its headquarters, the first time it has done so for a national news organization. The walls were decorated with images of the Constitution and inspirational messages about quality control. In glass-walled rooms etched with the company's patents, technicians tested machines under tight security.

Burt, a native Nebraskan, has called for federal regulations that would require voting machine companies to address some of the key questions posed to ES&S. In June, he wrote an op-ed asking Congress for more regulation, which would include requirements for paper backups of individual votes, mandatory post-election audits and more resources for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to speed improvements.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/chinese-parts-hidden-ownership-growing-scrutiny-inside-america-s-biggest-n1104516

#11653258 at 2020-11-15 08:47:37 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #14878: Dominion Gets The Kraken Edition

Russia, North Korea Hackers Target COVID Vaccine Firms

As health officials scramble to put a COVID-19 vaccine on the market for widespread distribution, they are facing another unprecedented, terrifying challenge: hackers.

Russian and North Korean hackers have attempted to attack the American pharmaceutical firms working on developing a vaccine for the disease, Microsoft said Friday.

The tech mogul said it has detected cyberattacks in recent months against seven major companies "directly involved" in treatment research.

"It's disturbing that these challenges have now merged as cyberattacks are being used to disrupt health care organizations fighting the pandemic," Tom Burt, corporate vice president of cusTomer security and trust said in a blog post.

He also urged governments to act on these "unconscionable" attacks.

Microsoft traced the hacks to a Russian group called "Strontium," also known as "Fancy Bear" and two groups in North Korea that the company calls "Zinc" and "Cerium."

These hackers targeted firms not only in the United States, but Canada, France, India and South Korea, most of which have coronavirus vaccines in "various stages of clinical trials," according to the company. The attacks most recently used ransomware attacks to target hospitals and healthcare organizations.

"The majority of these attacks were blocked by security protections built into our products," Burt said. "We've notified all organizations targeted, and where attacks have been successful, we've offered help."

Microsoft explained that the Fancy Bear hackers attempted to break into people's accounts by trying to log in thousands - or even millions - of times. Both of the North Korean groups used "spear-phishing" techniques, according to the company - Zinc sent messages containing fake job descriptions, while Cerium posed as representatives from the World Health Organization in emails.

This discovery comes at a crucial time, as the global race for a coronavirus vaccine grows more intense by the minute.

American drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna are both on track to seek emergency approval for their vaccine by the end of this month, according to the New York Post.

""At a time when the world is united in wanting an end to the pandemic and anxiously awaiting the development of a safe and effective vaccine for Covid-19, it is essential for world leaders to unite around the security of our health care institutions and enforce the law against cyberattacks targeting those who endeavor to help us all," Burt said.

https://thegreggjarrett.com/russia-north-korea-hackers-target-covid-19-vaccine-firms/

#11642197 at 2020-11-14 15:10:42 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #14864: Anon Opines On Dog Comms Edition

>>11642095
>kraken
fucking voting systems are like shell companies
Constantly changing hands to hide their fraud history

Election Systems and Software

ES&S (Election Systems and Software) is headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, and directed by President and CEO Tom Burt.

In 1999, American Information Systems (AIS) purchased Business Records Corporation (BRC) to eventually become ES&S. AIS, formerly known as Data Mark, was founded by Bob and Todd Urosevich and primarily funded by H.F. Ahmanson Co, a holding company that belonged to the Council for National Policy (a right-winged organization). Bob Urosevich, who played the role of CEO for Diebold Election Systems for a short time, was responsible for creating the original software that both Diebold and his original company I-Mark Systems used. Prior to Urosevich's time with Diebold, he programmed software for ES&S. At one time, the Urosevich brothers controlled 80% of the U.S. votes due to both working in senior positions at two of the largest electronic election companies (Diebold and ES&S).

