Thread: Wasserman Schultz Admits Hill IT Security Violations, Blames House Administrators For

Wasserman Schultz Admits Hill IT Security Violations, Blames House Administrators For Not Stopping Her [video]


LUKE ROSIAK
Investigative Reporter
7:44 PM 05/31/2017

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz admits to violating network policies at May 17 hearing.​


Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, whose office equipment U.S. Capitol Police seized in a criminal investigation into congressional network security violations, admitted she violates official information security policy and blamed the House’s chief administrative officer for not stopping her.

In a May 17 appropriations hearing on Congress’ administrative budget, Wasserman Shultz said she had violated the policies “for years and years and years.” She also sought to find out how much House authorities might know about her internet usage, asking “Are members monitored?”

Police are investigating Wasserman Schultz’s longtime information technology (IT) aide Imran Awan for theft and funneling congressional data from members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Committee on Homeland Security and Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Yet Wasserman Schultz lashed out at investigators and changed Awan’s title to “adviser” instead of firing him after House authorities banned him from the network. She resigned as Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman in July 2016 after unidentified hackers accessed the DNC’s emails, which Wikileaks later published.

“If a member is using an application outside of the House infrastructure and the protection of the, [of] our cybersecurity network, they’re in violation of House policy?” she asked John Ramsey, the House’s information security officer at the hearing on the legislative branch’s budget, in the previously unreported May 17 appropriations hearing.
“Of the House Policy 17, yes ma’am,” Ramsey responded.

“So Members are not supposed to be using Dropbox?” Wasserman Shultz asked.

“Not according to the policy,” Ramsey replied.

Wasserman Schultz then blamed House authorities for not stopping her and questioned their commitment to cybersecurity.

“I am more than happy to admit that I use Dropbox. I have used it for years and years and years. It is not blocked. I am fully able to use it,” she said.

“So there is a vulnerability in our network in spite of the fact that you say that you’ve taken steps to address it,” she continued. “And there is not enough of a — of a policy that — that applies across the board. And you need to make sure that you tighten up your rules and policies so that you can really take and assure us that you take seriously protecting our network.”

WATCH first exchange:


WATCH second exchange:



She then asked how much authorities might know about her computer activities.

“Are members monitored?” she asked. “Do, does the [chief administrative officer’s] office examine whether members are following these rules? How is it enforced?”

“And, you know, how do you make sure that, if you are concerned as you say you are about protecting the information on the House IT network, how are you actually enforcing that and making members aware” of the policy? she continued.

“I’m asking you how have you communicated with members of Congress about the use of outside applications and whether or not their usage of outside applications is compliant with the posted policy?”

Ramsey replied that his office communicates IT policy by notifying the IT aides working for congressional committees and individual members.

“When the policy came out, ma’am, we had sent some targeted communications out to the various IT systems administrators that service … the members,” Ramsey said.
The implication was that Awan withheld relevant information from his boss, causing her to violate policies. But instead of anger at a staffer’s failing, Wasserman Schultz attacked the notion of House authorities communicating about technology issues through members’ relevant staffers, calling it “just lobbing e-mail into a tech person’s inbox.”

“OK. Safe to say that you have not,” she said. “Wouldn’t you think that you would have a policy where you inform every single member and that we actually have a meeting with each member’s tech person so that you can inform them exactly what the rules are, what is allowable, what is not allowable?”

Chief Administrative Officer Phil Kiko responded that “we do inform every IT person, IT administrator in every congressional office. If that’s not enough …”

Using Dropbox an example of a commonly-used computer application, Wasserman Schultz’s question probed how storing data “outside of the House IT network” is treated as a matter of policy by authorities.

Imran Awan is suspected of funneling sensitive House data offsite onto secret servers wholesale, federal employees have said, which is a much broader breach but one that technically overlaps in some ways with how Dropbox works.

After Awan began working for Wasserman Schultz in 2005, three of his relatives, including a 20-year old brother, as well as his best friend, appeared on other House members’ payrolls at salaries on par with congressional salaries. They have collected $4 million since 2010 despite being rarely seen.

