Senate Intel Delves into Cybersecurity of Democratic, GOP Networks in Russia Hack Hearing

A Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Tuesday at times focused on whether a disparity in the scope of Russia's hacks against Democratic and Republican targets aimed at influencing 2016 U.S. elections was the result of Russia's perceived preference for President-elect Donald Trump or of better cybersecurity tactics on Republicans' networks. Senate Intelligence aimed the hearing at parsing out the details of an unclassified report from U.S. intelligence agencies on its investigation into the Russia-led hacks. The intelligence agencies found that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the hacking of IT systems associated with the Democratic National Committee and the campaign of former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as part of a campaign to “denigrate” Clinton “and harm her electability and potential presidency” (see 1701060060).

Russia's wider goal in engaging in the election-related hacks was to “undermine public faith” in the U.S.' electoral process and also included collection of intelligence from some GOP targets, testified Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Russia hacked into the systems of some state Republican organizations' networks, along with inactive Republican National Committee systems that contained only old data, said FBI Director James Comey. There's no evidence Russia hacked into networks used by the Trump campaign or those of Trump's rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, Comey said.

The DNC denied the FBI's “multiple” requests for direct access to the party committee's hacked servers in the course of the agencies' investigation but ultimately agreed to allow the bureau access to intelligence gathered by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. The firm said the hacker Guccifer 2.0, who infiltrated the DNC's servers, was associated with Russia's intelligence agencies. The DNC and FBI publicly disagreed over the past week about whether the agency had been allowed access to the servers. Comey said Tuesday he didn't know why the DNC denied the FBI's request for direct access. The agency "would always prefer to get access to the original device or server that’s involved in a cyber incident since that would be "the best evidence," Comey said. The DNC didn't immediately comment.

Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., pledged its investigation into the Russia-led hacks won't take on a partisan tinge. Burr said he “no reason to doubt” the intelligence agencies' findings and has directed committee's staff to do its own investigation into the sourcing and intelligence used in the agencies' report. Senate Intelligence will follow information gleaned “wherever it leads,” he said. Both parties should support a full investigation into the hacks because any politician “could easily be the next target” of Russia's attention, Warner said.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he believes the hacks showed a “disparity” between the relative vulnerability of DNC and RNC servers to cyberattacks. He also referenced Clinton's use of a private server to store her official email account while she was secretary of state. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus has boasted that the RNC has superior cyber defense to that the DNC uses (see 1701090046). Blunt said Russia's decision not to leak any information gleaned from the hacking of Republicans' server “shouldn't be a shock” since the only targeted GOP data was either outdated or from state-level organizations.

Warner and other Senate Intelligence Democrats said they believe Russia deliberately directed more of its hacks at Democratic targets than Republican ones and leaked only information stolen from Democrats' servers. Russia's activities had a “clear political intent,” Warner said. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said he believes it's clear the Russians “devoted more resources” hacking Democratic organizations' servers rather than simply finding more success at hacking those organizations.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., pressed Clapper and other officials to release more information on Republican targets of Russia's hacks when possible. He also pressed Comey to detail whether the FBI is investigating possible ties between Trump campaign associates and Russian officials. Comey declined to comment publicly on whether the FBI was investigating those allegations. U.S. citizens “have a right to know” if such ties exist, and if the FBI doesn't release information on its conclusions before Trump's inauguration, “I'm not sure" it will ever happen, Wyden said.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said the investigation “should not be a partisan issue” and the public discourse on the hacks may have itself been Russia's ultimate goal: “What they really wanted to see was Americans fighting against each other” over whether the hacks affected the outcome of the election. The intelligence agencies' report didn't include any findings on whether the leaks of information obtained through the hacks actually affected the election's outcome. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and others underscored that the agencies found no evidence that Russia changed vote totals. The attempts to “sow the seeds of division” among the American people are “not healthy” for democracy, Collins said.

Cornyn said he believes the U.S. needs to “figure out some way” to develop a better whole-of-government approach to cybersecurity, partly bemoaning what he views as congressional committees' “fractured” jurisdiction over cybersecurity issues. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., rebuffed a push by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., and other lawmakers to form a select committee on cybersecurity (see 1612190061 and 1612200044). Collins said she believes Russia's election-related hacks underscore the need for U.S. intelligence agencies to take a “broad look” at all foreign governments' efforts to intrude into U.S.-based networks, including those used by critical infrastructure entities, defense contractors and other firms.