ES&S has faced controversial allegations since the company's beginnings; AIS's ties to H.F. Ahmanson Co. In 1984, William and Robert Ahmanson funded Data Mark (soon to be AIS) and bought a 68% stake in the company. A few years later, an investment group, McCarthy & Co., also acquired a share of the stake in the company. In 1992, investment banker Chuck Hagel, who was president of McCarthy & Co., became a chairman of AIS. Hagel soon stepped down as director of AIS and become involved in the government as state governor. However, McCarthy & Co. (partial owners of ES&S) funded Hagel's campaign and Hagel still own more than $1 million in stock in McCarthy & Co. The complicated ties in ownership and relationships caused suspicion of ES&S, sparking conversation alleging the company of Republican ties.

Along with the claims of Republican partisan ties, accuracy has posed issues for the company for years. In 2007, the market leader lost public trust when more than 18,000 ballots in the general election were not cast. In 2012, ES&S was accused of supplying untested and non-state certified software in the Ohio elections, which highlighted past mistakes of the company such as the 10% pre-election testing fail in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. In 2016, with the immense uproar of claims that George Soros (a Hilary Clinton supporter) had ties to Smartmatic and Dominion, ES&S's ownership was also in question.

The relationship ES&S had with Dominion (who bought Premier from ES&S) was what dragged the company into the conversation. The relationship with Dominion put a spotlight on ES&S because Premier (a subsidiary of Dominion) was once known as Diebold, which one of the Urosevich brothers once directed. Essentially, ES&S suffered from a loss of trust due to its historical ties with other voting machine companies.

Despite the company's controversial past, ES&S is one of the original companies dedicated to providing election technology in response to changing times. ES&S offers an array of services and provides multiple products, including touch-screen voting, scanners, tabulators, election management software, poll books, ballot printers, registration software, optical-scan tabulators, DRE's and absentee processors. In 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice forced ES&S to divest its newly owned Premier Voting System's assets to keep the company from a 70% market share in the U.S. voting systems industry. However, the company is still the market leader. The company continues its mission to provide products, support, and services that support the democratic institution. The company recently announced that, following a successful 12-year partnership with Childress County, Texas election officials, they will again proudly supply the county with elections management equipment.

#11624865 at 2020-11-13 13:02:46 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #14842: By The DON'S Early Light Edition

JANUARY 9, 2020
2020 Election Security
Voting system vendors, local election officials and computer science professors testified on 2020 election security before the House Administration Committee. Among the witnesses were Election Systems and Software CEO Tom Burt and U.S. Election Assistance Commissioner Donald Palmer. Election vendor CEOs told lawmakers they had not seen any evidence of election system tampering. Other topics discussed included election infrastructure and supply chain security, voting equipment testing and election system modernization efforts.2hr40min

https://www.c-span.org/video/?467976-1/2020-election-security

#11605950 at 2020-11-12 08:23:53 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #14818: MARK MALLOCH-BROWN Globalist, Satanist? Edition

HAPPENING FOR REAL. HART INTERCIVIC, INC. AUTISTS ONLY.
HART INTERCIVIC, INC. - Oakland county (MI), Lancaster, PA & Delaware County used these machines, not Dominion Voting Systems.
>Why does this matter?
Oakland County was implicated by the blessed Poo's algorithm video - (https://youtu.be/f0YSB7Kf_0s?t=1406 [Embed] [Embed])
(https://verifiedvoting.org/verifier/#mode/search/year/2020)

HART HAS NO VERIFIED 'OWNER' AS OF JULY 2019 WTF… (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hart_InterCivic)
(https://www.hartintercivic.com/press-release/juliemathispresidentpr/)

Proof H.I.G is no longer invested in Hart Intercivic:
https://higcapital.com/portfolio/
As of July 2019, they owned 80%
https://apnews.com/article/cbc30e6a059a41ff8ba4d4da2f120f79

Some anon had a full BloombergGov license for work. It reports that Hart Intercivic is owned by Hart Intermediate Holding Company - he wasn't able to dig any farther. It just (((disappears))) at that point.. Possibly a shell company?
https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/0670112D:US

