Putin Personally Interfered With The US Election

US intelligence officials believe that Vladimir Putin was personally involved in hacking during the American election campaign as part of a vendetta against Hillary Clinton, NBC News has claimed

The Russian president personally instructed how material hacked from US Democrats was leaked and otherwise used, the US television network said, quoting two senior officials with access to this information.

The officials said they have a “high level of confidence” in this new assessment, NBC reported.

The evidence to support the CIA’s conclusion that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump remains mostly secret. But the outline of the case is no mystery. 

Both Democratic and Republican Party servers were reportedly hacked by foreign agents, yet the Moscow-friendly folks at Wikileaks somehow only obtained the contents of Democratic servers.

Putin has reportedly never forgiven Clinton – then secretary of state – for publicly questioning the integrity of parliamentary elections in 2011 in Russia, and accused her of encouraging street protests.

The intelligence officials told NBC that Putin’s goals in the alleged hacking began as revenge against Clinton.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump ran a campaign that sometimes seemed almost designed to please Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump lavishly praised Putin. He hired a campaign manager who had previously gained a fortune working for a Putin-backed strongman in Ukraine. 

The campaign then rewrote the Republican platform to remove pro-Ukrainian language likely to irk Putin. Trump selected as his principal foreign-policy adviser a retired general previously paid by Russia’s English-language propaganda network, RT. Trump himself publicly urged the Russians to do more hacking of his opponent’s email.

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the presidential election to boost Donald Trump’s bid for the White House, according to reports.

A secret CIA assessment found that Russian operatives covertly interfered in the election campaign in an attempt to ensure the Republican candidate’s victory, the Washington Post reported, citing officials briefed on the matter.

A separate report in the New York Times said intelligence officials had a “high confidence” that Russia was involved in hacking related to the election.

The revelations came after the US president, Barack Obama, ordered a review of all cyberattacks that took place during the 2016 election cycle, amid growing calls from Congress for more information on the extent of Russian interference in the campaign.

According to the Washington Post, individuals with connections to Moscow provided the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks with emails hacked from the Democratic national committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chief, among others.

Those individuals were “one step” removed from the Russian government, consistent with past practice by Moscow to use “middlemen” in sensitive intelligence operations to preserve plausible deniability, the report said.

“It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favour one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,” a senior US official briefed on an intelligence presentation last week to key senators was quoted as saying. “That’s the consensus view.”

CIA agents told the lawmakers it was “quite clear” that electing Trump was Russia’s goal, according to officials who spoke to the Post, citing growing evidence from multiple sources.

However, some questions remain unanswered and the CIA’s assessment fell short of a formal US assessment produced by all 17 intelligence agencies, the report said. For example, intelligence agents do not have proof that Russian officials directed the identified individuals to supply WikiLeaks with the hacked Democratic emails.

The WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has denied any links with Russia.

President-elect Trump has rejected the intelligence community’s conclusion of Russian involvement. “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” Trump’s transition team said.

“The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest electoral college victories in history. It’s now time to move on and make America great again.”

The New York Times reported that senior administration officials were confident Russian hackers infiltrated the Republican national committee’s computer systems as well as those of the Democratic party. It said those same officials believed the hackers did not release information gleaned from the Republican networks.

The Russians were said to have passed on the Democrats’ documents to WikiLeaks, it was reported.

DefenseOne:         Guardian:      Guardian:       Yes, Russia Weaponised Social Media In The US Elections:

How Did WikiLeaks Get Clinton's Emails?:
 

« MI6 Spies Infiltrate ISIS HQ
Obama Orders ‘Deep Dive’ Into Election Hacking »

Infosecurity Europe
CyberSecurity Jobsite
Perimeter 81

Directory of Suppliers

The PC Support Group

The PC Support Group

A partnership with The PC Support Group delivers improved productivity, reduced costs and protects your business through exceptional IT, telecoms and cybersecurity services.

Practice Labs

Practice Labs

Practice Labs is an IT competency hub, where live-lab environments give access to real equipment for hands-on practice of essential cybersecurity skills.

BackupVault

BackupVault

BackupVault is a leading provider of automatic cloud backup and critical data protection against ransomware, insider attacks and hackers for businesses and organisations worldwide.

XYPRO Technology

XYPRO Technology

XYPRO is the market leader in HPE Non-Stop Security, Risk Management and Compliance.

TÜV SÜD Academy UK

TÜV SÜD Academy UK

TÜV SÜD offers expert-led cybersecurity training to help organisations safeguard their operations and data.

Secunet Security Networks

Secunet Security Networks

Secunet is a leading cyber security company offering a combination of consultancy and products, delivering the highest level of security for data, applications and digital identities.

Rubicon Workflow Solutions

Rubicon Workflow Solutions

Rubicon is a leading provider of managed IT support and strategic services, specialising in creative and mixed platform environments.

Exostar

Exostar

Exostar is the cloud platform of choice for secure enterprise and supply chain collaboration solutions and identity and access management expertise.

Thinkst Applied Research

Thinkst Applied Research

Thinkst is an Applied Research company with a deep focus on information security.

Avatao

Avatao

Avatao is an online training platform for building secure software, offering a rich library of hands-on IT security exercises for software engineers to teach secure programming.

Euro-Recycling

Euro-Recycling

Euro-Recycling is a leading UK provider of Secure On-Site Data Media Destruction Services.

White Bullet

White Bullet

White Bullet’s risk profiling AI detects, dynamically scores and flags unsafe domains, apps and advertising.

Secuvant

Secuvant

Secuvant is an independent IT Security firm providing enterprise-grade IT security services to mid-market organizations.

HunCERT

HunCERT

HunCERT's mission is to assist Hungarian Internet Service Providers in applying appropriate procedures to address the risks of computer network incidents and to respond to such incidents.

SecurelyShare Software

SecurelyShare Software

SecurelyShare Software is a security software company, specializing in data security, data privacy and data governance.

Conosco

Conosco

Conosco are industry-leading experts throughout the UK in strategic consulting, project delivery, business communications, support, and security.

Cynch Security

Cynch Security

Cynch Security are passionate about building a world where every business is resilient to cybersecurity risks, no matter what their size.

TerraZone

TerraZone

TerraZone is a global cyber security and privacy solutions provider to governments and enterprises.

Clutch Security

Clutch Security

Clutch Security are on a mission to secure all Non-Human Identities. Everywhere.

CyberMindr

CyberMindr

CyberMindr is a SaaS platform for Automated & Continuous Attack Path and Threat Exposure Discovery helps you to proactively identify & assess your attack surface to mitigate associated threats.

Xygeni

Xygeni

Xygeni is a leader in Application Security Posture Management (ASPM). Our advanced technology detects malicious code in real-time to prevent malware infections.