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1A collection of articles on Russia influence operations in the United States:
2
3The threat from Russia
422 Oct 2016
5
6How to contain Vladimir Putin’s deadly, dysfunctional empire
7
8FOUR years ago Mitt Romney, then a Republican candidate, said that Russia was America’s “number-one geopolitical foe”. Barack Obama, among others, mocked this hilarious gaffe: “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because the cold war’s been over for 20 years,” scoffed the president. How times change. With Russia hacking the American election, presiding over mass slaughter in Syria, annexing Crimea and talking casually about using nuclear weapons, Mr Romney’s view has become conventional wisdom. Almost the only American to dissent from it is today’s Republican nominee, Donald Trump.
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10http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21709028-how-contain-vladimir-putins-deadly-dysfunctional-empire-threat-russia
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14Belching smoke through the Channel, Russian aircraft carrier so unreliable it sails with its own breakdown tug
1522 Oct 2016
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17The ageing Russian aircraft carrier that sailed through the English Channel escorted by the Royal Navy has been plagued by years of technical problems and is accompanied everywhere by a tug in case it breaks down.
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19The plumbing is so bad on the 55,000 ton Admiral Kuznetsov that many of its toilets cannot be used, while it has had repeated problems with its power and a string of accidents, naval experts said.
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21The Soviet-era warship is leading a flotilla of eight naval vessels to the eastern Mediterranean, where its aircraft are expected to join a renewed assault on the rebel-held city of Aleppo.
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23http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/21/russian-carrier-plagued-by-technical-problems/
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27Yes, 17 intelligence agencies really did say Russia was behind hacking
2821 Oct 2016
29
30Donald Trump’s claim that the United States has "no idea" who is behind recent email hacks is just not true.
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32The fact-checking website Politifact says Hillary Clinton is correct when she says 17 federal intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia is behind the hacking.
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34“We have 17, 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military who have all concluded that these espionage attacks, these cyber attacks, come from the highest levels of the Kremlin. And they are designed to influence our election. I find that deeply disturbing,” Clinton said during Wednesday's presidential debate in Las Vegas.
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36Trump pushed back, saying that Clinton and the United States had “no idea whether it is Russia, China or anybody else.”
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38But Clinton is correct. On Oct. 7, the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a joint statement on behalf of the U.S. Intelligence Community. The USIC is made up of 16 agencies, in addition to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
39
40http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/10/21/17-intelligence-agencies-russia-behind-hacking/92514592/
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44Denying Trump’s Denial, US Intel Chief Says There’s More Evidence of Russian Hacking
4521 Oct 2016
46
47At Wednesday’s debate, Donald Trump said Hillary Clinton “has no idea whether it’s Russia” who hacked into the private networks of her campaign’s allies, then released the information to WikiLeaks and the world. “Our country has no idea.”
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49This morning, without calling out Trump by name, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said, um, yeah, we do.
50
51The cybersecurity community has attributed that attack and leak to FANCY BEAR, a group also known as APT 28. Defense One asked Clapper if the intelligence community has identified specific people associated with the group? Specific buildings? Units? And how good is the attribution and how strong is the connection to nation-state backing?
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53http://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2016/10/denying-trumps-denial-us-intel-chief-says-theres-more-evidence-russian-hacking/132535/
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56
57Vladimir Putin's Russia: Will It Rock America's Vote?
5822 Oct 2016
59
60The presidential vote won’t be rigged, but it may well be rocked–and not just by Donald Trump’s repeated threat to dispute the results if he loses.
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62The Republican challenger has already benefitted from foreign hacking, persuasively attributed to Russia, of the private, and often embarrassing, emails of Hillary Clinton’s staff and the Democratic National Committee. Now, say numerous cyber analysts, Russian hackers have the ability, and perhaps motivation, to infiltrate the nation’s voting booths and deliver a stunning blow to Americans’ already wobbling belief in the integrity of the electoral process.
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64“You only need to mess it up a little bit, and as soon as people don't have faith in it, the whole system can start to crumble,” says Ryan Duff, a former U.S. Air Force cyber tactician now working on information security in the private realm. “You don't even need to sway it one way. You just have to make people think it could happen.”
65
66http://www.newsweek.com/russia-hackers-putin-wikileaks-trump-clinton-sanders-kremlin-guccifer-512679
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69
70The looming specter of cyberwar with Russia
7121 Oct 2016
72
73In the world of cyber (as in security), the question of the week seems to be, "Are we going to cyberwar with Russia?"
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75White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest thinks so. A week after President Obama singled out Russia as being responsible for cyberattacks on targets including the Democratic National Committee, Earnest said in a briefing that the administration would be serving a "proportional" response to Putin and the gang.
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77That response would be reciprocation for the very public (and not particularly sophisticated) hacking we've seen targeting the Democratic side of this particular presidential election. This includes the DNC hacks, the Guccifer 2.0 clowning around, the targeted feeding of docs to WikiLeaks. And, if we're going to include all the hacker toolsets, the unprecedented use of bots to influence opinion on social media in favor of the Republican candidate.
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79https://www.engadget.com/amp/2016/10/21/the-looming-spectre-of-cyberwar-with-russia/
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83Evidence ties Russia to Podesta and Powell email hacks
8421 Oct 2016
85
86They appear to be part of a unified effort to disrupt the US presidential election.
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88Back in March, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta received a frantic-sounding email about his account security and clicked a shortened link that appeared to be from Google. Instead, it redirected to a spoof page that gave hackers access to his password. Half a year later, WikiLeaks started publicly releasing thousands of his emails on October 9th, a month after the seemingly unrelated leak of Gen. Colin Powell's personal messages. Security firms, journalists and a hive of independent researchers have spent the interim analyzing the digital break-ins and have arrived at the probable culprit behind these and several other hacks: Russia. But definitively attributing it to the country's intelligence services is difficult, if not impossible.
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90https://www.engadget.com/2016/10/21/evidence-ties-russia-to-podesta-and-powell-email-hacks/
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94How Russia Pulled Off the Biggest Election Hack in U.S. History
9520 Oct 2016
96
97On an April afternoon earlier this year, Russian president Vladimir Putin headlined a gathering of some four hundred journalists, bloggers, and media executives in St. Petersburg. Dressed in a sleek navy suit, Putin looked relaxed, even comfortable, as he took questions. About an hour into the forum, a young blogger in a navy zip sweater took the microphone and asked Putin what he thought of the "so-called Panama Papers."
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99The blogger was referring to a cache of more than eleven million computer files that had been stolen from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm. The leak was the largest in history, involving 2.6 terabytes of data, enough to fill more than five hundred DVDs. On April 3, four days before the St. Petersburg forum, a group of international news outlets published the first in a series of stories based on the leak, which had taken them more than a year to investigate. The series revealed corruption on a massive scale: Mossack Fonseca's legal maneuverings had been used to hide billions of dollars. A central theme of the group's reporting was the matryoshka doll of secret shell companies and proxies, worth a reported $2 billion, that belonged to Putin's inner circle and were presumed to shelter some of the Russian president's vast personal wealth.
100
101http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a49791/russian-dnc-emails-hacked/
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105Private Security Group Says Russia Was Behind John Podesta’s Email Hack
10620 Oct 2016
107
108At the start of 2014, President Obama assigned his trusted counselor, John D. Podesta, to lead a review of the digital revolution, its potential and its perils. When Mr. Podesta presented his findings five months later, he called the internet’s onslaught of big data “a historic driver of progress.” But two short years later, as chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, Mr. Podesta would also become one of the internet’s most notable victims.
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110On Thursday, private security researchers said they had concluded that Mr. Podesta was hacked by Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the GRU, after it tricked him into clicking on a fake Google login page last March, inadvertently handing over his digital credentials.
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112For months, the hackers mined Mr. Podesta’s inbox for his most sensitive and potentially embarrassing correspondence, much of which has been posted on the WikiLeaks website. Additions to the collection on Thursday included three short email exchanges between Mr. Podesta and Mr. Obama himself in the days leading up to his election in 2008.
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114http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/21/us/private-security-group-says-russia-was-behind-john-podestas-email-hack.html
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118NSA chief: Cyber adds 'whole other dimension' to Russia's attempts to manipulate U.S. affairs
11920 Oct 2016
120
121The head of the NSA said Thursday that Russia's hack of Democratic Party emails is consistent with its history of trying to manipulate and influence affairs in other countries — but the scope of such operations has changed dramatically.
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123"Cyber adds a whole other dimension to this because it now enables individuals, actors, groups, nation states to acquire data at massive scale and then divulge that," Adm. Michael S. Rogers told cyber professionals at the sixth annual Cyber Maryland Conference in Baltimore.
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125http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-nsa-adm-mike-rogers-20161020-story.html
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128
129Researchers link Podesta hack to Russia
13020 Oct 2016
131
132Researchers say they now have evidence linking the hack of an email account belonging to Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman to the data breaches at Democratic groups that are believed to have been perpetrated by Russia.
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134Security company SecureWorks noted in a report that the cyberattack that compromised John Podesta's account used the same account on URL-shortening service Bitly as the hack of Colin Powell's email, as well as hacks of 4,000 other individuals since 2015.
135
136http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/302039-researchers-tie-podesta-hack-to-russia
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140How Hackers Broke Into John Podesta and Colin Powell’s Gmail Accounts
14120 Oct 2016
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143On March 19 of this year, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta received an alarming email that appeared to come from Google.
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145The email, however, didn’t come from the internet giant. It was actually an attempt to hack into his personal account. In fact, the message came from a group of hackers that security researchers, as well as the US government, believe are spies working for the Russian government. At the time, however, Podesta didn’t know any of this, and he clicked on the malicious link contained in the email, giving hackers access to his account.
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147http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-hackers-broke-into-john-podesta-and-colin-powells-gmail-accounts
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151State Dept. accuses Russia of 'PR stunt' in election-monitoring flap
15220 Oct 2016
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154The State Department on Thursday accused Moscow of a “PR stunt” after reports emerged that the U.S. had rejected Russia's request to send delegates to “monitor” November's polls — the latest twist in a bizarre election season sullied by accusations of Russian meddling.
155
156Kremlin-backed news outlets such as RT, sometimes citing other media, reported Thursday that representatives of Russia's Central Elections Commission had talked to the State Department about sending a delegation to watch the U.S. polls on Nov. 8.
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158http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/russia-monitoring-election-pr-stunt-state-230091
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161
162Intelligence Officials Reiterate Russian Responsibility for Recent Hacks
16320 Oct 2016
164
165‘We need to step back as a nation and think about, what are the implications of that?’ says NSA director
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167Two senior U.S. intelligence officials reiterated Thursday their belief that the Russian government stole and then leaked emails in an effort to interfere with the November elections, countering the repeated insistence from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that no one knows who carried out the attacks.
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169Adm. Michael Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, said at a conference in Baltimore that “we have acknowledged that the Russians were behind the penetrations,” referring to hacks carried out against the Democratic National Committee, some of its affiliates and Clinton campaign aides.
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171“We need to step back as a nation and think about what are the implications of that?” Adm. Rogers said. “Is that something we are comfortable with?”
172
173http://www.wsj.com/articles/intelligence-officials-reiterate-russian-responsibility-for-recent-hacks-1476981467
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176
177U.S. Confident It's Blocked Russia's Hacking Paths
17819 Oct 2016
179
180U.S. officials are confident that defensive measures put in place will stop Russia from hacking more emails to influence the upcoming election — for now.
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182A high-level intelligence source said the U.S. and its allies have choked off cyber paths that the Russians have allegedly been using to steal emails from high-profile Democrats and other prominent Americans and make them public through WikiLeaks, DCleaks and Guccifer 2.0.
183
184The Russians, both the state actors and their proxies, are some of the most sophisticated cyber actors in the world and so it won't take them long to find ways of infiltrating and attacking new systems getting access to more data and certainly trying to use it for information, warfare or other purposes.