A Texas Tax record search returned this:
HART INTERCIVIC, INC. Texas Taxpayer Number 19532489168 Mailing Address 15500 WELLS PORT DR AUSTIN, TX 78728-4573 Right to Transact Business in Texas ACTIVE State of Formation TX Effective SOS Registration Date 06/13/1986 Texas SOS File Number 0100105100 Registered Agent Name C T CORPORATION SYSTEM Registered Office Street Address 1999 BRYAN ST., STE. 900 DALLAS, TX 75201

Then I found this: https://www.alaskacompanydir.com/companies/hart-intercivic-inc/

Bonus: Mitt Romney bought into them in November 2012?
(https://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/10/20/romney-family-investment-ties-to-voting-machine-company-that-could-decide-the-election-causes-concern/?sh=3f9cdb11afa4)

They also scrubbed their website over the summer - completely.
https://web.archive.org/web/20200814082335/https://www.hartintercivic.com/hart-management-team/

I need help digging into this shell company and what events led to H.I.G's apparent divestiture. DIG!
"Another election machine manufacturer, Hart InterCivic Inc., which has the only wireless-enabled system to receive EAC's certification, didn't return messages seeking comment." (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-03/america-won-t-give-up-its-hackable-wireless-voting-machines)
Key Players:
Julie Mathis - CEO as of 2019
Phillip Braithwaite - Previous CEO; now CHAIRMAN of the BOD
Jim Canter - CTO as of 2012
Pete Lichtenheld - SVP of CUSTomER success (knows systems inside & out) as of 2001
There is some glowie shit behind these guys. seriously fucked up.
https://justfacts.votesmart.org/public-statement/1331832/letter-to-philip-braithwaite-president-and-ceo-of-hart-intercivic-inc-Tom-Burt-president-and-ceo-of-election-systems-software-llc-and-john-poulos-president-and-ceo-of-dominion-voting-systems-ranking-members-klobuchar-warner-reed-and-peters-press-election-equipment-manufacturers-on-security

The swamp rats threatened to (((Shut these guys down))) if they didn't comply with the rigging. It's looking more and more like a glowie op. Just need to put the pieces together
All the names are blanked out in the whole doc.

#11558170 at 2020-11-09 16:08:18 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #14757: Freedom Of Choice Edition

1/2
Dominion Voting Systems related.

Jan. 9, 2020 Committee on House Administration Hearing on Election Security
Anon still wonders if this hearing was cover for a strategy meeting.

You remember that John Poulos (Dominion Voting Systems) and Tom Burt (Election Systems & Software) testified at that hearing. John Poulos is Canadian. Anon wonders how many of the people involved in rigging the vote are not US Citizens. How long have we allowed non-citizens to manage our elections?

_The Globe and Mail_ - 2011 Article but proves he is Canadian
John Poulos, 36: makes voting accessible
"Each year, Caldwell Partners International chooses 40 Canadians who were under 40 in the past year to honour for their outstanding achievements."
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/careers-leadership/john-poulos-36-makes-voting-accessible/article597754/

Previous related posts.
v v v
PB Notable >>11515435, >>11515466, >>11515501 Dominion Voting Related
PB Notable >>11517800 The CEO of Election Systems & Software (ES&S) testified at the Committee on House

#11557322 at 2020-11-09 14:52:43 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #14756: Bush Legal Team From The 2000 Election Edition

1/2
Jan. 9, 2020 Committee on House Administration Hearing on Election Security
Anon still wonders if this hearing was cover for a strategy meeting.

You remember that John Poulos (Dominion Voting Systems) and Tom Burt (Election Systems & Software) testified at that hearing. John Poulos is Canadian. Anon wonders how many of the people involved in rigging the vote are not US Citizens. How long have we allowed non-citizens to manage our elections?

