DNC Comms Guy Mocked Story Saying DNC Is Bad At Cybersecurity; Revealed Because DNC Is Bad At Cybersecurity

from the karma dept

Protip: maybe don't laugh off accusations that you're bad at cybersecurity in emails on a network that has already been infiltrated by hackers. That message did not make it through to one Eric Walker, deputy communications director for the Democratic National Committee. As you've heard by now, the DNC got hacked and all the emails were posted on Wikileaks. An anonymous user in our comments pointed us to a now revealed email from Walker brushing off a story in BuzzFeed, quoting cybersecurity professionals arguing that both the RNC and the DNC are bad at cybersecurity, mainly because they're handing out USB keys at their conventions.

Reporters who registered for the Republican and Democratic National Conventions were given tote bags by convention organizers filled with instructions and logistical information. Buried inside the totes were thumb drives, also known as USB flash drives, with information on the upcoming events.

“Who does that anymore? It’s just asking to get infected with any variety of malware,” said Ajay Arora, CEO of VERA, a cybersecurity firm. “Those thumb drives are the number one way to infect a computer… It is borderline stupidity to give them out to people, or for people to even think of using them.”

Thumb drives are known within the cybersecurity world for their fundamental security weaknesses, because when someone plugs a thumb drive into their computers they are opening up their system to anything on that drive — from the best hotels to stay in during the Republican National Convention to a virus that silently uploads itself onto the hard drive. Neither the Republican or Democratic National Committees replied to a BuzzFeed News inquiry about the thumb drives.

That's a reasonable assessment. It's dumb to hand out USB keys these days and anyone should be aware of that by now. But Walker's email sarcastically mocked this:

The thesis: we hand out thumb drives at events, which could infect the reporters/attendees' computers. So that means that we're bad at cybersecurity. Okay.

Well, truth be told, there are many reasons why you may be bad at cybersecurity, including the fact that you apparently let a group of hackers sit on your network for a year or more. But also, handing out USB keys is a super bad idea too.

Filed Under: cybersecurity, dnc, dnc leak, eric walker, usb keys