Russian hackingLong game: Russian government hacking aims to undermine democracy in U.S., globally
The evidence of cyberattacks by Russian government hackers against the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign is not only incontrovertible – this is the conclusion of both the U.S. intelligence community and leading cyber experts – but such attacks are nothing new. “This is not a new activity. It is new only in the United States. They routinely undertake cyber operations against democracies in Eastern Europe and other neighbors in the region, mostly to effect turnout, to spread propaganda, and to make the election seen less legitimate,” says Christopher Porter of FireEye’s iSIGHT team. “Ultimately they want to break democracy itself” in the United States and “around the world, wherein it is seen like a less legitimate system. That’s their ultimate goal to send message to the public that democracy cannot be trusted.”
The hacking into the Democratic Party server and stealing the e-mails of Clinton Campaign’s officials by Russian government hackers is part of the grand design by the Russian government to undermine the democratic system in the United States – and in other countries as well.
Christopher Porter, a senior intelligence leader at FireEye’s iSIGHT team, told the Press Trust of India, that a retaliation by the United States would escalate the situation and may well trigger a global cyberwar.
He stressed that the Russian are playing a long game, and that their broad hacking effort against the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign is aimed to achieve goals beyond the 8 November elections.
“What the Russians probably want to make the election seen illegitimate. So, they are stealing documents from politicians, from individuals, leaking secrets from around the world. The reason they are doing that is to make democracy seen like a bad system,” Porter said.
Some may look at the one-sided Russian government hacking campaign – which directed only against the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton – as a clear demonstration of Vladimir Putin’s preference for a Donald Trump victory in November, but Porter says that the Russian are more strategic in their approach.
“It is not like they are trying to get one particular candidate elected. They want to make it look so that whoever loses feel that this was not a fair election and people would not trust the results of the vote. Ultimately they want to break democracy itself …. around the world wherein it is seen like a less legitimate system. That’s their ultimate goal to send message to the public that democracy cannot be trusted,” Porter said.
He emphasized that t there is “no doubt” that the Russian government is behind these latest cyber hacking into the Democratic party and those of the top officials of the Clinton Campaign. NDTV notes that FireEye’s iSIGHT team for the past several years has tracked and analyzed the two Russian state-sponsored groups behind this attack — APT 28 & APT 29.
“I believe that APT 28 knew that they would be traced back to Russia, when they did the operation and that is kind of trying to send the U.S. government a message. It is definitely the Russian government and they wanted the US Government to know about it as well,” Porter claimed.
The U.S. intelligence community has reached the same conclusion, and the White House, in a rare attribution, named the Russian government as responsible for meddling in U.S. politics.
Porter noted that that the Russian government’s hacking groups are very good, and can get into very sensitive secrets.
“They can get into companies. They can conduct attack that can disable critical infrastructure like power plants. Their only limit is what the government is willing to do. They are among the best in the world,” he said.
Porter said FireEye, for many years, has observed and documented Russian interference in elections.
“This is not a new activity. It is new only in the United States. They routinely undertake cyber operations against democracies in Eastern Europe and other neighbors in the region, mostly to effect turnout, to spread propaganda, and to make the election seen less legitimate. We have not seen them directly altering votes and their candidates do not usually win the election even with their meddling,” he said.
