Obama cybersecurity czar: Russian hackers likely scanned election systems in all 50 states

Erin Kelly | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Russian hackers likely scanned the election systems of all 50 states for vulnerabilities in 2016 — not just the 21 states confirmed as targets by homeland security officials last year, the cybersecurity czar for former President Barack Obama told a Senate panel Wednesday.

"I think it is highly likely," Michael Daniel replied in answer to a question from Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, about whether Russian cyber actors at least scanned the election systems of every state. "It is more likely that we hadn't detected it than that it didn't occur."

States have been scrambling to improve their cyber security after Homeland Security officials revealed last year that Russian hackers tried to breach election systems in at least 21 states in 2016. Although no actual votes were changed, hackers broke into Illinois' voter registration database.

Not all states had the technical ability to detect that Russian hackers scanned their election systems — which include vote tabulation systems as well as voter registration databases.

Daniel told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the federal government should invest more money in cybersecurity for state election systems. Congress recently took a first step by approving $380 million in state grants for election security.

"Maintaining state and local control of elections is very important, but it's not realistic to expect them on their own to go up against nation-state actors," he testified.

Daniel, who served as Obama's cybersecurity coordinator from 2012 to 2017, said that "understanding what happened in 2016 is really critical to protecting ourselves in future elections," including the congressional elections this November.

He said Russia is not the only threat, and that the U.S. must protect its elections from potential meddling by China, Iran, terrorists and hacktivists.

"All of them are discovering that cyberspace is a great place to try to advance their agenda," Daniel said.

Daniel testified along with Victoria Nuland, who served as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs during the Obama administration. The committee is seeking to learn what the administration did — and could have done better — to respond to Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The panel is investigating Russian meddling and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin in 2016. The senators are expected to issue a final report on their investigation later this year. It will include a section on the Obama administration's response to Russia's cyber attacks and the Kremlin's other efforts to influence the U.S. election.

Nuland and Daniel said the Russians appeared to change course after Obama confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin at a G-20 Leaders' Summit in China in September 2016. Obama warned Putin to stop meddling in the U.S. presidential race. Still, the Kremlin's efforts picked back up again in October.

"I think it may have led them (the Russians) to shift focus to social media rather than to continue going after election systems," Daniel said.

The Russians — in an effort not fully understood until Congress began investigating last year — exploited social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to create false groups and sow discord among U.S. voters on such divisive issues as race, gay rights, and gun control.

Nuland said the U.S. needs to work more closely with social media companies to expose false information that Russians and other foreign adversaries are putting out over social media.

She said France, using knowledge learned from the 2016 U.S. election, was able to quickly inform French voters about fake polls and other misinformation that the Russians were putting out to try to influence the 2017 French presidential race.

"The French were able to blunt the Russians' weapon," she said. "We've got to be in the same position."

Sen Marco Rubio, R-Fla., asked why Putin believed he could get away with cyber attacks on the U.S. election system.

"In my experience with this particular leader, if you don't make these aggressive moves cost directly for him and his circle..then he will keep pushing," Nuland said. "I think it's probably the case that the Russians expected deterrent measures and when they didn't see them, kept pushing."

Obama was reluctant to take stronger measures before the election because the full extent of Russian interference wasn't yet known, there were already accusations by Trump that the election was "rigged" against him and Obama didn't want to do anything to give credence to those charges, and he didn't want to do anything that might escalate Russia's efforts, Nuland said.

"I think there was a perception that it could be dealt with after the election in a more fulsome way," she said.

More than two months after the election, in December 2016, the Obama administration sanctioned Russian intelligence officials, expelled 35 Russian diplomats suspected of being spies and shut down two Russian facilities in the United States.







