Senate told of Russian hacking campaign
RUSSIAN experts have painted a sinister picture of Russian meddling in the 2016 election telling the US Senate intelligence committee about fake news, cyber trolls, smear campaigns and even slayings they say could have ties to the Kremlin.
The hearing focused on tactics Moscow is thought to employ in spreading disinformation to influence the opinions of Americans and US policy.
Senator Marco Rubio told his committee colleagues that during the previous 24 hours, his former presidential campaign team was unsuccessfully targeted – for the second time – by hackers at an unknown Russian internet address.
House Speaker Paul Ryan also was targeted by internet hackers recently, said Clint Watts of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
All the witnesses stressed the magnitude of the Russian disinformation campaign not only in the US but Europe.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the committee, called it Russian propaganda “on steroids.”
Committee chairman Senator Richard Burr said the problem was going to require a global response.
“We’re within 30 days of what is a primary election in France. It could be that the Russians have done enough to make sure that a candidate that went to Russia recently, a socialist, made the run-off. We could end up with a pro-Russian government in France,” said Senator Burr.
“We don’t know what the effects are going to be in Germany. But we’ve actually seen them (Russia) build up a party in Germany.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the allegations as “endless and groundless.”