Trump Believes Russia Led Election-Related Hacks

President-elect Donald Trump publicly acknowledged he now believes the Russian government orchestrated the hacking of IT systems of the Democratic National Committee and the campaign of former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. U.S. intelligence agencies said Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the hacks of Democratic and Republican campaigns (see 1701060060). Trump earlier criticized the intelligence agencies’ assessment (see 1701050062). "I think it was Russia,” Trump said during a Wednesday news conference. “I think we also get hacked by other countries and other people.” Trump suggested the focus on the hacks was disproportionate with previous cyber incidents, citing the reaction to the Office of Personnel Management data breaches revealed in 2015. “When we lost 22 million names and everything else that was hacked recently, they didn’t make a big deal out of that,” Trump said. “That was something that was extraordinary. That was probably China. We had much hacking going on.” In fact, the hack made headlines nationwide then. Trump also said the DNC’s cybersecurity practices were “totally open to be hacked." Senate Intelligence Committee Republicans this week pointed to a possible disparity between the relative vulnerability of DNC and Republican National Committee servers to cyberattacks. Senate Intelligence Democrats disputed those assertions (see 1701100076). Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson said during his confirmation hearing Wednesday he would need to examine existing and proposed additional sanctions against Russia aimed at responding to the hacks before deciding how to act. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized Tillerson’s answer, saying on the Senate floor that to “duck the question and refuse to commit to continuing these sanctions is tantamount to sweeping international laws under the rug.” Secretary of Homeland Security nominee John Kelly said during his confirmation hearing Tuesday (see 1701100081) he accepted the intelligence agencies’ report on the Russia hacks “with high confidence.” Kelly told the Senate Homeland Security Committee he's still reviewing a Department of Homeland Security-backed proposal to reorganize the department’s National Protection and Programs Directorate as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Agency. Kelly said he backs “evolving” DHS’ authorities to allow a faster response to cyberthreats.