Intelligence community challenged; mysteries of Russia’s Fancy Bear hackers; “digital Watergate,” and more

mysteries about Russia’s ‘Fancy Bear’ hackers (Kevin Poulsen, Daily Beast)
They may be part of the Kremlin’s best-known hacker crew. But many of their most important players were unknowns—until the Special Counsel stepped in.

Collective disbelief among intelligence officials (Natasha Bertrand, The Atlantic)
At the Aspen Security Forum, senior intelligence and law-enforcement officials stood firmly behind U.S. assessments on Russian election interference—no matter what President Trump said this week.

How much damage did Trump cause in Helsinki? (Will Inboden, Foreign Policy)
The president’s disgraceful remarks could have disturbing results. After U.S. President Donald Trump’s Helsinki debacle, it is time to take stock of what the substantive damage caused by his conduct might entail. This is not to gloss over the anger in response to his betrayal of the United States in front of one of its most dedicated adversaries. I share that anger, and as rich as the English language is, its syntactic menu of fulminations and imprecations has been taxed to the limit this week as voices across the political spectrum have denounced Trump. Suffice to say it was one of the most appalling moments in the annals of presidential history.
But what might its actual effects be going forward on our country and our national interests? We already know that Trump’s European misadventure was a disgrace. But just how much damage it actually did will become clear in the weeks and months to come.

“No way to run a superpower”: The Trump-Putin summit and the death of American foreign policy (Susan B. Glasser, New Yorker)
In the days since the Monday meeting in Helsinki, there’s been an understandable frenzy over President Trump’s post-summit press conference, given that he sided with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, over his own intelligence agencies on the subject of Russia’s 2016 election interference, ranted about his Electoral College victory, blamed the United States for bad relations with Russia, and called the special prosecutor investigating his alleged collusion a “disgrace to our country” as a smirking Putin looked on. But the real scandal of Helsinki may be only just emerging.
Unlike Putin, Trump did not brief his own diplomats on the Helsinki meeting. The information provided to America’s top diplomats, those whose job it is to deal with Russia, was just as sparse