President Trump on Tuesday fired his top election security official Christopher Krebs (no relation). The dismissal came via Twitter two weeks to the day after Trump lost an election he baselessly claims was stolen by widespread voting fraud.
Chris Krebs. Image: CISA.
Krebs, 43, is a former Microsoft executive appointed by Trump to head the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. As part of that role, Krebs organized federal and state efforts to improve election security, and to dispel disinformation about the integrity of the voting process.
Krebs’ dismissal was hardly unexpected. Last week, in the face of repeated statements by Trump that the president was robbed of re-election by buggy voting machines and millions of fraudulently cast ballots, Krebs’ agency rejected the claims as “unfounded,” asserting that “the November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.”
In a statement on Nov. 12, CISA declared “there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
But in a tweet Tuesday evening, Trump called that assessment “highly inaccurate,” alleging there were “massive improprieties and fraud — including dead people voting, Poll watchers not allowed into polling locations, ‘glitches’ in the voting machines that changed votes from Trump to Biden, late voting, and many more.”
Twitter, as it has done with a remarkable number of the president’s tweets lately, flagged the statements as disputed.
By most accounts, Krebs was one of the more competent and transparent leaders in the Trump administration. But that same transparency may have cost him his job: Krebs’ agency earlier this year launched “Rumor Control,” a blog that sought to address many of the conspiracy theories the president has perpetuated in recent days.
Sen. Richard Burr, a Republican from North Carolina, said Krebs had done “a remarkable job during a challenging time,” and that the “creative and innovative campaign CISA developed to promote cybersecurity should serve as a model for other government agencies.”
Sen. Angus King, an Independent from Maine and co-chair of a commission to improve the nation’s cyber defense posture, called Krebs “an incredibly bright, high-performing, and dedicated public servant who has helped build up new cyber capabilities in the face of swiftly-evolving dangers.”
“By firing Mr. Krebs for simply doing his job, President Trump is inflicting severe damage on all Americans – who rely on CISA’s defenses, even if they don’t know it,” King said in a written statement. “If there’s any silver lining in this unjust decision, it’s this: I hope that President-elect Biden will recognize Chris’s contributions, and consult with him as the Biden administration charts the future of this critically important agency.”
KrebsOnSecurity has received more than a few messages these past two weeks from readers who wondered why the much-anticipated threat from Russian or other state-sponsored hackers never appeared to materialize in this election cycle.
That seems a bit like asking why the year 2000 came to pass with very few meaningful disruptions from the Y2K computer date rollover problem. After all, in advance of the new millennium, the federal government organized a series of task forces that helped coordinate readiness for the changeover, and to minimize the impact of any disruptions.
But the question also ignores a key goal of previous foreign election interference attempts leading up to the 2016 U.S. presidential and 2018 mid-term elections. Namely, to sow fear, uncertainty, doubt, distrust and animosity among the electorate about the democratic process and its outcomes.
To that end, it’s difficult to see how anyone has done more to advance that agenda than President Trump himself, who has yet to concede the race and continues to challenge the result in state courts and in his public statements.
I’d hardly say President Trump’s actions are baseless. For digging things up Brian, you surely are letting this one go.
Agreed Pete!
Every one who has made such a “drop the ball claim” claim never can or does provide any evidence supporting their claim.
What makes you think Brian Krebs has dropped the ball?
Simple – read the article and try to find any “investigative effort”.
This article is nothing but MSM talking points.
What a joke… UNFOLLOW THIS BLOG.
Look into Dominion voting systems. That would be a good report for Brian to look into..
Agreed.
I think you could write a great investigational piece on Dominion and its parent companies. That’s what you do! … usually.
That is the type of article that would remind me why KrebsonSecurity has been one of my home pages for close to 10 years.
But you never see Krebs write articles when there is nothing happening. Krebs doesn’t do fact checking of fake news. He only does real stories.
