Want to see the DNC’s hacked opposition research file on Donald Trump?

In case you missed it this week, the Democratic National Committee’s network was hacked by what experts believe were agents of the Russian Government and the DNC’s opposition research file on Donald Trump was released.  It’s a hefty document and while there’s stuff in there that’s well known there’s some new details sure to make you laugh, cry or get angry about.

The DNC has not confirmed the hack or the authenticity of the document, probably because they are trying to find out if any donor database was breached which is actually a much bigger headache.  But the Trump Oppo Research is a great read.

From Internet Security Publishing Group, this:

An individual familiar with the breaches told the Washington Post that the hackers accessed a year’s worth of detailed chats, emails and opposition research on Trump, which could contain details about his personal and professional history. That individual told the newspaper that DNC officials first learned about the breach nearly two months ago, when the political party’s technology staff discovered malware on its computers.

The DNC turned to the incident response and threat intelligence firm CrowdStrike (based in Irvine) to investigate the breaches that began as early as last summer.

Dmitri Alperovitch, CrowdStrike’s chief technology officer, in a blog identifies two Russian groups – “Cozy Bear” and “Fancy Bear” – as the hackers, characterizing them as “some of the best adversaries” among nation-state, criminal, terror and hacktivist groups. “Their tradecraft is superb, operational security second to none and the extensive usage of ‘living-off-the-land’ techniques enables them to easily bypass many security solutions they encounter,” Alperovitch says.

Want to read the report yourself?  Here it is.

In a nutshell, the document provides fascinating insight into the opposition research operations that few voters see.

Of particular note for Californians, Trump’s views on immigration.  From the report:

“Trump’s campaign is fueled by extreme, xenophobic and sometimes dangerous rhetoric about immigration. Trump doesn’t just oppose comprehensive immigration reform like his fellow GOPers, he vilifies immigrants for political gain and proposes outrageous solutions based on absurd and false information.”

More troubling than the release of Trump records is the notion that the DNC (and the RNC for that matter) likely don’t have adequate information security protections on their computer systems making donor information hackable.  Time to spend some dough to bolster those systems.