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186"I think it's credible that the U.S. government is doing everything possible to stop the cyber bleeding," said Juan Zarate, who was a top counterterrorism official from 2005 to 2009.
187
188http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-confident-it-s-blocked-russia-s-hacking-paths-n669256
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192If the US hacks Russia for revenge, that could lead to cyberwar
19319 Oct 2016
194
195The US should attempt to de-escalate tensions by negotiating some form of international cyber treaty before this gets out of control
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197What’s the CIA’s brilliant plan for stopping Russian cyber-attacks on the US and their alleged interference with the US election? Apparently, some in the agency want to escalate tensions between the two superpowers even more and possibly do the same thing right back to them.
198
199NBC News reported late last week that the CIA is working up blueprints for an “unprecedented cyber covert action against Russia”, and it sounds a lot like they’re planning on leaking documents on Vladimir Putin, just as the Russians are accused of doing to the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.
200
201NBC reported that former intelligence officials said “the agency had gathered reams of documents that could expose unsavory tactics by Russian President Vladimir Putin” and another former official said the US “should … expose the financial dealings of Putin and his associates”.
202
203https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/19/russian-hacking-us-retaliation-cyberwar-international-treaty
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206
207Russian Hackers Evolve to Serve the Kremlin
20820 Oct 2016
209
210Attacks on Hillary Clinton and Democratic National Committee are part of Vladimir Putin’s effort to sow instability, U.S. officials say
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212With the hacking of Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee, U.S. officials say Russia has unleashed a strengthened cyberwarfare weapon to sow uncertainty about the U.S. democratic process.
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214In doing so, Russia has transformed state-sponsored hackers known as Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear from internet spies to political tools with the power to target the country’s adversaries, according to U.S. officials and cybersecurity experts.
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216The attacks are the harder side of parallel campaigns in the Kremlin’s English-language media, which broadcast negative news about Western institutions and alliances and focus on issues that demonstrate or stoke instability in the West, such as Brexit. Moscow seeks particularly to weaken the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which has expanded its defense against Russia.
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218http://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-hackers-evolve-to-serve-the-kremlin-1476907214
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221
222Whodunnit? Russia and Coercion through Cyberspace
22319 Oct 2016
224
225Late in May 2014, a group calling itself CyberBerkut leaked a map of the Ukrainian Dnipropetrovsk Oblast administration’s IT resources, information on the Central Election Commission of Ukraine’s servers, and the correspondence of its staff. In the following days, which included the country’s presidential election, CyberBerkut claimed they had again compromised the election commission’s servers, leaked more confidential information, conducted a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack the commission’s website (which instructed potential voters how and where to vote), and blocked the phones of election organizers. The group also released documents implying that the recently appointed governor of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Igor Kolomoisky, was complicit in pro-European Ukrainian plans to promote the “correct” candidate for president of Ukraine.
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227http://warontherocks.com/2016/10/whodunnit-russia-and-coercion-through-cyberspace/
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231Ex-CIA chief: Russian hackers trying to 'mess with our heads'
23218 Oct 2016
233
234A former head of the CIA said Tuesday that Russian hacking of US political groups is intended to "mess with our heads" and shake confidence in the American electoral system -- rather than influence the outcome on Election Day.
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236Retired Gen. Michael Hayden said that he doesn't believe Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to sway the election in favor of Republican nominee Donald Trump, but using the hacked information to disrupt the electoral process.
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238"This is too much of a carom shot for Putin to think he knows where that ball's going to end," Hayden said, speaking at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. "I think they're doing this to mess with our heads, to erode confidence in our political process."
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240http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/18/politics/hayden-russia-us-cyber-elections/
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244Could Obama’s Threat of Retaliation against Russia Lead to Cyberwar?
24518 Oct 2016
246
247Online attacks are unpredictable and hard to control, leading to worries that White House cyber rattling could quickly escalate
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249Late last week Obama administration officials used NBC News to send Moscow a cryptic threat: The U.S. government is “contemplating an unprecedented cyber covert action” against Russia for allegedly interfering in the upcoming U.S. elections. Anonymous sources cited in the NBC story offered no details about what the U.S. might d, but said the White House has asked the CIA to cook up a “clandestine” cyber strategy “designed to harass and embarrass” Russian leadership, including Pres. Vladimir Putin.
250
251https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/could-obama-s-threat-of-retaliation-against-russia-lead-to-cyberwar/
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255The US plans to retaliate against Russia’s cyber-hacking campaign with a hack that Putin is sure to understand
25617 Oct 2016
257
258After three months of accusations that Russia is seeking to influence the US presidential election with a cyber-hacking campaign, the US is planning to strike back and send “a message” to Moscow with “the greatest impact.”
259
260In an Oct. 16 interview on the NBC show Meet the Press, vice president Joe Biden said that the US retaliation against Russian cyber attacks would be covert. The United States’ two main weapons against such cyber intrusions are sanctions and a reciprocal cyber attack, but sanctions are never covert and of dubious impact. So it seems likely from Biden’s remarks that the US is planning a demonstration of cyberspace might.
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262One likely tactic in a US cyber attack on Russia would be to threaten or actually release detailed accounts of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s wealth, intelligence that would have been gathered by the National Security Agency. Such a strategy could rattle Putin by potentially affecting his domestic popularity without damaging any infrastructure, and thus avert a dangerous escalation of hostilities.
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264http://qz.com/810722/joe-biden-the-us-plans-to-retaliate-against-russias-cyber-hacking-campaign-with-a-hack-of-its-own/
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268U.S. Cyber Responses to Russian Hacking of the November Election
26917 Oct 2016
270
271Recent news reports regarding Russian hacks affecting the November election suggest that the United States is preparing on possible U.S. cyber actions in response, such as revealing information to the Russian public about Putin’s financial holdings that would be embarrassing for him.  Without comment on whether this would be a wise policy move, it’s necessary to point out that such an action would not be a “cyber response” in any meaningful sense of the term.
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273In common parlance, the term “cyber response” would mean an action taken in cyberspace in reaction to some other action regarded as hostile.  “Response” means that the response action happens after the hostile action.  But nearly all of the information that we would reveal about Putin’s financial holdings must have been collected over a long period of time—a period that almost certainly precedes the Russian hacks.  The only actual action that would occur afterwards—that is, in response—is the revealing of the discovered information.  That’s not a “cyber response”—that would be a policy decision to reveal information that is already in the possession of U.S. intelligence community files.
274
275https://www.lawfareblog.com/us-cyber-responses-russian-hacking-november-election
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279Russia’s War With The US Isn’t A Possibility, It’s Already Here
28015 Oct 2016
281
282The first phase of Russia’s war with the U.S. is already starting, and while it is not easily visible, it’s incredibly dangerous.
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284After months of speculation regarding the hacking of recent political figures and organizations, the U.S. intelligence community announced last week that it is “confident” that Russia is responsible. Wikileaks, a primary publisher of the documents resulting from those hacks, is making it evidently clear that it is targeting U.S. politics. U.S. intelligence officials also acknowledge that Russia may have a hand in hacks of various state electoral systems.
285
286http://dailycaller.com/2016/10/15/russias-war-with-the-us-isnt-a-possibility-its-already-here/
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290Entire US political system ‘under attack’ by Russian hacking, experts warn
29114 Oct 2016
292
293Meanwhile, some US commentators on cybersecurity issues have suggested that these attacks are not a surprise but appear to be a new spin on an old strategy
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295It could have been a cold war drama. The world watched this week as accusations and counter-accusations were thrown by the American and Russian governments about documents stolen during a hack of the Democratic National Committee and the email account of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta.
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297The notion that public figures have any right to privacy appears to have been lost in the furore surrounding the story, stolen correspondence being bandied around in attempts to influence the outcome of one of the nastiest, most vitriolic US presidential campaigns in history.
298
299https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/14/hillary-clinton-email-hack-russia-cybersecurity
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303Putin’s hope to ignite a Eurasia-style protest in the United States
30416 Oct 2016
305
306In the fall of 2004 Vladi­mir Putin suffered a blow he has never forgotten. The fraudulent election of a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian president, which Putin had directly and brazenly engineered, was overturned by a massive popular uprising. What came to be known as the “Orange Revolution” created a model for resistance to rigged elections in autocracies across Eurasia — in Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Azerbaijan and, in 2012, Russia itself.
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308Most of the rebellions didn’t succeed. But Putin developed an obsession with “color revolutions,” which he is convinced are neither spontaneous nor locally organized, but orchestrated by the United States — and in the case of the Moscow protests four years ago, by Hillary Clinton herself.
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310https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/putins-hope-to-ignite-a-eurasia-style-protest-in-the-united-states/2016/10/16/0f271a60-90a4-11e6-9c85-ac42097b8cc0_story.html
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3147 Ways Russia Is Telling People to Prepare for War
31514 Oct 2016
316
317With tensions between Russia and the United States at their highest since the Cold War, there have been alarming signs coming out of Moscow that suggest the country is ready for war.
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319Almost no one believes the Kremlin is actually preparing for a military conflict with the United States. Most analysts instead see it as a show, intended to boost support at home and to deter Western countries from intervening militarily in Syria.
320
321There are some unsettling things Russia has done, however, to give the impression that war is looming:
322
323http://abcnews.go.com/International/ways-russia-telling-people-prepare-war/story?id=42800992
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327CIA Prepping for Possible Cyber Strike Against Russia
32814 Oct 2016
329
330The Obama administration is contemplating an unprecedented cyber covert action against Russia in retaliation for alleged Russian interference in the American presidential election, U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News.
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332Current and former officials with direct knowledge of the situation say the CIA has been asked to deliver options to the White House for a wide-ranging "clandestine" cyber operation designed to harass and "embarrass" the Kremlin leadership.
333
334The sources did not elaborate on the exact measures the CIA was considering, but said the agency had already begun opening cyber doors, selecting targets and making other preparations for an operation. Former intelligence officers told NBC News that the agency had gathered reams of documents that could expose unsavory tactics by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
335
336http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cia-prepping-possible-cyber-strike-against-russia-n666636
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340US finds growing evidence Russia feeding emails to WikiLeaks
34114 Oct 2016
342
343There is mounting evidence that the Russian government is supplying WikiLeaks with hacked emails pertaining to the US presidential election, US officials familiar with the investigation have told CNN.
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345As WikiLeaks continues to publish emails belonging to Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, US officials told CNN that there is growing evidence that Russia is using the organization as a delivery vehicle for the messages and other stolen information.
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347The methods of the disclosures "suggest Moscow is at least providing the information or is possibly directly responsible for the leaks," one US official said.
348
349http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/13/politics/russia-us-election/
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352
353Intelligence Analyst: Russian Cyberattacks Could Roil US Elections
35413 Oct 2016
355
356Malcolm Nance is extremely worried about what might happen as U.S. votes are tallied on Nov. 8, election night.
357
358A career U.S. counterterrorism and intelligence official with 33 years of experience, Nance said he had overwhelming evidence that Russia is seeking to interfere in U.S. elections to put "not just a finger, but their whole hand" on the scale to help Republican nominee Donald Trump and hurt Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
359
360Nance said a number of private companies had traced cyberattacks exposing potentially damaging Democratic Party emails and voicemails back to cyber "fingerprints" clearly identified in the past as those of Russian state hackers. He said the same fingerprints were found in what turned out to be Russian hacking of power plants in Ukraine and of the German parliament.
361
362http://www.voanews.com/a/intelligence-analyst-russian-cyber-attacks-could-roil-elections/3550243.html
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365
366Moscow accuses Washington of destroying U.S.-Russia relations
36713 Oct 2016
368
369The Russian Foreign Ministry accused the Obama administration of destroying relations with Moscow in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election next month, saying on Thursday that it hoped the next occupants of the White House would be better.
