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Saturday, October 10, 2020

The Pelosis Are Heavily Invested in Crowdstrike

Crowdstrike being the cyber security firm that, if you believe what you read in the MSM, "investigated" the DNC email "hack." "Heavily invested" means that the Pelosis have invested no less than $1 million dollars in Crowdstrike, beginning just a month ago. That's per a long article by Aaron Maté: Pelosis Take a Big Stake in CrowdStrike, Democrat-Connected Linchpin of Russia Probe. Who knows--if Biden wins maybe there'll be a lot of cyber security and investigating the Dems will want Crowdstrike to get involved in.

Crowdstrike was co-founded by Dmitri Alperovitch, the Russian with the shadowy background who, since coming to the US in 1994, has rocketed to the top of the cyber security sector. Bringing on Shawn Henry, formerly one of the top guys in Bob Mueller's FBI, probably didn't hurt when it came to gaining access to the the federal government and obtaining lucrative contracts. Here's the lineup of Crowdstrike's founders:


CrowdStrike was co-founded by George Kurtz (CEO),[5] Dmitri Alperovitch (CTO),[6] and Gregg Marston (CFO, retired) in 2011.[7][8] In 2012, Shawn Henry, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) official, was hired to lead sister company CrowdStrike Services, Inc., which focused on proactive and incident response services.[9] In June 2013, the company launched its first product, CrowdStrike Falcon, which provided threat intelligence and attribution to nation state actors[10] that are conducting economic espionage and IP theft.


And here's what Wikipedia tells us about Crowdstrike's funding:


In July 2015, Google invested in the company's Series C funding round, which was followed by Series D] and Series E, raising a total of $480 million as of May 2019. In 2017, the company reached a valuation of more than $1 billion with an estimated annual revenue of $100 million. In June 2018, the company said it was valued at more than $3 billion. Investors include Telstra, March Capital Partners, Rackspace, Accel Partners and Warburg Pincus.

In June 2019, the company made an initial public offering (IPO) on the NASDAQ.


In case you were wondering, 


A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the primary stimuli for the development of new companies and technologies.


That means, at the least, that Google was and probably still is very influential in Crowdstrike.

As we all know, the FBI never examined the physical DNC server. Instead, at the insistence of the DNC and the Clinton Campaign--represented by Michael Sussmann, who presented the Alfa Bank Hoax to his good friend at the FBI, James Baker--the FBI deferred to CrowdStrike. However, Crowdstrike, as we learned from the Manafort case, has its own dodgy notions of cyber forensics and says it never took physical possession of any DNC servers. Both CrowdStrike and the DNC drew their conclusions about the alleged Russian hack based on an examination of software “images” of the server.

This led to an interesting exchange when former top FBI cyber exec Shawn Henry testified before the Senate and, later, before Adam Schiff. I quote here from Aaron Maté's article:


As RealClearInvestigations reported last month, Henry's House testimony also conflicts with his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee two months prior, in October 2017. According to the Senate report, Henry claimed that CrowdStrike was "able to see some exfiltration and the types of files that had been touched," but not the files' content. Yet two months later, Henry told the House that "we didn't see the data leave, but we believe it left, based on what we saw." 

Notably, Henry's acknowledgment to the House that CrowdStrike did not have evidence of exfiltration came only after he was interrupted and prodded by his attorneys to correct an initial answer. Right before that intervention from CrowdStrike counsel, Henry had falsely asserted that he knew when Russian hackers had exfiltrated the stolen information:  

Adam Schiff: Do you know the date in which the Russians exfiltrated the data from the DNC?  

Shawn Henry:  I do. I have to just think about it. I don’t know. I mean, it’s in our report that I think the Committee has. 

Schiff:  And, to the best of your recollection, when would that have been? 

Henry: Counsel just reminded me that, as it relates to the DNC, we have indicators that data was exfiltrated. We do not have concrete evidence that data was exfiltrated from the DNC, but we have indicators that it was exfiltrated. 

Henry then improbably argued that, in the absence of evidence showing the emails leaving the DNC server, Russian hackers could have taken individual screenshots of each of the 44,053 emails and 17,761 attachments that were ultimately put out by WikiLeaks.


I read Henry's response this way: "Counsel just reminded me to avoid committing perjury." Which is always sound advice in these circumstances. If my conclusion seems a bit harsh, consider the improbability of the answer he then gave.

Now, here is who Shawn Henry is--or was in a previous life:


Shawn retired as FBI Executive Assistant Director (EAD) in 2012, overseeing half of the FBI’s investigative operations, including all FBI criminal and cyber investigations worldwide, international operations, and the FBI’s critical incident response to major investigations and disasters. During his 24- year career, he held a wide range of operational and leadership roles in four FBI Field Offices and FBI Headquarters.

Serving in multiple positions relating to cyber intrusions since 1999, Shawn was the Bureau’s outspoken top agent on cybersecurity issues, boosting the FBI’s cyber investigative capabilities. In addition to his last position as EAD, he served as both Deputy Assistant Director and Assistant Director of the Cyber Division at FBI Headquarters; Supervisor of the FBI Cyber Crime Squad in Baltimore; and Chief of the Computer Investigations’ Unit within the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC).

