The Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence have said Russia’s government has directed activities that led to the disclosure of e-mails from U.S. individuals and institutions including political parties.DHS and ODNI said in a joint statement posted Friday that methods used in Russian-led efforts are “consistent” with the publication of hacked emails on sites such as DCLeaks.com, WikiLeaks and the Guccifer 2.0 online persona.
Cyber attacks against election-related systems in some states are currently not being attributed to Russia, according to the statement.
DHS and the intelligence community assessed it would be difficult to interfere with ballot counts or election results through cyber intrusion.
DHS offers cybersecurity assistance to state and local election officials such as cyber “hygiene” scans of internet-facing systems; risk and vulnerability assessments; information sharing about cyber incidents and best practices.
The department has also convened an Election Infrastructure Cybersecurity Working Group with representatives from all government levels to raise awareness of cybersecurity risks that could affect election infrastructure and processes.
