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Obama orders 'full review' of election-related hacking




President Barack Obama has ordered a "full review" of hacking-relating activity aimed at disrupting last month's presidential election. | AP Photo

Obama orders 'full review' of election-related hacking

By JOSH GERSTEIN and JENNIFER SCHOLTES

12/09/16
POLITICO


President Barack Obama has ordered a "full review" of hacking-relating activity aimed at disrupting last month's presidential election and he expects that report before he leaves office on Jan. 20, a top White House official said Friday.

“We may be crossed into a new threshold and it is incumbent upon us to take stock of that, to review, to conduct some after-action, to understand what this means, what has happened and to impart those lessons learned," Obama counterterrorism and homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco told reporters at a breakfast arranged by the Christian Science Monitor.

U.S. intelligence officials have blamed the Russian government for pre-election hacking of Democratic officials and political committees. Several Democratic senators have asked Obama to declassify more details about the attacks and why the U.S. concluded the Russians were behind them.

Monaco said the report would be shared with "a range of stakeholders," including members of Congress, but she did not commit to making the findings of the review public.

"That’s going to be first and foremost a determination that’s made by the intelligence community," she said. "We want to do so very attentive to not disclosing sources and methods that may impede our ability to identify and attribute malicious actors in the future."

Monaco struck an ominous tone about internet-related dangers, calling them among the most significant national security issues facing the new administration. Trump's team will "inherit a rapidly growing threat in this space across all dimensions," she said, including intrusions from both "hacktivists" and "criminal actors."

In the months leading up to the election, hackers reportedly linked to Russia directed digital attacks on the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and other political organizations. They also breached the personal email accounts of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign chairman John Podesta, and several Democratic staffers, with many of those emails being released publicly by WikiLeaks, causing unwelcome pre-election tumult for the Clinton campaign.