Teenagers can hack NASA [0] so I don't think a sufficiently motivated attacker, possibly backed by a nation state, couldn't pull off something like this as a false flag.
[0]: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=119423&page=1
[0]: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=119423&page=1
Right, the fact someone could compromise a random government agency in the 90s clearly means someone else could compromise Russian military intelligence in 2016, because NASA's IT security in the 90s is totally comparable to the GRU today, absolutely.
> possibly backed by a nation state
Which nation state, exactly?
There is no public video recording to substantiate their claim. You'd think this entire debate would be settled if on YouTube we could all just watch visual proof of Russians hacking the US.
They also claimed that the video feed came from a university building in Moscow's Red Square. I challenge you to find such a building on a map of the Red Square.
The story which made it to HN: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/01/dutch...
My analysis is below, but I encourage you to look at Suzie Dawson's epic takedown here: https://steemit.com/steemit/@suzi3d/10-reasons-the-dutch-rus...
So, just because the US intelligence community gets attribution details in 2014 doesn't mean they didn't fake the attribution for the 2016 DNC hack. That's like me registering an account with your username on some site and posting stuff with it - many digital "fingerprints" can be faked. Readers of HN should know this (lol).
Also, the author's claim that the US intelligence community attributed the DNC hack is dubious. James Clapper did, and he threw around a debunked "17 intelligence agencies" slogan[0], but the man's a retired partisan[1]. Recall that the DNC would not let the FBI do actual forensics on their hacked server[2] - well, there's one intelligence agency that didn't get a chance to make an official attribution. Recall too that the Crowdstrike's hack report claims were debunked by the Ukranian army[3] & authenticity of the C&C software was questioned by many in the cyber security community[4].
Like, who didn't know that Russia had hackers? We also know that the DNC/DeepState have a scapegoat.
[0] https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/07/06/clapper_c...
[1] https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-11-17/lawmakers-re...
[2] http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2017/05/09/the_fbi_i...
[3] https://www.voanews.com/a/cyber-firm-rewrites-part-disputed-...
[4] http://www.zdnet.com/article/no-smoking-gun-for-russian-dnc-...
Because such hacks don't happen today?
>Which nation state, exactly?
Well, which nation state likes false flags and BS excuses like WMDs for their target du jour?
The most infamous (and heinous) oft sighted example...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_apartment_bombings
And there are plenty of more recent allegations such as the framing of North Korea for the attempts to disrupt the Winter Olympics:
https://www.wired.com/story/russia-false-flag-hacks/
Parkland shootings etc etc
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2018/feb/22/...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/after-the-parkland-s...
As words, phrases and fads spreads on the press, so they do on the internet.
I'm not going to change your mind on what you think is BS, but I do disagree with you. If you have the chance, I highly suggest talking to retired CIA operatives that were active during the Cold War -- the stuff they talk about (when allowed) can be pretty eye-opening.