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Russia Poses Greater Election Threat Than Iran, Many U.S. Officials Say - The New York Times

Russia Poses Greater Election Threat Than Iran, Many U.S. Officials Say - The New York Times

Russia Poses Greater Election Threat Than Iran, Many U.S. Officials Say - The New York Times
Oct 22, 2020 2 mins, 28 secs

Russia’s hackers appeared to be preparing to sow chaos amid any uncertainty around election results, officials said.

WASHINGTON — While senior Trump administration officials said this week that Iran has been actively interfering in the presidential election, many intelligence officials said they remained far more concerned about Russia, which in recent days has hacked into state and local computer networks in breaches that could allow Moscow broader access to American voting infrastructure.

The discovery of the hacks came as American intelligence agencies, infiltrating Russian networks themselves, have pieced together details of what they believe are Russia’s plans to interfere in the presidential race in its final days or immediately after the election on Nov.

and Homeland Security officials also announced on Thursday that Russia’s state hackers had targeted dozens of state and local governments and aviation networks starting in September.

So far, there is no evidence that the Russians have changed any vote tallies or voter registration information, officials said.

But American officials expect that if the presidential race is not called on election night, Russian groups could use their knowledge of the local computer systems to deface websites, release nonpublic information or take similar steps that could sow chaos and doubts about the integrity of the results, according to officials briefed on the intelligence.

— infiltrated dozens of state and local computer networks in recent weeks, according to officials and researchers.

The officials fear that Russia could change, delete or freeze voter registration or pollbook data, making it harder for voters to cast ballots, invalidating mail-in ballots or creating enough uncertainty to undermine results.

“It’s reasonable to assume any attempt at the election systems could be for the same purpose,” said John Hultquist, the director of threat analysis at FireEye, a security firm that has been tracking the Russian group’s foray into state and local systems.

Administration officials said the news conference reflected the urgency of the intelligence about Iran.

Iran’s hackers appear to have scanned or penetrated some state and local networks, government officials said on Thursday.

But security experts said the Proud Boys email campaign that the government attributed to Iran did not appear to be based on hacked materials and instead relied on publicly available information that Florida officials regularly distribute.

“Russia is the villain here,” she said before a briefing from intelligence officials.

Likewise, officials and researchers believe the Russian attacks would not necessarily change vote tallies but could make voter data inaccessible, or delete or change voters’ registration data, to disenfranchise voters or cause the kind of confusion and delays that would undermine American confidence in the election.

In recent years, Homeland Security officials have made a concerted effort to secure voter registration systems and to ensure that election officials have paper copies of voter information in case of disruptions.

“The soft targets are really the state and local election committees, local websites that provide information about polling places and hold voter registration data.”

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