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AFP, MOSCOW: Russia has pledged retribution after the US turfed out dozens of diplomats and imposed sanctions over alleged cyber attacks aimed at skewing the presidential election.<\/p>\nAFP, MOSCOW: Russia has pledged retribution after the US turfed out dozens of diplomats and imposed sanctions over alleged cyber attacks aimed at skewing the presidential election.<\/p>\n
Moscow has consistently denied it was behind the hacking and insists Washington has never provided any firm proof of its guilt.<\/p>\n
Therein lies the problem: irrefutable evidence determining the identity of the hackers and the reason for their attacks is hard, if not impossible, to find.<\/p>\n
Here is what is known so far about the \u201cwho, what and why\u201d of the hacking strikes during the recent US election campaign.<\/p>\n
In May, US National Intelligence Director James Clapper warns of cyberattacks against the campaigns, without specific reference to any source.<\/p>\n
On June 15, CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm hired by the Democratic National Committee to investigate break-ins in its computer systems, points to two separate Russian intruders.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth adversaries engage in extensive political and economic espionage for the benefit of the government of the Russian Federation and are believed to be closely linked to the Russian government\u2019s powerful and highly capable intelligence services,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n
CrowdStrike says hacking entity Cozy Bear, linked to Russia\u2019s GRU military intelligence agency, intercepted Democratic Party communications from June 2015 on, while Fancy Bear, linked to Russia\u2019s security service (FSB), targeted and stole DNC dossiers related to then Republican frontrunner Donald Trump beginning in March.<\/p>\n
A month later, the WikiLeaks website begins publishing the pirated material.<\/p>\n
On September 5, US President Barack Obama warns Russian President Vladimir Putin over the hacking during a private meeting in China, according to US officials.<\/p>\n
On October 7, the 17 US intelligence agencies conclude the Russian government is behind the cyberattacks and that they are \u201cintended to interfere with the US election process\u201d.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, WikiLeaks publishes a near-daily dose of emails stolen from the Gmail account of John Podesta, chairman of Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign, up until just before the election. SecureWorks, another cyber security consultant, says Podesta\u2019s emails were hacked by the same groups who hacked the DNC.<\/p>\n
On December 9-10, the Washington Post and New York Times report that the CIA concluded Moscow intended to help Trump\u2019s campaign by releasing the hacked material.<\/p>\n
The billionaire president-elect dismisses the CIA conclusion as \u201cridiculous\u201d. Russia denies all claims.<\/p>\n
On December 12, leading Congressional lawmakers call for an investigation into Russia\u2019s role in the cyberattacks.<\/p>\n
On December 15, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham reveals his campaign accounts were also hacked by Russians ahead of the November vote.<\/p>\n
On December 29, Obama announces a barrage of punishment for Moscow over the alleged attacks, including the deportation of 35 suspected intelligence agents and sanctions against the GRU and FSB intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security also release a briefing to provide \u201ctechnical details regarding the tools and infrastructure used by the Russian civilian and military intelligence Services to compromise and exploit networks and endpoints associated with the US election.\u201d<\/p>\n
The talents of Russian state-serving hackers are now the stuff of legend.<\/p>\n
Descended from the tradition of Soviet economic espionage, they broadened the scope to also probe and punish political targets.<\/p>\n
Russia was blamed for a cyberattack on Estonia in 2007, when the Baltic state\u2019s main internet sites crashed after being flooded with surplus requests, in a so-called distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attack. It knocked out the national emergency hotline for more than an hour.<\/p>\n
Other Russian neighbours including Ukraine and Georgia, as well as states which have strained relations with Moscow, have endured similar attacks.<\/p>\n
The US election hacking looks like a Russian state-sponsored strike, Andrey Soldatov, editor-in-chief of Agenta.ru and a specialist on Russian secret services and cybercrime, told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven Russia\u2019s history of cyberattacks, I would think this is a case of coordination between private and government actors, involving informal actors coordinated by those at the highest levels,\u201d Soldatov said.<\/p>\n
The campaign hackers did not need innovative technical skills to strike; simple \u201cphishing\u201d emails, which invite email readers to click on a link, were enough to get the hackers in.<\/p>\n
Experts have not converged on whether Russia set out to help Trump clinch a White House victory, as Clinton\u2019s team says.<\/p>\n
Soldatov says it is likely that the Kremlin sought to weaken the position of the former secretary of state, whom it views as \u201ca kind of sworn enemy\u201d and has blamed for
\ninciting unrest after Russia\u2019s own elections in 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m not certain the principal goal was to get Trump elected. These guys at the Kremlin are believers in conspiracy theories,\u201d he said, noting that up until the November 8 vote Moscow had warned that potential voter fraud could steal the election from Trump.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AFP, MOSCOW: Russia has pledged retribution after the US turfed out dozens of diplomats and imposed sanctions over alleged cyber attacks aimed at skewing the presidential election. Moscow has consistently denied it was behind the hacking and insists Washington has never provided any firm proof of its guilt. Therein lies the problem: irrefutable evidence determining […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n