ABSTRACT
During the 2016 US presidential election, the US Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) network was compromised by cyber attacks believed to have been conducted by two groups affiliated with Russian intelligence agencies. 1 This led to the release of tens of thousands of private emails and attachments to the public through WikiLeaks, https://DCLeaks.com">DCLeaks.com, and an online persona identifying himself as ‘Guccifer 2.0’. 2 Electoral boards were compromised by similar attacks, and there was a broader influence campaign by Russian state-owned media and paid social media users. 3 According to an Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) report by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the National Security Agency (NSA), Russia had developed a preference for Donald Trump, and through this campaign, it had sought to ‘undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency’. 4 These intelligence agencies assessed ‘with high confidence’ that the influence campaign was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin. 5 The ICA report also noted that, compared with previous operations directed towards US elections, Russian actions ‘represented a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort’. 6 The incident was described by prominent US politicians such as Senator John McCain as an ‘act of war’; 7 US House of Representatives member Jackie Speier described it as ‘an act of hybrid warfare’. 8