House authorities told members’ chiefs of staffs on Feb. 2 that the Awans were targets of a criminal probe, and other members fired them.

In the same May 17 hearing, Wasserman Schultz lamented that members didn’t have the maximum ability to exert pressure on the chief of the Capitol Police because he reports to an independent board. Not all of that board’s members report to the House Committee on Appropriations’ legislative subcommittee, of which she is one of eight members.

“We have had jurisdictional issues and a challenging time conducting oversight because of the structure of the Capitol Police Board and there — there being a (inaudible) line rather than a direct line to us in terms of being able to hold the board accountable,” she said.

“I’d like to know, sergeant, if you think that we should be looking at restructuring the way the board makes decisions so that we can establish a more direct line of accountability … At the end of the day, [the chief] doesn’t have a decision-making role,” Wasserman Shultz continued.

The unusual exchange may have been a setup to the congresswoman’s actions the next day at a hearing on the Capitol Police’s budget. After raising the specter of cutting its budget, she spent three minutes repeatedly demanding the return of a laptop that the chief explained is important to proving a criminal cybersecurity case. Nonetheless, she angrily insisted that it be turned over to her, saying there will be “consequences” if he does not relinquish the evidence.

“She uses her position on this subcommittee to threaten the chief of the U.S. Capitol Police,” Tim Canova, who ran against her in the Democratic primary for the House seat, wrote on a Facebook post. On the post, he demanded Wasserman Shultz “recuse herself from the House Committee on Appropriations’ Legislative Branch Subcommittee on any matter dealing with the Capitol Police budget.”

Wasserman Schultz’s spokesman David Damron did not respond to questions.
http://dailycaller.com/2017/05/31/wa...ing-her-video/



See Also:

https://www.alipac.us/f9/wasserman-schultz-threatened-police-chief-gathering-evidence-her-staffer%92s-347353/

Unbelievable. Could this same guy be the hacker of the DNC?

House Dems Hired A Fired McDonald’s Worker As Their IT Guy

LUKE ROSIAK
Investigative Reporter
9:57 PM 06/26/2017


Multiple members of Congress hired as their information technology (IT) administrator an individual whose most recent job experience was being fired from McDonald’s, The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group has learned.

Spokesmen for the members won’t say what their bosses knew at the time, but the hiring decisions highlight the role — witting or unwitting — the representatives played in what turned out to be an alleged multi-million-dollar IT scam in Congress with serious implications for national security.

Soon after Imran Awan joined the staff of Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in 2005, his brothers Abid and Jamal, his wife Hina, and his brother’s wife Natalia all appeared on other members’ payrolls, supposedly as IT administrators. His best friend Rao Abbas landed on the payroll too. Most of them made salaries ordinarily only chiefs of staff earn, but they were rarely seen or heard from in Hill IT circles.

The crew is now the target of a U.S. Capitol Police criminal information security probe with assistance from other law enforcement agencies as needed. Politico reported the “House staffers are accused of stealing equipment from members’ offices without their knowledge and committing serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network.”

Abbas lived in the basement of a house that Hina owned as a rental property, according to Cristal Perpignan, who occupied the top floors of the house. Abbas administered the email accounts and computers of eight members of Congress, according to official payroll records. House IT administrators can read all emails sent and received by members for whom they work.

“Rao did appear to be home most days,” Perpignan said, and she claimed that Imran told her Abbas had lost his job at McDonald’s. Imran appeared to use Abbas as a cutout in more ways than one because he instructed her to make rental checks payable to Abbas instead of the landlord, she said.

For years, Abbas was the only IT worker for Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri and the only D.C.-based one for Ted Deutch of Florida, according to payroll records. If Abbas did not actually perform IT work for Congress, it raises the question of whether someone else with no staff relationship, such as Imran, was performing sensitive administrator-level IT work when required.

To get administrator-level access to a congressional office’s accounts, a form must be submitted that requires the member’s signature, House IT workers told TheDCNF. People who are not on staff are not permitted to do work for the office, according to House rules.

Spokesmen for Cleaver and Deutch refused to say whether Abbas was ever seen in their offices, how Abbas came to appear on their payrolls or who on their staffs had IT administrator-level access to computer files.

