December 4, 2018

A Republican Party Server Was Hacked in April. Oddly, Though, Nothing Was Leaked.

Was Russia being the GOP server hack? I have no idea. Really. But I'm going to use this sinister stock illustration of Vladimir Putin and a shaky American flag anyway.Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via ZUMA

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From Politico:

The House GOP campaign arm suffered a major hack during the 2018 election, exposing thousands of sensitive emails to an outside intruder, according to three senior party officials. The email accounts of four senior aides at the National Republican Congressional Committee were surveilled for several months, the party officials said. The intrusion was detected in April by an NRCC vendor, who alerted the committee and its cybersecurity contractor. An internal investigation was initiated and the FBI was alerted to the attack, said the officials, who requested anonymity to discuss the incident.

….None of the information accessed during the hack — thousands of emails from senior NRCC aides — has appeared in public, party officials said. And they said there were no attempts to threaten the NRCC or its leadership during the campaign with exposure of the information.

INCOMPETENT DEFENSES! EMBARRASSING TO GET HACKED LIKE THIS. EVERYONE IS SAYING DEM CYBERSECURITY MUCH BETTER.

WHY WASN’T PAUL RYAN NOTIFIED? COVERUP!

WHERE’S THE SERVER? WHY WON’T REPUBLICANS HAND IT OVER TO THE FBI? HAS IT BEEN ACID WASHED?

NO EMAILS LEAKED? DID NRCC MAKE DEAL WITH WIKILEAKS AND ASSANGE? MAYBE!

TOTAL DISGRACE THAT WE’RE ONLY HEARING ABOUT THIS 8 MONTHS AFTER IT HAPPENED!!!

HUGE $$$ PAID TO GOP LOBBYING FIRM TO INVESTIGATE HACK BUT NO RESULTS! WHAT ARE THEY HIDING?

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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