Senate Armed Services Hearing May Signal Senate's Future Handling of Russia Hacks, Lobbyist Says

A Thursday Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on foreign-based cyberthreats to U.S. entities may signal how top Senate cybersecurity-focused lawmakers like committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., will proceed with examining Russia’s involvement in election-related hacks and cyberattacks, a cybersecurity lobbyist told us Wednesday. The hearing is expected to primarily focus on the Russia hacks (see 1612300032). President Barack Obama last week imposed sanctions against Russian intelligence officials and took other actions against the nation's intelligence community in response to the hacks (see 1612290040). The hearing is to occur a day after President-elect Donald Trump again questioned the U.S. intelligence community’s assertion that Russia masterminded hacks and cyberattacks against the IT systems at the Democratic National Committee and other U.S. institutions aimed at affecting the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Trump highlighted in a Twitter post Wednesday WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s assertion that Russia didn’t give him documents stolen from the hacked accounts of officials from the DNC and former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Trump later criticized the DNC for not having an effective “hacking defense.”