370
371In comments that underline how deeply a hacking scandal and differences over Syria and Ukraine have damaged U.S.-Russia relations, Maria Zakharova, the Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, told a news conference Washington was playing a dangerous game.
372
373"We see with regret how Washington continues to destroy our bilateral relations," said Zakharova. "The level of Russophobic propaganda coming from the very top is now starting to go off the scale."
374
375Calling White House accusations Russia was behind a hacking campaign against Democratic Party organizations "a lie," she accused the Obama administration of trying to make U.S. voters perceive Russia as the enemy.
376
377http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-relations-idUSKCN12D1RG
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381Russia, US move past Cold War to unpredictable confrontation
38213 Oct 2016
383
384It's not a new Cold War. It's not even a deep chill. It's an outright conflict.
385
386US-Russia relations have deteriorated sharply amid a barrage of accusations and disagreements, raising the stakes on issues ranging from the countries' competing military operations in Syria, disputes over Eastern European independence and escalating cyber breaches.
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388"This is a conflict, there should be no doubt," said Matthew Rojansky, director of the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center, on the US-Russia confrontation.
389
390http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/12/politics/us-russia-tensions-cold-war/
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393
394How to Win the Cyberwar Against Russia
39512 Oct 2016
396
397The basic facts about Russia’s election-year hacking of the American political system are clear. For more than a year, the Russian government has repeatedly infiltrated the computers of both parties’ presidential campaigns to steal data and emails to influence the outcome of the election. In response, the Obama administration has promised a “proportional” response against Russia.
398
399What’s much less clear is what a “proportional” response could mean. This is an unprecedented situation for the American national security establishment — which means the Obama administration’s response will set a precedent for future foreign-directed cyber-plots.
400
401The first thing the U.S. government will have to determine is whether the Russian actions rise to the level of an attack — something that would require a direct U.S. response. There are many examples of cyber-infiltration that fall short of that designation, qualifying rather as nuisance activities or even garden-variety espionage. The activities in question, however, cross an important political and operational threshold by attempting to influence the American public on behalf of one of the candidates for the presidency. Most egregiously, the release of internal Clinton campaign emails violates a wide variety of U.S. laws, and the potential release of material related to her email server investigation late in the campaign season could have extraordinary impact on the election.
402
403https://www.yahoo.com/news/win-cyber-war-against-russia-201450459.html
404
405---
406
407After U.S. blames Russia for hacking, what comes next?
40812 Oct 2016
409
410It came as no surprise when the U.S. government on Oct. 7  formally declared Russia was the culprit of several high-profile cyber intrusions this year, such as those into the Democratic National Committee. Several news outlets, citing anonymous intelligence officials, reported that the government had already determined Russia had directed the intrusions. With the public declaration, some wonder whether a public attribution makes a difference, and why now make the announcement now. Is this different from other incidents? 
411
412http://www.c4isrnet.com/articles/after-us-blames-russia-for-hacking-what-comes-next
413
414---
415
416White House says Podesta email hack ‘consistent’ with Russian cyber attacks
41712 Oct 2016
418
419The White House said Wednesday that the email hacking of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta is “consistent” with previous cyber attacks committed by Russia.
420
421“The thing that I can tell you about the intelligence community analysis is that at least some of the disclosures in recent months, including documents that were released by Guccifer 2.0, DC Leaks and WikiLeaks, are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.
422
423He added, “That’s a source of some concern because the intelligence community has concluded with high confidence that they’re doing so to try to destabilize our democracy, and that’s something that obviously the president takes quite seriously.”
424
425http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/12/wh-podesta-email-hack-consistent-russian-attacks/
426
427---
428
429NSA official: Russian attribution only the first step in hack response
43012 Oct 2016
431
432Stronger retaliatory action from the U.S. might be in the cards as a result of hackers breaking into various Democratic organizations.
433
434Publicly attributing this summer’s political campaign hacks to state-directed Russian hackers is the necessary precondition for further steps against Moscow, the NSA’s deputy chief said Tuesday.
435
436The remarks signal that stronger retaliatory action from the U.S. might be in the cards as a result of hackers breaking into various Democratic organizations, including the Democratic National Committee.
437
438“Attribution in a context like that is something that’s a necessary precursor for any other action the government decides to take,” Rick Ledgett told an audience at the AFCEA 2016 Cybersecurity Summit.
439
440http://fedscoop.com/nsa-official-russian-attribution-only-the-first-step-in-hack-response
441
442---
443
444A New Weapon in Russia’s Arsenal, and It’s Inflatable
44512 Oct 2016
446
447Deep in the Russian countryside, the grass sways in a late-summer breeze. In the distance, the sun glistens off the golden spires of a village church. It is, to all appearances, a typically Russian scene of imperturbable rural tranquillity.
448
449Until a sleek MIG-31 fighter jet suddenly appears in a field, its muscular, stubby wings spreading to reveal their trademark red star insignia. A few moments later, a missile launcher pops up beside it.
450
451Cars on a nearby road pull over, the drivers gaping in amazement at what appear to be fearsome weapons, encountered so unexpectedly in this serene spot. And then, as quickly as they appeared, the jet and missile launcher vanish.
452
453“If you study the major battles of history, you see that trickery wins every time,” Aleksei A. Komarov, the military engineer in charge of this sleight of hand, said with a sly smile. “Nobody ever wins honestly.”
454
455http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/world/europe/russia-decoy-weapon.html
456
457---
458
459Russia tests ballistic missiles amid tensions with West
46012 Oct 2016
461
462Russia's military conducted a series of intercontinental ballistic missile tests on Wednesday, the latest flexing of its muscles as tensions with the US spike over Syria.
463
464Russian forces fired a nuclear-capable rocket from a Pacific Fleet submarine in the Sea of Okhotsk north of Japan, state-run RIA Novosti reported.
465
466A Topol missile was shot off from a submarine in the Barents Sea, and a third was launched from an inland site in the north-west of the vast country, Russian agencies reported.
467
468http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Russia_tests_ballistic_missiles_amid_tensions_with_West_999.html
469
470---
471
472Putin Denies Russia Behind Hacking, Says 'Hysteria' Aims to Distract U.S. Public
47312 Oct 2016
474
475President Vladimir Putin has denied Russia was behind recent hacking attacks in the U.S., calling the "hysteria" around the incidents an attempt to divert attention from the leaks themselves.
476
477"Everyone's talking about who's done it. Does it really matter that much? What matters is what's inside this information," Putin said at an economic forum in Moscow Wednesday.
478
479"There's nothing there benefiting Russia," he told the Russia Calling conference. "The hysteria is simply to distract the American people from the contents of what the hackers have posted."
480
481http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/putin-denies-russia-behind-hacks-says-hysteria-aims-distract-u-n665081
482
483---
484
485Time to get real about Russia cyber war: Max Boot
48612 Oct 2016
487
488Our democracy is under attack by Russia, but almost no one is treating the situation with the gravity it deserves. President Obama is loathe to retaliate. Would-be president Donald Trump denies that any attack is happening. And the media are acting as enablers for the attackers.
489
490The first shots were fired in June when two groups of hackers, known as Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear, penetrated the Democratic National Committee’s computers. On July 22, on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, accused rapist Julian Assange’s Wikileaks began publishing the trove of 20,000 stolen emails. The embarrassing revelations about DNC bias against Bernie Sanders forced the resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz as DNC chairman. U.S. intelligence and private security experts immediately identified Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear as fronts for the FSB and the GRU, the two Russian intelligence agencies, and Wikileaks as a bulletin board for them. Yet the press corps seemed to treat the content of the emails as bigger news than they way they had been revealed.
491
492http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/10/12/russia-podesta-emails-hackers-cyber-warfare-max-boot/91940364/
493
494---
495
496Is US Cyber Deterrence Strategy More than (Russian) Roulette?
49712 Oct 2016
498
499Following the joint statement from DHS and ODNI accusing Russia of a recent spate of hacks aimed at influencing the US election, the obvious question is what exactly the US government plans to do about it. Over the weekend, the New York Times’ David Sanger and Nicole Perlroth offered a rundown of response options and Jack lamented that the Times report suggests that the US government still does not know how it should respond to Russian interference. He notes that, in the past, the US response to malicious cyber operations has been “dithering” at best.
500
501https://www.lawfareblog.com/us-cyber-deterrence-strategy-more-russian-roulette
502
503---
504
505Russia orders all officials to fly home any relatives living abroad, as tensions mount over the prospect of a global war
50612 Oct 2016
507
508- Russian officials have been 'told to bring relatives home to the Motherland'
509- Failure to act will put promotion chances at risk, according to local reports
510- Comes amid worsening relations between Russia and US over Syria crisis
511- US has pulled plug on Syria talks and accused Russia of hacking attacks
512- Russia has moved nuclear-capable missiles nearer to the Polish border
513
514Russia is ordering all of its officials to fly home any relatives living abroad amid heightened tensions over the prospect of global war, it has been claimed.
515
516Politicians and high-ranking figures are said to have received a warning from president Vladimir Putin to bring their loved-ones home to the 'Motherland', according to local media.
517
518It comes after Putin cancelled a planned visit to France amid a furious row over Moscow's role in the Syrian conflict and just days after it emerged the Kremlin had moved nuclear-capable missiles nearer to the Polish border.
519
520Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has also warned that the world is at a 'dangerous point' due to rising tensions between Russia and the US.
521
522http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3833941/Russia-orders-officials-fly-home-relatives-living-abroad-tensions-mount-prospect-global-war.html
523
524---
525
526US election: Have Russian hackers already handed Putin a win?
52712 Oct 2016
528
529Russian hackers have already scored key goals in their apparent bid to disrupt the US presidential election, according to researchers monitoring the closely fought political campaign.
530
531Allegations of dumping sensitive data, infiltrating official servers, manipulating online blogs and even hacking voter records, say analysts, have fueled concerns Moscow is trying to influence the election outcome.
532
533"Anything that undermines the legitimacy of the electoral process is bad news for democracy," said professor John Naughton, co-director of the Technology and Democracy Project at Cambridge University in the UK.
534
535"Even the idea of Russian involvement could be seen by some as confirmation that the election is flawed," he told CNN.
536The Kremlin categorically denies any Russian state involvement in hacking.
537
538http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/12/politics/russia-hack-us-election/
539
540---
541
542Lavrov denies Russian influence over US election
54312 Oct 2016
544
545Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has dismissed claims that his country is interfering in the US presidential election as "ridiculous".
546
547In an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour in Moscow, Lavrov said it was "flattering" that American officials think Russia is meddling in the election, but the accusations were baseless.
548
549The US last week accused Russia of being behind a series of email hacks, including communications from the Democratic National Committee.
550
551"It's flattering, of course, to get this kind of attention -- for a regional power, as President Obama called us some time ago," Lavrov said in the CNN interview.
552
553"Now everybody in the United States is saying that it is Russia which is running the [US] presidential debate," he said.
554
555"We have not seen a single fact, a single proof."
556
557http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/12/politics/lavrov-russia-us-election/
558
559---
560
561The Growing Danger of Military Conflict with Russia
56211 Oct 2016
563
564Once more, the circle in U.S.-Russia relations is complete. The Clinton administration took office in 1993 promising a “Bill and Boris” strategic partnership between the two countries, and ended with recriminations over the Kosovo operation, with Gen. Wesley Clark prepared to start World War III to block the arrival of Russian peacekeepers in Pristina. George W. Bush left the Ljubljana summit with Vladimir Putin in summer 2001 promising a qualitatively different U.S.-Russia relationship, which seemed to bear fruit in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, but concluded his term dealing with the Russian incursion into Georgia with calls from his own party, especially in Congress, for a forceful U.S. response. Barack Obama was going to reset relations with Russia, and now, in the weeks remaining in office, is facing demands from his own State Department and Department of Defense for drawing a line in the sand in Syria against Russian airstrikes on a besieged Aleppo—even at the risk of a face-to-face confrontation between American and Russian forces.
