What is CrowdStrike? Firm Hired by DNC has Ties to Hillary Clinton, a Ukrainian Billionaire and Google

As usual, the rabbit hole gets much deeper the more you look.

In yesterday’s post, Credibility of Cyber Firm that Claimed Russia Hacked the DNC Comes Under Serious Question, I examined how CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm hired by the DNC to look into its hacking breach, had been exposed as being completely wrong about a separate attack it claimed originated from the same group it claimed broke into DNC systems, and supposedly works for Russia’s military intelligence unit, GRU. Here’s some of what we learned:

An influential British think tank and Ukraine’s military are disputing a report that the U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has used to buttress its claims of Russian hacking in the presidential election.

The CrowdStrike report, released in December, asserted that Russians hacked into a Ukrainian artillery app, resulting in heavy losses of howitzers in Ukraine’s war with Russian-backed separatists.

But the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) told VOA that CrowdStrike erroneously used IISS data as proof of the intrusion. IISS disavowed any connection to the CrowdStrike report. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense also has claimed combat losses and hacking never happened.

The challenges to CrowdStrike’s credibility are significant because the firm was the first to link last year’s hacks of Democratic Party computers to Russian actors, and because CrowdStrike co-founder Dimiti Alperovitch has trumpeted its Ukraine report as more evidence of Russian election tampering.

Yaroslav Sherstyuk, maker of the Ukrainian military app in question, called the company’s report “delusional” in a Facebook post. CrowdStrike never contacted him before or after its report was published, he told VOA.

VOA first contacted IISS in February to verify the alleged artillery losses. Officials there initially were unaware of the CrowdStrike assertions. After investigating, they determined that CrowdStrike misinterpreted their data and hadn’t reached out beforehand for comment or clarification.

CrowdStrike declined to answer VOA’s written questions about the Ukraine report, and Alperovitch canceled a March 15 interview on the topic. In a December statement to VOA’s Ukrainian Service, spokeswoman Ilina Dimitrova defended the company’s conclusions.

Seems like pretty extraordinary incompetence. Either that, or something else was potentially at play; namely, a desire to push the narrative that Russia hacked the DNC, irrespective of the facts.

The whole things gets even more disturbing the more you look.

For example, Counterpunch put out a very important article earlier today on the topic, adding several crucial nuggets of information.

First there’s this:

The investigation methods used to come to the conclusion that the Russian Government led the hacks of the DNCClinton Campaign Chair John Podesta, and the DCCC were further called into question by a recent BuzzFeed report by Jason Leopold, who has developed a notable reputation from leading several non-partisan Freedom of Information Act lawsuits for investigative journalism purposes. On March 15 that the Department of Homeland Security released just two heavily redacted pages of unclassified information in response to an FOIA request for definitive evidence of Russian election interference allegations. Leopold wrote, “what the agency turned over to us and Ryan Shapiro, a PhD candidate at MIT and a research affiliate at Harvard University, is truly bizarre: a two-page intelligence assessment of the incident, dated Aug. 22, 2016, that contains information DHS culled from the internet. It’s all unclassified — yet DHS covered nearly everything in wide swaths of black ink. Why? Not because it would threaten national security, but because it would reveal the methods DHS uses to gather intelligence, methods that may amount to little more than using Google.”

That’s weird enough, but it gets far stranger. For example:

In lieu of substantive evidence provided to the public that the alleged hacks which led to Wikileaks releases of DNC and Clinton Campaign Manager John Podesta’s emails were orchestrated by the Russian Government, CrowdStrike’s bias has been cited as undependable in its own assessment, in addition to its skeptical methods and conclusions. The firm’s CTO and co-founder, Dmitri Alperovitch, is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a think tank with openly anti-Russian sentiments that is funded by Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk, who also happened to donate at least $10 million to the Clinton Foundation.

In 2013, the Atlantic Council awarded Hillary Clinton it’s Distinguished International Leadership Award. In 2014, the Atlantic Council hosted one of several events with former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who took over after pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in early 2014, who now lives in exile in Russia.

