Monday, objection Published a secret internal NSA document Noting that Russian military intelligence launched an operation to hack at least one US voting software supplier – which provided software related to voter registration files – in the months leading up to last year’s presidential election. It has previously been reported that Russia attempted to hack voter registration systems, but this NSA document provides details on how one such operation occurred.
According to objection:
The NSA’s top-secret document, which was provided anonymously to The Intercept and independently verified, analyzes intelligence the agency recently obtained about a months-long Russian cyber-intelligence effort against elements of the U.S. election and voting infrastructure. The report, dated May 5, 2017, is the US government’s most detailed report on Russian election interference disclosed to date.
Although the document provides a rare window into the NSA’s understanding of Russian hacking mechanisms, it does not show the underlying “raw” intelligence on which the analysis is based. An American intelligence officer, who requested to remain anonymous, warned against drawing too large conclusions from the document because a single analysis is not necessarily final.
The report indicates that Russian hacking may have penetrated American voting systems to a greater extent than previously expected. It unambiguously states in its summary statement that it was Russian military intelligence, specifically the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian General Staff, or GRU, that carried out the cyberattacks described in the document:
Actors of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian General Staff … carried out cyber espionage operations against a specific US company in August 2016, apparently to obtain information about election-related software and hardware solutions. … The actors will likely use data obtained from that operation to … launch a voter registration-themed phishing campaign targeting U.S. local government organizations.
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