I’ve seen this article shared three times in the last 30 minutes, so my initial thoughts: the tech details described here are VERY VERY weird. The purported methods of gathering this data are not possible according to my knowledge… but the guy who *invented* the system is quoted and does not say it’s impossible, so I conclude my knowledge is inaccurate.

Likewise, I can’t think of anything you could do with these methods that wouldn’t be easier and better in other ways.

That said, as someone performing forensics on a system, the *human* factors would jump out at me. When they say, “this looks like human rather than automated activity,” that’s likely factual. When anomalous behavior traces only to a Russian bank and a DeVos company, I’d *immediately* assume it was not coincidental.

The only additional hypothesis I can add that’s not in the story: a connection to DeVos is a connection to Blackwater, which to me is a possible answer to “why would someone do it this bizarre way when there are far better methods known to government spy agencies?” Was There a Connection Between a Russian Bank and the Trump Campaign?