HOUSTON (AP) – A newly leaked intelligence document outlining alleged attempts by Russian military intelligence to hack into U.S. election systems is the latest piece of evidence suggesting a broad, sophisticated foreign attack on the integrity of U.S. elections.
And it underscores the contention of security experts and computer scientists that the highly decentralized, often ramshackle U.S. election system remains profoundly vulnerable to trickery or sabotage .
The document, purportedly produced by the U.S. National Security Agency, does not indicate whether actual vote-tampering occurred. But it adds significant new detail to previous U.S. intelligence assessments that alleged that Russia-backed hackers had compromised elements of America’s electoral machinery, and suggests that attackers may also have been laying groundwork for future subversive activity.
The operation described in the document could have given “the Russians a foothold into the IT systems of elections offices around the country that they could use to infect machines and launch a vote-stealing attack,” said J. Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan computer scientist. “We don’t have evidence that that happened,” he said, “but that’s a very real possibility.”
Computer scientists have proven in the lab that once they’re inside an election network, sophisticated attackers could manipulate pre-election programming and alter results without leaving a trace.