The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: No smocking guns. - Page 705 - Politics and Economics

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The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: No smocking guns.

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03-10-2017 , 12:23 AM

#17601

Max Cut

Guest

Posts: n/a

Quote:

Originally Posted by m_reed05

Anybody with technical knowledge have theories on this Trump Russia computer connection? Listening to 'experts' on CNN, nothing really makes sense.

Apparently it's possible to tunnel via DNS. In other words, to pass data where it would appear, to unsuspecting eyes, as just network infrastructure communication (address lookups). Not sure what the possible implications are.

03-10-2017 , 12:32 AM

#17602

fatkid

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 8,860

If I was gay I would be all in on Shep's butthole.

03-10-2017 , 12:58 AM

#17603

AllCowsEatGrass

banned

Join Date: Mar 2017 Posts: 1,839

Quote:

Originally Posted by m_reed05

Anybody with technical knowledge have theories on this Trump Russia computer connection? Listening to 'experts' on CNN, nothing really makes sense.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 8=====D

If the computer was hacked and it was sending data back to the hacker they'd probably have it send the data first to some botnet computer and then through tor to hide their tracks. So it was unlikely that.

If someone was doing communicating with russians doing something shady they'd probably be using tor also, so probably not that either.

So it was probably innocent stuff like a russian advertisement embedded on a porn or torrent site, maybe worst case a non state backed hacker who didn't care about covering his tracks.

Well the facts of the data is pretty interesting.

Quote:

Internet data shows that last summer, a computer server owned by Russia-based Alfa Bank repeatedly looked up the contact information for a computer server being used by the Trump Organization -- far more than other companies did, representing 80% of all lookups to the Trump server.
It's unclear if the Trump Organization server itself did anything in return. No one has produced evidence that the servers actually communicated.
...

From May 4 until September 23, the Russian bank looked up the address to this Trump corporate server 2,820 times -- more lookups than the Trump server received from any other source.
As noted, Alfa Bank alone represents 80% of the lookups, according to these leaked internet records.
Far back in second place, with 714 such lookups, was a company called Spectrum Health.
Spectrum is a medical facility chain led by Dick DeVos, the husband of Betsy DeVos, who was appointed by Trump as U.S. education secretary.
Together, Alfa and Spectrum accounted for 99% of the lookups.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/09/politi...ion/index.html

So 99% of the Russian bank's server's DNS lookups were for servers owned by Trump, and Devos.

The Trump server was apparently an email server.

Quote:

mail1.trump-email.com

I haven't looked into this much, but I don't know what kind of server the Devos server is. But I think the advertisement theory doesn't hold much water, because DNS queries to the Devos server comprised 19% of the DNS queries.

The advertisement theory, which apparently is being pushed by the Russian bank itself, is this:

Quote:

Alfa Bank has maintained that the most likely explanation is that the server communication was the result of spam marketing. Bank executives have stayed at Trump hotels, so it's possible they got subsequent spam marketing emails from the Trump Organization. Those emails might have set off defensive cybersecurity measures at the bank, whose servers would respond with a cautious DNS lookup. Alfa Bank said it used antispam software from Trend Micro, whose tools would do a DNS lookup to know the source of the spam.
Alfa Bank said it brought U.S. cybersecurity firm Mandiant to Moscow to investigate. Mandiant had a "working hypothesis" that the activity was "caused by email marketing/spam" on the Trump server's end, according to representatives for Alfa Bank and Mandiant. The private investigation is now over, Alfa Bank said.

OK, so what about the other 19% of DNS queries to the Devos server?

I don't have a theory, but with 99% of DNS queries going collectively to a Trump and Devos server, it's very fishy imo.

03-10-2017 , 01:01 AM

#17604

AllCowsEatGrass

banned

Join Date: Mar 2017 Posts: 1,839

Quote:

Originally Posted by Max Cut

Interesting.

03-10-2017 , 01:09 AM

#17605

PocketChads

guaranteed 42-10 finish

Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 22,476

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatkid

If I was gay I would be all in on Shep's butthole.