565
566http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-growing-danger-military-conflict-russia-18013
567
568---
569
570The Best Way to Defeat the Islamic State and Succeed in Syria? Push Back on Putin.
57111 Oct 2016
572
573In the space of just one year, the West has twice made Russian President Vladimir Putin an offer too good to refuse. Or so it thought. In February 2015, under the auspices of the OSCE, negotiators in Minsk overlooked Russia’s annexation of Crimea in order to reach a cease-fire agreement for the Donbas region of Ukraine. One year later, in February 2016, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sidestepped questions over Bashar al-Assad’s future in return for a cessation of hostilities deal for Aleppo. In effect, the United States and its allies offered Putin Crimea and a rump Syria in return for peace. Sensing weakness, the Russian president pocketed both offers and promptly violated the agreements, most egregiously in Syria. 
574
575Over the past year, Putin has focused on re-imposing Assad’s control over so-called vital Syria, stretching from Damascus to Aleppo. In the process, he has transformed the strategic landscape of the Middle East for the worse. In Latakia, Putin has established bases that include game-changing strategic weapons. In close coordination with Iran and Hezbollah, Russia has secured the Damascus to Latakia corridor, including from Homs up to the north Hama plains, and squeezed the opposition around Damascus. Now, the alliance is besieging Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, under the motto: surrender or starve. 
576
577http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/10/11/the-best-way-to-defeat-the-islamic-state-push-back-on-putin-obama-syria-war-russia/
578
579---
580
581The US Accused Russia of Hacking. What Happens Next Will Set a Cyber War Precedent
58211 Oct 2016
583
584After blaming Russia for trying to tamper with the presidential election, the White House will want to choose its next move carefully.
585
586Almost four months after the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike claimed that two Russian hacker groups were behind the theft of data from computers at the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations, the U.S. government has publicly attributed the attacks to Russia. In a joint statement from the Director of National Intelligence and Department of Homeland Security, the intelligence community declared that it was “confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations.” According to the statement, the hack was not the work of an individual calling himself Guccifer 2.0 or a 400 pound hacker sitting on a bed, but was: intended to interfere with the U.S. elections; consistent with other Russian efforts to influence public opinion in Europe and Eurasia; and was likely to have been authorized at the highest levels of the Russian government.
587
588http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2016/10/us-accused-russia-hacking-what-happens-next-will-set-cyber-war-precedent/132230/
589
590---
591
592How Does Obama Respond to Russia’s Cyberattacks?
59311 Oct 2016
594
595The wrong choice will make things only worse for Americans.
596
597It seems that President Obama will retaliate against Russia for hacking into American voter rolls and the Democratic Party’s emails. The question is how he’s going to retaliate. The answer isn’t at all clear. Cyberespionage and cyberconflict have been going on for decades, but the most basic issues of cyberstrategy—how to align goals, means, and national interests— remain unaddressed.
598
599In a statement last Friday, the director of national intelligence, Gen. James Clapper, and the secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, said that “only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities” and that their intent was “to interfere with the U.S. election process.”
600
601http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2016/10/obama_might_adopt_a_wait_and_see_approach_in_response_to_russia_s_hacking.html
602
603---
604
605Obama to consider 'proportional' response to Russia hacking
60611 Oct 2016
607
608U.S. President Barack Obama will consider a variety of responses to Russia's hacking of political party organizations and it is possible that any action may not be announced publicly, the White House said on Tuesday.
609
610"There are a range of responses that are available to the president and he will consider a response that is proportional," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Air Force One. "It is certainly possible that the president can choose response options that we never announce," he said.
611
612http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-russia-obama-idUSKCN12B2G0
613
614---
615
616China, Russia blast US missile defence at regional forum
61711 Oct 2016
618
619China and Russia blasted Washington Tuesday for its decision to deploy a missile defence system in South Korea in response to Pyongyang's nuclear programme.
620
621Speaking at the 7th annual Xiangshan regional defence forum in Beijing, top military officials from the countries said the move by Seoul and Washington represented a threat to regional stability and was a step towards a new global arms race.
622
623The US and South Korea agreed to install the system, known as THAAD, this summer following repeated nuclear and missile tests by Beijing's wayward ally Pyongyang.
624
625Washington was using the North's actions as a pretext to gain military superiority over China, Chinese general Cai Jun told defence officials at a briefing on the forum's sidelines.
626
627Deploying the system in South Korea, he said, was "not conducive to the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula", he said, adding "it has increased the risk of military conflict in the region".
628
629https://www.yahoo.com/news/china-raps-us-interventions-asia-regional-forum-060224537.html
630
631---
632
633White House: We will respond to Russia hacks
63411 Oct 2016
635
636The White House said Tuesday it would respond to Russian hacking of US political groups, after publicly pointing the finger at Moscow for the cyberattacks last week.
637
638The response will be "proportional," press secretary Josh Earnest said, without elaborating. He said the actions would likely not be announced ahead of time and could never be made public.
639
640Speaking with reporters on Air Force One, Earnest said a "range" of responses were on the table.
641
642http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/11/politics/white-house-response-russia-hacking/
643
644---
645
646After Attributing a Cyberattack to Russia, the Most Likely Response Is Non Cyber
64710 Oct 2016
648
649Almost four months after the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike claimed that two Russian hacker groups were behind the theft of data from computers at the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations, the U.S. government has publicly attributed the attacks to Russia. In a joint statement from the Director of National Intelligence and Department of Homeland Security, the intelligence community declared that it was “confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations.” According to the statement, the hack was not the work of an individual calling himself Guccifer 2.0 or a 400 pound hacker sitting on a bed, but was: intended to interfere with the U.S. elections; consistent with other Russian efforts to influence public opinion in Europe and Eurasia; and was likely to have been authorized at the highest levels of the Russian government.
650
651http://blogs.cfr.org/cyber/2016/10/10/after-attributing-a-cyberattack-to-russia-the-most-likely-response-is-non-cyber/
652
653---
654
655Why the US fears Russia is hacking its presidential election
65611 Oct 2016
657
658Amidst all the heat of the presidential debate on Sunday night, hackers surfaced for a brief moment.
659
660The two candidates clashed over a claim that hackers tied to the Russian state were trying to influence the election.
661
662Two days earlier, on Friday, the US director of national intelligence had pointed the finger at the highest levels of the Russian state for intrusions.
663
664Critics of Russia have argued that any role would be part of a growing trend of not just stealing information but also weaponising it.
665
666http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37605992
667
668---
669
670War Talk Returns to Russian TV as U.S. Ties Hit Deep Freeze
67110 Oct 2016
672
673Russian state television is back on a war footing.
674
675This time, the ramped-up rhetoric follows the collapse of cease-fire efforts in Syria. As the U.S. and Russia accused each other of sinking diplomacy, Moscow increased its military presence in the Mediterranean and Baltic regions, and suspended a nuclear non-proliferation treaty. A prime-time news program warned that the U.S. wants to provoke a conflict.
676
677The sudden escalation puts the relationship back into the deep freeze it was in at the peak of the crisis over Ukraine in 2014, which also sparked a wave of hostility in state media. That anti-U.S. campaign ended as the Kremlin sought to ease Western punitive measures imposed over the Ukrainian crisis -- hopes that now seem to be in tatters.
678
679“Offensive behavior toward Russia has a nuclear dimension,” Russian state TV presenter Dmitry Kiselyov said in his “Vesti Nedelyi” program on Sunday. “Moscow would react with nerves of iron to a Plan B,” he said, referring to any possible U.S. military strike in Syria.
680
681http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-10/russian-tv-fans-war-hysteria-as-u-s-ties-hit-post-cold-war-low
682
683---
684
685Putin’s all-out propaganda war against the West
68610 Oct 2016
687
688Speculation about Russian interference in the upcoming U.S. presidential election is flowing fast in the U.S. media.
689
690Russia was widely believed to be responsible for embarrassing email hacks at the Democratic National Convention. Speculation abounds in the media that the Russian government might try to throw the U.S. election this way or that with a boldness not even seen during Soviet days.
691
692Speculation is all we have for now, yet the Russian propagandists may feel they have accomplished quite enough. Sowing confusion in the West and presenting Russia as an innocent victim of U.S. political infighting are key elements in Russia’s information warfare.
693
694http://www.newsweek.com/putin-all-out-propaganda-war-against-west-506814
695
696---
697
698The Trail of Russian Hackers, Putin's Revenge in Siberia
6999 Oct 2016
700
701BIYSK, Russia — This Soviet-era industrial city with a population of roughly 200,000 in Siberia is hardly an obvious place to be connected to a cyber attack on the American election system.
702
703Drive past apartment blocks and factories, and visitors can meet the only individual implicated so far in the hacking attack on the voter registration databases in Arizona and Illinois.
704
705Only, Biysk is about as far away from America as you can get.
706
707"If you take a globe, spin it 10 times and point your finger, you'd never hit Biysk," Vladimir Fomenko said of his hometown.
708
709http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/trail-russian-hackers-putin-s-revenge-siberia-n662571
710
711---
712
713Decoding Russia's latest provocative move in Syria
7148 Oct 2016
715
716Why is Russia sending a powerful new surface-to-air missile system to Syria? There are any an array of theories. 
717
718The Russian military announced this past week that it intends to install an S-300V air defense system at the Syrian port of Tartus, where Russia maintains a Navy facility. The Russians may be worried that the U.S. will soon launch a far more aggressive air campaign that targets the Syrian regime of President Bashar al Assad. Or the Russians may be sending a political message about their intent to be a player in the Middle East.
719
720Moscow may be concerned about Turkey, using the new missile system to intimidate its regional rival. Or it may just be that Russia wants to put its S-300V in the spotlight in the hopes of selling it on the international market. 
721
722http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/decoding-russias-latest-provocative-move-in-syria
723
724---
725
726What Options Does the U.S. Have After Accusing Russia of Hacks?
7278 Oct 2016
728
729Now that the White House has formally accused Russia of meddling in the presidential election with cutting-edge cyberattacks and age-old information warfare, devising a response might seem fairly easy: unleash the government’s cyberwarriors to give the Kremlin a dose of its own malware.
730
731Technologically, that would not be too difficult, American officials say. But as a matter of strategy and politics, formulating the right kind of counterstrike is not that straightforward.
732
733President Obama’s options range from the mild — naming and shaming the Russians, as he did on Friday — to the more severe, like invoking for the first time a series of economic sanctions that he created by executive order after North Korea’s attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment. The Justice Department could indict the Russians behind the attacks on the Democratic National Committee and the email accounts of prominent individuals, as it did with members of China’s People’s Liberation Army, who have been charged with stealing industrial secrets.
734
735Or Mr. Obama could sign a secret intelligence finding — similar to many he has issued to authorize Central Intelligence Agency efforts in Syria or drone strikes against the Islamic State — to attack and disable Russian computer servers or expose the financial dealings of President Vladimir V. Putin and his oligarch friends.
736
737While the last option is tempting, officials say, it would carry risks with the election just a month away. Attacks on online voter registration rolls could sow chaos at polling places, and the election infrastructure has never truly been tested against a power like Russia. The system that underpins American democracy is not even listed as an element of the nation’s critical infrastructure, a list that includes movie theaters and the Jefferson Memorial, among other monuments.
738
739http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/us/politics/what-options-does-the-us-have-after-accusing-russia-of-hacks.html
740
741---
742
743The U.S. has just accused Russia of hacking America’s elections. That’s a very big deal.
7447 Oct 2016
745
746Obama administration security officials have formally accused Russia of interfering with the U.S. presidential election. The Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security made a joint statement, saying that ““[t]he U.S. intelligence community is confident that the Russian government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations.” Here’s what lies behind the accusations and here’s what happens next.
747
748https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/10/07/the-u-s-has-just-accused-russia-of-hacking-americas-elections-thats-a-very-big-deal/
749
750---
751
752U.S. Says Russia Directed Hacks to Influence Elections
7537 Oct 2016
754
755The Obama administration on Friday formally accused the Russian government of stealing and disclosing emails from the Democratic National Committee and a range of other institutions and prominent individuals, immediately raising the issue of whether President Obama would seek sanctions or other retaliation.
756
757In a statement from the director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., and the Department of Homeland Security, the government said the leaked emails that have appeared on a variety of websites “are intended to interfere with the U.S. election process.”
758
759The emails were posted on the well-known WikiLeaks site and two newer sites, DCLeaks.com and Guccifer 2.0, identified as being associated with Russian intelligence.
760
761“We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities,” the statement said.
762
763http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/us/politics/us-formally-accuses-russia-of-stealing-dnc-emails.html
764
765---
766
767U.S. government officially accuses Russia of hacking campaign to interfere with elections
7687 Oct 2016
769
770The Obama administration on Friday officially accused Russia of attempting to interfere in the 2016 elections, including by hacking the computers of the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations.
771
772The denunciation, made by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security, came as pressure was growing from within the administration and some lawmakers to publicly name Moscow and hold it accountable for actions apparently aimed at sowing discord around the election.
773
774“The U.S. Intelligence Community is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations,” said a joint statement from the two agencies. “. . . These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the U.S. election process.”
775
776https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-government-officially-accuses-russia-of-hacking-campaign-to-influence-elections/2016/10/07/4e0b9654-8cbf-11e6-875e-2c1bfe943b66_story.html
777
778---
779
780The Daily Vertical: Putin's Unilateral Cold War (Transcript)
7816 Oct 2016
782
783In case you missed them, here are a few data points just from the past few days.
784
785Russia launched massive civil-defense drills this week involving 200,000 emergency personnel and the cooperation of 40 million civilians.
786
787Those drills came after Zvezda TV, which is run by the Defense Ministry, reported that "schizophrenics from America are sharpening nuclear weapons for Moscow."
788
789Also this week, Russia unilaterally pulled out of two nuclear agreements with the United States.
790
791http://www.rferl.org/a/daily-vertical-putin-unilateral-cold-war-transcript/28035448.html
792
793---
794
795Russia posts provocative tweet warning US on Syria, mocking Earnest
7966 Oct 2016
797
798The Russian government is ratcheting up warnings – on Twitter – to the U.S. government not to interfere with its military operations in Syria, even suggesting American aircraft could be targeted by its “air defense systems.”
799
800In a provocative tweet Wednesday, the Russian embassy in Washington posted a side-by side photo of White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest and the Russian S-300 missile system.
801
802With the military apparatus pointed toward the image of Earnest, a caption says Russia wants the system because they “never really know what kind of assistance terrorists might get.” The tweet says Russia will take “every defensive measure necessary” to protect their personnel in Syria.
803
804http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/10/06/russia-posts-provocative-tweet-warning-us-on-syria-mocking-earnest.html
805
806---
807
808Russia Suspends Nuclear Agreement, Ends Uranium Research Pact With United States
8095 Oct 2016
810
811“The regular renewal of sanctions against Russia ... demands the adoption of countermeasures against the U.S. side.”
812
813Russia further curtailed its cooperation with the United States in nuclear energy on Wednesday, suspending a research agreement and terminating one on uranium conversion, two days after the Kremlin shelved a plutonium pact with Washington.
814
815The Russian government said that as counter-measures to the U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia over Ukraine, it was putting aside a nuclear and energy-related research pact with the United States.
816
817It also said it was terminating for the same reasons an agreement between its nuclear corporation Rosatom and the U.S. Department of Energy on feasibility studies into conversion of Russian research reactors to low-enriched uranium.
818
819On Monday, President Vladimir Putin suspended a treaty with Washington on cleaning up weapons grade plutonium, signaling he is willing to use nuclear disarmament as a new bargaining chip in disputes with the United States over Ukraine and Syria.
820
821http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/russia-suspends-nuclear-agreement_us_57f56028e4b05f39c51dfe21
822
823---
824
825U.S. Army Leaders Warn About Russia's Bold Moves in Information Warfare
8265 Oct 2016
827
828Russia is making bold moves to both degrade U.S. military power and damage its democratic institutions, officials said Oct. 5.
829
830What Russia is doing is taking military hard power, its use of irregular forces and marrying them with the more traditional elements of soft power, said Brig. Gen. Peter L. Jones, commandant of the Army Infantry School and the maneuver center of excellence. 
831
832The question for the the United States is what Russian intentions mean for the future of the Army and its investments, he said at the Association of the United States Army annual conference in Washington, D.C.
833
834All domains will be contested. The old axiom that "if you can be seen, you can be hit, and if you can be hit, you can be killed," should be expanded, he said. "If you can be seen in any domain or emitting in the electro-magnetic spectrum, you can be hit, killed, spoofed, degraded, observed and watched." It all depends on what the enemy, in this case, Russia wants to do.
835
836http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?List=7c996cd7%2Dcbb4%2D4018%2Dbaf8%2D8825eada7aa2&ID=2323
837
838---
839
840What Does Putin Want?
8415 Oct 2016
842
843The United States should pursue confrontation where necessary and mutual interests without illusions where possible.
844
845However therapeutic and tempting, especially during election season and after Russia’s direct complicity in the Syria horror, the understandable impulse to confront and isolate President Vladamir Putin’s Russia is not wise policy. Notwithstanding the many areas of altercation as well as the doomed attempt by President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to “reset” U.S.-Russia relations after the George W. Bush administration, the next president should pursue a dual strategy designed both to challenge Putin where U.S. national interests demand it but find areas of collaboration where interests coincide. The United States should pursue confrontation where necessary and mutual interests without illusions where possible.
846
847http://nationalinterest.org/feature/what-does-putin-want-17938
848
849---
850
851Russia Suspends Nuclear Agreement, Ends Uranium Research Pact With United States
8525 Oct 2016
853
854“The regular renewal of sanctions against Russia ... demands the adoption of countermeasures against the U.S. side.”
855
856Russia further curtailed its cooperation with the United States in nuclear energy on Wednesday, suspending a research agreement and terminating one on uranium conversion, two days after the Kremlin shelved a plutonium pact with Washington.
857
858The Russian government said that as counter-measures to the U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia over Ukraine, it was putting aside a nuclear and energy-related research pact with the United States.
859
860http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/russia-suspends-nuclear-agreement_us_57f56028e4b05f39c51dfe21
861
862---
863
864Russian state newspapers predict ‘direct military conflict’ with US as it compares Syria stalemate to Cuban missile crisis
8655 Oct 2016
866
867'Third World War' fears have been voiced by the newspapers over the growing tensions with the USA
868
869A RUSSIAN newspaper fears a Third World War with the US over Syria.
870
871Tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets predicts a “direct military confrontation” on par with the Cuban Missile Crisis.
872
873https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1913898/russian-state-newspapers-predict-direct-military-conflict-with-us-as-it-compares-syria-stalemate-to-cuban-missile-crisis/
874
875---
876
877Russia’s Military Sophistication in the Arctic Sends Echoes of the Cold War
8784 Oct 2016
879
880Norwegian, NATO and U.S. officials express concerns over Moscow’s increased sophistication in region
881
882When the U.S. wants to learn what Russia is doing in the Arctic, it often turns to the Norwegian military, which has been conducting operations for decades from this Arctic town amid the fiords.
883
884These days, it isn’t the volume of Russian military activity in the region that concerns Norway and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies. Adm. Haakon Bruun-Hanssen, Norway’s chief of defense, says Russian military activity in the Barents Sea has grown in recent years but still pales in comparison to Cold War levels.
885
886http://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-upgrades-military-prowess-in-arctic-1475624748
887
888---
889
890Amid Deteriorating U.S.-Russia Relations, Questions Grow About Cyberwar
8914 Oct 2016
892
893Just when you thought U.S.-Russia relations couldn't get worse, diplomatic deals on both Syria and nuclear security fell apart this week.
894
895Moscow went first, announcing that it was pulling out of a landmark agreement on plutonium. Russia's President Vladimir Putin blamed "unfriendly actions" by the United States.
896
897Hours later, Washington said it was breaking off talks on a ceasefire in Syria. "This is not a decision that was taken lightly," State Department spokesman John Kirby wrote in a statement. "Unfortunately, Russia failed to live up to its own commitments."
898
899Moscow and Washington aren't cooperating on much of anything these days. And that prompts a question: What might come next, in the way of cyberattacks?
900
901http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/10/04/496543317/amid-deteriorating-u-s-russia-relations-questions-grow-about-cyberwar
902
903---
904
905What are all these Russian hackers up to?
90630 Sep 2016
907
908Russia has been implicated in many breaches of U.S. networks in recent months, most notably the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee hacks, whose data were subsequently dumped to the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks. On Sept. 28, FBI Director James Comey told a congressional hearing that Russian hackers have been testing cyberdefenses of voter registration databases in more than a dozen states.
909
910http://phys.org/news/2016-09-russian-hackers.html
911
912---
913
914Russian Hackers Targeted Nearly Half of States' Voter Registration Systems, Successfully Infiltrated 4
91529 Sep 2016
916
917Nearly half of the states in the U.S. have recently had their voter registration systems targeted by foreign hackers, and four of those systems have successfully been breached, sources tell ABC News.
918
919That amount of targeting and actual infiltration into state election-related systems is significantly larger than the U.S. government has been willing to acknowledge.
920
921Hackers working on behalf of the Russian government are suspected in the onslaught against more than 20 state election systems, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.
922
923http://abcnews.go.com/US/russian-hackers-targeted-half-states-voter-registration-systems/story?id=42435822
924
925---
926
927It’s No Cold War, but Vladimir Putin Relishes His Role as Disrupter
92829 Sep 2016
929
930Escalating airstrikes in Syria. Sophisticated cyberattacks, apparently intended to influence the American election. New evidence of complicity in shooting down a civilian airliner.
931
932The behavior of Russia in the last few weeks has echoes of some of the uglier moments of the Cold War, an era of proxy battles that ended in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union. President Obama, fresh from a meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin this month, wondered aloud whether the Russian leader was content living with a “constant, low-grade conflict.” His reference was to Ukraine, but he could have been addressing any of the arenas where Mr. Putin has reveled in his new role as the great disrupter of American plans around the globe.
933
934http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/30/world/europe/for-veterans-of-the-cold-war-a-hostile-russia-feels-familiar.html
935
936---
937
938How MH17 Gave Birth to the Modern Russian Spin Machine
93929 Sep 2016
940
941The downing of a passenger flight over Ukraine triggered an extraordinary campaign of lying, dissembling, and distortion that hasn't stopped since.
942
943It seems odd to look back to just over two years ago — a time when Russia had already effectively annexed Crimea and quietly fomented civil war in Ukraine — and to think of those days as simpler times.
944
945To be sure, they weren’t that simple, even then: Before Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine, Russian officials had already lied publicly about their special forces’ role in the seizure of Crimea. Kremlin-backed media had already begun spreading wild rumors and fake news stories, such as the alleged crucifixion of a 3-year-old boy by Ukrainian forces.
946
947But, looking back now, it seems that the downing of MH17 — a disaster that horrified the world, and that has since been the subject of two international investigations seeking to establish some semblance of truth — marked a Rubicon moment for the Russian disinformation machine: the first time that the full power of the state was trained on the task of convincing the world to accept a false narrative of events, despite a preponderance of evidence to the contrary.