_The Globe and Mail_ - 2011 Article but proves he is Canadian
John Poulos, 36: makes voting accessible
"Each year, Caldwell Partners International chooses 40 Canadians who were under 40 in the past year to honour for their outstanding achievements."
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/careers-leadership/john-poulos-36-makes-voting-accessible/article597754/

Previous related posts.
v v v
PB Notable >>11515435, >>11515466, >>11515501 Dominion Voting Related
PB Notable >>11517800 The CEO of Election Systems & Software (ES&S) testified at the Committee on House

#11517800 at 2020-11-07 09:26:15 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #14706: While The World Sleeps Anons Light Up The Darkness Edition

Responding to PB Notable - Bread #14704 >>11516094 Systems used in AZ

The CEO of Election Systems & Software (ES&S) testified at the Committee on House Administration hearing with John Poulus of
Dominion Voting Systems.

EXECUTIVE BIOGRAPHY
Tom Burt
President and
Chief Executive Officer
Tom Burt, President and CEO of ES&S, joined the company
in 2008, leading sales, cusTomer service, operations and
product departments. Before joining ES&S, Mr. Burt
developed his general management and sales leadership at
McMaster-Carr Supply Company and Andersen Consulting,
where he served in a variety of executive management roles.
More recently, Tom worked as an Associate Partner of
Gallup Organization, where he was responsible for managing
relationships with multiple Fortune 500 clients. His passion
for "CusTomer Comes First" brought him to ES&S.
A native Nebraskan, Tom graduated from Nebraska
Wesleyan University with a Bachelor of Science degree in
Business Administration.
https://docs.house.gov/meetings/HA/HA00/20200109/110346/HHRG-116-HA00-Bio-BurtT-20200109-U1.pdf


Truth in Testimony - 1/8/2020
https://docs.house.gov/meetings/HA/HA00/20200109/110346/HHRG-116-HA00-TTF-BurtT-20200109-U1.pdf


Written Testimony
Statement from
Tom Burt
President and CEO of Election Systems & Software
Hearing on "2020 Election Security -
Perspectives from Voting System Vendors and Experts"
The Committee on House Administration
U.S. House of Representatives
January 9, 2020
Washington, D.C.
https://docs.house.gov/meetings/HA/HA00/20200109/110346/HHRG-116-HA00-Wstate-BurtT-20200109-U1.pdf


John Poulos testifies at House Committee
v v v
PB Notable >>11515435, >>11515466, >>11515501 Dominion Voting Related

#11515435 at 2020-11-07 05:12:18 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #14703: Anons Winning Bigly Edition

1/3
Dominion Voting Related

Here are the venders and experts who testified, at the Thursday, January 9, 2020 Committee on House Administration hearing. There could be some opportunities for diggs. Anon wonders if the hearing was cover for a strategy meeting.

Committee on House Administration
"Hearing: 2020 Election Security-Perspectives from Voting System Vendors and Experts"
https://docs.house.gov/Committee/Calendar/ByEvent.aspx?EventID=110346

Thursday, January 9, 2020 (10:00 AM)
1310 LHOB
Washington, D.C. 20515-1
Witnesses
Panel one

Mr. Tom Burt
President and CEO, Election Systems & Software, Omaha, NE
Added 01/06/2020 at 02:16 PM
Written Testimony of Tom Burt [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM
Burt Witness Disclosure Form [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM
Biography of Tom Burt [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM


Ms. Julie Mathis
President and CEO, Hart InterCivic, Austin, TX
Added 01/06/2020 at 02:16 PM
Written Testimony of President and CEO Julie Mathis [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM
Mathis Witness Disclosure Form [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM
Biography of Julie Mathis [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM

Mr. John Poulos
President and CEO,Dominion Voting Systems, Denver, CO
Added 01/06/2020 at 02:16 PM
Written Testimony of President and CEO John Poulos [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM
Poulos Witness Disclosure Form [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM
Biography of John Poulos [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM


Panel two
Mr. Matt Blaze
Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C.
Added 01/06/2020 at 02:16 PM
Written Testimony of Matt Blaze [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM
Blaze Witness Disclosure Form [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM
Biography of Professor Matt Blaze [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM

Mr. Mike Gianasi
County Clerk and Recorder, Christian County of Illinois, Taylorville, Illinois
Added 01/07/2020 at 01:02 PM
Written Testimony of Michael C. Gianasi [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM
Gianasi Witness Disclosure Form [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM
Biography of Michael C. Gianasi [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM

Dr. Juan Gilbert
Andrew Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor & Chair, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Added 01/06/2020 at 02:16 PM
Written Statement of Dr. Juan Gilbert [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM
Gilbert Witness Disclosure Form [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM
Witness Biography (Update #1) [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM

Ms. Liz Howard
Counsel, Brennan Center for Justice, Washington, D.C.
Added 01/06/2020 at 02:16 PM
Written Testimony of Liz Howard [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM
Howard Witness Disclosure Form [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM
Biography of Counsel Liz Howard [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM

The Honorable Donald Palmer
Commissioner, Election Assistance Commission, Silver Spring, Maryland
Added 01/07/2020 at 09:19 AM
Written Testimony of Commissioner Don Palmer [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 03:23 PM
Palmer Witness Disclosure Form [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 03:16 PM
Biography of Commissioner Don Palmer [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 02:20 PM

Rev. T. Anthony Spearman
President, North Carolina NAACP, Greensboro, North Carolina
Added 01/07/2020 at 10:22 AM
Written Testimony of Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM
Spearman Witness Disclosure Form [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM
Biography of Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman [PDF]
Added 01/08/2020 at 11:45 AM

Support Documents
Hearing Announcement [PDF]


Notice of Hearing - Thursday, January 9, 2020 (10:00 AM) - Committee on House Administration
https://docs.house.gov/meetings/HA/HA00/20200109/110346/HHRG-116-HA00-20200109-SD001.pdf


Biography of John Poulos [PDF]
Provided on 1-8-2020 to Committee on House Administration.
https://docs.house.gov/meetings/HA/HA00/20200109/110346/HHRG-116-HA00-Bio-PoulosJ-20200109.pdf

#11174314 at 2020-10-20 19:59:12 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #14286: Midnight Riders On Patrol 24/7, Anons Always Watching Edition

>>11174236

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp MSFT.O said on Tuesday it had disabled more than 90% of the machines used by a gang of Russian-speaking cyber criminals to control a massive network of computers with a potential to disrupt the U.S. election.

Aided by a series of U.S. court orders and relationships with technology providers in other countries, Microsoft said it its weeklong campaign against the gang running the Trickbot network was heading off a possible source of disruption to the Nov. 3 U.S. vote.

"We've taken down most of their infrastructure," corporate Vice President Tom Burt said in an interview. "Their ability to go and infect targets has been significantly reduced."

The criminals in charge of Trickbot have infected more than 1 million personal computers, including many inside local governments, according to cybersecurity professionals. They then make deals with other gangs to install ransomware and other malicious programs on the infected machines, security professionals say.

Although there is no evidence that the gang has worked with foreign governments, Burt said he wanted to disrupt Trickbot before the election in case Russian agencies attempted to use it to interfere with voting or cast doubt on the results by manipulating data.

Some security experts who had seen little impact from Microsoft's initial efforts to combat Trickbot said this week that new control servers being brought online by the gang were getting cut off, making it harder for the group to install new programs on infected computers.

"Disruption operations against Trickbot are currently global in nature and have had success against Trickbot infrastructure," said Intel 471 Chief Executive Mark Arena. "Regardless, there still is a small number of working controllers based in Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and Kyrgyzstan that still are able to respond."

The Trickbot gang is now asking other malware groups to install its software, Arena and others said, and it is expected to rebuild its infrastructure in other ways.

Burt said such efforts to adapt would at least distract the gang from bringing chaos to voting or other local government activity if it had been so inclined.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-cyber-botnet-idUSKBN2752JK

#10620191 at 2020-09-12 19:08:09 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #13590: You. Have. More.Than. You. Know. Edition

How a Senate Inquiry Revealed the Israeli Surveillance Industry's Role in Orchestrating Russiagate

A Senate investigation reveals that a consortium of Israeli hacking and surveillance firms coordinated and facilitated meetings between Trump campaign operatives and Russia during the 2016 campaign, but they don't really want to talk about it.