During his tenure, Shawn oversaw major computer crime and cyber investigations spanning the globe, from denial-of-service attacks, to major bank and corporate breaches, to nation-state sponsored intrusions. Shawn led the establishment of the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force (NCIJTF), a multi-agency center led by the FBI, and forged partnerships domestically and internationally within governments and the private sector. He was an original member of, and key contributor to, the National Cyber Study Group, under the direction of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. This organization developed the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), the U.S. government’s national strategy to mitigate threats and secure cyberspace. Early in his cyber career, Shawn served on the U.S. delegation to the G8 as a member of the High-Tech Crimes Subgroup.


Most people would probably expect that a guy who rose to such exalted levels of the FBI, and remained there for over a decade, would be quite able to give a straight answer to a straight question. When he's asked, Do you know when exfiltration of data took place? and he doesn't actually know that any exfiltration ever did take place, this upstanding former G-man would forthrightly declare: I don't know that any exfiltration ever took place. 

It's not as if that was a trick question for a guy with that kind of background and who has had lots of time to prep for his testimony. After all, that's the question everyone was waiting for him to answer. And he knew that. And yet his lawyer had to "remind" him to avoid committing perjury. Weird, huh? Is he actually stupid, or was he just a bit over eager to please Adam Schiff?

All I can say is that I hope that, like Daniel Jones, Shawn Henry will be spending some quality time before a grand jury before Barr's investigation is over with.


19 comments:

  1. Schifty Schiff and his narrative. Notice how he turns "Do you know the date when the data was exfiltrated from the DNC?" into "Do you know the date in which the Russians exfiltrated the data from the DNC?"

    No actual evidence has surfaced that "The Russians" did it. Whereas there is persuasive circumstantial evidence that it was actually an insider with physical access.

    183X

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    1. Once one realizes there never was any evidence of exfiltration of DNC emails over the internet, one comes to finally understand how critical Guccifer 2.0 was to selling the idea the Russian hacked the DNC and gave the emails to Wikileaks, which is the necessary precursor, along with CrowsStrike's bogus DNC hack report the media quoted from at the time, to selling the Trump/Russia Collusion Hoax.

      And what it tells me is there was a front end to Hillary's plan approved in late July to frame the Trump campaign as colluding with the Russians to swipe the DNC emails.

      That suggests what Hillary approved was the OPERATIONAL "DISINFOMATION WARFARE" PHASE of her nefarious plan: pointing fingers, leaking "evidence" to friendly media types, and feeding it to the Obama's FBI/DOJ/IC so they could open investigations and write "Intelligence Assessments" and spy on Carter Page based on utterly inadequately predicated investigations and FISA warrants.

      The earlier phases that planted the evidence or fabricated it (Alfa Bank,) or created ham-fisted meta-data in Cyrillic language that was "discovered" in Guccifer 2.0's document drop, were clearly approved long before the end of July.

      We now know that without Guccifer 2.0's bogus Cyrillic meta-data in documents that were from Podesta emails, not the DNC emails that wikileaks got, there would have been no way to sell "The Russians did it!" narrative, which is a prerequisite to selling the frame-up that Trump's campaign colluded with the Russians to do it.

      Ergo, Guccifer 2.0 was construct created as part of the preparatory phases of Hillary's frame job of the Trump campaign.

      Addendum: many technically minded twitter commentators have noted that Shawn Henry's congressional testimony shows him referring to hash numbers" as "algorithms." This is nonsensical -- hash numbers are a numerical value, generated by a hashing function applied to a computer file.

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    2. Wait a minute. Are you suggesting that someone could be an "FBI Executive Assistant Director (EAD) in 2012, overseeing half of the FBI’s investigative operations, including all FBI criminal and cyber investigations worldwide, international operations, and the FBI’s critical incident response to major investigations and disasters" yet not really know much of anything? :-(

      Delete
    3. I've been consumed with the obvious (to me) criminality of Obamagate at least since Obama told Chris Wallace (interesting choice!) that Hillary was innocent in, what, March 2016?...and I nearly fell out of my chair.

      But nobody has been able to explain to me why Russia (Russia!) would bother to steal or even care about the DNC's f'ing emails which to the best of my recollection only disclosed what everybody already suspected...that is, Hillary screwed Bernie.

      Vladimir Putin (and the FSB, SVR and GRU) had and have far bigger fish to fry than caring what John Podesta was up to.

      When you think about it, the only people who would care what John Podesta was up to were smug Hillary and earnest Bernie and their acolytes.

      Of course, Gulliver 2.0 is simply Hillary C., in Russian drag.

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    4. Gary Bald was once EAD, too:

      "You need leadership. You don't need subject matter expertise"

      183X

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    5. Oh my, a name from the past!

      “Of all I have seen and done in the FBI, I am most proud of the decisions I have made in choosing managers and leaders. We have an excellent leadership team in the NSB. I have worked very closely with Associate EAD Phil Mudd, Assistant Directors Willie Hulon, Timothy Bereznay, and Wayne Murphy, and Section Chief Shawn Henry to develop a clear vision for the NSB and the FBI’s future role in intelligence. I have complete confidence that our vision for the FBI's intelligence program will be fully realized under their continuing leadership.”

