Russians hack US computers ‘all the time’: Clapper

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper speaks at the 2016 Intelligence and National Security Summit in Washington, DC, September 7, 2016. (AFP photo)

Director of US National Intelligence James Clapper has accused Russians of hacking American computer networks, saying they do it “all the time.”

“The Russians hack our systems all the time, not just government but also corporate and personal systems, Clapper told the Intelligence and National Security Summit in Washington, on Wednesday.

American officials have been increasingly pointing to Russian cyber attacks over the past several weeks, in the wake of multiple security breaches at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).

In late July, the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks released thousands of hacked DNC emails, which revealed an insider effort in the party to undermine Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ bid for the White House.

Following the leak, mounting pressure on the DNC for its unfair treatment of Sanders forced Wasserman Schultz to step down from her position as the organization’s chair.

US intelligence agencies indicated that they had “high confidence” the Russian government was behind the hack.

Clapper, however, declined to directly hold Moscow responsible for the attack and instead pointed to US President Barack Obama’s recent comment that “experts have attributed this to the Russians.”

Unlike Obama and Clapper, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has doubled down on the claim that the Kremlin was behind the attacks.

“We know that Russian intelligence services hacked into the DNC,” she told Fox News in late July.

Moreover, the former first lady’s campaign has sounded the alarm over what they call growing evidence of a foreign power “interfering in an American election.”

Clapper said he had participated in a White House meeting with the transition teams of Clinton and her Republican rival Donald Trump, and said despite what he called “a lot of catastrophizing,” the upcoming presidential transition was going to be “okay.”

Russian officials have repeatedly rejected the hacking claims, with President Vladimir Putin saying that “on a state level has never done this.”


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