Top-Secret NSA Report Details Russian Hacking Effort Days Before 2016 Election
June 6th, 2017Via: The Intercept:
Russian military intelligence executed a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election, according to a highly classified intelligence report obtained by The Intercept.
The top-secret National Security Agency document, which was provided anonymously to The Intercept and independently authenticated, analyzes intelligence very recently acquired by the agency about a months-long Russian intelligence cyber effort against elements of the U.S. election and voting infrastructure. The report, dated May 5, 2017, is the most detailed U.S. government account of Russian interference in the election that has yet come to light.
While the document provides a rare window into the NSA’s understanding of the mechanics of Russian hacking, it does not show the underlying “raw” intelligence on which the analysis is based. A U.S. intelligence officer who declined to be identified cautioned against drawing too big a conclusion from the document because a single analysis is not necessarily definitive.
Related: NSA Contractor Reality Winner Accused of Leaking File on Russia Election Hacking
Somehow this strikes me as the Russian hacking equivalent of Mohammed Atta’s passport being found in the street outside the World Trade Center. A little too convenient.
It’s insane. I never thought I’d be occasionally, apologetically, defending president Johnny Bravo.