One of the most notorious hacks in recent memory got a new layer of intrigue when its victims pointed a finger at Russia. Debbie Wasserman Schultz has resigned as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) over leaked internal emails indicating that DNC staffers tried to undermine the presidential campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in favor of presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Wasserman Schultz said she plans to step down at the end of this week’s convention, though it remains to be seen whether she’s allowed to stay that long. In the meantime, though, Clinton’s campaign manager has alleged that Russian hackers stole and released the provocative emails in an effort to support her opponent, Donald Trump.
In June, cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike Inc. said sophisticated hackers linked to Russian intelligence services broke into the DNC’s computer networks and gained access to confidential emails, chats, and opposition research on Trump, who, at the time, was the presumptive Republican nominee for the upcoming presidential campaign.
Weak Security
On Friday, nearly 20,000 emails and more 8,000 attachments from the DNC’s mail servers were released by WikiLeaks, the non-profit ‘investigative journalism’ organization that is renown for publicly sharing private documents. Some of the emails showed hostility from top DNC officials toward Sanders’ campaign, including emails in which Wasserman Schultz referred to Sanders’ campaign manager as a liar. And other emails from DNC officials questioned Sanders’ religious beliefs.
Appearing on CNN over the weekend, Clinton Campaign Manager Robby Mook said cybersecurity experts have told the campaign that the source of the hack was Russia. Mook added that the release of the documents on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, which began today in Philadelphia, can’t be a coincidence.
Russian hackers have previously been blamed for infiltrating email servers in the White House, U.S. Department of State, and The Pentagon, as well as carrying out cyberattacks on Ukraine, Estonia, and the nation of Georgia.
Often, political campaigns and parties do not take sufficient precautions to secure their data. This type of lapse then enables foreign adversaries to gain access to sensitive information and use it to influence elections, gather sensitive information on government officials, or use the information to make money on the black market.
Privacy Is Rare
Tim Erlin, senior director of IT security and risk strategy at cybersecurity firm Tripwire Inc., told us the hack of DNC emails probably should not have come as a surprise. If you are part of the political process, especially during a hotly contested election, you should just assume that your emails aren’t private, he said.
“It’s possible to take measures to protect email contents through encryption, but it takes a fair amount of effort,” Erlin added. “Few systems are foolproof, and few organizations make the investment to employ consistent encryption. From [Hillary Clinton’s] private servers to hacked email, this presidential election has thrown technology and cybersecurity to the forefront.”
Political campaigns tend to be more susceptible to breaches because they are only temporary operations. The presidential campaigns of both Barack Obama and John McCain were targeted by hackers in 2008.
Ely Kahn, a former cybersecurity director for the National Security Council, told the Politico Web site that the DNC hack revealed over the weekend was probably just “the tip of the iceberg” when it comes to such attacks.
