Republicans hacked after hiring the Democrats' cyber-security firm, Crowdstrike - Thomas Lifson

​
by Thomas Lifson

Crowdstrike, the cyber-security contractor, did not detect the hack, and it went on for months.

Why on Earth would the National Republican Congressional Committee hire the same firm that allowed the Democrats' emails to be hacked as its own cyber-security consultant? In fact, Crowdstrike is the same firm that claimed that it was the Russians who hacked the Dems after then-DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz reportedly refused to let the FBI examine the computers.

Politico broke the story of the hack:

The email accounts of four senior aides at the National Republican Congressional Committee were surveilled for several months, the party officials said. The intrusion was detected in April by an NRCC vendor, who alerted the committee and its cybersecurity contractor. An internal investigation was initiated, and the FBI was alerted to the attack, said the officials, who requested anonymity to discuss the incident.

Did you catch that? Crowdstrike, the cyber-security contractor, did not detect the hack, and it went on for months. It took another firm to belatedly clue in the NRCC to the failure. Even then, the news remained kept from people who ought to have known:

However, senior House Republicans – including Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana – were not informed of the hack until Politico contacted the NRCC on Monday with questions about the episode. Rank-and-file House Republicans were not told, either.

Luke Rosiak, ace investigative reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation, presents more shocking news:

The NRCC paid Crowdstrike at least $120,000 in 2017, according to campaign finance records.

Gee, I could have allowed them to be hacked for only $60,000.

Crowdstrike's track record for the Dems was so bad that it's hard to imagine why the GOP would hire it:

CrowdStrike was responding to the DNC's hack as of May 5, 2016, but emails continued to be stolen for weeks. In fact, the majority of the emails WikiLeaks published were not even written until after May 5. That's despite the fact that CrowdStrike claimed it knew within minutes that the problem was a specific virus and that it was tied to Russia. (RELATED: Most Wikileaks Emails Not Even Written Until AFTER DNC Knew It Was Hacked)
CrowdStrike, which is led by a Russian ex-pat and a former FBI official, took until June 10, 2016, to replace all the software in a move it believed would put an end to the breach. The last DNC email WikiLeaks published was written on May 25.

Politico reports:

Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio, who served as NRCC chairman this past election cycle, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

He's got a lot to answer for.


Thomas Lifson

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/12/republicans_hacked_after_hiring_the_democrats_cybersecurity_firm_crowdstrike.html

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter