I'm willing to believe that Russia sought to hack the U.S. election, but I still find the evidence lacking. That skepticism applies to the latest sensation -- a report that Russian proxies in Ukraine are employing the same malicious software used on the U.S. Democratic National Committee.
For months, I have been parsing stories of the great Russian hack -- the anonymous leaks from U.S. administration officials, the two fact-poor statements from the U.S. intelligence community, the distant echoes of briefings received by U.S. legislators -- for technical evidence. But so far, the only evidence pointing to Russian government involvement comes from cybersecurity companies that have studied Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) 28, a hacker collective that has attacked many targets over the years -- including the DNC in 2016
Don't get me wrong. It stands to reason that Russian intelligence was interested in the U.S. election campaign, and it's a distinct possibility that it leaked what it found to the press via WikiLeaks, despite the latter's denials. Russian President Vladimir Putin dislikes Hillary Clinton, and he probably would have been happy to hurt her chances of getting elected -- thus, by default, helping Trump. It's all quite logical, which is why a third of Americans believe Russia influenced the outcome of the election.
In the real world outside of soap operas and spy novels, however, any conclusions concerning the hackers' identity, motives and goals need to be based on solid, demonstrable evidence. At this point, it's inadequate. This is particularly unfortunate given that the DNC hacks were among the defining events of the raging propaganda wars of 2016. |