Obama orders ‘deep dive’ review into how Russia cyber hacking affected US election and promises to make results public
The US President fears "Russia will go unpunished" and wants review published before he leaves office
BARACK Obama has ordered a major "deep dive" investigation into cyber attacks - linked to rival superpowers such as Russia and China - which massively disrupted the country's past three elections.
The White House announced on Friday the President has asked the intelligence community to deliver a final report before he leaves office next month.
The review could cause further unrest between Obama and President-elect Donald Trump who has denied Russian involvement in the 2016 hacking.
Administration officials that “Obama is concerned that Russia will go unpunished for the behaviour unless he acts."
In October, the Obama administration accused the Russian government of waging a digital campaign to disrupt the election, reports .
US officials claimed Moscow-backed hackers infiltrated the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and other political organisations.
Emails and documents from the groups were leaked online through WikiLeaks and other suspicious websites and hackers which researchers alleged were fronts for Russian intelligence services.
Hackers reportedly linked to Russia also breached the personal email accounts of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, and several Democratic staffers.
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The "deep" review demanded by Obama will put the hacking in a "greater context" and compare the attacks to "malicious cyber activity" which occurred during the 2008 and 2012 elections, according to White House principal deputy press secretary Eric Schultz at a briefing.
He vowed to "make public as much as we can" of the review, but stressed it would contain sensitive and classified information.
Schultz said: "We will be looking at all foreign actors and any attempt to interfere with the elections."
In 2008 Obama and senator John McCain's campaigns were bombarded by suspected Chinese hackers, while four years later Gawker that hackers had broken into Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s personal Hotmail account after correctly answering his backup security question: “What is your favourite pet?”
Secretary of State John Kerry insisted that Washington has no doubts of direct Russian involvement in the 2016 hacking.
He said: “The president would not have authorised a release of the assessment to the intelligence community if we didn’t feel that it was serious and also if we didn’t feel that it was certain."
But Vladmir Putin has previously denied trying to influence the US election or favouring Trump.
Putin told foreign policy experts in Sochi: “Does anyone seriously think Russia can somehow influence the American people’s choice?”
“Is America some kind of banana republic? America is a great power!”
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