Alleged Russian interference in the 2020 presidential election is headline news, once again, as a Ukrainian lawmaker is charged by the Trump administration "in a sweeping plot to sow distrust in the American political process," reports the Associated Press. Microsoft also made claims that it detected "hacking attempts targeting U.S. political campaigns, parties and consultants" by agents from Russia, China, and Iran. In a September 10 blog post, Microsoft's Tom Burt, Corporate Vice President of CusTomer Security & Trust, listed three groups from each region that Microsoft "observed" carrying out their cyber operations.

Rarely in the news, however, is the role played by Israeli cybersecurity startups in the creation of the Russiagate narrative itself. Incubated within the Israeli military apparatus and benefiting from an uninterrupted stream of billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars, these "private Mossads" have been present behind the scenes throughout the numerous Russia-related scandals fomented by the mainstream press to sow partisan discord among the American electorate and line the pockets of network executives.

Evidence of their activities has been exposed - though not pursued - in the latest volume of a U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee investigation on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, which shows how then-candidate Donald Trump personally embarked on a parallel campaign on behalf of Israel to block a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Originally submitted by Egypt, UNSCR 2334 strips Israeli settlements beyond the 1967 borders of any "legal validity" in the eyes of the international community and brands them a "flagrant violation under international law." Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, had refused all of the advances made by Trump's operatives to use its veto power against the measure, and Trump himself would prevail upon Egyptian President al-Sisi - whom Trump calls his "favorite dictator" - to withdraw the declaration. Together with Israeli pressure, UNSCR 2334 seemed destined to languish in obscurity as Egypt acquiesced and delayed the vote to "permit them to conduct an additional meeting of the Arab League's foreign ministers to work on the resolution's wording."

More
https://www.mintpressnews.com/senate-inquiry-israel-orchestrating-russiagate-election-interference/271084/

#10592375 at 2020-09-10 20:34:13 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #13554: Potus Rally Up Next Edition

Microsoft warns Russia, China and Iran targeting US election

Microsoft on Thursday reported that it is seeing "increasing" cyberattacks originating in Russia, China and Iran targeting its cusTomers, including attacks against political groups and the presidential campaigns of President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.

Tom Burt, corporate vice president of cusTomer security and trust at Microsoft, detailed in a blog post the efforts by three major foreign hacking groups to target the campaigns, along with other political organizations and individuals.

"The activity we are announcing today makes clear that foreign activity groups have stepped up their efforts targeting the 2020 election as had been anticipated, and is consistent with what the U.S. government and others have reported," Burt wrote.

These efforts included Russian hacking group "Strontium" targeting more than 200 organizations, political campaigns and parties over the past year, including U.S.-based consultants for the Democratic and Republican parties, think tanks such as the German Marshall Fund and political parties in the United Kingdom.

Strontium, also known as "Fancy Bear," is the same group that hacked into the Democratic National Committee networks in 2016.

Microsoft took legal action against the group in 2017, with a federal court ordering the group to stop targeting Microsoft cusTomers and using Microsoft logos in malicious email phishing campaigns.

"Strontium has evolved its tactics since the 2016 election to include new reconnaissance tools and new techniques to obfuscate their operations," Burt wrote. "In 2016, the group primarily relied on spear phishing to capture people's credentials. In recent months, it has engaged in brute force attacks and password spray, two tactics that have likely allowed them to auTomate aspects of their operations."

A second hacking effort announced by Microsoft on Thursday involved Chinese-based hacking group "Zirconium." Microsoft reported evidence of "thousands" of attempted attacks by the group between May and September, with nearly 150 successful compromises.

Among the individuals targeted unsuccessfully by Zirconium were Biden campaign staffers. The group went after non-campaign emails.

Zirconium also targeted an unnamed former Trump administration official, along with individuals in the international affairs community, including those at 15 universities and groups such as the Atlantic Council and the Stimson Center.

