Cyber Firm Behind “Russian Hacking” Claims Has Ties To Soros-Supported Think Tank
by William Craddick
ZeroHedge.com
Apr 5, 2017
Via Disobedient Media
The cyber firm Crowdstrike has been one of the main proponents of allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 American presidential elections using their cyber capabilities. The analysis performed by Crowdstrike was relied on almost exclusively by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to establish their claims of “Russian hacking.”
It has subsequently been revealed that Crowdstrike has in the past both misrepresented data in an attempt to frame the Russian government for cyber attacks and also failed to account for known capabilities of third parties which enable them to impersonate Russian hackers. The founder of Crowdstrike is also tied to the Atlantic Council, a think tank supported by George Soros which has been accused of accepting funds in exchange for support of favored policy positions as well as promoting disinformation and propaganda attacks against anti establishment figures.
I. Crowdstrike’s Claims Of Russian Hacking Cannot Be Independently Verified By Government Agencies, Ignore Known Attribution Techniques
On June 14, 2016, Crowdstrike published a study commissioned by the DNC, in which they accused the Russian government of breaching the DNC’s computer systems. The DNC’s choice to rely on Crowdstrike exclusively was incredibly controversial. CNN reported that the DNC actually refused to grant the FBI access to their servers despite the agency’s explicitly stating that they could conduct a satisfactory investigation if they were forced to rely on third party data. The report by Crowdstrike stood as one of the first definitive authorities which has found evidence of Russian cyber infiltration or electronic meddling in the 2016 elections. Rather than confirm the notion that Russia interfered in American elections, a number of other developments since Crowdstrike’s report have cast increasing doubt on their claims and in fact have suggested that they may be part of a widespread attempt to push disinformation for financial gain and benefit to the groups clients and affiliates.
Alarming indicators that Crowdstrike may have been promoting the idea of “Russian hacking” out of ulterior motives began to emerge almost immediately after their report was released. On July 28th, 2016, The Washington Post reported that Crowdstrike was one of a number of cyber security firms making a large profit thanks to widespread fears about Russian hackers. Beyond running a report which would satisfy the DNC, the drumming up of fear about Russian cyber menaces meant created a blatant potential conflict of interest for Crowdstrike.
Crowdstrike’s analysis also ignored known capabilities, since publicized by Wikileaks in their Day Zero and Marble releases from the Vault 7 series, which have proven the existence of cyber capabilities that allow programmers mask the identity of their malware and masquerade it as belonging to foreign intelligence agencies and mimic their online attack methods. They have also shown that many programmers have the ability to create an appearance of ‘false attribution’ which gives the impression that the malware was created by another country, even mimicking the native language of the host country they intend to attribute the attack to.
II. Crowdstrike Has Misrepresented Data In Order To Push Anti-Russian Narratives
On December 22nd, 2016, Crowdstrike ran another report, alleging that Russians hacked into a Ukrainian artillery app, resulting in heavy losses of howitzers in Ukraine’s civil war with Russian-backed separatists. The report was intended to buttress its claims of Russian hacking in the presidential election. The report was immediately contested by Yaroslav Sherstyuk, maker of the Ukrainian military app in question, who called the company’s report “delusional.” On March 23rd, 2017, Voice of America (VOA) ran a damning piece citing British think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), who stated that CrowdStrike erroneously used IISS data as proof of the intrusion. Furthermore, the IISS disavowed any connection to the CrowdStrike report. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense also claimed that the combat losses and hacking never happened, meaning that Crowdstrike had apparently fabricated facts and details in the report completely.
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