The US government is now taking into account all possible incidents that may take place at the forthcoming Election Day. Additionally, much effort has been made to set up for the upheaval of the worst-case scenario, that is, cyber attacks. Government officials believe that such attacks might come from Russia.
Government bodies have their efforts in full swing, headed by the White House and together with the CIA, the National Security Agency, and Defense Department to prevent possible cyber-attacks such as power failures and internet disconnection, a report on NBC News says.
A former senior official from Obama administration told in an interview with NBC that the Russians “want to sow as much confusion as possible and undermine our process in ways they’ve done elsewhere.” He added, “We need to be prepared on every front, not just technical but messaging, and so on. Because any reporting irregularity could be incredibly disruptive.”
The government officials also expect cyber attacks in forms of bogus documents and updates with reference to candidates being spread to different social media sites, which in a way could also impact the candidates’ standing in the election. The official said that such tactic can “cause tremendous chaos, and by the time we are able to attribute, the damage may have already been done.”
Former US ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul told NBC that Russia is doing all efforts to work their way to alter the upcoming election. According to him, the Russians are in an “offensive mode and the U.S. is working on strategies to respond to that, and at the highest levels.”
Previously, Russian hackers have been connected to several data-dumps being Democrats as their object of interest. Despite the allegations, Russia refuted such claims.
According to a senior official from the Obama administration during an interview with NBC, the election results would be extremely hard to alter via cyber attacks, however, a source from Homeland Security said that such tactics could also pose potential ‘confusion and misperception’ that could affect the system course of the election day.
Consequently, six federal cyber centers are set to operate on November 8, as planned by US officials, as such is deemed as crucial precautionary measures for national events such as Election Day.