948
949http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/09/29/how-mh17-gave-birth-to-the-modern-russian-spin-machine-putin-ukraine/
950
951---
952
953How Russia Wants to Undermine the U.S. Election
95429 Sep 2016
955
956What's behind Russia's effort to influence the U.S. election
957
958The leaders of the U.S. government, including the President and his top national-security advisers, face an unprecedented dilemma. Since the spring, U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement agencies have seen mounting evidence of an active Russian influence operation targeting the 2016 presidential election. It is very unlikely the Russians could sway the actual vote count, because our election infrastructure is decentralized and voting machines are not accessible from the Internet. But they can sow disruption and instability up to, and on, Election Day, more than a dozen senior U.S. officials tell TIME, undermining faith in the result and in democracy itself.
959
960http://time.com/4512771/how-russia-wants-undermine-us-election/
961
962---
963
964Can Fancy Bear Be Stopped? The Clear and Present Danger of Russian Info Ops
96529 Sep 2016
966
967Russia is engaged in an unprecedented, sophisticated attack on the American political system. Defeating it won’t be easy.
968
969Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was curt to his former aide. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump “is a national disgrace and an international pariah,” he wrote. In the leaked email, Powell, whose public persona is dignified and deeply appealing to both political parties, comes across as frustrated and upset by the 2016 presidential election. “I would rather not have to vote for her,” he wrote elsewhere, referring to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, describing her as having “a long track record, unbridled ambition, greedy, not transformational.”
970
971It was the sort of juicy gossip political reporters just cannot ignore, and they predictably ran stories detailing who got burned and who got shade from the famously dignified and respectful Powell. Yet this email leak was the latest vanguard of what has become a sustained campaign of cyber operations by the Russian government, seemingly geared to manipulate the election. By aggressively hacking into email accounts and then selectively leaking documents meant to embarrass Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, Moscow is combining two different strains of security threats in a way no one is sure how to counter. Combining a traditional form of cyber operation (the actual email hacks) with targeted releases to affect a political outcome (information warfare), the Russian government has innovated a type of cyberwarfare that is catching both the media and policymakers off guard.
972
973http://warontherocks.com/2016/09/can-fancy-bear-be-stopped-the-clear-and-present-danger-of-russian-info-ops/
974
975---
976
977U.S. Believes Hackers Are Shielded by Russia to Hide Its Role in Cyberintrusions
97828 Sep 2016
979
980Officials are increasingly confident that the Russian government is intensifying a campaign to steal U.S. computer records and leak damaging information to the American public
981
982U.S. officials are increasingly confident that the hacker Guccifer 2.0 is part of a network of individuals and groups kept at arm’s length by Russia to mask its involvement in cyberintrusions such as the theft of thousands of Democratic Party documents, according to people familiar with the matter.
983
984While the hacker denies working on behalf of the Russian government, U.S. officials and independent security experts say the syndicate is one of the most striking elements of what looks like an intensifying Russian campaign to target prominent American athletes, party officials and military leaders.
985
986A fuller picture of the operation has come into focus in the past several weeks. U.S. officials believe that at least two hacking groups with ties to the Russian government, known as Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear, are involved in the escalating data-theft efforts, according to people briefed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe of the cyberattacks.
987
988http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-believes-russia-steered-hacked-documents-to-websites-1475058781
989
990---
991
992Russian hackers harassed journalists who were investigating Malaysia Airlines plane crash
99328 Sep 2016
994
995Russian government hackers began targeting a British citizen journalist in February 2015, eight months after he began posting evidence documenting alleged Russian government involvement in the shoot-down of a Malaysian jetliner over Ukraine.
996
997And then in February 2016, a group that researchers suspect is a propaganda mouthpiece of the Russian government — CyberBerkut — defaced the home page of Eliot Higgins’s citizen journalism website, Bellingcat.com.
998
999That same month, CyberBerkut hacked the email, iCloud and social media account of a Bellingcat researcher in Moscow, then posted online personal pictures, a passport scan, his girlfriend’s name and other private details.
1000
1001Russia’s information operations against Bellingcat are a taste of what may be in store for other media organizations whose reports anger the Kremlin, said a cyber-research firm that has extensively documented the effort.
1002
1003https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-hackers-harass-researchers-who-documented-russian-involvement-in-shootdown-of-malaysian-jetliner-over-ukraine-in-2014/2016/09/28/d086c8bc-84f7-11e6-ac72-a29979381495_story.html
1004
1005---
1006
1007The White House Asked Congress To Keep Quiet On Russian Hacking
100827 Sep 2016
1009
1010Sources tell BuzzFeed News that top White House officials tried to stop two of Congress’s senior intelligence officials from publicly confirming Russian efforts to undermine the US election.
1011
1012The White House sought to muzzle two of Congress’s top intelligence officials when they decided to publicly accuse Russia of meddling in the US election last week, sources familiar with the matter told BuzzFeed News.
1013
1014In a statement released Friday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Adam Schiff, the vice-chairmen of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees respectively, formally accused Russia of attempting to influence the US election. It was the first official, on-record confirmation from US government officials that the Kremlin is actively working to manipulate public confidence in the country’s election system.
1015
1016But sources tell BuzzFeed News that the White House — which has stayed silent despite mounting pressure to call out its Moscow adversaries — tried to delay the statement’s release. The public accusation was of such concern to the administration that White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough was personally involved in the negotiations over releasing it, according to a congressional source.
1017
1018https://www.buzzfeed.com/alimwatkins/the-white-house-asked-congress-to-keep-quiet-on-the-whole-ru
1019
1020---
1021
1022NATO Warns West ‘Losing Information War’ Against Russia, IS
102327 Sep 2016
1024
1025The West must step up its efforts to combat and counter the information war being waged by its opponents, according to NATO officials. They warn that countries like Russia are exploiting the freedom of the press in Western media to spread disinformation.
1026
1027The term "hybrid warfare" is frequently used to describe the tactics used by the Kremlin in its forceful takeover of Crimea in 2014, when unmarked, heavily armed gunmen now widely known as the ‘little green men’ began storming Ukrainian military bases in the region.
1028
1029Moscow initially denied they were Russian military, yet weeks later similar unidentified armed units appeared in eastern Ukraine. That conflict between Russia-backed rebels and the Ukrainian military is still continuing.
1030
1031http://www.voanews.com/a/nato-russia-information-war-propaganda/3526780.html
1032
1033---
1034
1035The Sino-Russian Axis
103626 Sep 2016
1037
1038Joint naval exercises show a common strategic purpose: Push the U.S. out.
1039
1040China and Russia completed an eight-day joint naval exercise in the South China Sea last week, and this time the location was also the message. The two autocracies are expanding cooperation and offering each other support in their territorial disputes, a trend that could fuel instability from East Asia to Central Europe.
1041
1042Days before the drill, which focused on antisubmarine warfare and what a Xinhua dispatch called “island-seizing,” Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping held their 15th bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hangzhou. Mr. Putin announced support for Beijing’s aggressive sovereignty claims in the South China Sea and opposition to “any third-party interference,” an unsubtle reference to the United States.
1043
1044http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-sino-russian-axis-1474931288
1045
1046---
1047
1048Top spy suggests Russia trying to sow doubt in US elections
104921 Sep 2016
1050
1051The nation’s top intelligence official is suggesting Russia could be tampering with U.S. election systems in order to create public doubt about their reliability.
1052
1053“There’s a tradition in Russia of interfering in elections, their own and others,” Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Tuesday evening at an event hosted by the Washington Post. “So it shouldn’t come as a bit shock to people.”
1054
1055The decentralized nature of U.S. elections — which are run by multiple local and state governments instead of a single national system — makes it incredibly difficult for any hackers to substantially affect the nationwide outcome, Clapper added.
1056
1057http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/296999-top-spy-suggests-russia-trying-to-sow-doubt-in-us-elections
1058
1059---
1060
1061Russia has a years-long plot to influence Balkan politics. The U.S. can learn a lot from it.
106219 Sep 2016
1063
1064“A Russian influence operation in the United States is something we’re looking very closely at,” The Washington Post recently quoted an unnamed senior intelligence official as saying. As the article put it:
1065
1066U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies are investigating what they see as a broad covert Russian operation in the United States to sow public distrust in the upcoming presidential election and in U.S. political institutions, intelligence and congressional officials said.
1067
1068Information campaigns are nothing new for Russia, which has been running them in the Balkans at least for the past eight years, since Kosovo’s separation from Serbia and declaration of independence. There its strategy is to create a perception of Russia as a great power and powerful ally, with little substance behind it in investments or donations to the nations involved.
1069
1070Here’s what the United States can learn from Russia’s low-cost, high-yield communications approach there.
1071
1072https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/09/19/heres-how-russias-trying-to-sway-opinion-in-serbia-and-the-balkans/
1073
1074---
1075
1076U.S. Intelligence Chief Suggests Russia Was Behind Election-Linked Hacks
107720 Sep 2016
1078
1079James Clapper’s comments were his most explicit to date about operation that stole Democratic Party records
1080
1081WASHINGTON—U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper suggested Russia was behind a recent computer hacking operation that stole records from the Democratic Party and then leaked thousands of documents online.
1082
1083Mr. Clapper, speaking Tuesday evening at an event hosted by the Washington Post, said Russia has been conducting similar exercises since the 1960s targeting the U.S.
1084
1085http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-intelligence-chief-suggests-russia-was-behind-election-linked-hacks-1474416647
1086
1087---
1088
1089To Counter Russian Disinformation, Look to Cold War Tactics
109020 Sep 2016
1091
1092For the next administration, identifying, countering and neutralizing Moscow’s influence operations should be a priority.
1093
1094Since Russia’s 2008 invasion of Georgia, there has been a marked increase in the scope of Moscow’s overt military operations. Parallel, but perhaps more important, has been the gradual evolution in Russia’s approach to coordinating and executing sophisticated propaganda campaigns. Militarily resurgent and openly aggressive, Russia is dedicated to maintaining a decisive edge in cyberspace. According to the Pentagon, this poses a “serious challenge to the national security interests of the United States and its allies,” particularly the Baltic states.
1095
1096While the employment of military deception is old hat, Vladimir Putin has effectively fused political influence with denial and deception operations in pursuit of his national security objectives. In cyberspace, the strategic goal is straightforward: hack everything, deny everything, and make counter-accusations.
1097
1098http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2016/09/counter-russian-disinformation-look-cold-war-tactics/131674/
1099
1100---
1101
1102Blaming Russia for U.S. Hacks Is Easier Than Responding to Them
110318 Sep 2016
1104
1105Determining that the Russian government has been hacking political groups and election systems may have been the easy part for the U.S. intelligence community. Now the Obama administration has to decide what, if anything, to do about it.
1106
1107While officially the FBI and intelligence agencies are still investigating a series of hacks that have roiled the U.S. presidential campaign, a number of cyber specialists who have reviewed the evidence as well as U.S. officials familiar with the investigation say with high confidence that Moscow is to blame.
1108
1109http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-09-19/blaming-russia-for-u-s-hacks-is-easier-than-responding-to-them
1110
1111---
1112
1113Who Are the Russian-Backed Hackers Attacking the U.S. Political System?
111418 Sep 2016
1115
1116Two teams of highly skilled hackers directed and protected by the Russian state are on the offensive.
1117
1118Cybersecurity experts and intelligence officials tell NBC News the same hackers who broke into the Democratic Party's computers, the World Anti-Doping Agency's Administration System and who are implicated in the leaks of the personal emails of former Secretary of State Colin Powell and the health documents of Olympians are executing a Kremlin-backed campaign of cyber-espionage and sabotage.
1119
1120Their target: Western democratic institutions and Russia's political opponents.
