Defense & Intelligence Policy, Business and Technology

Intel Community Says it has High Confidence Suspected State Russian Hackers Behind Breaches of Political Systems

Homeland Security Today: Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) Director James Clapper jointly announced with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Intelligence Community (IC) analysts and investigators are very confident the Russian government directed the recent compromises of emails from US persons and institutions, including US political organizations like the Democratic National Committee, and, perhaps, Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s admittedly unsecured and grossly mismanaged private home server on which she kept a variety of highly classified materials.

“The recent disclosures of alleged hacked emails 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,” the ODNI and DHS said, adding that, “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.”

Read article