Hillary Clinton suggests Russian hackers could tilt US election to Trump
As US intelligence and law enforcement agencies investigate the scope and motivations of Russian cyberattacks into election computer systems, Hillary Clinton revealed her own theory Monday.
The Democratic presidential nominee blamed Russia for interfering in the American political process, implying Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to tip the scales in Donald Trump鈥檚 favor to weaken the United States and bolster Russian interests.
鈥淚 often quote a great saying that I learned from living in Arkansas for many years: ',' Mrs. Clinton said, when she answered questions in a news conference aboard her plane, according to The New York Times.
鈥淲e鈥檝e never had the nominee of one of our major parties urging the Russians to hack. I want everyone 鈥� Democrat, Republican, Independent 鈥� to understand the real threat that this represents.鈥�
In July, Mr. Trump suggested that Russian hackers should help find 30,000 missing emails from Clinton's private computer server.
Clinton鈥檚 comments came just hours after The Washington Post reported intelligence agencies including the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency, and Department of Homeland Security have started an investigation into what they see as a 鈥�,鈥� as the Post鈥檚 Dana Priest, Ellen Nakashima, and Tom Hamburger write.
Clinton鈥檚 remarks could, of course, be dismissed as a political ploy against Mr. Trump, and they do in fact go just a step beyond what intelligence officials are saying.
An anonymous senior intelligence official told the Washington Post that US agencies don鈥檛 have 鈥渄efinitive proof鈥� of Russian cyber-espionage or Kremlin plans to do so.
鈥淏ut even the hint of something impacting the security of our election system would be of significant concern,鈥� the official said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the key to our democracy, that people have confidence in the election system.鈥�
Such a covert operation also fits into Russian tactics to undermine trust in the American political system, Fiona Hill, director of the Brooking Institution鈥檚 Center on the US and Europe, told 海角大神 in July.
In recent years, Mr. Putin 鈥渉as been fixed on undermining US leadership in the world by essentially saying, 鈥楾hey claim the moral high ground for structuring and dominating the international security institutions, but in actual fact they have no grounds for demanding and being afforded that leadership,鈥� 鈥�
鈥淭his type of revelation would certainly seem designed to reinforce Putin鈥檚 argument, which is also the thrust of Russian propaganda 鈥� that the US has got as corrupt and hypocritical a political system as anyone else."聽
Intelligence officials have said that they suspect Russian hackers sponsored by the Kremlin infiltrated the Democratic National Committee鈥檚 email system, but have not officially ascribed such an attack to Moscow. Hackers have also targeted the computer systems of the Democratic National Committee,聽, Trump, and the Republican party, according to Reuters. 聽
State election voter systems in Illinois and Arizona were also breached this summer, although the extent of the infiltrations has been downgraded recently. Public information of 86,000 Illinois voters was viewed, while malware was used to steal the username and password of a single election official in the Arizona County of Gila.
Mr. Putin and the Kremlin have denied they were behind the DNC email leak. Putin, in an interview with Bloomberg News Friday, said US accusations against Russia are an attempt to 鈥�.鈥�
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 really matter who hacked this data from Mrs. Clinton鈥檚 campaign headquarters,鈥� said Putin. 鈥淭he important thing is the content was given to the public.鈥�
President Obama has not publicly named the Kremlin as behind the DNC hack. But he and Putin met on the sidelines of the Group of 20 talks in Beijing on Monday to discuss cyber-espionage, according to the Washington Post.
Jessica Beyer, a cybersecurity postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington, wrote in a column Reuters published Friday that the hacks of the DNC and the voter registration systems .
鈥淲ith so many actors, motives, and targets, cyberattacks are inevitable,鈥� she wrote. But she added that it will be difficult to identify who these hackers are and their motivations.
We don't know whether the hackers were engaging in espionage, attempting to manipulate the election, or just harvesting low-hanging cyber-fruit for their own financial gain.
And we certainly don't know who they are. The ambiguity around hacking makes it a powerful tool of governments because hackers can exist in a gray area and, if caught, be repudiated by the state that they are assisting.
Russia has also been accused of ramping up its cyber-espionage efforts, especially against post-Soviet countries.
The Baltic states, Georgia and Ukraine have all been victims of Russian cyberattacks and other covert operations, officials told the Post. On the eve of the post-revolution presidential vote in Ukraine in 2014, a cyberattack debilitated the country鈥檚 Central Election Commission website. CyberBerkut, a group of Pro-Moscow hackers, claimed responsibility, but said they were not state-affiliated. Ukrainian authorities, however, blamed the Kremlin. 聽
