Did Russia Hack The US Election? Senator Warns Russian Cyberattack Worse Than Reported
U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said Tuesday that Russian attempts to attack U.S. election software and hardware manufacturers were more serious and pervasive than a recent leak indicated.
In a report published Monday by the Intercept, a U.S. National Security Agency document showed attempts by the Russian military to launch cyberattacks against U.S. companies and phishing schemes against local government officials. Warner, who spoke with USA Today Tuesday, said the extent of the attacks "is much broader than has been reported so far."
Read: Did Russia Hack U.S. Election? NSA Details Attempts To Compromise Election Systems, Report Says
The NSA document published by the Intercept said the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate, known as the GRU, was behind an attempt to compromise election-related software and hardware, including private sector companies that manufacture devices to maintain and verify voter rolls.
Those attacks are believed to have compromised at least one of its targets and gained access to information belonging to a voting machine software maker. The Russian attackers then used that information to create false documents that had malicious software attached to them to send to local government officials.
If any of those files was opened, the malware would install itself on the computer of the victim — presumably a local official with access to election information — and provide the Russians with persistent access to monitor and manipulate that machine.
In all, the attack hit at least one supplier of voting software and targeted 122 local government officials ahead of the Nov. 8 election. The NSA did not offer any conclusion as to whether the attacks on local officials were successful or if any vote tallies were manipulated.
Read: Contractor Reality Winner Arrested For Leaking Classified NSA Information
Warner said the report is just the start of a much larger cybercampaign from Russia — one that he said did not stop after election day.
He told USA Today most of the local officials hit by the Russian campaign are now aware they were targeted and noted further efforts to disclose information about the hack are not an attempt to shame or embarrass states that were involved.
"Some folks say the states are victims, so they have to agree to release that information," he said. "I really want to press the case. This is not an attempt to embarrass any state. This is a case to make sure that the American public writ large realizes that if we don’t get ahead of this, this same kind of intervention could take place in 2018 and definitely will take place in 2020."
Warner said as far as he knew from what he has been privy to as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, there is no indication that Russian hackers “got into changing actual voting outcomes.”
While Warner noted the cyberattacks were worse than reported, he also took issue with the fact an NSA document was leaked to the press. He said the leaker “should be pursued to the full extent of the law.”
The Justice Department announced Monday it had charged federal contractor Reality Leigh Winner, 25, with leaking information to an online media outlet. It is believed the accusations against Winner were made in relation to the publication of the NSA document though the charges do not name the specific report.
© Copyright IBTimes 2024. All rights reserved.