Before the election, some Internet researchers found that servers in Russia associated with a major bank were pinging or making DNS calls to a server located in Trump Tower. While there may have been a semi innocent (though not really believable) explanation for the traffic, not for the extraordinary volume. The FBI came out and said it was nothing, probably spam. Well that was bull and they knew it as it was probably the basis for FISA warrants, which they wanted to keep quiet.
Since then, multiple media sources have said that monitoring was done on TT centered on that traffic, though other individuals may also be targets of electronic surveillance.
But that about these servers that set people off? What were they doing?
DNS calls are the background radiation of the Internet. Each second billions of DNS packets are sent from every conceivable device around the Net. DNS (Domain Name Server) is the way that traffic is addressed across the Net. Computers recognize IP#s as legitimate Internet addresses, not web site names When you type Googe.com or Boomantribune.com into the address bar, a DNS packet is sent out to a Name Server, which sends back the correct IP# for the site. (Boomantribune.com is 64.34.170.44) The browser, ftp client, email client, etc.. then use that address to request the page or other data. Name servers are maintained for public use and private use for large enterprises that require them on their private networks.
It is possible for one server in a private network to send DNS requests to a DNS server on another private network if it was going to access resources on that private network. But you would only need to do that once to copy the records from one server to another, then regularly update. What was found in looking at the traffic between TT and the banks was near constant traffic for periods of time. Like thousands and thousands of packets back and forth.
“Earlier this month, the group of computer scientists passed the logs to Paul Vixie. In the world of DNS experts, there’s no higher authority. Vixie wrote central strands of the DNS code that makes the internet work. After studying the logs, he concluded, “The parties were communicating in a secretive fashion. The operative word is secretive. This is more akin to what criminal syndicates do if they are putting together a project.” …..
About 10 years ago, this method of secret communications was brought up at another forum by very knowledgeable Sys Admins and DNS programmers. I hadn’t heard of it and thought it would require custom code. Imagine my surprise when I see today that there is a program to do this very thing.
Unix/Linux/Apple/Win32/Android
As I said, DNS calls are the background radiation of the Internet. If you could disguise communications within that vast pool of similar traffic, you could possibly go un-noticed. As long as you kept it short and wasn’t under constant surveillance. like a sanctioned Russian Bank.
Ridge
I get pinged all the time. Sometimes from Russia or Bulgaria but most often from China. Am I a Chinese agent?
Voice…if your computer has the following records from those particular Russian banks, then yes, you are doing massive business with those banks.
The operative question is as follows: Is that business in any way “criminal?”
A subquestion goes like this: “If the prime owner of that U.S. server is running for president of the United States, are those actions either criminal or at the very least not an optimal recommendation for the post?”
Within the answers to those questions…two of criminal law and the other of political import…lies the balance of power in the United States over the next several years. It is not necessarily criminal to do business with Russia, nor is the final answer to the second question easy to predict because it will be politically morphed in as many ways as it can be bent.
But here we are, about 1.5 months after Trump took office.
and
Meanwhile…Trump’s presidency has been seriously crippled. Considering the ongoing criminality of the forces that oppose him…Deep State/Corporatist forces and centrist DemocRatublican forces (If indeed they are not the same thing.)…this whole operation is not really about criminal acts, it is about actions that are in opposition to the Deep State’s own business and political interests.
Like dat.
Welcome to life in PostFactual America
Stay tuned.
More hustle every day until this thing resolves.
Bet on it.
Later…
ASG
I think, without delving into the weeds about the Establishment, we can look at this in a very old fashioned Robber Barron type perspective.
Russia is a herd protected by hungry lions, who take a lamb every so often as payment. They will let others in if there is enough in the deal for them.
Putin and other oligarchs are the local lions. They control the bleeding. They will let other lions in, like Tillerson, and they will all feast on the heart and livers. Manafort, Page, Flynn, etc… are jackals circling the herd looking for a bite here, a leg muscle there. A few million here, a few million there. Couch cushion change.
I think, despite his illusions of grandeur, Trump is one of the larger jackals. He doesn’t have the resources to sit in on the multibillion dollar deals. But, because of his media presence, he is a useful tool for the lions. mainly Russian as that is where the money to keep his company afloat came from.
That he has made it this far is a surprise to everyone and they will take advantage of it. While it lasts.
Question I would raise, when the Fall comes, can you tie the GOP to it so tightly as to stain all the proposals and policies they have pushed? I think good politicin’ could do so.
R
You write:
I think so too.
Second question:
Exactly who are those politickers?
Schumer?
Pelosi?
Gimme a break!!!
Who?
Bernie Sanders?
Elizabeth Warren?
Have they a snowball’s chance in Mar a Lago after the recent centrist DNC win?
I doubt it.
Are they going to start a new party?
They damned well better start soon if they are.
Otherwise…???
TweedleDem and TweedleRatPub will just switch sides again.
And business as usual.
