US spooks claim Russia has launched a ‘covert operation’ to cause chaos during race for the White House
It follows concerns amongst the intelligence community that Russia is planning a 'covert operation' to undermine public trust in the States a head of the November vote
SPOOKS in the US are investigating whether Vladimir Putin is trying to interfere in this years Presidential elections.
It follows concerns amongst the intelligence community that Russia is planning a 'covert operation' to undermine public trust in the States a head of the November vote.
The investigation is examining the extent of the Kremlin's suspected attack involving hacking political aspects essential to the race for the White House.
Putin may not have any intention of impacting the result but simply to embarrass the United States.
According to the the Director of National Intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr is heading up the probe.
Ex-longterm CIA operative Charles Allen told the paper: “This is something of concern for the DNI. It is being addressed."
Another intelligence official added that Russian influence in the USA was something they were "looking very closely at".
It was also revealed that the FBI has alerted state and local officials to potential cyber threats to the elections.
Related Stories
These latest revelations come just weeks after the Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails were hacked, an attack Moscow is widely suspected of being involved in.
Republican candidate Donald Trump has already spoken of his fear of foul play in the election, saying early last month that he was "afraid the election would be rigged".
Putin and Obama were snapped in a frosty meeting at the G20 summit in China yesterday as they met in attempt to find some common ground on the situation in Syria.
Suggestions of compromised voting machines and faulty vote tallies could seriously undermine the American political system.
Chief technologist for the Washington-based Centre for Democracy and Technology, Joe Hall, said:
"Election administrators are trained to run elections, not defend computer systems.
"The voting systems we use in many cases don't keep the kind of evidence one would need to detect an attack, let alone recover from it, without disruption or loss of votes."
Two American cyber security firms have said their analysis of the breaches at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee showed evidence that the intrusions were linked to Russian hackers.
The internet domains and registrants used in the breach of computers used by the committee tied back to a Russian hacking group linked to that nation's intelligence services.
That same hacking group, known as 'Fancy Bear,' was previously connected to the cyber breach at the DNC.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368