The Russia connectionRussia Targeted Election Infrastructure in All 50 States in 2016: Senate Intel Report
On Thursday the Senate Intelligence Committee releases the first volume in the Committee’s bipartisan investigation into Russia’s attempts to interfere with the 2016 U.S. elections, dealing with Russia’s attacks on the U.S. election infrastructure. The Committee found that Russia targeted election systems in all 50 states in 2016. In the majority of cases, Russia’s attacks went undetected by the states and federal officials at the time. The report suggested that the Russian efforts in 2016 might have been cataloging options “for use at a later date” — a possibility that officials of the National Security Agency, DHS, and the FBI said was their biggest worry.
On Thursday, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-North Carolina) and Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-Virginia) released the first volume in the Committee’s bipartisan investigation into Russia’s attempts to interfere with the 2016 U.S. elections.
The report is titled Russian Efforts against Election Infrastructure.
The Intelligence Committee’s investigation is the only bipartisan congressional investigation of Russia’s election interference, and its findings have the added weight of being backed by both parties. The findings constitute the first chapter of the panel’s two-and-a-half year-long review of the U.S. intelligence community’s determination that Russia intervened in the 2016 presidential election in order to help Donald Trump’s chances.
The Committee found that Russia targeted election systems in all 50 states in 2016. In the majority of cases, Russia’s attacks went undetected by the states and federal officials at the time. At the request of the U.S. intelligence community, the Committee’s report is heavily redacted, with most of the details describing the Russian methods blacked out.
“While details of many of the hackings directed by Russian intelligence, particularly in Illinois and Arizona, are well known, the committee’s report describes a Russian intelligence effort more far-reaching than the federal government has previously acknowledged,” the New York Times reports.
“Russian cyberactors were in a position to delete or change voter data” in the Illinois voter database, the report says.
The report highlights what must be considered as a broad U.S. intelligence failure: the sheer scale and reach of the Russian effort were misunderstood and underestimated; warnings to the states and localities too muted; and state officials either underreacting or, in some cases, resisting federal offers of help.
The were exceptions. The report notes that Michael Daniel, President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity coordinator, had been convinced – and had tried to convince others — that the Russians had gone after all 50 states, because his experience with tracking Russia’s covert activities had taught him that they were thorough.