Recall that the FBI was denied access to the DNC servers by the DNC itself, and simply agreed to rely on the results provided by CrowdStrike, which as you can see has ties to all sorts of anti-Russia organizations and individuals. I find it absolutely remarkable that James Comey head of the FBI outsourced his job to CrowdStrike.

There remains zero evidence that Russia hacked the DNC. I repeat, there remains zero evidence that Russia hacked the DNC.

As cybersecurity expert Jeffrey Carr noted:

Jeffrey Carr called the FBI/Department of Homeland Security Report, the only alleged evidence released by intelligence officials, released in late December 2016 a “fatally flawed effort” that provided no evidence to substantiate the claims that the Russian government conducted the hacks, though that’s what it was purported to do.

Absolutely remarkable, but there’s more. As TechCrunch reported back in 2015:

If you need proof that security is a red hot market these days, how about this morning’s announcement that cybersecurity company CrowdStrike landed a $100 million Series C investment round?

The round was led by Google Capital with Rackspace, which happens to be one of the company’s customers also investing. Existing investors Accel and Warburg Pincus also participated. Today’s investment brings the total to-date to $156 million.

Why do I find it interesting that Google was a major investor in CrowdStrike? Well for one, we know that Chairman of Alphabet, Inc. (Google’s parent company), Eric Schmidt, was actively working to help the Hillary campaign. As I highlighted in the 2015 post,Meet “Groundwork” – Google Chairman Eric Schmidt’s Stealth Startup Working to Make Hillary Clinton President:

An under-the-radar startup funded by billionaire Eric Schmidt has become a major technology vendor for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, underscoring the bonds between Silicon Valley and Democratic politics.

The Groundwork, according to Democratic campaign operatives and technologists, is part of efforts by Schmidt—the executive chairman of Google parent-company Alphabet—to ensure that Clinton has the engineering talent needed to win the election. And it is one of a series of quiet investments by Schmidt that recognize how modern political campaigns are run, with data analytics and digital outreach as vital ingredients that allow candidates to find, court, and turn out critical voter blocs.

There is also another gap in play: The shrinking distance between Google and the Democratic Party. Former Google executive Stephanie Hannon is the Clinton campaign’s chief technology officer, and a host of ex-Googlers are currently employed as high-ranking technical staff at the Obama White House. Schmidt, for his part, is one of the most powerful donors in the Democratic Party—and his influence does not stem only from his wealth, estimated by Forbes at more than $10 billion.

According to campaign finance disclosures, Clinton’s campaign is the Groundwork’s only political client. Its employees are mostly back-end software developers with experience at blue-chip tech firms like Netflix, Dreamhost, and Google.

Since Democrats seem so obsessed with the saying these days, “where there’s smoke there’s fire,” and there’s plenty of smoke here.

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In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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18 thoughts on “What is CrowdStrike? Firm Hired by DNC has Ties to Hillary Clinton, a Ukrainian Billionaire and Google”

  1. Whenever you see a politician pushing a narrative that makes your head hurt from its stupidity, you know damn well that some billionaire or billionaires with an agenda is putting them up to it. Now we know who was paying Clinton to develop her sudden bizarre case of Russiaphobia.

    Reply
  2. Anything connected with politics is a total lie. The amount of effort the FBI is expending on a fabricated narrative is outrageous. This agency is supposed to protect citizens. Not protect a fabricated narrative.

    The media spends all it’s time spewing out false information based on a fabricated narrative.

    Both parties spend all their time trying to oppose the elected president to keep their corrupt gravy train going.

    Look at how well things are going in Ukraine. USA is following their blueprint on absolute corruption and political gridlock. They are just a few years behind in accomplishing a similar result.

    Does anyone see reform? Does anyone see positive progress?

    The country is done.

    Reply
  3. Why is there a “rabbit hole”, to begin with and where does the “rabbit hole” end?

