On Wednesday, Department of Homeland security official testified the Russian Government individuals for hacking the election systems of 21 states.
According to Samuel Liles, the Director of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis Cyber Division, the vote- counting machines were unaffected and it’s likely that the hackers were finding ways for inserting vulnerabilities. He equates this attempt similar to the walk on street for gaining insight of the residents living in the homes.
However, the hackers were successful to intrude a limited number of networks as said by Liles.
This statement by Liles was given before the Senate Intelligence Committee which is investigating the matter of Russian interference at the presidential campaign 2016. His note has further clarified the impact of Kremlin’s Cyber vandalism. However, the Arizona and Illinois officials have reported the hacking attack on their registration system; yet, the Russian effort is considered much intense as suggested by the news reports.
A couple of weeks ago, a report from Bloomberg has exposed the Russian hackers of accessing systems in almost 39 states. Also, the Intercept has reported in their intelligence document that, “Russian military intelligence “executed a cyber attack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election.”
Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Jeh Johnson has claimed the Russian attempt of hacking as directed by the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Johnson stated this on Tuesday in a separate meeting saying that Russia’s interference was “unprecedented, the scale and the scope of what we saw them doing.” This statement was made after a day when Sean Spicer, White House press secretary said in a briefing that he is not confirmed whether President Trump is depicting Russia’s interference in presidential elections 2016 or not.
According to U.S intelligence committees, the Russian hackers not just have tried for inserting vulnerabilities to the tallying systems but also have accessed and altered the release of emails from Democratic National Committee John Podesta, Hilary Clinton’s campaign chairman.
Johnson stated that an extreme act from Russia has incited him to sign the Oct. 7 statement openly blaming the Kremlin for the situation. Although he believed that doing this could be discerned as “taking sides” or “challenging the integrity of the election itself.”
“In retrospect, it would have been easy for me to say I should have brought a sleeping bag and camped out in front of the DNC in the late summer,” Johnson said.
“My view is that we needed to do it, and we needed to do it well before the election to inform American voters of what we saw.”
“I think the larger issue is it did not get the public attention that it should have because the same day the press was focused on the release of the Access Hollywood video,” he added. The video was related showcasing Trump bragging about kissing and groping women.
Jeanette Manfra, the present Deputy Undersecretary for Cybersecurity and Communications, denied giving the details about the victimized states considering their confidentiality. Officials haven’t disclosed the names of those states having the data such as voter registration list.
A statement from FBI Assistant Director of Counterintelligence, Bill Priestap was given before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday that the Russians have projected their message and fake news reports online through the amplifiers. He stated that Russia has been trying to impact the U.S elections for many years but this time the “scale” and “aggressiveness” of their attempts are more intense.
“The Internet has allowed Russia to do so much more today than they’ve ever been able to do in the past,” Priestap said.
Johnson recommended the federal government to encourage a uniform set of minimum standards for cybersecurity when it comes to state elections system and voter registration databases” as an aftermath of the hacking attempt.
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About the Author
Zehra Ali is a Tech Reporter and Journalist. She has done her Masters in Mass Communication. Topics related to cybersecurity, IoT, AI, Big Data and other privacy matters are extensively covered by her on various platforms. You can follow her on twitter.
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