So you’ll likely never see one on Dominion, because the stuff you’ve heard, was made up.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/posts-falsify-ties-between-election-tech-firm-and-democrats/2020/11/10/f112591e-239c-11eb-9c4a-0dc6242c4814_story.html
Please don’t commit yourself to one side of the issue “baselessly claims was stolen by widespread voting fraud” before the vote is certified. If you want to get involved, please take a serious look at the “third world” hell hole we will find ourselves in, unless we permit discussion and scrutiny.
The electronic voting morass is unconciousnable, and appears to be painfully flawed and with virtually no transparancy. There is a growing amount of evidence that we must not permit to be swept under the rug. Let us run all of this to ground without opinion and with facts, so there is no room for concern or fears of electronic elections managed in the cloud, and all over the world.
We owe future generations nothing less. Thanks!
But Trump is claiming that in-person voter fraud did not happen, but paper mail-in votes were fraudulent.
COVID was the reason we actually saw a huge surge in paper ballots. So your alarmism regarding electronic voting is completely baseless.
I haven’t seen any reasonable explanation for the vote changes that occurred.
https://static01.nyt.com/elections-assets/2020/data/api/2020-11-03/race-page/california/president.json
I also haven’t seen any reasonable explanation for the near synchronicity of the widespread ratio of results after the shutdown count.
Those two things by themselves need answers.
COVID pandemic blowing up the ratio of mail-in ballots is a very reasonable, and expected explanation.
Combine that with the ignorance of the public about what was “shutdown”… and its a recipe for your confusion.
Of course, confusing the people is kinda the point.
No, not the ratio of mail-in ballots. The ratio of the results after a certain point on election night on an ongoing, real-time basis. Also having that ratio replicated across very large number of districts. It’s mathematically improbable. It’s indicative of electronic manufacturing. We’re on a cybersecurity blog. Cybersecurity techniques are the tools we use to identify when things aren’t right.
You mean the timing of how results are announced is suspicious?
Umm… you do know that counting and updating the state’s website are two separate processes, right?
The Associated Press wrote in September:
“Instead of relying on crowd-sourcing or vulnerable technology, our 50-state network of local reporters have first-hand knowledge of their territories and trusted relationships with county clerks and other local officials. These stringers collect votes at a local level. We also gather results from state or county websites and electronic data feeds from states. On election night, race callers in each state are armed with a wealth of additional detailed information from our election research team, including demographics, the number of absentee ballots, and political issues that may affect the outcome of races they must call.”
Decision Desk HQ is another company, different from the AP, that collects election results.
Then there is Edison Research:
“In an effort to improve quality, streamline data collection, and expand election coverage in 2018, ABC News, CBS News, CNN and NBC News ended their arrangement with the Associated Press for vote tabulation and now partner with Edison Research for these data.”
That’s the MYTH… there is no such thing as “Real-time” election results. Normally, when all is happening over a single night… it seems instantaneous. Now that COVID has stretched this election to 10 days… the delays are more noticeable.
With several firms and organizations involved, it is reasonable to see how counting could continue through the night, but there be large breaks in when News Media networks update the vote tallies. They released in large traunches rather than a smooth continuous (real-time) update. And with such a discrepancy of Democrats voting by mail and/or in large cities slow to count…. it was absolutely expected that there be a late “blue shift” days after.
Maybe that’s your issue… ignorance of the process makes it easy to accept conspiracy theory.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/election-results-timing/
Why hasn’t Trump provided and proof? why have most of his lawsuits challenging the election been with drawn or thrown out?
Name three Trump lawsuits—out of a few dozen—that have been “thrown out.”
OK, you only asked for 3 but here’s 4…and the rest have to work their way through the legal system.
“Judges have already tossed out or ruled against Trump campaign suits in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, and Michigan.”
Source: https://time.com/5908505/trump-lawsuits-biden-wins/
“Proof” to file, or allege you’ve been harmed, almost could never be proven at the time of filing. If you require proof before you file, there couldn’t be lawsuits, and is never required, since “proof” seldom exists until discovery is forced on the defendant.