    This article was written over a year ago and now you can see that the author was dead on then and it’s dead on now:
    ————————————————————————————-
    The IMF Changes its Rules to Isolate China and Russia

    by Michael Hudson

    http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/12/18/the-imf-changes-its-rules-to-isolate-china-and-russia/

    “Russia and China are simply doing what the United States has long done: using trade and credit linkages to cement their geopolitical diplomacy. This tectonic geopolitical shift is a Copernican threat to New Cold War ideology: Instead of the world economy revolving around the United States (the Ptolemaic idea of America as “the indispensable nation”), it may revolve around Eurasia. As long as the global financial papacy remains grounded in Washington at the offices of the IMF and World Bank, such a shift in the center of gravity will be fought with all the power of the American Century (indeed, American Millennium) inquisition.”
    —————————————————————————————-

    Unfortunately, 90% of the US and European population cannot even begin to comprehend what the author is trying to explain. Even though he does a great job of laying it all out in layman’s terms.

    So the MSM puppets will continue to crank out the Russia is the root of all evil bullshit day after day until most people start to assume that it’s true.

    CrowdStrike is just another tool in their arsenal.

    Reply
    • “So the MSM puppets will continue to crank out the Russia is the root of all evil bullshit day after day until most people start to assume that it’s true.”

      And these are the same dickwads that sucked Russian/Soviet dick for 75 years…

  4. Michael,

    I love your website, but I’m disappointed in this post. It seems to draw conlcusions from a partial analysis of the availbale info. In particualr:

    You wrote: “it would reveal the methods DHS uses to gather intelligence, methods that may amount to little more than using Google.”
    This statement seems to imply that Google may be the *only* method that DHS used in its assessment.

    The BuzzFeed article also points out:
    “This two-page document is only a fraction of the documents about the hack that DHS possesses. The agency identified about 29 pages of records. The agency withheld seven pages in full and referred 20 to a different, unidentified government agency that will review those pages and determine whether any of them can be released. ”

    In other words, DHS did use Google, but they also have other evidence, likely from classified sources.

    Later on you wrote “Atlantic Council, a think tank …that is funded by Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk”
    This also seems misleading: Pinchuk only provides bewtwen 0.2% and 1.6% of Atlantic Council’s funding (http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/support/supporters)

    In fact, AC is loaded to the gills with Energy and Defense companies:
    Lockheed, Exxon, Raytheon, BP, Textron, Chevron, Fluor, Shell, L3, Lukoil, Thales, Valero Boeing,Airbus,SAAB – not to mention the US Army, Navy , Air Force, and Marines,.
    … a firmly Republican group if I ever saw one.

    Do you know who else won AC’s “Distinguished International Leadership” besdies Clinton?
    Gen. Brent Scowcroft, Dr. Henry Kissinger, Gen. Colin Powell, Sen. John Warner, ***Rupert Murdoch***, Gen David Petraeus, ***Gen James Mattis***, and Pres. George HW Bush (several other prominent Democrats won as well)

    Clearly AC is not the tool of the DNC that you claim. A stronger arguement could be made that it is Republican-controled (based on corporate sponsors), but in reality it is both.

    Reply
    • A few things.

      First, I didn’t write any of those things, those things were in quotes, which means they were from outside sources. In this case, Counterpunch.

      But I did quote them, which means I do think they provided important information. You added additional information, which is great. That’s what the comment section is supposed to be about.

      Don’t mischaracterize what I did say though. I didn’t link the Atlantic Council to the DNC. In fact, if anything, I think it’s more linked to the Deep State. This isn’t about partisan politics, I abhor Democrats and Republicans.

      As far as proof, if the feds want to use this to whip up WW3 hysteria with Russia I demand proof. So should you. No proof has been offered and the FBI shouldn’t have outsourced its job to CrowdStrike.