Cleaver put five out of the six members of the Awan circle — all but Jamal — on his payroll at various times. It’s an unusual number of tech workers, and an arrangement that should have made the existence of nepotism obvious to the member or his chief of staff. For the last two years, Abbas was the sole person with access to Cleaver’s computers.

Deutch, meanwhile, had Natalia — who is from Ukraine, while the others are Pakistani — as his IT person in 2011. Soon he had Natalia, Imran and Abbas all listed as working for him. Then, for the last two years, there was only Abbas, meaning if Abbas was a no-show employee, it should have been obvious. Deutch also has a full-time IT worker based out of his district office, which most members do not have.

With allegedly no-show employees connected to Imran being added to numerous offices, someone had to do the work. Imran enlisted an old high school friend, Haseeb Rana, for this purpose. Haseeb did not respond to TheDCNF’s multiple requests for comment.

His father, Tanwir Rana, said Haseeb is a skilled IT professional and “they made him do all the work … After three months, he wanted to leave. We were having a very charged relationship with Imran. [Haseeb] was not satisfied with their behavior.”

Payroll records show that Haseeb began working for the House in 2013 and quit by the end of 2014.

Tanwir described Imran as having hired Haseeb even though the men are not part of a company and are hired as individual W-2 employees by congressional offices. Members or their chiefs of staff generally make hiring decisions.

TheDCNF interviewed multiple people who know Imran personally and say he boasted that he had outsized influence over numerous Democratic lawmakers.

Wasserman Schultz has refused to fire Imran despite House authorities banning him from accessing official computers. She also threatened the Capitol Police with “consequences” if they didn’t return a computer Imran used that was later seized as evidence in the investigation.

According to payroll records, two newly-elected Democrats, Reps. Charlie Crist of Florida and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, put Abbas on their payrolls when they took office in January — the time when IT workers would have been setting up the freshmen’s office IT systems and email accounts.

Spokesmen for Crist and Rosen declined to say who recommended Abbas, despite the availability of many reputable companies and individuals competing for members’ business. They also would not say who set up their offices’ email accounts.

Former Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy, who left the House after losing a Senate race, also had Abbas on his payroll. Like Wasserman Schultz, Deutch and Crist, Murphy is from Florida.

A House central IT employee who requested anonymity told TheDCNF that “they were ghost employees … When a new Congress would come in, they would have the members of the offices they were servicing vouch for them.”

A congressional IT employee who has taken over some of the Awans’ offices said employees there “weren’t used to seeing their technicians.”

Before the criminal probe was revealed, the employee told members Imran was “putting members at risk, so I used that to try to get several members to switch over,” he said. He added that he couldn’t understand why no one seemed to care.

Politico described Wasserman Schultz and Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York as having a “friendly personal relationship” with the Imran and his wife.

Previously, a second Democratic House IT worker told TheDCNF “there’s probably a core of 8-10 members that know whats going on,” including Wasserman Schultz and Meeks. “Several members should be kicked off the Hill.”

Read the rest

A Continuing DCNF Investigative Group Series

• House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs Committee Members Compromised By Rogue IT Staff
• Brothers Had Massive Debts, Years Of Suspicious Activity
• ...Secretly Took $100K In Iraqi Money
• ...Owed Money To Hezbollah-Connected Fugitive
• ...Received $4 Million From Dem Reps
• ...Allegedly Kept Stepmom In 'Captivity' To Access Offshore Cash
• ...Also Had Access To DNC Emails
• ...Could Read Every Email Dozens Of Congressmen Sent And Received
• Paul Ryan: Capitol Police Getting 'Assistance' On Criminal Investigation
• Read the Court Docs Detailing Greed, Ruthlessness of Democratic IT Guy
• House IT Aides Fear Suspects In Hill Breach Are Blackmailing Members With Their Own Data
• Suspect Has Fled To Pakistan, Relative Says
• Wasserman Schultz Threatened Police Chief For Gathering Evidence On Her IT Staffer
• DWS Admits To Violating Network Security, Blames House For Not Stopping Her

http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/26/ho...-their-it-guy/

The Truth About The Awan Family Democrat IT Scandal | Debbie Wasserman Schultz Exposed

Stefan Molyneux



Published on Jul 28, 2017
We Need Your Support: http://www.freedomainradio.com/donate
MP3: http://www.fdrpodcasts.com/#/3764/the...
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/stefan-molyneu...