Trump alleges (“for EXAMPLE only”) that after the “counting had been mostly stopped for the night, all the republican watchers were forcefully sent home, the remaining workers continued, and by morning, the vote had changed from Trump + 1,000 to Trump — 2,000. This is NOT PROOF… you are CORRECT. But, seldom could there be proof at this stage of ANY LITIGATION. That will require investigation, effort, witnesses, and most importantly, TIME. Also, if malfeasance occurred, every scrap of evidence will naturally be HIDDED by those responsible, so you can’t get any proof, at least initially!
There is NOT SUPPOSED to be proof when ANY suit is filed!!
Here’s an example crime, that you have NO proof about who was responsible. If you were robbed by a gang, but first tied up, blinded or put into another room, then later you discovered that the shot you heard, was your cashier being wounded. Proof the gang should be charged?? NO!! Although not likely, it is not unheard of that the cashier had not been seriously wounded, set this robbery up with hired actors that were innocently paid to tie you up as a hoax and left. Later, the boyfriend came, slightly wounded your “innocent cashier”, stole the money, set the store on fire, and then “rescued you”.
If you’ve ever been in any type of litigation, you’d know that the purpose of a suit is seldom to present certain proof that is good enough to convince anyone… Most times, that proof can ONLY result from first, filing suit, and then forcing the opposite side to DISCLOSE the facts, which most often are hidden.
Lawsuits can’t be brought until and unless you THOUGHT that you’d been wronged, the costs to you justified the costs of fighting, and you thought the outcome was worth the effort, regardless of the outcome. But, if proof were required before you filed, then there would be almost no litigation even possible.
You are not a lawyer, so stop trying to confuse people about when evidence is required.
Temporary restraining orders (TRO) or preliminary injunctions (PI).
“Now, a lot of these cases sought TROs or PIs,
temporary restraining orders or preliminary injunctions,
which is basically an early order from the court
seeking to maintain the status quo
while the rest of the case can be litigated.
Now, we talk a lot on this channel
about how you often don’t need to provide evidence
when you file a lawsuit, but to get a TRO or a PI,
you do have to provide usually very strong evidence. ”
They are trying to stop counting or get observers closer… these actions by the court are NOT like more mundane litigation. They require proof FIRST!
From real lawyer
https://youtu.be/ha7iWECm_8E?t=470
They are baseless unless he can show proof (that can stand up in a court of law) to his claims. If you think differently then you don’t want to live in a (our) democratic society.
Just stop. Stop Using the internet. Stop following this blog.
Go ahead.
I have yet to see any legitimate signs of fraud or manipulations. If you have the evidence, there is a 1 million dollar reward waiting for you.
If you don’t its better to not spread rumors
You eluded to knowing something that Brian isn’t telling us on his blog. Will you, yourself list out your concerns with proof?
No kidding… talk about bias, Mr. Krebs…
Trumps accusations are baseless.
You may say the claims aren’t baseless, but every State election commission, every court where the arguments have been heard, and all of the available data indicate that the claims are, in fact, baseless.
What are you referring to here? A link or explanation would go a long way compared to a cryptic comment.
No relations, of course.
https://birdsbytes.com/2020/11/18/voter-fraud-debunked/
Dug some things up for you.
That bird doo blog is the funniest collection of fake news I’ve ever seen. Nice job!
I am too disappointed in Brian’s baseless remark, there is definitely enough irregularities to justify further investigation, especially the Dominion voting system. Why did Texas reject the system? That’s where Brian could start.
I sat on the 5.5 hour hearing in the US District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania yesterday. I took a lot of notes.
Mayor Rudy Guiliani came out of the gate claiming “widespread voter fraud!” At the end of oral arguments, he was asked by the Judge if he intends to “allege fraud” in the complaint. Rudy said “no, we’re saying there are claims of violations of fraud.” The Judge replied, “So you are alleging fraud? And why should I look at these claims, I have to look at what I’m bound to *by the complaint*. Agree?” Rudy, “yes.”
