Basic Digital Security Could Have Prevented One of the Biggest Political Scandals in American Histor

[LiberalArkie]

Russia hacked the Clinton campaign in large part because John Podesta didn't bother to turn on two-factor authentication.

As the editor of a publication that spends a lot of time focused on digital security, it is hard to look at Robert Mueller’s indictment of 12 Russian hackers Friday and feel anything other than rage and looming dread.

Whether you believe Russian meddling impacted the results of the 2016 election or not, Russian hacking has without a doubt resulted in a mind-boggling amount of political strife and general tension. Perhaps all of this unpleasantness could have been avoided if John Podesta turned on two-factor authentication, which is among the most basic security advice we could possibly offer.

According to the indictment, Russians targeted over 300 individuals affiliated with the Hillary Clinton Campaign, the DCCC, and the Democratic National Committee. Nation-state hackers in general are highly sophisticated, and it’s possible that Russian hackers would have ratcheted up the sophistication of the techniques that they used to hack top Democratic officials if its initial attack on Podesta wasn’t successful. But it turns out they didn’t need to.

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https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ywkd35/two-factor-authentication-russia-hacking-indictment

[exboyfil]

1. Podesta's failure to secure his account was not the only idiotic decision

Clinton running her non-classified State department emails through a personal account was also stupid. I don't know of a single corporate employer who would tolerate this, and they don't have the document retention requirements of the federal government.

[DURHAM D]

2. How do you feel about Trump's phone? nt

[Wounded Bear]

3. Putin pays Trump's phone bill. I'm sure it's fine...

[exboyfil]

5. The same but even worse

The Trump presidency has been the complete disaster I thought it would be. I thought he was a Russian stooge, and he has proved that even beyond my wildest imagination. Clinton would have been a good President. I actually think the country might have been better off with Clinton in 2008 and Obama as VP who ran in 2016.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. I think there are, or at least were, an awful lot of people with no clue

about how any of this stuff works. They should have been briefed by someone who did. I hope everyone who should know better does now, but it might be too late.

[blogslut]

6. Yes, let's blame Podesta

That will make it all go away. </sarcasm>

[Hortensis]

7. Plugging holes in 1 out of every 2000 heads could have prevented it.

The electorate failed.

[chowder66]

8. While two-factor authentication can make it harder to hack it isn't bullet proof.

Plus it still isn't widely used. We are seeing more sites offer it as an option and only some require it.

Blaming Podesta is about as petty AND lazy as one can get.

[manor321]

9. Yes, but this was not the only attack! n/t

[LiberalArkie]

10. One thing to remember is the difference when Obama came into office. He was not allowed to use

his BlackBerry phone until it was secured. And he did not. He waited until he got a secured phone.

[MyNameGoesHere]

11. Yes blame the victim.

If he was using email he was just asking for it. Why he's nothing more than an email trollop and got what he deserved.