"Zirconium, operating from China, has attempted to gain intelligence on organizations associated with the upcoming U.S. presidential election," Burt wrote.

https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/515898-microsoft-sees-stepped-up-foreign-cyber-targeting-of-biden-trump

#6983881 at 2019-07-10 19:12:44 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #8935: These People Are EVIL Edition

Voting Machine Makers Claim The Names Of The Entities That Own Them Are Trade Secrets


Recently, the North Carolina State Board of Elections asked suppliers of electronic voting machines a simple question: who owns you? (h/t Annemarie Bridy)

On June 14, 2019, the State Board of Elections requested that your companies disclose any owners or shareholders with a 5% or greater interest or share in each of the vendor's company, any subsidiary company, of the vendor, and the vendor's parent company.

This seems like very basic information – information the Board should know and should be able to pass on to the general public. After all, these are the makers of devices used by the public while electing their representatives. They should know who's running these companies and who their majority stakeholders are. If something goes wrong (and something always does), they should know who's ultimately responsible for the latest debacle.

It's not like the state was asking the manufacturers to cough up code and machine schematics. All it wanted to know is the people behind the company nameplates. But the responses the board received indicate voting system manufacturers believe releasing any info about their companies' compositions will somehow compromise their market advantage.

Hart Intercivic said letting the public know that the company is owned by H.I.G. Hart, LLC and Gregg L. Burt is a fact that would devalue the company if it were made public.

Hart InterCivic, a corporation that derives independent actual value from this information not being generally known or readily ascertainable and makes reasonable efforts to maintain the secrecy of this information, requests that it be designated as a trade secret pursuant to G.S. § 132-1.2(1)d. and G.S. § 66-152(3).

Election Systems & Software (ES&S) said basically the same thing, claiming this information is "proprietary and confidential information:"

The following individuals and/or entities own 5% or more of the shares of Government Systems, Software & Services, Inc.:

McCarthy Group, LLC
Tom Burt
Tom O'Brien

Clear Ballot also claimed its list of owners was a trade secret:

Hello, per your request please see below for a list of our shareholders with a 5% or greater share of Clear Ballot Group, Inc. We have no other parent companies or subsidiaries:

1. Larry Moore
2. Tim Halvorsen
3. Steven Papa
4. Raging Capital Opportunity Fund V, LLC

Even this minimal amount of transparency had to be extracted at Board-point. While it's true private companies such as these are under no obligation to inform the public about the details of their ownership, they're all involved with providing goods and services to government agencies. Government agencies hooking up with private companies that treat ownership details as trade secrets isn't a good idea – not when the government has certain transparency obligations.

Even with the release of these details, there's still plenty of secrecy to go around. Election security advocate Lynn Berstein says the ownership of voting machine companies is a deliberate, multi-layered mess designed to obscure who's running these shops – and to possibly hide a bunch of stuff that looks like corruption, fraud, or general financial malfeasance.

One of ES&S's subsidiaries (and there are at least 39 of those) – Meritage Homes Corp. – shuffled some securities ownership the same day the North Carolina election board asked it to provide information about the company's ownership. Maybe it's a coincidence. Or maybe ES&S was offloading a politically-inconvenient owner. Whatever the case is, it certainly doesn't look good.

The government can't do everything itself. It will need vendors to supply goods and services. But these vendors need to operate under the same transparency the government is forced to, if they want to secure these lucrative contracts. Voters aren't given a choice in voting machine providers. They're stuck with whatever their government gives them. But when the government actually decides to perform a little vetting, the makes of the machines trusted to deliver accurate vote counts want to hide behind trade secret exceptions to prevent the public – and their elected officials – from knowing exactly who they're dealing with when they head into the voting booth.

Given the abhorrent track record of so many voting machine companies, it's no surprise they're extremely reluctant to share any details with the voting public. But that doesn't make them right. It just makes them a little bit more evil.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190706/17082642527/voting-machine-makers-claim-names-entities-that-own-them-are-trade-secrets.shtml