Rudy then followed up by saying, “I have to correct what I said. We have to ‘interpret’ as fraud.”
The Judge asked “Does the amending complaint plead fraud?”
Rudy Guiliani, Chief Attorney for the Trump Campaign, Inc., quietly replied, “No.”
So, please tell me how Trump and his legal team are firing off these ridiculous claims when, in fact, Rudy told a US District Judge that his complaint ** CHECKS NOTES ** does not allege fraud?
One case of many. As admitted by Pennsylvania Secretary of State, these were irregularities. Alone I agree it doesn’t support “wide spread fraud” but most of these only happened in Democratic counties. And PA has a history of fraudulent elections…
By your logic, two core legal tenants apply to this case.
1) Pullman Abstentia: If it’s not “Fraud” being alleged, the case doesn’t apply because it’s already being addressed elsewhere. It will be dismissed.
2) There is no federal standing for this case in the 3rd District of US courts. Trump Campaign, Inc. is filing an amended complaint by 5pm today which specifies that two voters in two separate counties were denied their right to vote because they voted in Trump counties which were not given the same and equal protections as Biden counties. The case will not stand. The campaign establishes that Marks v Stinson proves standing in the 3rd District. Marks v Stinson never served an order confirming violations of equal protections.
The case needs to go to the Fayette and Lancaster county appellate courts. The two voters need to file lawsuits at those levels. Through appeals it may rise to the state and federal levels… but you cannot just go to federal court and say “I want to sue!”
This is not the only case. Many cases, where there is a signed affidavit, some bold claim, or whatever is playing out on TV in front of a landscaping company… once they get into court… they don’t dare make those claims. The judge will throw it out or worse, there might be consequences for the attorney’s.
Remember the “so what’s your problem”, when they backtracked on allegations there were no observers?
Curious why only the states POTUS lost are the ones where fraud was committed and had the lawsuits filed. What about Texas and the removal of voter boxes? If fraud was conducted why was Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham winners in their elections or have the Dems win the Georgia Senate races instead of a run off? Seems if there was voter fraud that they would take them out as well. Logical thinking would assume if fraud was coordinated across multiple states they would have also happened in Florida and Texas where Dems thought they had a chance. Outside of voter suppression through increased friction to access conducted by some states that there is any evidence that widespread voter fraud took place. Would love to review the evidence if any. The POTUS saying so is not evidence. Certification which is the check to the process will be completed by 12/8 and will confirm the votes.
They are baseless unless evidence backing up the allegations can be presented for examination. So far none has been presented so they remain baseless hyperbole.
By the time Trump gets done firing people, only the idiots will be left. Not surprising and another sad day for America.
Well said Brian! Be interesting to see if the hate mob get to work on this blog now.
They already are.
Baseless claims of no widespread voter fraud
So now we talk about politics here? Let’s focus on security and find issues with software/hardware used during last election(s).
It’s relevant because of Trump firing the head of CISA who by all accounts did not deserve to be fired. His position was an important security position for our nation and because he would not go along with king Trump’s baseless claims he was let go. Is that not relevant?
Security leaders regularly get fired post incident whether they are at fault or not. It goes with the job/paycheck it seems.
But in this case, there was no incident.
This is the equivalent of the board of directors wanting to fire the CEO for cause, but the CEO saying his office computer was hacked to plant evidence… and the CISO saying, “nah, that didn’t happen”.
Then the CEO pointing to a couple of help desk tickets about a BSD, some low disk warnings, and a few times the network was slow. And using that to say he shouldn’t be fire, he was hacked, and then firing the CISO.
Uh…That’s exactly what the fired Mr Krebs did. He investigated and documented that the machines were working as expected and did a good job of accurately scanning and counting the votes.
Thank you for covering these crazy time with truth and integrity. I am not totally shocked, but pretty disappointed that so many in the IT security field seem to be Trump fan boys and Q ANON fans. Here is to getting through these next two months with this country in tact and moving in towards a healthy direction again on many levels in this country.
