Police probing IT contractors for House Dems over ‘unauthorized’ computer access

I wonder how long this was going on? Is it possible that some knew about this, but we needed a change in administration to prompt them to do something about it?

Could this be the source of WikiLeaks?
It has been a theory that the source was an inside job, and someone on the IT staff of the House Democrats might have access to the information that was leaked.

The IT contractors involved are from 5 companies. They have lost their access privileges.
No arrests at this time.

U.S. Capitol Police are probing the activities of several IT contractors who worked for dozens of House Democrats after they allegedly inappropriately accessed House computers, took congressional computer hardware and made questionable IT-related purchases on behalf of lawmakers.
...
Fox News is told the contract employees, shared by about 40 House Democratic members, removed hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment from offices, including computers and servers. There also were bookkeeping and inventory irregularities where the employees would purchase equipment at one price, bill the congressional office for another and potentially pocket the difference.
...
Fox News is told the employees made “unauthorized access” to the House computer system.

Further, there were instances where House information was discovered in an external “cloud” server. The contractors in question reportedly were sending and storing House-related information in that off-site server.

Police probing IT contractors for House Dems over ‘unauthorized’ computer access

I notice that CNN and others are not covering this.
I wonder if this could possibly blow their Russia hacking scam out the window?

Theres generally a brick wall between those who understand the tech and those that don't and if you're paid to provide certain services and the customer doesn't understand and said things like "I need to be able to access my email anywhere" amongst other sorts of crap, quite often when you're doing the actual IT magic you don't know who the hell they are as its your bosses job to sort that crap and get the money for it.

There probably should be a national IT support service for politicians so they can get some sane advice as to what to actually do.

The IT people may not know who the persons are and it could just be a few people from a local church or a bunch of senators.

originally posted by: BlueAjah
I notice that CNN and others are not covering this.
I wonder if this could possibly blow their Russia hacking scam out the window?

Definitely right out the window.

Good story

Possibly part of a low level political espionage effort.

Some people suspected these things a few years ago.

All coming out now that the cover ups are getting exposed.

One of the side effects of draining a swamp is the discovery of sunken and rotting stumps. Looks like some of these rotting stumps just broke the surface as more swamp water is drained away.

I wonder what dead and decomposing bodies lay at the bottom of that swamp and if we will ever see them?

a reply to: xuenchen

If that happens, I hope Trump makes Obama personally apologize to Putin.
Live.
On all of the news stations.

originally posted by: BlueAjah
a reply to: xuenchen

If that happens, I hope Trump makes Obama personally apologize to Putin.
Live.
On all of the news stations.

It would make a classic "woodshed" moment. But then, the left would likely call it a racist act of Trump (a rich powerful white man) to punish a (poor unemployed) black man. < eye roll >

Sounds as though they were working a monetary angle.

Not saying someone in the group could not have done a leak or someone with access to the cloud data did it.

I don't trust the cloud. If NSA contractors can snoop around info and go rogue, what does it say about contractors for public ISPs and web hosting.

a reply to: roadgravel

The cloud storage was against House rules.

Further, there were instances where House information was discovered in an external “cloud” server. The contractors in question reportedly were sending and storing House-related information in that off-site server.

“That violates House rules and it puts the House at risk,” a source familiar with the investigation said.

It's still not clear if they were doing something nefarious with the data or just did not know the rules.
Having the data on a server at another location is dangerous. It might not be government approved for security protections.
So even if the contractors did not leak information, it might have made the data vulnerable to hacks by others.

a reply to: BlueAjah

INFOsec for the house is honestly, overworked.

There is no way they can keep up, I mean the staff for the House is so large and there isn't anything stopping someone from moving a file or doc copied and pasted to a gmail account and send.

And even worse, there is nothing stopping someone from just recording on their own device and not leaving a trail at all to get in trouble with.

There is a reason spies still photograph.

They will need tp use all wired devices an render all wifi useless while in the buildings, to secure things any other way is just a pipe dream.

Humans are the weak point, not a router, network or server.

a reply to: BlueAjah

a reply to: BlueAjah

Agreed, which is what I was pointing to in my post. A third party could have well done a leak, for whatever reason. Maybe even a leak for the sake of a leak which then is used as seen fit by a person acquiring the information.

a reply to: BlueAjah

Good catch. i never saw this thread until now. I am sure the DNC are going to claim "they are the Russians!!!"

Yet more evidence the DNC has been the one hacking and interfering with our elections. Now that they lost, Soros and the rest of the "progressives" are mobilizing their mindless thugs to demand the removal of Trump, and inciting violence so the globalists can keep up their plans.

This should be front news all over, but of course the left-wing media is keeping quiet as much as possible.

Wait for the left-wing media, and even some members here, to claim "this is right-wing fake news!!!"

a reply to: ElectricUniverse

There is a nationwide protest to protest Trump's administration on Friday next week could be the media is holding off this bombshell until after the protests...