On February 2nd, 2017, Democrat-hired informational technology workers Abid Awan, Imran Awan, Jamal Awan, Hina Alvi and Natalia Sova were barred from the House of Representatives computer networks. The Awan family members are currently under criminal investigation by U.S. Capitol Police after it was discovered that congressional information was being “funneled” to an off-site server and various equipment had been stolen. Due to the nature of their work, the suspects had full access to the emails and sensitive documents of dozens of congressional members who employed them - including multiple members of the homeland security, foreign affairs and intelligence committees.

Sources: http://www.fdrurl.com/awan-family

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKzzyOsvajc

LOL!! Just wait, ACT II is coming, "The Russians tricked us into hiring a con artist as our IT specialist."

August 1, 2017 By Kirsty Jane
Getting Nervous Debbie? Whatever is on Imran Awan’s smashed hard-drives can be recovered

Somebody must have thought they were hiding something by smashing those computer hard-drives the FBI recovered from the home of Imran Awan, Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s former information technology (IT) aide.


But odds are excellent they were wrong. Federal law enforcement authorities may have already recovered and read whatever was on those hard drives.
From BizPac Review

“It depends on what happens, but even if it is hit with a hammer, it probably doesn’t damage the platters that actually hold the data, which remains recoverable,” said Tom Hakim, engineering supervisor for werecoverdata.com, a New York-based lab that specializes in difficult digital retrieval.


“In most cases, it’s very likely” the information on a smashed hard drive can be recovered “in two or three days, maybe a week,” Hakim said.


His lab, which does extensive work for law enforcement and Fortune 500 corporations, has also recovered data from disks that were in fires and that had been submerged in water.


That may be very bad news for Pakistani-born Imran. He and his younger brothers Abid and Jamal, his wife Hina Alvi and his best friend Rao Abbas are criminal suspects in a federal investigation first made public in February into abuse of the congressional IT servers, including the possible transfer of data, emails and files from the offices of dozens of House Democrats.


Imran had worked for Wasserman Schultz — who resigned in July 2016 as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee after its IT system was hacked — since 2005. His relatives and friend had also worked on and off as IT aides, being paid collectively more than $4 million from 2009 to 2016.


All five of the suspects lost access to the congressional IT system in February, and all of them were kept on payrolls except Hina who left the country in March. Wasserman Schultz only fired Imran the day after his arrest and appeared prepared to keep paying him in Pakistan had he not been arrested.



In a related development Monday, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) filed an ethics complaint with Congress against Wasserman Schultz because she kept Imran on her official office payroll for months after his IT access was terminated. Moreover, other House Democrats fired Imran, his relatives and friends, while Wasserman Schultz continued employing Imran.


“There is something quite amiss as to why Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz continued to use taxpayer funds to employ former technology staff member, Imran Awan, even months after he was barred from accessing the House’s computer systems and a number of her colleagues severed ties with Awan,” said Matthew Whitaker, FACT’s executive director.


“Since Awan’s arrest last week, Wasserman Schultz has been evasive and unable to answer even basic questions about the nature of Awan’s employment with her office. This only further confirms the urgency of an investigation into her unethical and illegal actions,” Whitaker said in a statement released by the non-profit government ethics watchdog.


Whitaker is a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Iowa.
Also on Monday, Florida GOP Rep. Ron DeSantis, a key member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, called on lawmakers to assess the damage the IT vulnerabilities might have caused.


“Congress needs to know how this happened and what damage has been done. We have a responsibility to protect the House,” he said.


“The possibility that sensitive congressional information was compromised requires Congress to examine this matter,” the Florida Republican added.


DeSantis is chairman of the oversight panel’s subcommittee on national security and a member of its subcommittee on government operations.

http://theteaparty.net/getting-nervo...-be-recovered/