Trump will go down as the most corrupt president our country has ever seen, and if we can survive this, we will need to pass some laws so that it cannot happen again.
Baseless? That sounds like a factual, declarative statement.
If you have some evidence it’s baseless – perhaps you could share it. Otherwise, “Alleged” may be a more fitting term to use, IMHO of course…..
The burden of proof is on the claimant. Trump claims there was widespread fraud, at such scale that he actually won the election.
Saying that the claim is “baseless” is entirely accurate unless/until the claimant provides the “base” evidence. Since Trump and his surrogates have not… it will remain “baseless”.
You cannot ask someone to prove the negative first.
“Baselessly”? The Krebs firing aside, there is plenty of evidence being presented in court by Sydney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and others. Listen to Mark Levin show from last night (20 mins in, interview with Lin Wood) for a summary of issues in at least one state. I appreciate your website, btw.
Claiming something in a lawsuit doesn’t make it true.
If Lin Wood would have filed this when the change he is upset about was made instead of when his candidate lost the election, he might be happier now.
For reference a link to the lawsuit
https://www.democracydocket.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/2020/11/File-Stamped-11-13-20-Complaint-00583801xA4094.pdf
“Claiming something in a lawsuit doesn’t make it true.”
The comment was not that the claims by Trump are true, but that there is a basis for them. No one knows the outcome yet.
Baseless lawsuits are filed all the time. They are often called frivolous.
It is a common strategy to legitimize a false claim, by just filing a lawsuit, knowing it’ll just get dismissed. People not following closely will simply believe there is evidence just because they spend a little money to go to court.
Don’t fall for it. Each time a judge has examined the evidence, it either turned out the Trump legal team stopped alleging fraud, or the judge dismissed the allegations. Remember, “So what’s your problem then” after Trump’s lawyer said, there were already a “non-zero number of observers present”. The judge wasn’t having any of that.
I was unaware this had turned into a mainstream media news channel. You know what they say about opinions. I suggest you stick to reporting facts on your area of expertise. There are enough keyboard cowboys out there blowing smoke about things they know no more about than the man in the moon.
Baseless: without proof or cause demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt. No state election commission has reported any significant incidences that would affect the outcome of the election. CISA has also reported nothing of significance.
Rumors and allegations do not constitute evidence. As was said a few decades ago, “Where’s the beef?”
The “mainstream media” has become any media that reports something that upsets you.
Fox News wasn’t “mainstream” until it’s decision desk called Arizona for Biden, then suddenly Trump supporters started chanting Fox News sucks.
The 50% of Trump voters who believe his baseless claims about voter fraud are deluded by the con. A widespread and coordinated assault on voting by America citizens reeks of a conspiracy theory so outrageous it makes flat earthers believable. If the fraud was this big, someone somewhere would blow the whistle.
I’m still waiting to hear it…
“he baselessly claims”? Brian, this is waaaay off your usual fact-based reporting. There is actually LOTS of basis for the claims. The process should be followed to get to the bottom of all the claims.
Please dont roll over and die in the wickedness of PC. Stand fast and firm on “just the facts”.
Do you know how magicians work? Misdirection.
Evidence of irregularities, mistakes and even a few accounts of real fraud… are NOT a basis for the larger claim of widespread fraud and that the Trump really won.
So yeah, “Baseless” accurately refers to the extraordinary claim that lacks extraordinary evidence.
Brian, have you investigated the allegations on Dominion, Scytl or Smartmatic?
I see ZERO reference to it in your article. You have performed zero research? Lets just call this what it is, a regurgitation of Liberal Media talking points.
Be a real journalist, investigate the allegations and then produce the article.
I have a feeling this post wont age well…
If there is nothing there, do you still expect an article to be written?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/posts-falsify-ties-between-election-tech-firm-and-democrats/2020/11/10/f112591e-239c-11eb-9c4a-0dc6242c4814_story.html
Brian Krebs won’t write about Dominion, because there is nothing to write about.
You dont tell your enemies your plans so that they can sabotage them. It would be like a hacker saying Hey everyone here are my plans to hack your computer on such date. Then when the day comes to hack your computer he cant win because you already protected your computer.
I’m happy to see Brian’s description of Chris Krebs’s character. I am looking forward to reading carefully redacted descriptions of the measures taken to prevent election equipment hacking in the 2020 general election.
As I understand it, the gold standard for election security is hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots. Takes a bit of time to get results, but it’s much more secure than any computer system. Makes me nervous when I see epollbooks connected somehow, magically, to a data base of voter registrations.
(I’m always on the alert for vigorous, truthful, reasoned messages to pass along to my elected representatives.)
Just so I understand this correctly, you’re saying 160 million votes are more likely to be accurate hand counted by humans than a computer. Riiiiiight….
It’s much more likely that elections can be swayed by hacking electronic election equipment to alter many votes — or cause registration problems for many voters — than that individual persons will be able to create fake ballots in numbers large enough to sway elections.
And, consider the fact that election offices across the land are staffed by representatives of both major parties, and often minor parties, each watching the other. So, allowing for minor counting errors (less than, say .5 % of the ballots cast), and the careful audits done in election offices, hand-counting is more more secure than machine-counting.
I think this article was pretty convincing.
https://theconversation.com/6-ways-mail-in-ballots-are-protected-from-fraud-145666
Both systems, human and machine, have flaws that are not necessarily overlapping.
Defense in depth should dictate that we use a combination of both. And allow for manual handling of discrepancies. That’s why e-voting systems have hand-recount backups, and paper ballots can be scanned into machines to catch the human errors too.
How does one convince a liar and a thief that they are crazy? How come states the crazy person won – ND, SD, Alaska etc aren’t getting his challenges?
Trump supporters cope harder. This is a security blog based on evidence, not a conspiracy blog!
Yeah, its all a conspiracy theory Mark… That is, until you have done your research.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkE04V-ucxI
HAHAHAHA! That is your “Proof”? All Trump’s claims that have been before a judge have been thrown out. I am surprised at how many people commenting are obviously NOT in the intel or Cyber community, but are just commenting due to the “Claims” by a proven liar-in-chief.
Considering that Brian Krebs is constantly accused by fraud, scam and criminal actors (on his estimation) of “baselessly” publishing derogatory info about their nefarious activities, one might suppose that he is fully aware of the process of evidence gathering, analysis, verification, and finally of presentation before our courts of Law…processes which have exonerated him from such claims. However, as a journalist, perhaps he now ascribes to trial by mainstream media rather than due process…even for potential election fraud. Wonder how that might roll out for him and other journalists if and when the criminals and nation states behind HIS accusers are in charge.
Do you have ‘proof’ of the fraud or does trump have proof of the fraud? Where is it even the top security trump cyber appointment, said this was the most secure election.
Krebs isn’t accusing Trump of something… Krebs is saying that Trump’s accusations are baseless.
So it’s not trial by media that Krebs is accepting… but rather, Krebs is being skeptical of the the trial by media that Trump is conducting on the election results.
I doubt Trump has ANY experience with software so how is he qualified to say there is fraud? If he wanted to prove it then show us the code that “glitched”….oh wait he cant because he is a sore loser.
He ONLY has suspicion at this stage. However, THIS GROUP likely has some of the only people that are capable of determining what happened, if anything. I also now that as of now, no one here could honestly determine if there was, or was not any basis for suspecting a problem–we are not close enough to the facts.
If what Sydney Powell has stated is correct, this needs to be INVESTIGATED, by EXPERTS , like YOU. But, any investigation is impossible, until and unless a suit is filed with SUSPICION of a crime, so DISCOVERY can commence.
