Both US Presidential Campaigns Hacked
The US intelligence chief say cyber-hackers working for foreign governments are targeting the candidates in this year's presidential election.
James Clapper, director of the Office of National Intelligence, said he expects more attempted hacks as the campaigns intensify. This would follow a pattern established in the last two presidential elections. The FBI is working with the campaigns to make their networks more secure.
The Department of Homeland Security is also assisting, but cyber-security experts said political campaigns have not done much to improve their defences since 2008.
Hacking was widespread during the 2008 election cycle. The Office of National Intelligence described its scale as "like no other" in a report released earlier this month.
V Newtown Miller, a data security consultant advising government agencies, said the hackers' attempts could have a huge effect on presidential politics. "It's a matter of when and how serious of an impact it is going to have on this election," said Mr. Miller, who believes these foreign hackers attempt to extract sensitive information, rather than commit cyber vandalism.
If a hacker is able to reveal embarrassing information about a candidate, it could sway how people vote in the election. But simply taking down a candidate’s website for a few hours could also have an effect, as it limits the campaign's ability to online fundraise, as happened to Mitt Romney in 2012 for several hours.
The global hacking collective, Anonymous, declared a cyber war against Republican candidate Donald Trump several weeks ago. They are encouraging their members to target Mr. Trump's business interests as well as his campaign resources.
In 2008, hackers thought to be working for the Chinese government obtained a letter by Senator John McCain expressing support for Taiwan. A Chinese diplomat called the McCain campaign to complain about the letter before it had been sent.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has drawn criticism for operating a private email server during her time as the nation's top diplomat. She is being investigated by the FBI to determine whether classified information was sent through the unsecured server.
James Clapper has not had to officially answer for apparent perjury. It has been 1165 days since James Clapper according to Snowden lied to Congress and the American people.
On March 12th, 2013, during a United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing, Senator Ron Wyden asked Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper the following question: "Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?"
Director Clapper responded "No, sir."
Incredulously, Senator Wyden asked "It does not?"
Director Clapper responded "Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps collect, but not wittingly."
Now US lawmakers are pressing the nation’s top intelligence official to estimate the number of Americans ensnared in email surveillance and other such spying on foreign targets, saying the information was needed to gauge possible reforms to the controversial programs. They requested that Clapper provide the information about data collected under a statute, known as Section 702, by May.
That law, set to expire at the end of 2017, enables an internet surveillance program called Prism that was first disclosed in a series of leaks by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden some three years ago.
Prism gathers messaging data from Alphabet’s Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and other major tech companies that is sent to and from a foreign target under surveillance. Intelligence officials say data about Americans are “incidentally” collected during communication with a target reasonably believed to be living overseas. Critics see it as “back-door” surveillance on Americans without a warrant.
A recently declassified November opinion from the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a secretive body that oversees the legality of US spy programs, rejected a constitutional challenge to rules permitting the FBI to access foreign intelligence data for use in domestic criminal investigations.
The Republican-controlled House of Represenatives has voted overwhelmingly since the Snowden leaks to require US agencies obtain a warrant before searching collected foreign intelligence for data belonging to Americans, but those proposals have gained minimal traction in the Senate.