Back off, get your own man

03-10-2017 , 01:12 AM

#17606

Minirra

old hand

Join Date: Mar 2015 Posts: 1,672

Speaking with someone with a lot of expertise about this, paraphrasing, "virtual interfaces are easy and this could be used to mask communications, but there would be better ways if it's very important you don't get found out"

"looks shady and should be explained"

If it's anything beyond N+ level it's Greek to me. Agree also reporting could be better

03-10-2017 , 01:24 AM

#17607

markksman

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 20,921

Quote:

Originally Posted by stinkubus

Urbanization is a natural consequence of our shift from a manufacturing to service economy. I'm fearful this trend will only continue to lead to heartbreaking Presidential losses like 2000 and 2016. It's far to easy to suppress the Dem vote by simply limiting the number of polling stations in the right zip codes.

From 1776-1996 three men managed to win the Presidency without winning the popular vote. It's now happened twice in the last four cycles and I won't be shocked if it happens again in 2020.

It's not happening in the immediate future but ultimately people will be able to. Vote online. I would say no later than 2028 before this is happening.

03-10-2017 , 01:27 AM

#17608

stinkubus

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: Jan 2012 Posts: 4,422

The GOP has control of 34 statehouses and has absolutely zero incentive to making voting easier.

03-10-2017 , 01:29 AM

#17609

PocketChads

guaranteed 42-10 finish

Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 22,476

Quote:

Originally Posted by stinkubus

The GOP has control of 34 statehouses and has absolutely zero incentive to making voting easier.

Not zero, it's negative

#WellActually

03-10-2017 , 03:01 AM

#17610

JoltinJake

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 5,236

The communicating server has always struck me as super fishy. And now the DeVos connection makes it REALLY weird.

I'm not technical enough to understand all of this so maybe I'm wrong, but isn't it a pretty unbelievable coincidence at this point? Just so happens the only two companies are tied to Russia and DeVos? Just so happens Alfa also appears in the dossier? Just so happens the FBI is still investigating the server?

Seems like either there has to be something there or somebody was specifically making it look that way. But how would that person know about DeVos?

03-10-2017 , 03:31 AM

#17611

RV Life

old hand

Join Date: Jun 2016 Posts: 1,935

Quote:

Originally Posted by m_reed05

Anybody with technical knowledge have theories on this Trump Russia computer connection? Listening to 'experts' on CNN, nothing really makes sense.

Guys, I'm with reed here.

I've noticed he's had some replies and I'm sorry but they don't make any sense. DSN server? Communicating server? DeVos connection? No idea what that is and how it relates to Trump/Russia.

Pretend we are time travelers from the 1800's. What's going on?

03-10-2017 , 04:22 AM

#17612

Minirra

old hand

Join Date: Mar 2015 Posts: 1,672

As best as I can understand it, there's a particular server affiliated with Trump.* Servers have DNS addresses. Other machines can query/look up these addresses, and someone found out that about 80% of the lookups came from Alfa bank in Russia, and about 20% came from a company owned by Betsy DeVos (or her husband). Other traffic went another route.

*It's not actually Trump's server. It's owned by a separate company that runs a specific domain (trump-email.com) and the server is in Philadelphia. Marketing is a part of their thing which can cause traffic to DNS from certain sources. Trump just registered the domain and apparently used for marketing.

So, right now, the explanation for the queries isn't clear.

HOWEVER, the Twitter post above references Iodine, which is an application that can be used to piggyback other packets (info) along with DNS queries, so obscured communication by these means is technically possible. Interesting idea but the consensus is that other explanations are possible too.

Would grade "I" for incomplete. It's being investigated but it's been a known thing since before the election and no bomb has dropped on it yet. I wouldn't jump on this too fast even though "Trump-Russia servers" always sounds enticing. We're don't know enough yet and CNN's article seems pretty irresponsible to me or at least premature.

But there is still an FBI investigation, and claims that this has been "debunked" are equally wrong. If this is a story they need to finish it first. Even the sources here are a little fuzzy. It looks like Slate did some pretty irresponsible reporting early on too. Not a huge Slate fan.

Last edited by Minirra; 03-10-2017 at 04:42 AM.