1121
1122http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/who-are-russian-backed-hackers-attacking-u-s-political-system-n649966
1123
1124---
1125
1126Putin wants revenge and respect, and hacking the U.S. is his way of getting it
112716 Sep 2016
1128
1129The recent spate of embarrassing emails and other records stolen by Russian hackers is President Vladimir Putin’s splashy response to years of what he sees as U.S. efforts to weaken and shame him on the world stage and with his own people, according to Russia experts here and in the U.S. intelligence world and academia.
1130
1131Putin is seeking revenge and respect, and trying to reassert Russia’s lost superpower status at a time of waning economic clout and an upcoming Russian election, according to interviews with specialists here and in Washington, with a senior U.S. intelligence official, recently retired CIA operations officers in charge of Russia, and the last three national intelligence officers for Russia and Eurasia analysis in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
1132
1133https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russian-hacking-a-question-of-revenge-and-respect/2016/09/15/8bcc8d7e-7511-11e6-9781-49e591781754_story.html
1134
1135---
1136
1137The Cold War is over. The Cyber War has begun.
113815 Sep 2016
1139
1140Contemplating Russian nuclear threats during the Cold War, the strategist Herman Kahn calibrated a macabre ladder of escalation, with 44 rungs ranging from “Ostensible Crisis” to “Spasm or Insensate War.”
1141
1142In the era of cyberwarfare that’s now dawning, the rules of the game haven’t yet been established with such coldblooded precision. That’s why this period of Russian-American relations is so tricky. The strategic framework that could provide stability hasn’t been set.
1143
1144Russian hackers appear to be pushing the limits. In recent weeks, the apparent targets have included the electronic files of the Democratic National Committee, the private emails of former secretary of state Colin Powell, and personal drug-testing information about top U.S. athletes.
1145
1146https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/the-cold-war-is-over-the-cyber-war-has-begun/2016/09/15/bc4ca5c0-7b87-11e6-bd86-b7bbd53d2b5d_story.html?utm_term=.b26c5e4ee3cc
1147
1148---
1149
1150Lawmakers say Obama should start thinking about sanctioning Russia for hacking
115115 Sep 2016
1152
1153Some lawmakers believe that President Obama should start thinking about sanctioning Russia for its alleged hacking of American political organizations like the Democratic National Committee.
1154
1155The House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), said Thursday that the president needs to start “naming and shaming” Russia for its alleged hacking activities, as well as use the sanctions authority he already has to punish President Vladimir Putin’s country.
1156
1157https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/09/15/lawmakers-think-obama-should-start-thinking-about-sanctioning-russia-for-hacking/
1158
1159---
1160
1161As Russia reasserts itself, U.S. intelligence agencies focus anew on the Kremlin
116214 Sep 2016
1163
1164U.S. intelligence agencies are expanding spying operations against Russia on a greater scale than at any time since the end of the Cold War, U.S. officials said.
1165
1166The mobilization involves clandestine CIA operatives, National Security Agency cyberespionage capabilities, satellite systems and other intelligence assets, officials said, describing a shift in resources across spy services that had previously diverted attention from Russia to focus on terrorist threats and U.S. war zones.
1167
1168U.S. officials said the moves are part of an effort to rebuild U.S. intelligence capabilities that had continued to atrophy even as Russia sought to reassert itself as a global power. Over the past two years, officials said, the United States was caught flat-footed by Moscow’s aggression, including its annexation of Crimea, its intervention in the war in Syria and its suspected role in hacking operations against the United States and Europe.
1169
1170https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/as-russia-reasserts-itself-us-intelligence-agencies-focus-anew-on-the-kremlin/2016/09/14/cc212c62-78f0-11e6-ac8e-cf8e0dd91dc7_story.html
1171
1172---
1173
1174NSA Chief: Potential Russian Hacking of U.S. Elections a Concern
1175
1176The head of the National Security Agency said Tuesday that the potential for Russia to harm the U.S. electoral process in the upcoming general election is a concern.
1177
1178Cybersecurity officials have become increasingly worried about the issue in the wake of revelations that Russia-based hackers were behind two recent hacking attempts into state voter registration databases.
1179
1180http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/nsa-chief-potential-russian-hacking-u-s-elections-concern-n647491
1181
1182---
1183
1184Russian fighter makes ‘unsafe close range intercept’ with U.S. anti-submarine aircraft
11857 Sep 2016
1186
1187A Russian fighter aircraft made an “unsafe close range intercept” with a U.S. Navy jet over the Black Sea on Wednesday.
1188
1189Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said in an emailed statement that the Russian Su-27 came “extremely close” and spent 19 minutes intercepting the U.S. P-8A Poseidon. The P-8 was conducting “routine operations in international airspace,” Davis said.
1190
1191https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/09/07/russian-fighter-makes-unsafe-close-range-intercept-with-u-s-anti-submarine-aircraft/
1192
1193---
1194
1195Updated: Russian Fighter Came Within 10 Ft. of Navy Surveillance Plane Over Black Sea
11967 Sep 2016
1197
1198A Russian fighter has come within 10 feet of a Navy surveillance flight over the Black Sea on Wednesday, defense officials told USNI News.
1199
1200The incident between the Navy P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft and a Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker occurred at about 11:20 A.M. local time in international airspace over the Black Sea, according to a statement provided to USNI News.
1201
1202“During the intercept, which lasted approximately 19 minutes, the Su-27 initially maintained a 30-foot separation distance then closed to within 10 feet of the P-8A, which is considered unsafe and unprofessional,” read the statement.
1203
1204https://news.usni.org/2016/09/07/russian-fighter-came-within-10-ft-navy-surveillance-plane-black-sea
1205
1206---
1207
1208U.S. investigating potential covert Russian plan to disrupt November elections
12095 Sep 2016
1210
1211U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies are investigating what they see as a broad covert Russian operation in the United States to sow public distrust in the upcoming presidential election and in U.S. political institutions, intelligence and congressional officials said.
1212
1213The aim is to understand the scope and intent of the Russian campaign, which incorporates ­cyber-tools to hack systems used in the political process, enhancing Russia’s ability to spread disinformation.
1214
1215The effort to better understand Russia’s covert influence operations is being coordinated by James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence. “This is something of concern for the DNI,” said Charles Allen, a former longtime CIA officer who has been briefed on some of these issues. “It is being addressed.”
1216
1217https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/intelligence-community-investigating-covert-russian-influence-operations-in-the-united-states/2016/09/04/aec27fa0-7156-11e6-8533-6b0b0ded0253_story.html
1218
1219---
1220
1221How Russia Often Benefits When Julian Assange Reveals the West’s Secrets
122231 Aug 2016
1223
1224American officials say Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks probably have no direct ties to Russian intelligence services. But the agendas of WikiLeaks and the Kremlin have often dovetailed.
1225
1226Julian Assange was in classic didactic form, holding forth on the topic that consumes him — the perfidy of big government and especially of the United States.
1227
1228Mr. Assange, the editor of WikiLeaks, rose to global fame in 2010 for releasing huge caches of highly classified American government communications that exposed the underbelly of its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and its sometimes cynical diplomatic maneuvering around the world. But in a televised interview last September, it was clear that he still had plenty to say about “The World According to US Empire,” the subtitle of his latest book, “The WikiLeaks Files.”
1229
1230http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/01/world/europe/wikileaks-julian-assange-russia.html
1231
1232---
1233
1234White House Asks U.S. Spies to Study Russian Hacks
123531 Aug 2016
1236
1237The White House has ordered a special intelligence task force to examine the implications of Russia's recent hacks of U.S. political organizations, U.S. intelligence officials tell NBC News.
1238
1239According to one official, the classified national study is being conducted by the Foreign Denial and Deception Committee, a Cold War-era organization that is part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
1240
1241The committee traditionally has advised the DNI on foreign attempts to thwart U.S. intelligence through trickery. But in the cyber era, the committee has increasingly looked at how nation states use computer attacks to conduct espionage and spread propaganda.
1242
1243Russia, China, North Korea, Iran are primary subjects, the official said.
1244
1245http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/white-house-asks-deception-committee-study-russian-hacks-n640151
1246
1247---
1248
1249EXCLUSIVE: Russia-Backed DNC Hackers Strike Washington Think Tanks
125029 Aug 2016
1251
1252The same Kremlin-backed group that hacked the Pentagon, State Department, and DNC targeted DC insiders last week.
1253
1254Last week, one of the Russia-backed hacker groups that attacked Democratic computer networks also attacked several Russia-focused think tanks in Washington, D.C., Defense One has learned.
1255
1256The perpetrator is the group called COZY BEAR, or APT29, one of the two groups that cybersecurity company CrowdStrike blamed for the DNC hack, according to founder Dmitri Alperovitch. CrowdStrike discovered the attack on the DNC and provides security for the think tanks.
1257
1258http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2016/08/exclusive-russia-backed-dnc-hackers-strike-washington-think-tanks/131104/
1259
1260---
1261
1262A Powerful Russian Weapon: The Spread of False Stories
126328 Aug 2016
1264
1265With a vigorous national debate underway on whether Sweden should enter a military partnership with NATO, officials in Stockholm suddenly encountered an unsettling problem: a flood of distorted and outright false information on social media, confusing public perceptions of the issue.
1266
1267The claims were alarming: If Sweden, a non-NATO member, signed the deal, the alliance would stockpile secret nuclear weapons on Swedish soil; NATO could attack Russia from Sweden without government approval; NATO soldiers, immune from prosecution, could rape Swedish women without fear of criminal charges.
1268
1269They were all false, but the disinformation had begun spilling into the traditional news media, and as the defense minister, Peter Hultqvist, traveled the country to promote the pact in speeches and town hall meetings, he was repeatedly grilled about the bogus stories.
1270
1271http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/29/world/europe/russia-sweden-disinformation.html
1272
1273---
1274
1275Russian “New Generation” Warfare: Theory, Practice, and Lessons for U.S. Strategists
127625 Aug 2016
1277
1278Russian unconventional warfare—dubbed by analysts as “new generation” warfare—elevates the psychological and popular aspects of conflict more so than any of its geopolitical partners and rivals.[i] In an era of expanding popular engagement and attention to foreign conflicts, a strategic appreciation of these people-centric dimensions is more important now than ever. Recent interventions in Crimea and Donbas demonstrate the effectiveness of this new generation strategy, expose some critical weaknesses in U.S. approaches to unconventional war, and provide lessons for future strategic design.
1279
1280http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/russian-“new-generation”-warfare-theory-practice-and-lessons-for-us-strategists
1281
1282---
1283
1284Here's why the NSA won't release a 'smoking gun' implicating Russia in these major hacks
128518 Aug 2016
1286
1287Was Russia behind the massive hack of the Democratic National Committee, or the latest breach of what appears to be the NSA's elite hacking unit?
1288
1289That's quite possible, but the US National Security Agency is probably not going confirm that — even as former employees proclaim that it can do so, and top US officials say that there is "little doubt" Moscow is involved.
1290
1291Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden said on Twitter that "evidence that could publicly attribute responsibility for the DNC hack certainly exists at NSA" with a tool known as XKeyscore, which he previously described as a "one stop shop" for information it collects.
1292
1293If that's true, then it's likely that that same tool could find the culprits behind the latest attack.
1294
1295http://www.businessinsider.com/nsa-russia-hack-dnc-2016-8
1296
1297---
1298
1299Understanding the Role of Russian Propaganda in the US Election
130017 Aug 2016
1301
1302It may seem strange, but the Kremlin's propaganda machine is not backing US Presidential Republican Candidate Donald Trump. It has a bigger goal: Discrediting democracy in the United States. 
1303
1304The Kremlin's main propaganda outlets in the US are the television station RT—formerly Russia Today—and the radio and online outlet Sputnik. Both are headed by Kremlin loyalists and closely mirror Russia's foreign policy. While their effect on the presidential race is likely to be minimal, their reporting is useful for the insight it provides into the Kremlin's intentions.    