Bat on it.
AG
Lol centrist DNC win! I’m sure deputy chair Ellison is going to do all he can to muzzle Sanders and Warren.
And I am sure that chair Perez will do everything he do to repay his supporters, Charles Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.
To tell you the truth, MDL…I am barely able to muster any amount of trust in anybody who has stayed active in the Democratic Party since Clinton I.
Yeah, yeah…I know…the lesser of two evils, etc.
Death by frontal attack or death by back-stabbing…still dead.
AG
Schumer supported Ellison. Soooo, try again?
Life is a constant choice between the lesser of two evils innit?
Maybe someday the tide will turn.
Did he?
Coulda fooled me.
You are…according to the MSM, anyway…right, though.
My bad.
According to the MSM.
However…I neither trust the MSM nor do I trust Schumer,.
On plentiful evidence.
Double dealing is how he got to the position he now occupies. Double dealing is how about 99.9% of the political system reached its current level of power. If t6hat is not perfectkly evident to you, then you are as blind as a deaf bat.
As W.C. Fields answered when asked in poker is a game of chance:
I personally think that Schumer should be investigated up the yin yang for his financial ties to Israel and AIPAC.
But what do I know?
After all…Israel is our ally!!!
Right?
Riiiight!!!
I no longer reflexively trust anyone in any position of power in this massive criminal conspiracy that we laughingly call “The United Sates.”
United?
In corruption.
Maybe…
AG
Ha! The only thing I trust Schumer on is his ability to get in front of the camera, and nothing else. But he was right there with Sanders, backing Keith. Coulda been faking it I suppose. Playing both sides but really having nothing to gain or lose sounds about right.
Playing both ends against the middle…done well…is all about having something to gain, MDL.
Why do you think so many successful crooks specialize in it?
It is the basic tactic of Wall Street. Especially the hedge fund specialists.
Where do you think the word “hedging” comes from?
Hedging your bets.
Like dat!!!
Schumer is a master at the game!!!
Been at it for 50+ years.
Still here.
Still in power.
Still disgusting.
Bet on it.
ASG
The Democrat Leadership Council – November 11, 2016 :: playing Stratego
○ Chair of Outreach: Senator Bernie Sanders
But then something surprising happened. Schumer, widely viewed as to the right of the Sanders wing, announced that he, too, would be supporting Ellison’s run at the chairmanship.
○ Why Bernie Sanders backed one of Wall Street’s favorite senators to lead Democrats
In final vote for DNC chair… “but I think Chuck Schumer’s endorsement is the ‘kiss of death‘,” Dean said.
well yes, your last two sentences. very good to hear that Sheldon Whitehouse is taking this on. certainly this is where the there is. it’s beyond me how some commenters think this situation is ordinary. every aspect of it is uncharted territory
Don’t know, are you?
I would wonder if you got thousands of thousands of DNS requests and you had blocked access to your server except for a few sites, including ones in Russia.
Or if the requests seemed to peak during major US political events.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/10/was_a_server_registered_to_the_t
rump_organization_communicating_with_russia.html
R
Do your freaking homework!
Fortune November 2, 2016
And where did you get a sanctioned Russian Bank? Out of thin air or parroting Russophobe nincompoops or propaganda?
Great, just what we need, a hard-edged Russian banker investing in US Healthcare companies.
Bankers/brokers go where good money is to be earned. They are amoral.
Like any virus, Marie.
I was mistaken that Alfa Bank was on the sanctions list but as Swedish firm TeliaSonera and British firm BP found, they have Very Powerful Friends in Moscow, even if Firdman is not considered a member of Putin’s circle. Powerful enough that traffic from or to Alfa Bank could be on a watcher’s list.
Trump’s Son’s comments would have certainly raised flags when Don began his run for President.
The point of the post was to demonstrate that there are tools out there to accomplish the very thing that is suspected about the very unusual traffic between Trump Tower and Russia. Tools that have been around for years.
R
That’s very true.
Are we concerned just because the modern technology of the internet, perhaps even that of automated HFT securities training, are being harnessed to exchange what are undoubtedly fraternal greetings and expressions of cooperation between friendly nations?
” what are undoubtedly fraternal greetings and expressions of cooperation between friendly nations? “
Like this?
“Greetings from the Motherland, Uncle Vladimir is pleased with the progress of the plan.”
Or something like this?
The two-day round of P5+1 negotiations with Iran just concluded in Geneva and Western diplomats.
It is a truth universally that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
When the day shall come that we do part,” he said softly, and turned to look at me, “if my last words are not `I love you’–you’ll ken it was because I didn’t have time.
Sometimes you have to keep on steppin.
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aurelio Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon that his father took him to discover ice.
Heart like shale. What you need is a good fracking.
For one last time, Miriam does as she is told.
Or maybe this-
https://youtu.be/aIH7cG3YmIo?t=477
Its fun to guess, but they were probably playing chess in this secret manner.
R