Three US officials confirmed this week that the intelligence community had conclusive evidence after the election that Russian cybercriminals provided WikiLeaks with hacked information from the DNC, Reuters reports.
Although the US intelligence community was “confident” the Russians were responsible for the hack back in October, it wasn’t clear how the hackers controlled or disseminated the information. The new evidence apparently shows that Russia gave damaging information about Hillary Clinton from the DNC hack to WikiLeaks through a third party, resulting in the sanctions President Obama placed on the country last week.
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On Wednesday, Donald Trump criticized the intelligence community, saying the “careless” DNC was responsible for the hack and quoted WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, who said that a “14-year-old could have hacked Podesta” during his Tuesday appearance on FOX News with Sean Hannity. Assange also told Hannity that he did not receive the leaked information from a “state party,” but technically did not deny he received the information from a third party.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper also blamed Russian hackers for launching a “multifaceted campaign” of cyberattacks, of which the DNC hacks were just one phase. On Thursday, Clapper addressed a Senate hearing and claimed that the Russians allegedly helped disseminate fake news and propaganda during the 2016 election and continue to do so.
“I don’t think we’ve ever encountered a more aggressive or direct campaign to interfere in our election process than we’ve seen in this case,” Clapper said Thursday.
Thumbnail image via Flickr user Christiaan Colen