First, the Krebs firing… If the problems occurred and all the polling were all run by local officials, Krebs couldn’t, and shouldn’t have “determined” there was “no problems”. It is ludicrous to suggest he, or anyone at that level, could know. It defies logic to say that evidence you haven’t seen or don’t know about, doesn’t exist! Experts here on this site KNOW that if you’ve had a PC virus/hack/etc., you CAN NEVER know if you removed ALL of the threat. This is why you’d only use that PC is a secure environment, if you replaced most anything you could write to ANY memory, including “spare sectors”, BIOS, etc.
Dominion software / hardware. Even if Trump et all has witnesses, ONLY forensics experts with time, could PREDICT what happened with the software. So, DISCOVERY is required, with experts, or NO ONE COULD KNOW if the “ADDED PATCHES” were significant, or not. Last time I’ve seen litigation with hidden features, it took over a year and millions to “determine”, (really only PREDICT), what occurred.
Dominion SERVICE BUREAUS. OK, so, the counting was really outsourced, done remotely, overseas, in Venezuela and Europe?? They really could operated the software remotely?? Certainly anyone in this group, KNOWS that if much of this is true, that is impossible at this point, to determine what was done, but we ALLL KNOW that if you have control of a remote computer, you CANNOT know what I can and cannot do.
WHO DESIGNED THIS MORONIC VOTE COUNTING SYSTEM!! I have my suspicions, since there’s evidence that the company touts using their systems to control “elections” in Venezuela, China, and other repressive governments. Evidently, their manuals provide evidence that you can be trained in how to change the results, and appear to have not changed results.
What happened here may never be known. Why? Because the whole voting system has been corrupted by most or many jurisdictions. “Two Factor” security of voting, has become, NO factor security, with no validation at all of who voted. Evidently in Georgia, the passed a law / agreed to make it ILLEGAL to even try to match any signature (or any other type of validation). Further, the evidence so you could later audit who really voted, and if their real vote was cast, is destroyed by design.
You are making a LOT of assumptions. You are already accepting lies about the voting systems, to base your suspicion of subsequent claims.
Check your assumptions first.
Before you even talk to cybersecurity experts, you should check your assumptions about Georgia law, with a lawyer who would debunk the claim that signature checks are illegal, on which you hinge other allegations.
Then check with other county elections officials about how counting is done. And find an independent verifiable source that says counting is outsourced to Venezuela. Sounds pretty made up, but you’re ready to believe it and give a Trump lawyer the benefit of the doubt.
Brian, Brian, Brian. Brainwashed by the MSM, and ignoring the facts. This is not like you. Hey, table four needs water and bread. CHOP! CHOP!
Obviously this is a tense subject but we should all keep a cool head about it. No where in here were any opinions stated accept those in regards to Christopher Krebs. Everyone please try to keep the politics out of this forum.
For one its a bad idea to present your proof of allegations before you take it to court it gives the opposition time to sweep things under the rug or at least try to spin the facts. That’s not politics just strategy.
This is a blog about technology and Brian has rightly stated that cyber security policy maybe effected. A few opinions were offered about the former CISA nothing to get bent out of shape about.
You really have zero idea of how courts work.
Even My Cousin Vinny explained how disclosure works. Withholding evidence is not a viable strategy in real courts.
wow this county is divided. I am not a Trump fan, but I hear in Georgia the vote for Mr Trump got higher after the audit?
Mark you say, “wow this county is divided. I am not a Trump fan, but I hear in Georgia the vote for Mr Trump got higher after the audit?”
When you say audit, do you mean the audit of the voting machines by the State of Georgia which found “no evidence of the machines being tampered.”
https://sos.ga.gov/index.php/elections/secretary_raffensperger_announces_completion_of_voting_machine_audit_using_forensic_techniques_no_sign_of_foul_play
Or do you mean the results of the hand tally of votes? Because at the time you posted this, and at the time I replied the RESULTS of that have still not been released, although some counties have stated that they have found un-counted votes.