      “Of all I have seen and done in the FBI, I am most proud of the decisions I have made in choosing managers and leaders. We have an excellent leadership team in the NSB. I have worked very closely with Associate EAD Phil Mudd, Assistant Directors Willie Hulon, Timothy Bereznay, and Wayne Murphy, and Section Chief Shawn Henry to develop a clear vision for the NSB and the FBI’s future role in intelligence. I have complete confidence that our vision for the FBI's intelligence program will be fully realized under their continuing leadership.”

      I carpooled with Bereznay in NYO. He was one of the top CI "leaders" at FBIHQ when people were warning them they had a spy problem.

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    6. "...not really know much of anything?"

      The trouble with a technocracy isn't so much the technicians, but the inevitability that those whose specialty is grifting, rather than technology, will recognize the sweet hustle intrinsic in the institution and insinuate themselves at the top.

      Mr. Henry's resume indicates either an in depth understanding of cyber security, or a more thorough, and practical, grasp of grift as profession. The question is which possibility does Crowdstrike's investors value more.

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    7. Will All The Name-Brand People Who Pushed The Russian Collusion Conspiracy Get Off Scot-Free?

      https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/13/will-all-the-name-brand-people-who-pushed-the-russian-collusion-conspiracy-get-off-scot-free/

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  2. So exactly when was the data exfiltrated? It seems to be a matter of some controversy. But I prefer Forensicator's date of July 5 (at 6:30, when 1,976 megabytes were downloaded at a rate of 22.7 megabytes per second, which is incompatible with a remote hack). Five days later, Seth Rich was killed, and the FBI or police deep-sixed his computer. If Rich removed the data and sent it to Wikileaks, did he do so because only hours earlier, Comey had cleared Hillary Clinton? Rich was a Bernie man.

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    1. The emails were already in Wikileaks' hands before 5 July, as indicated by Assange's remarks in June. Also, CrowdStrike's report was quoted in the MSM in mid June, so the emails had to be filched before that.

      The last email in the Wikileaks DNC tranche was dated 25 May, the likely last day of copying emails. The circumstantial evidence, based of 30 day retention policy, and the dates of all DNC emails that Wikileks published that did not have damaged date meta-data fields, point to the emails being copied over a time frame of 22-25 May, as best I recall.

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    2. Just thinking out loud...

      If the last email stolen was dated May 25 (a Wednesday) isn't it more likely the trove was copied in the next few days? The period May 26-May 30 was a long weekend, culminating on Memorial Day.

      Wouldn't a long holiday weekend be a good time for a staffer up to no good to enter the office, knowing he was likely to be alone, for a long enough time to copy the trove?

      You would have thought the FBI (or DC Police) would have been interested in knowing who was in the DNC offices over that weekend and might have accessed the DNC computer files.

      Has any one looked at key entries for those dates? Logons? Cell phone GPS data? Hard to imagine a good detective couldn't have figured it out...

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    3. >> If the last email stolen was dated May 25 (a Wednesday) isn't it more likely the trove was copied in the next few days? The period May 26-May 30 was a long weekend, culminating on Memorial Day. <<

      They had to start NLT the 22nd (or 23rd, I forget which) in order to capture the earliest emails within the 30 day retention window.

      Based on the freshest email date, the earliest they could have stopped copying would have been the 25th.

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  3. My money is on Seth Rich.

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  4. Speculation... i wonder if any of those “Scientists” who engineered the Alfa bank TT connection have any knowledge of the DNC servers? Hope Durham inquires.

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  5. Supposedly, the Rooskie hackers were soo bad that they left a Rooskie electronic trail.

    WTF?

    Helllo, BackOrifice 2000 or buffer overflows?

    Bad programming practices get you intrusions. There is no Rooskie hacking profile. It’s all over. Script kiddies in the US could have done it with minimal of effort, especially when you allow a trojan to infect your computers by clicking on an email link.

    Yes, I, inadvertently hacked Hewlett Packard computers in a legitimate software contract. A. DFW FBI agent recruited me on this, but my physical condition at the time meant a no-go. Sorry, a healing torn achilles tendon does not make a successful pass on the physical requirements.

    FBI would have been great, but not in my cards.

    - TexasDude

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  6. Pertinent to some of the above are the writings of Ray McGovern, Co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. He prepared the President's Daily Brief in the 1980s.
    See e.g.
    https://ConsortiumNews.com/2020/05/09/ray-mcgovern-new-house-documents-sow-further-doubt-that-russia-hacked-the-dnc/ ,
    where he claims to have queried queried Schiff & Clapper, on Henry's testimony.

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  7. timeline of DNC email acquisition:

    >> https://theforensicator.wordpress.com/sorting-the-wikileaks-dnc-emails/ <<

    22-25 May

    Last modified dates in wikileaks published email files also conform to these dates.

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    1. @EZ

      I had not been familiar with the forensicator website. Thanks for sharing.

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