Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told a congressional panel on Wednesday that there was a delay between the time the Federal Bureau of Investigation first made contact with the Democratic National Committee about Russian Federation hacking its servers and the time he was notified at the Department of Homeland Security.
The Intercept, citing a classified intelligence document, reported that Russian military intelligence "executed a cyberattack on at least one USA voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November's presidential election".
US officials told lawmakers Wednesday there is no question that Russian Federation engaged in widespread interference in last year's presidential election aimed at helping real estate mogul Donald Trump win the White House, but they said there is no evidence that Moscow was able to change the vote count. For example, he tried to get election systems declared to be critical elements of the national infrastructure, which would have allowed DHS to help states vulnerable to hacking.
"And to my current knowledge, the Russian government did not through any cyber intrusion alter ballots, ballot counts or reporting of election results". "After the election President Obama took steps to target Russian Federation".
Later in the hearing, election officials on a second panel expressed frustration that DHS didn't warn them sooner about the hacks and said that they have been unable to access classified information about cyberthreats from U.S. intelligence agencies.
Senator Angus King, an independent from ME who caucuses with the Democrats, voiced skepticism, saying only a small number of votes in key battleground states would need to be altered to tip the scales in an election.
Johnson also testified he feared designating states' election systems as "critical infrastructure" earlier than he did would have driven away states that were suspicious of federal involvement in their elections.
Scalise still critical but improved
The bullet fractured several bones and injured internal organs, causing severe internal bleeding. Sava. "I feel a lot more optimistic than I do two or three days ago", Sava said.
"In retrospect, it would have been easy for me to say I should have brought a sleeping bag and camped out in front of the DNC in the late summer" to get them to take seriously warnings their email server had been hacked. "We do recognize that these systems are critical to American life", Manfra said. It has previously been reported that systems in Arizona and IL were hit by hackers.
During the last open hearing held by the House Intelligence panel, former CIA Director John Brennan told lawmakers that Russian Federation may have successfully tried to recruit US persons to influence the election.
Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate panel, expressed frustration at Manfra's refusal to identify which states had been targeted.
Jeanette Mafra, acting director of DHS' national protection and programs directorate, told senators that DHS must "build trust" with the state and local agencies it supports and that releasing names or details about them would ruin that by embarrassing them.
"By effectively reinforcing the Russian narrative and publicly saying that our system is rigged, did then-candidate Trump, now President Trump, become what intelligence officials call an unwitting agent?".
"Based on everything I know, that is correct". White House spokesman Sean Spicer declined to answer a question Tuesday about whether Trump believes that Russian Federation meddled in the election. And now this, from the most popular Democratic president we're likely to see for a while.
"I do believe that the Russians will continue their activities", says Michael Daniel, former cybersecurity coordinator for the Obama administration, referring to hacking attacks by Russian intelligence during the 2016 presidential election.
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