Saturday, October 15, 2016

U.S. now 'confident' Russian government was behind hacking of U.S. political organizations

By Hunter
Friday Oct 07, 2016 · 4:26 PM EDT

After initially downplaying reports that the intelligence community suspected Russia was behind hacks aimed at meddling in the upcoming presidential election, the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence are both confirming those ties and charging that the Russian government itself directed them.

The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations. The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts. These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process. Such activity is not new to Moscow—the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.
The statement goes on to note that while some states "have also recently seen scanning and probing of their election-related systems" from Russian sources, the "decentralized nature" of U.S. election systems would make any attempt to attack the vote count itself "very difficult."

Read more

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/7/1578990/-U-S-now-confident-Russian-government-was-behind-hacking-of-U-S-political-organizations

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