Randi Kreiss

Are they real, or is Russia behind the leaks?

Posted

Suddenly, we’re back to passing notes.

Witness the epidemic of hacking, even of presumably secure websites and email accounts. I’ve been hacked, you probably have, and I get notices all the time about my email address popping up on various dark websites.

Groups like WikiLeaks are dumping thousands of private emails, claiming they come from the accounts of people like John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair. And those emails are an issue for the Clinton campaign. But. . .

Stay with me; there are two aspects to this. The most urgent and potentially consequential is that the leaks are probably coming from Russia, through WikiLeaks, to the media. According to CNN, U.S. government officials have said there is “mounting evidence” that Russia is using WikiLeaks as its vehicle for releasing anti-Clinton emails. The implication is clear: The leaked emails may or may not be the real thing, but Russia, an enemy nation, wants them out, wants to pull the vote away from Clinton, wants to interfere and direct the results of our election.

Instead of digging into the authenticity of the leaks, many news outlets, and certainly the Trump campaign, are going after the Clintons. In doing so they are serving the interests of Russia, not America. I believe we are underestimating the calamitous consequences of allowing a foreign state, especially Russia, to influence our elections.

The Russia-WikiLeaks connection has not been proved definitively, but neither have the contents of the leaked emails been proved to be true. Unfortunately, we are not living through an election season of careful examination and deliberate behavior. Trump & Co. are blasting Clinton every day about the alleged Podesta emails, and no one knows whether or not someone in Moscow is scribbling away, creating fictitious messages.

Even if the emails are authentic, if the source of the leak is Russia, we have big problems with our national security. Russian President Vladimir Putin said such accusations were “hysteria.” How ironic that some people would take his word over the findings of American security agencies.

Various shadow groups hack accounts to steal personal information, credit card numbers and financial information. WikiLeaks and leakers like Edward Snowden ostensibly stand on higher ground, stating their mission as balancing the interests of the state with the rights of individuals. But who is their editor? Who decides which leak may compromise our national security? Who can say that WikiLeaks and Snowden aren’t serving the interests of foreign states?

The second aspect of internet insecurity is that every one of us who has an email account is increasingly vulnerable. How many passwords do you have? Where do you write them down? Do you have double- or triple-question security for your financial accounts? A couple of days ago I was running up and down the steps to retrieve an iPhone security text code to get into a computer account before the text code expired.

Have you ever written an email or text that is compromising in some way? Too angry? Too personal? Have you said something that could come back to bite you?

I certainly have. My dad said to me many years ago that I should never put on paper anything I wouldn’t want to see in the newspaper. That was in the days before computers, so he was talking about just putting thoughts on paper. How much easier is it to compromise ourselves today, when all you have to do is press “enter”?

My most shocking email experience was as the recipient of one, sent to me by mistake by someone I know. She apparently just hit the wrong name when she hit “send” and what she sent was a threat to stop seeing her husband, or else. Well, I didn’t know her husband stepped out on her, and I was unaware of her potential for violent retribution. I wrote back a bland response stating that apparently the email came to the wrong person. We never spoke of it again. Not a hack, but a lesson in how terribly wrong a hastily composed message can go.

Nicole Wallace, a political commentator, said on air the other day that if she wants to tell a colleague something, she passes her a note. Let loose in the world, our technological wonders are slipping out of our control. Increasingly, people don’t trust the privacy and security of their own email accounts.

Turns out, Dad’s advice is still good.

Copyright © 2016 Randi Kreiss. Randi can be reached at randik3@aol.com.