DNI: Putin Led Cyber, Propaganda Effort to Elect Trump, Denigrate Clinton
Summary: A 25-page Office of the Director of National Intelligence report released on Friday concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed a propaganda and cyber operation to discredit Hillary Clinton and elect Donald Trump, with the report assessing that Russian military intelligence (GRU) used the Guccifer 2.0 persona and DCLeaks.com to release stolen data and relayed material to WikiLeaks. The report, which did not assess whether the operation affected the election outcome, also concluded that the Kremlin-financed outlet RT functions as a propaganda machine controlled by Russian intelligence agencies.
What's compelling: The DNI report states Moscow will apply lessons learned from its Putin-ordered campaign to future influence efforts worldwide, including against US allies and their election processes - and the unclassified version omits the technical evidence, leaving the public case resting on espionage-derived intelligence rather than forensics.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
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