{"id":13332,"date":"2016-10-08T09:30:07","date_gmt":"2016-10-08T09:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=13332"},"modified":"2016-10-08T09:30:07","modified_gmt":"2016-10-08T09:30:07","slug":"u-s-government-officially-accuses-russia-of-hacking-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/world-news\/u-s-government-officially-accuses-russia-of-hacking-campaign.html","title":{"rendered":"U.S. government officially accuses Russia of hacking campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 18pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">\u00a0U.S. government officially accuses Russia of hacking campaign to interfere with elections<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong>U.S. government officially accuses Russia of hacking campaign to interfere with elections<\/strong> : The Obama administration on Friday officially accused Russia of attempting to interfere in the 2016 elections, including by hacking the computers of the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">The denunciation, made by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security, came as pressure was growing from within the administration and some lawmakers to publicly name Moscow and hold it accountable for actions apparently aimed at sowing discord around the election.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">\u201cThe U.S. Intelligence Community is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations,\u201d said a joint statement from the two agencies. \u201c.\u2009.\u2009. These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the U.S. election process.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">The public finger-pointing was welcomed by senior Democratic and Republican lawmakers, who also said they now expect the administration to move to punish the Kremlin as part of an effort to deter further acts by its hackers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">\u201cToday was just the first step,\u201d said Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), a member of the Homeland Security Committee. \u201cRussia must face serious consequences. Moscow orchestrated these hacks because [Russian President Vladimir] Putin believes Soviet-style aggression is worth it. The United States must upend Putin\u2019s calculus with a strong diplomatic, political, \u00adcyber and economic response.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/video\/c\/embed\/6f7666ae-327c-11e6-ab9d-1da2b0f24f93\" width=\"480\" height=\"290\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">The White House has been mulling potential responses, such as economic sanctions, but no formal recommendation to the president has been made.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">The DNC publicly disclosed the intrusions in June, saying its investigation determined that Russian government hackers were behind the breach. That was followed shortly after by a major leak of DNC emails, some so embarrassing that they forced the resignation of the DNC chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), on the eve of the Democratic National Convention.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">The administration also blamed Moscow for the hack of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the subsequent leak of private email addresses and cellphone numbers of Democratic lawmakers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">Other leaks of hacked material followed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">The digitally purloined material has appeared on websites such as DC Leaks and WikiLeaks. It has included the private emails of former secretary of state Colin Powell and aides to former secretary of state and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">An online persona calling himself Guccifer 2.0 has claimed responsibility for posting the material. Those sites and that persona are \u201cconsistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts,\u201d the joint statement said. \u201c.\u2009.\u2009. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia\u2019s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">The Kremlin on Friday dismissed the administration\u2019s accusation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">\u201cThis is some sort of nonsense,\u201d said Dmitry Peskov, press secretary for Putin. \u201cEvery day, Putin\u2019s site gets attacked by tens of thousands of hackers. Many of these attacks can be traced to U.S. territory. It\u2019s not as though we accuse the White House or Langley of doing it each time it happens.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">Hours after the administration called out Russia, WikiLeaks released some 2,000 emails apparently hacked from the personal Gmail inbox of Clinton\u2019s campaign chairman, John Podesta. They included excerpts of speeches Clinton made to Wall Street banks that she had resisted making public. In one of them, she said that Wall Street knew best how it should be regulated. The campaign has not acknowledged the excerpts\u2019 authenticity. There was no immediate word from the FBI as to whether the Russians were behind this release.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">The Obama administration noted that attempts to interfere in other countries\u2019 political processes are not new to Moscow. Russian hackers have used hacking and other techniques to influence public opinion in Europe and Eurasia, it noted. On the eve of a critical post-revolution presidential vote in Ukraine in 2014, for instance, a digital assault nearly crippled the website of the country\u2019s central election commission.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">The intelligence community has for weeks been confident that hackers tied to Russian spy agencies were behind the DNC hack. Senior officials at the Justice Department and DHS pressed the White House to go public with an accusation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">But a number of administration officials were worried that such a statement would appear to politicize the issue in the weeks before the election. They were also concerned about the Kremlin\u2019s reaction and about inadvertently disclosing sensitive intelligence sources and methods.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">\u201cIs it in our interest to act?\u201d Lisa O. Monaco, Obama\u2019s adviser on counterterrorism and homeland security, said at a Washington Post cybersecurity summit Thursday. \u201cThe primary guiding and overarching focus in these discussions is: What is in the national security interest of the United States? That\u2019s the North Star for those discussions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">Senior administration officials in recent weeks had begun to hint that a public attribution might be coming.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">\u201cWe know Russia is a bad actor in cyberspace, just as China has been, just as Iran has been,\u201d \u00adMonaco said at a cybersecurity conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies last month. \u201cNobody should think that there is a free pass when you\u2019re conducting malicious cyber-activity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said at the same event that the message to countries, such as Russia, that attempt to meddle in the U.S. election is, \u201cYou can and will be held accountable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">With the public naming of Moscow, the administration has now officially called out all its major nation-state foes in cyberspace: China, Iran, North Korea and Russia. But among the four, Russia is the only government that has not been subject to a deterrent measure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">The administration has a range of options, including economic sanctions for malicious cyber-activity, a new tool created by the president that has yet to be used. The Justice Department could bring indictments for hacking. The National Security Agency could take a covert action in cyberspace to send a signal to the Kremlin. Or the State Department can decide to eject Russian diplomats.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">Jason Healey, a senior research scholar on cyber-issues at Columbia University, said the Pentagon\u2019s Cyber Command should disrupt Russian hacking operations. \u201cGo after their command and control,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2009\u2018Counteroffensive\u2019 is the key word here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">Rep. Adam B. Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, urged the administration to work with European allies to develop a \u201cconcerted\u201d response, whether it involves economic sanctions or other measures.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">\u201cThe best way to push back,\u201d Schiff said, \u201cis in a truly international effort to let the Russians know there will be costs to this latest form of cyber-aggression against others.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\">David Filipov contributed to this report.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong>Source:<\/strong>https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/us-government-officially-accuses-russia-of-hacking-campaign-to-influence-elections\/2016\/10\/07\/4e0b9654-8cbf-11e6-875e-2c1bfe943b66_story.html<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-background-color\">\n\t\t\t  <div \n\t\t\t  \tclass = \"fb-comments\" \n\t\t\t  \tdata-href = \"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/world-news\/u-s-government-officially-accuses-russia-of-hacking-campaign.html\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-numposts = \"10\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-lazy = \"true\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-colorscheme = \"light\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-order-by = \"social\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-mobile=true>\n\t\t\t  <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t  <style>\n\t\t    .fb-background-color {\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #ffffff !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t.fb_iframe_widget_fluid_desktop iframe {\n\t\t\t    width: 630px !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t  <\/style>\n\t\t  ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0U.S. government officially accuses Russia of hacking campaign to interfere with elections U.S. government officially accuses Russia of hacking campaign to interfere with elections : The Obama administration on Friday officially accused Russia of attempting to interfere in the 2016 elections, including by hacking the computers of the Democratic National [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5470],"tags":[8282,8283,8085,8284,6221,8281,8285],"class_list":["post-13332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-dnc-hacks","tag-kremlin","tag-national-security","tag-putin","tag-russia","tag-russia-hacks","tag-russian-influence-2016"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}