In Georgia’s 159 counties, according to this news report,
https://wdef.com/2020/11/17/georgia-recount-uncounted-votes-found/
57 counties had no deviations from their original ballot count
21 counties were either plus or minus one off the original ballot count
32 counties are off by single digit numbers and are being investigated
Floyd County reported 1643 for President Trump and 865 for Joe Biden, a pickup for the President of 778 votes.
Fayette County reported 1,577 for President Trump, and 1,128 for Joe Biden.. a pickup of another 449 votes for the President.
There is an as yet unconfirmed report of 224 uncounted votes in Walton County from a memory card.
But, that still won’t change the election results in Georgia. There are not enough uncounted votes to overturn the preliminary election results. There are no signs of misconduct, no signs of vote tampering, no signs of malfeasance, just reports of clerical errors being made.
There is huge amounts of voter fraud evidence but I haven’t seen much, “Proof” (4-5 reversals due to a system glitch/user error). One of three things is about to happen:
1)This will all disappear and we will roll into a Biden presidency (which will likely end up being Kamala)
2) Targeted fraud will be exposed by several affidavits and audit findings proving it was enough to change the election. This will expose 2016 fraud as well. The election-system is shown to be completely compromised. Trump is re-elected.
3) Same as 2 but Trump walks away, leaving Biden with an asterisk presidency.
I’ve not previously read your articles with any kind of filter. I now see this was naive on my part. Your opinions and political affiliation are very clear in this article and I will forever more read your content with a guarded awareness of bias and lack of objectivity on your part. I regret the loss of respect this article has given me.
No one will miss you if you leave. Prove he has said anything in this piece that is factually incorrect.
Learn the difference between bias and factual reporting.
Bias cannot be eliminated only practically reduced. Factual reporting is still the most important thing in journalism, and Brian Krebs is still a good example of this.
Brian, an excellent article. Seems like this administration wont stop short of exploring EVERY option to stay in power, no matter how destructive it’s for its people. Russians didn’t have to do anything to make us weaker.
Also regarding your last comment, it is possible that exact preparation, awareness and advanced mitigation steps, prevented additional influence.
OR, we still don’t know enough.
lol these comments.
Anyway, well said Brian.
Ignore the morons. They’re the same crowd who had no problem ignoring Trump’s request that Russia hack our election in 2016.
B. Krebs has TDS as well. Shame.
Hey thank your lucky stars it wasn’t “Trump Fires Security Online Journalist Brian Krebs”
What the heck would we all read on a weekly basis to be better informed ?
We should keep politics out of infosec. I don’t want opinions, only the cold hard facts. We should all be able to agree on that
Well said! Best comment posted! Thank you
Plenty of cold hard facts in this article.
It’s not that KrebsOnSecurity doesn’t write articles with political implications… it’s just that it’s usually ignored until it touches on a sore topic.
Trumpism has such a cult like following now, that even Krebs articles get Trump followers triggered. And when they get triggered, they kill the messenger.
To the comments from people upset with the politics discussed on this blog… they had no problem with Brian Krebs other articles that involved politics, until it disagreed with their personal politics.
They only object because they voted for Trump and the cognitive dissonance is catching up to them. When you join a cult of personality… they take disagreement personally.
They are to blame for worshiping Trump. They backed themselves into this corner and now they are triggered by his loss.
Is Chris Krebs related to Bryan Krebs ?
Mr. Krebs, I have been a huge reader of yours for years. I am a sworn peace officer specializing in fraud. I have found your work incredible. Please do not tarnish my perception of you by becoming political. Your profession’s credibility has been at an all time low. Your profession has been the catalyst of attempting to ruin mine. Please… stick with writing about fraud. I come to your website for knowledge and to escape the floundering entertainment industry called the media…
Fraud is just one of many topics covered over the years on this blog. He has always done articles with political ramifications… it’s just 2020 has been a particularly political in the cybersecurity space.
The firing of Chris Krebs, head of CISA, is right up his alley.
If you don’t like it, you should filter by tag to only see topics you want.