President Barack Obama, drawing on reports by U.S intelligence agencies, has accused Russia of hacking the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in an attempt to influence the outcome of the recent Presidential elections. The Obama administration has had the delicate task of justifying the accusations with evidence, while ensuring secrecy surrounding electronic espionage is maintained.
In an op-ed for CNN, security technologist Bruce Schneier explores the difficulty of attributing the recent cyberattack of the DNC to Russia. In doing so, Schneier makes reference to Citizen Lab’s work in identifying the source of cyberattacks against activists and dissidents, including the United Arab Emirates targeting of human right’s activist Ahmed Mansour. The campaign of targeted spyware against him, dubbed Stealth Falcon, is documented in the Citizen Lab report entitled “Keep Calm and (Don’t) Enable Macros: A New Threat Actor Targets UAE Dissidents.”
Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert also recently authored an op-ed in JustSecurity, assessing the report issued by the FBI about the hacking, and the Obama Administration’s response to the incident. Read the full CNN article.