1305
1306That reporting focuses on specifically attacking US Presidential Democratic Candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the general nature of US democracy. As such, it appears that the Kremlin is less interested in promoting Trump than promoting discontent.  
1307
1308http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/understanding-the-role-of-russian-propaganda-in-the-us-election
1309
1310---
1311
1312Russian-Linked Group Leaks US Lawmakers’ Phone Numbers, Emails
131314 Aug 2016
1314
1315Late Friday, an online figure linked to Russian intelligence groups released the personal information of several lawmakers, part of an established pattern.
1316
1317In an ominous turn, a shady actor linked to Russian intelligence has leaked to the public stolen personal phone numbers and private email addresses of Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
1318
1319The latest data dump appeared Friday on the WordPress site of an individual (or individuals) known as Guccifer 2.0, also called Guccifer2. It contained personal data of the of the members  and members of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DCCC. “Hi all! It’s time for new revelations now,” the post read. On Saturday, WordPress administrators removed the post for violating terms of service. But Guccifer2, through Twitter, promised to post the rest of the material to Wikileaks.
1320
1321http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2016/08/russian-linked-group-leaks-us-lawmakers-phone-numbers-emails/130733/
1322
1323---
1324
1325The meaning of deeming elections ‘critical infrastructure’
13264 Aug 2016
1327
1328PONDERING A NEW DESIGNATION — Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Wednesday that the department was looking at designating elections as critical infrastructure, on par with the electricity grid or banking system. It’s a subject the Obama administration, as a whole, is exploring. “I know this is an idea that other members of the president’s national security team have also discussed,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest added Wednesday.
1329
1330http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-cybersecurity/2016/08/the-meaning-of-deeming-elections-critical-infrastructure-215708
1331
1332---
1333
1334Putin’s Infowar on America
133531 Jul 2016
1336
1337The DNC leaks were another Russian victory as the U.S. fails to fight back.
1338
1339This column recently predicted that Russia would disclose hacked emails just before the presidential election as an “October surprise.” The first surprise came early, with last week’s release of emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee, whose chairman resigned for rigging the primaries in Hillary Clinton’s favor.
1340
1341Expect more surprises before the election. Vladimir Putin has an unprecedented trove of hacked communications at his fingertips—and shows canny timing on when to hit “send.” Moscow has an ambitious strategy for information war that goes beyond affecting a presidential election. Israeli analyst Dima Adamsky wrote last year that the Russian “information struggle” entails “technological and psychological components designed to manipulate the adversary’s picture of reality, misinform it, and eventually interfere with the decision-making process of individuals, organizations, governments, and societies.”
1342
1343http://www.wsj.com/articles/putins-infowar-on-america-1469996741
1344
1345---
1346
1347Russia Wanted to be Caught, Says Company Waging War on the DNC Hackers
134828 Jul 2016
1349
1350Pointing a finger at Russia is easy. Punishing them is hard. That’s why they hacked the DNC, according to the company that first named one of the key suspects.
1351
1352The Russian groups behind the DNC hack no longer seem to care about getting caught. Long before the Kremlin-sponsored hacking squads APT 28 and APT 29 were making waves for stealing files from the Democratic National Committee, they made an appearance in two white papers put out by FireEye. The cybersecurity company has been monitoring and analyzing the two groups on behalf of corporate clients for years. In the DNC breach, a company spokesman told Defense One: “They wanted experts and policymakers to know that Russia is behind it.”
1353
1354That fits a pattern of increasing bold moves over the past year by the groups, which are also known as FANCY BEAR and COZY BEAR, says Christopher Porter, the manager of Horizons, the strategic intelligence and forecasting arm of FireEye iSIGHT Intelligence, the company’s threat monitoring division.
1355
1356http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2016/07/Russia-wanted-to-be-caught/130312/
1357
1358---
1359
1360U.S. Intelligence Chief James Clapper Says Russia Sees Meddling in Election as Payback
136128 Jul 2016
1362
1363Mr. Clapper also calls Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘paranoid’
1364
1365Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Moscow views attempts to interfere in U.S. politics—including the November elections—essentially as payback for what the Kremlin sees as concerted efforts by the U.S. to influence elections in Russia.
1366
1367He described Russian President Vladimir Putin as “paranoid.”
1368
1369“Of course they see a U.S. conspiracy behind every bush and ascribe far more impact than we’re actually guilty of, but that’s their mind-set,” said Mr. Clapper, speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.
1370
1371“And so I think their approach is they believe we are trying to influence political developments in Russia, trying to affect change, and so their natural response is to retaliate and do unto us as they think we’ve done unto them,” he said.
1372
1373Mr. Clapper was careful to point out that U.S. intelligence agencies haven't reached a firm conclusion as to whether Russia or any other country was behind the recent computer breach that stole emails and other records from the Democratic National Committee. Close to 20,000 of those emails were released by WikiLeaks last week, a move that proved embarrassing to senior DNC officials because the emails showed party officials trying to undermine the candidacy of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
1374
1375http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-intelligence-chief-james-clapper-says-russia-sees-meddling-in-election-as-payback-1469741326
1376
1377---
1378
1379On the Need for Official Attribution of Russia’s DNC Hack
138028 Jul 2016
1381
1382Yesterday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Adam Schiff—Vice Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, respectively—called on the Obama administration to consider declassifying and releasing any intelligence community assessments on the attribution and motives of the DNC hackers.
1383
1384I wholeheartedly agree.
1385
1386The intelligence community has powers and capabilities that far exceed that of the private sector for attribution, and do not suffer from the same conflicts of interest. Whereas private sector attribution tends to rely on technical forensics of the malware and infrastructure used by the hackers, the IC is able to draw upon a much more diverse set of capabilities—such as financial intelligence, human intelligence, and counter-intelligence—to bring together a wider set of facts with narrower bands of uncertainty than the private sector would normally have at its disposal.
1387
1388https://www.lawfareblog.com/need-official-attribution-russias-dnc-hack
1389
1390---
1391
1392Russia’s Long History of Messing With Americans Minds Before the DNC Hack
139326 Jul 2016
1394
1395Russia’s intelligence services have a long history of mingling sinister fiction with shards of fact and leaking through third parties to cover their tracks.
1396
1397Lord Byron observed, in skewering one of his favorite poetic targets of derision, that while the English have no word so good as the French longueurs to describe tedious, uninterrupted stretches of writing, they nevertheless “have the thing.” Similarly, there is no proper American term for what Russian intelligence calls aktivniye meropriyatiye, or active measures, but by now most Americans really ought to be used to the thing, as it might well decide our next presidential election.
1398
1399As The Daily Beast reported Monday, the FBI now suspects that a year-long hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s emails and their subsequent publication on WikiLeaks was actually the work of Russian intelligence.
1400
1401http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/26/putin-s-wicked-leaks-didn-t-start-with-the-dnc.html
1402
1403---
1404
1405It looks like Russia hired internet trolls to pose as pro-Trump Americans
140627 Jul 2016
1407
1408Russia's troll factories were, at one point, likely being paid by the Kremlin to spread pro-Trump propaganda on social media.
1409
1410That is what freelance journalist Adrian Chen, now a staff writer at The New Yorker, discovered as he was researching Russia's "army of well-paid trolls" for an explosive New York Times Magazine exposé published in June 2015.
1411
1412http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-internet-trolls-and-donald-trump-2016-7
1413
1414---
1415
1416Experts: The US has fallen dangerously behind Russia in cyber warfare capabilities
141727 Jul 2016
1418
1419Specialists who have studied Russia’s cyber warfare capabilities said the Kremlin is responsible for the hacking and eventual release of 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee, adding that there is no sure way to stop these kinds of attacks from recurring.
1420
1421Experts who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon cautioned that it is difficult to prove the connection between the hackers and the Russian government with a legal degree of certainty, but they said the evidence indicated Russian involvement.
1422
1423http://www.businessinsider.com/us-behind-russia-cyber-warfare-2016-7
1424
1425---
1426
1427Why would Russia interfere in the U.S. election? Because it sometimes works.
142826 Jul 2016
1429
1430In the wake of the release of emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee, and the assessment by some intelligence experts that Russia leaked the documents in hopes of tilting the election in favor of Republican Donald Trump, observers have expressed furor that a foreign government would seek to influence American politics.
1431
1432“That the Russians would be happy burglarizing the emails of a major party to try to affect the outcome of our presidential election . . . is very serious and an unprecedented development,” former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley told Fox Business. Slate’s Franklin Foer called it “a strike against our civic infrastructure” that violates “a clear set of rules designed to limit foreign interference in our elections.”
1433
1434Without context, that outrage is naive. Foreign governments have regularly sought to shape our politics. And the United States, in addition to overtly sponsoring regime change, has honed interference in other countries’ elections into something of an art form. Such interventions will always be appealing to their perpetrators because they can succeed, especially if they find willing accomplices in the targeted country.
1435
1436https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/07/26/why-would-russia-interfere-in-the-u-s-election-because-it-usually-works/
1437
1438---
1439
1440Spy Agency Consensus Grows That Russia Hacked D.N.C.
144126 Jul 2016
1442
1443American intelligence agencies have told the White House they now have “high confidence” that the Russian government was behind the theft of emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee, according to federal officials who have been briefed on the evidence.
1444
1445But intelligence officials have cautioned that they are uncertain whether the electronic break-in at the committee’s computer systems was intended as fairly routine cyberespionage — of the kind the United States also conducts around the world — or as part of an effort to manipulate the 2016 presidential election.
1446
1447The emails were released by WikiLeaks, whose founder, Julian Assange, has made it clear that he hoped to harm Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the presidency. It is unclear how the documents made their way to the group. But a large sampling was published before the WikiLeaks release by several news organizations and someone who called himself “Guccifer 2.0,” who investigators now believe was an agent of the G.R.U., Russia’s military intelligence service.
1448
1449http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/us/politics/spy-agency-consensus-grows-that-russia-hacked-dnc.html
1450
1451---
1452
1453Putin’s suspected meddling in a U.S. election would be a disturbing first
145425 Jul 2016
1455
1456CREDIT FOR the internecine furor that disrupted the Democratic Party on the eve of its convention should go to Vladimir Putin. As The Post has reported, cybersecurity experts say Russian intelligence operatives were likely responsible for the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s computer network, as well as for leaking to the Moscow-friendly WikiLeaks website some 20,000 emails. The trove appeared online Friday, just in time to create discord between supporters of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders as they headed to Philadelphia. To no one’s surprise, the emails showed that DNC staffers opposed the attempt of the socialist Mr. Sanders to take over the party. Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced to announce her resignation, and — as Russia likely intended — Ms. Clinton’s campaign took a hit.
1457
1458https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/opinions/global-opinions/putins-suspected-meddling-in-a-us-election-would-be-a-disturbing-first/2016/07/25/2e84c374-5280-11e6-bbf5-957ad17b4385_story.html
1459
1460---
1461
1462How Putin Weaponized Wikileaks to Influence the Election of an American President
146324 Jul 2016
1464
1465Evidence suggests that a Russian intelligence group was the source of the most recent Wikileaks intel dump, which was aimed to influence the U.S. election.
1466
1467Close your eyes and imagine that a hacking group backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin broke into the email system of a major U.S. political party. The group stole thousands of sensitive messages and then published them through an obliging third party in a way that was strategically timed to influence the United States presidential election. Now open your eyes, because that’s what just happened.
1468
1469On Friday, Wikileaks published 20,000 emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee. They reveal, among other things, thuggish infighting, a push by a top DNC official to use Bernie Sanders’ religious convictions against him in the South, and attempts to strong-arm media outlets. In other words, they reveal the Washington campaign monster for what it is.
1470
1471http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2016/07/how-putin-weaponized-wikileaks-influence-election-american-president/130163/