U.S. formally accuses Russian hackers of political cyber attacks

I have worked at the polls in Georgia the last few years. The voting machines are not connected to the internet. The machines we use to verify that a voter is registered are not connected to the internet.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-russia-idUSKCN12729B

Oct. 7, 2016

Reporting by Mark Hosenball and Jonathan Landay, writing by Dustin Volz and Julia Edwards; Editing by Grant McCool

The U.S. government for the first time on Friday formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election.

"We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities," a U.S. government statement said on Friday about hacking of political groups.

"These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the U.S. election process," the statement said.

U.S. intelligence officials concluded weeks ago that the Russian government was conducting or orchestrating cyber attacks against the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, possibly to disrupt or discredit the election, in which Democrat Hillary Clinton faces Republican Donald Trump.

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Also on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Russian and Syrian actions in the Syrian civil war, including bombings of hospitals, "beg for" a war crimes investigation.

In addition, a U.S. intelligence official said Friday that Russia is moving short-range nuclear-capable missiles into Kaliningrad, a tiny Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania, confirming Estonian news reports.

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The statement by the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not blame the Russian government for hacking attempts against state election systems, but said "scanning and probing" of those systems originated in most cases from servers operated by a Russian company.

However, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman told Reuters that U.S. officials have concluded that the hacking attacks or probes of state voter registration systems are "consistent with Russian motivations."

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U.S. intelligence officials have said there is no evidence that voting recording systems have been manipulated.

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