US watched Russia hack French systems during election

The U.S. government workforce is not prepared to deal with the kind of information warfare that Russian Federation used to influence the 2016 presidential election and has continued to use in the elections of other nations, U.S. Cyber Command and National Security Agency (NSA) Chief Admiral Michael Rogers told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. Tim Kaine (D. -Va.), Hillary Clinton's running mate in last year's presidential election, asked Rogers whether he was aware of the "significant evidence" tying Russian Federation to efforts "destabilize the government of an ally" and whether the United States should "take that seriously".

U.S. Cyber Command and NSA head Admiral Michael Rogers has set out what a worst case scenario for a cyber attack against the USA would look like.

Russian officials have repeatedly denied the allegations calling them absurd and saying Moscow does not interfere in the electoral processes of other countries.

"We're doing similar things with our German counterparts, with our British counterparts, they have an upcoming election sequence", the NSA director said.

He said that while until now most cyber activity has been "penetration and extraction" - that is, hackers breaking in and stealing information - for attackers to break in and alter information is "a very different kind of challenge for us".

"No, sir. But the new team is working on that", Rogers said.

Rogers said the intelligence seemed clear that Russian Federation preferred Trump, even if he couldn't say with certainty that Putin worked on behalf of the Republican candidate.

Mike Rogers cast a dash of doubt Tuesday on the intelligence community's conclusion that Russia-tied hackers sought to help Donald Trump in the 2016 election, explaining for the first time in public testimony why his agency had only "moderate confidence" in that judgment. He said he was speaking in a personal capacity and not officially on behalf of the campaign.

Rogers first answered in his role as NSA director, noting the agency first found Russians trying to gain access in 2015 and informed the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Rogers told the committee under questioning from Sen. We're all trying to figure out how we can learn from each other.

He asked: "Can you see any scenario is which Cyber Command's mission would be benefited by a shutdown of the government of the United States?"

"Certainly we are not where we need to be", he said.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said that it was unacceptable that secretaries of state can claim that their election systems are fine without some assurances that they are employing some of the best cyber capabilities to defend their systems. He did not specify exactly what that would mean.

U.S. intelligence agencies voiced certainty on October 2017 that the Russian government had interfered in the election. Additionally, NSA might be watching for specific "signatures" used by Russian hacking groups. "I think we need to think more broadly and play to our strengths as a nation".