USIC: Russian government may be responsible for email hacks

The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) recently publicly indicated that the Russian government may be responsible for hacking the emails of U.S. persons and organizations to compromise election results.

USIC said that the trove of emails leaked to sites like WikiLeaks and DCLeaks.com was consistent with methods used by Russian-directed outfits. USIC added that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized such a hack.

While some states have seen probing of their election-related systems, which in some cases originated from servers operated by a Russian company, USIC said that it could not attribute the activity to the Russian government.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that it would would be extremely difficult for a person or foreign government agency to alter physical ballot results or election results by a cyber attack. DHS based its assessment on the decentralized nature of election systems in individual states, as well as the lack of voting machines connected to the internet.

DHS is providing cybersecurity assistance to state and local elections officials that includes cyber “hygiene” scans, risk and vulnerability assessments, information sharing about cyber incidents, and best practices for securing voter registration databases when addressing potential cyber threats.

DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said that DHS officials are working with the National Association of Secretaries of State to offer assistance and provide resources for state and local elections officials.