    • Gen. Brent Scowcroft, Dr. Henry Kissinger, Gen. Colin Powell, Sen. John Warner, ***Rupert Murdoch***, Gen David Petraeus, ***Gen James Mattis***, and Pres. George HW Bush (several other prominent Democrats won as well)

      A veritable who’s who of globalist controlled pigs.

  5. key components you are missing….soros funds Atlantic Council as well. Also look at Warburg pincus – president tim Geithner – accel partners Arthur Patterson ties to Geithner…shawn henry was cyber aed at the fbi….

    Reply
  6. 2 more curious factoids: Until about a month ago John Podesta was a consultant to Google. About the time Podesta was released (getting ‘too hot to handle?’) Eric Braverman joined Google after ‘mysteriously’ disappearing as the temporary CFO of the Clinton Foundation.

    Reply
  7. Michael,

    I stand corrected on the attributions of the comments about the Atlantic Council, so I do apologize for that.

    I still think that thoses sections did not add significant information, due to their misleading, selective use of information, as I pointed out in my earlier comment. I agree that AC is linked to the general Establsihment/Deep State/ Status Quo, etc. Either way, a fight with Russia is plus for their corporate sponsors.

    I also agree that no proof of Russian interference has been shown to the American public. However, I also don’t think that the FBI would stake its reputaion on 2 pages of documents garnered from Google, Persoanlly, I want the investigation to continue, but I don’t need daily updates on (I’m referring to the media, not yoursefl).

    Reply
    • Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Evelyn Farkas also is a Member of Atlantic Council – CrowdStrike owner Dmitri Alperovitch is also a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. CrowdStrike had a $150,000 / year, no-bid contract with the FBI for “systems analysis. July 2015- July 2016.

  8. Any Campaign/Election that a member of the Arkansas Crime Family is in is Corrupt…..anybody Working for it/them will be Poisoned and tainted and will Become just LIKE Them. They will have to LIE for them and Cover Up things (remember Donna Brazile). This is only the second time a member of the Clinton Cabal has Lost (Bill had to run again a Third time for Governor because he Lost his 2nd Bid) and THIS time it’s the More DANGEROUS Member= $HilLIARy! New York…..Listen UP! Don’t ever vote for Chelsea Hubbell Clinton, whose Whole LIFE is as Big a LIE as her both her parents’ is)….people will DIE (RIP JFK,Jr. 1999: during the NY Senate Primary against HRC). If No ONE Votes for her, she can’t win. They can only FLIP the Vote if it is Close enough to not arouse Suspicion! Chelsea is Establishing Residency to run for the NY District that includes Westchester County (where the town of Chappaqua is) for that Representative’s Seat! Hillbilly bought another house on the same street as hers and the 2 properties butt up against each other in the back….the perfect way to meet on the path between them to talk without cameras or “wire tapping”. They are actively putting her out there and Grooming her for YOU to accept. For example, she just received a “Life Time” Achievement Award when she is under 40! She’ll probably go with her Mom when she goes on a Book Tour for the one she’s writing right now about How the Russians made her LOSE the 2016 Election! https://heatst.com/politics/chelsea-clinton-gets-lifetime-achievement-award-for-doing-nothing/?link=TD_nypost_articles.7c7e0f416376f79f&utm_source=nypost_articles.7c7e0f416376f79f&utm_campaign=circular&utm_medium=HEATST

    Reply
  9. Guess who is a board member of the IISS? Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, wife of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild (dir. of De Beers, IBM, one time Chairman of the Economist Group which owns The Economist Magazine and The Economist Intelligence Unit).

    “the International Institute of Strategic Studies (UK)”

    From the John and Cindy McCain Institute…

    https://www.mccaininstitute.org/staff/lynn-forester-de-rothschild/

    ” Lady de Rothschild is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (USA), Chatham House (UK), the International Advisory Council of Asia House (UK), the International Institute of Strategic Studies (UK), and the Foreign Policy Association (USA). In 2000, she was #4 on the European Fortune Most Powerful Woman in Business. In October 2007, Lady de Rothschild was awarded the Commendatore Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana.”

    Reply

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