03-10-2017 , 04:34 AM

#17613

ChrisV

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 40,336

I'm an IT professional. Would be surprised if there was any substance to the story. Using DNS for obscured communication would make no sense at all. The Trump server is a mail server and its possible the DNS lookups are something like an antivirus programming doing verification on marketing emails. The only unresolved question then is why so many queries from only one or two companies. Thats not really that mysterious compared to why Trump would be using DNS queries to a random mail server in rural Pennsylvania to communicate, that is real underpants on head territory. The Russia connection is cueing people via cognitive bias to assume something nefarious, but if you take a step back a nefarious explanation is a priori prohibitively unlikely. Like the Russia connection turns it from like 10 million to one to a million to one. 10 times more likely, sure, but it doesnt matter.

03-10-2017 , 04:43 AM

#17614

microbet

Solar Powered

Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 57,095

A DNS server matches domain names to IP addresses and directs requests for something from a domain to the right machine/server IP address.

Supposedly Trump had a weird DNS set up to respond with an error to every request sent from anywhere on the internet except from a few specific IP addresses, one of which being from Alfa bank in Russia.

I'm not sure why they were doing that and with Trumpians involved there's a fair chance they were being idiots and in trying to hide something they made it more obvious.

03-10-2017 , 04:47 AM

#17615

microbet

Solar Powered

Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 57,095

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisV

I'm an IT professional. Would be surprised if there was any substance to the story. Using DNS for obscured communication would make no sense at all. The Trump server is a mail server and its possible the DNS lookups are something like an antivirus programming doing verification on marketing emails. The only unresolved question then is why so many queries from only one or two companies. Thats not really that mysterious compared to why Trump would be using DNS queries to a random mail server in rural Pennsylvania to communicate, that is real underpants on head territory. The Russia connection is cueing people via cognitive bias to assume something nefarious, but if you take a step back a nefarious explanation is a priori prohibitively unlikely. Like the Russia connection turns it from like 10 million to one to a million to one. 10 times more likely, sure, but it doesnt matter.

The slate explanation is that the server used to be used for mass emails about Trump trash, but it hadn't been lately. Does a co-location facility in rural Pennsylvania not make sense for that?

03-10-2017 , 05:17 AM

#17616

m_reed05

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 8,611

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisV

Basically what the tech experts on CNN said. It would make no sense to be doing something nefarious this way. But at the same time it doesn't make much sense for anything benign to show up this way either.

03-10-2017 , 05:43 AM

#17617

suzzer99

Save the Cheerleader, Save the World

Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 100,222

Stand back ma'am! I am an IT professional.

03-10-2017 , 07:33 AM

#17618

epcfast

veteran

Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 2,535

Quote:

Originally Posted by suzzer99

Stand back ma'am! I am an IT professional.

Have you tried turning it off and then on again?

03-10-2017 , 07:41 AM

#17619

O.A.F.K.1.1

Ted Patrick

Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 27,952

03-10-2017 , 08:50 AM

#17620

+rep_lol

banned

Join Date: Sep 2013 Posts: 14,900

Quote:

Originally Posted by goofyballer

That feeds into Taibbi's arguments about what happens if the media runs wild with this (like these people inside intelligence agencies might want) when there's no big bombshell at the end:

i counter with one word: benghazi

03-10-2017 , 08:56 AM

#17621

Clovis8

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 16,503

Let's all hope the US follows South Korea's lead.

03-10-2017 , 09:19 AM

#17622

vaya

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 15,156

The old "too wolfy to be a wolf" theory

03-10-2017 , 10:07 AM

#17623

Namath12

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 55,849

Quote:

Originally Posted by PocketChads

Back off, get your own man

ROSSI!! JANICE ROSSI!!!

03-10-2017 , 10:46 AM

#17624

Huehuecoyotl

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 29,296

Quote:

A little-noticed bill moving through Congress would allow companies to require employees to undergo genetic testing or risk paying a penalty of thousands of dollars, and would let employers see that genetic and other health information

Giving employers such power is now prohibited by legislation including the 2008 genetic privacy and nondiscrimination law known as GINA. The new bill gets around that landmark law by stating explicitly that GINA and other protections do not apply when genetic tests are part of a “workplace wellness” program.

The bill, HR 1313, was approved by a House committee on Wednesday, with all 22 Republicans supporting it and all 17 Democrats opposed. It has been overshadowed by the debate over the House GOP proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, but the genetic testing bill is expected to be folded into a second ACA-related measure containing a grab-bag of provisions that do not affect federal spending, as the main bill does.

https://www.statnews.com/2017/03/10/...ampaign=buffer