President Obama on Monday attacked Russia’s “cyberintrusions” into American affairs.
Speaking in China after talks on cybersecurity with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Obama put the issue into a broad context of hacking by many countries, but he was particularly pointed about the nefarious work of the Kremlin.
“I will tell you you’ve had problems with cyberintrustions from Russia,” said the president, “and in the past from other countries.”
Obama’s comments coincided with a news report about U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating whether Russia is trying to covertly influence the election.
Federal agencies are probing what some view as a secretive Russian effort to build distrust in U.S. political institutions and the country’s election process, according to a report by the Washington Post.
Officials said they’re looking closely at a potential Russian influence operation in the U.S. and potential disruptions to the upcoming elections. They also confirmed the FBI has told state and local officials to be on heightened lookout for potential cyberthreats.
Obama didn’t provide details about exactly what he discussed with Putin, but he said their discussion at the G-20 Summit in China included cybersecurity. In a later press conference, he warned against cyberattacks without directly mentioning Russia.
“We’re moving into a new era here where a number of countries have significant capacities,” Obama said. “Frankly, both offensively and defensively, we have more capacity.”
U.S. security officials haven’t said they have direct proof that Russia is tampering with the election system, and the government hasn’t officially blamed Russia for a hack of the Democratic National Committee traced to Russian government hacking groups.
But they suspect the Kremlin intends to disrupt the U.S. political process, influence international affairs and provide propaganda to attack the country’s efforts to promote democracy around the world, especially in former Soviet countries. Officials described Russia’s covert efforts as “ambitious,” according to the Post.
Meanwhile, Putin has denied that Russia was behind any cyberattacks in the U.S., calling the accusations an effort to “distract the public’s attention.”
