Obama Wants Possible Russian Hacking Interference During The President Election To Be Reviewed
A month after the US Presidential Election, President Barack Obama wants intelligence agencies to review a possible Russian hacking interference. He also ordered that a report should be provided for before his term will end on Jan. 20.
According to the USA Today, the review will cover the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections in addition to the recently concluded election that elected Donald Trump to be the next US President. This is due to the fact that there were apparently indications of “malicious cyber activity” during the 2008 and 2016 election period. Intelligence officials have previously revealed that Russian hackers were the ones responsible for the leaked campaign emails of the Democratic Party. This was publicly acknowledged by the Obama administration back in October, according to Krebs on Security.
The stolen information and emails were later exposed by WikiLeaks and other sites. Furthermore, The New York Times reported that Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson also said in a statement that the hacking of the Democratic National Committee was approved by the Russian government.
Lisa Monaco, the administration’s counterterrorism and homeland security adviser, shared to reporters, “We may have crossed a new threshold, and it is incumbent upon us to take stock of that, to review, to conduct some after-action, to understand what has happened and to impart some lessons learned.” Monaco said this statement at a breakfast on Friday that was arranged by the Christian Science Monitor.
This does not mean that the result of the election is not credible or the legitimacy of Trump’s win is being questioned. Deputy White House press secretary Eric Schultz pointed out, “I want to be clear that this is not an effort to challenge the outcome of the election. The president has gone out of his way to provide for the seamless transition of power.” Schultz added that they are “going to make public as much as we can”. This is even though much of it will be classified.
As for TIME magazine’s Person of the Year, President-elect Trump doesn’t seem to share the claim that Russian was behind the hacks. He said in his TIME interview, “I don’t believe it. I don’t believe they interfered.”
It should be noted that less than a week before the 2016 US Presidential Election, NBC News disclosed that US intelligence officials were anticipating for Russian to conduct a cyber mischief on the election day itself. This was supposed to cast doubt on the outcome. US hackers were said to be ready to retaliate just in case. The Russian government, specifically President Vladimir Putin, has been consistent in denying that it is responsible for the cyberattacks on the US.
