Michael Daniel, a former special assistant to former president Barack Obama and cybersecurity coordinator, on Wednesday said he thought it “highly likely” that Russian hackers scanned the electoral systems of all 50 states in the U.S. during the 2016 presidential election, not the smaller number confirmed publicly, reports USA Today.
"It is more likely that we hadn't detected it than that it didn't occur,” Daniels said in response to a question from Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing into how the U.S. should respond to Moscow’s election meddling.
The Department of Homeland Security in September 2017 confirmed that Russians only attempted to hack 21 states in the run-up to the election, and told Congress that there was no evidence any votes were manipulated.
Daniel, per Bloomberg, also told the panel he was given a “stand-down” order in August 2016 on actively countering Russian interference and said instead his team’s work shifted to defensive activities.
“Those actions were put on a back burner and that was not the focus of our activity during that time period,” he said.
Daniel also testified that Russia isn’t the only threat, and suggested the U.S. spend more to protect its elections in the future against potential meddling from Iran, China, terrorists and other hackers.
"All of them are discovering that cyberspace is a great place to try to advance their agenda," Daniel said.
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