Pravy Sektor is a Ukrainian ultra-nationalist group that has been noted for torture, murder, kidnapping, and has been trying to start a war with Russia since the beginning of the Ukrainian civil war. Because of this, the Russian GRU can't be implicated. The tool is in too many hands that want to do Russia harm. Crowdstrike has it. The neo-nazi Ukrainian hackers have it. The Atlantic Council may have it.
Carr said that 3 groups have it. This is based on the assumption that the DNC was hacked by Russians. There are literally only 2 groups that are known to have the X-Agent tool, Crowdstrike and Ukraine's neo-nazi hackers that are part of Ukraine's Intelligence Agency.
Wheeler goes further by saying Crowdstrike named the hacker before any evidence was developed. The hacker was the Russian GRU according to Alperovitch. After naming them without proof, Crowdstrike started searching for proof that the X-Agent could have been used by the Russian GRU. That was when Alperovitch's most solid proof appeared. He claimed the Russians used the tool to spot Ukrainian artillery.
Crowdstrike never contacted the developer of the app they claimed was hacked over the course of 6 months. Crowdstrike claimed artillerymen downloaded the app that got hacked from a forum. But, according to the app developer, he had control over it all the way to end user. There was no chance for it to be hacked like Crowdstrike insists.
According to cyber security Jeffrey Carr "The Android APK malware doesn't use GPS nor does it ask for GPS location information from the infected phone or tablet. That's a surprising design flaw for custom-made malware whose alleged objective was to collect and transmit location data on Ukrainian artillery to the GRU [Russian military intelligence -- ed]," Carr explained in a Medium post."Crowdstrike hasn't provided any evidence that the malware-infected Android app was used by even a single Ukrainian soldier."
That core information needed for the DNI report to prove Russian hacking was provided by Crowdstrike. When that information proved to be wrong, the DNI report is empty of facts. Ukrainian Intelligence's OSINT group InformNapalm does not want to be associated with it, even though they have a strong relationship with Crowdstrike, it's just that bad.
"I have little liking of the security industry as the guys in this business of fear are fearmongers, but CrowdStrike failed to keep to even the mediocre standards generally accepted in the industry. They start their report with a bold statement alleging that the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 80% of all their D30 howitzers. The figure of 80% did not come from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, but was voiced by colonelcassad (Ed.: the nickname of a Russian propagaDNIst blogger). And even he, when blurting out this 80% figure then says it is not due to combat losses, but rather to a transfer of weapons from the Ukrainian Army to the National Guard."
From an X-Agent user standpoint, he then asks where is the "tell" hashes, control centers, or infected phones?"
Crowdstrike's best cyber security hack evidence is a Russian blogger? Crowdstrike's claim that this malware caused 80% of the Ukrainian losses is rebuffed by the Ukrainians themselves. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry called Crowdstrike liars. Why would people who want to start a war between the USA and Russia walk away from Crowdstrike's help?
Simply put, the evidence of a Russian hack came from Crowdstrike. The issue is so hot (it could start a war) that the Ukrainian government doesn't want to be standing near Crowdstrike's overly simple lies when the facts came out. The simple tech facts listed above show there was no Russian hacking at the DNC.
The fatal shot to Crowdstrike's evidence of a Russian hack and the DNI report comes from a Chalupa. What's a Chalupa you ask? In the first part of these articles covering Russian election hacking, you were introduced to Alexandra, Andrea, and Irene Chalupa. All of them are integral to starting and pushing a Russian hacking story into the mainstream press. After dealing with Crowdstrike's evidence, they can't get far enough away from the story.
Alexandra Chalupa was named one of 16 people that shaped the US election because of her Russian hacking tale. While trying to drum up anti-Russian sentiment and help with the election, they must have thought Crowdstrike would at least be able to come up with something credible. The Chalupas relationship to Crowdstrike and the Ukrainian hackers is detailed in that article.
The surprising move discredits Crowdstrike's Russian hacking story in support of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. Irene Chalupa, like Alperovitch, is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council She also runs Ukrainian owned Stopfake.org.
Stopfake.org is an official propaganda channel for the Ukrainian government and unofficially for the Atlantic Council. Chalupa and her sisters have relationships with both Alperovitch and the Ukrainian hackers shown in the 1st Crowdstrike article.
Stopfake.org just started a local propaganda paper in the specific towns (Toretsk, Krasnogorovka, Maryanka, among others) listed in the 1st Crowdstrike article to re-educate the people and stop them from targeting Ukrainian artillerymen. These are specifically the towns where people were caught.
This move on the part of this particular Atlantic Council senior fellow totally discredits Crowdstrike's story that an app infected with malware was responsible for destroying 80% of Ukrainian artillery. This was Alperovitch's largest proof of "Russian hacking" the DNC that was given to the FBI, CIA, and DNI. He said this proof was as sure as a DNA match. The FBI is now stating openly all their evidence rests on Crowdstrike. Without this proof, there is no Russian hacking the DNC story.
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