Throughout this election cycle the Clinton campaign and the DNC have repeatedly blamed Russia for the exposure of their various scandals, of which there have been many, while simultaneously warning that hostile foreign hackers are actively plotting to disrupt the U.S. election. Suspicions of election tampering were raised even more last week when Guccifer 2.0, who is often accused of cooperating with Russia, reemerged with a post on his blog in which he called on hackers to “monitor the elections from inside and inform the U.S. society about the facts of electoral fraud.”
While most people are probably somewhat dismissive of the threat of an election hack, if this presidential campaigning cycle has taught us anything it’s that the unlikely/impossible are more realistic than previously imagined. Certainly, according to NBC, the Obama administration is taking the threat of an election hack very seriously calling on “military and intelligence cyber experts who work out of top secret facilities” to monitor networks for signs of election tampering.
“There are a lot of eyes on this presidential election — more than there normally would be,” a senior Obama administration official said.
Cyber centers at the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department and the FBI — as well as the Pentagon, the CIA and other intelligence agencies — will be on alert, with extra staff hunting for any possible threat, officials say.
The concern is so high, intelligence officials told NBC, that for the first time, hundreds of military and intelligence cyber experts who work out of top secret facilities, including underground bunkers, will be monitoring intelligence about a U.S. presidential election. They will react to any threat to the federal government’s communication and command systems.
“It’s all hands on deck,” a senior intelligence official said.
Meanwhile, former NATO commander Admiral James Stavridis, pegged the risk of election tampering at 33% despite U.S. officials having “delivered a back channel warning to Russia not to do anything that would affect the vote.”
On Tuesday, former NATO commander Admiral James Stavridis told CNBC his concerns about possible Russian activity included a dump of false documents and an attack on the U.S. power grid.
“There is maybe a one in three chance of this happening but it’s not insignificant,” said Stavridis.
U.S. officials have delivered a back channel warning to Russia not to do anything that would affect the vote. But there are widespread fears that cyber mischief by hackers, either from Russia or elsewhere, will somehow mar the election.
There are limits to what the U.S. government’s cyber force can do to protect American networks, most of which are owned by private companies. But the Pentagon’s cyber command has the capacity to retaliate in the event of a major attack on critical infrastructure.
“There is a whole-of-government effort in cyber around the election,” a senior intelligence official said.
Certainly if things start to turn bad for Hillary tonight we’ll be looking to our friends at MSNBC for confirmation of Russian election hacking.
via http://ift.tt/2fds2qW Tyler Durden