Russia’s elections threat long term

Nearly a year after Russian government hackers meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, researchers at cybersecurity firm Trend Micro zeroed in on a new sign of trouble: a group of suspect websites.

The sites mimicked a portal for U.S. senators and their staffs. Emails to Senate users urged them to reset their passwords — an apparent attempt to steal their passwords.

The attempt to infiltrate the Senate network, and others reported recently, point to Russia's continued efforts to interfere in U.S. politics, which Moscow officially denies. There is no clear evidence, experts said, of Kremlin efforts specifically designed to disrupt elections in November.

Still, "we fully realize that we are just one click away of the keyboard from a similar situation repeating itself," Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, said in July.

Michael McFaul, architect of the Obama administration's Russia policy, has said he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin perceives little benefit in major disruption now, preferring to wait for the 2020 presidential contest.

Experts said it is too late to safeguard U.S. voting systems and campaigns for this election cycle. Critics say that President Donald Trump's recent decision eliminating the White House cyber-security coordinator's post confirmed his lack of interest in countering Russian meddling. Congress has not delivered legislation to combat election interference or disinformation.

But there is time to take stock of interference that has come to light — and to assess the risks of what we don't know.

In mid-2016, hackers got into Illinois' voter-registration database. Special counsel Robert Mueller's indictment of a dozen Russian intelligence agents this July said the hackers had stolen information on 500,000 voters. It is the