The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have finally released a joint report on the Russian cyber attack on our Presidential election.
The report is known as a JAR, or Joint Analysis Report. It is 13 pages long and clearly refers to the cyber attacks on the Democratic National Committee and on the emails of Clinton Campaign chairman John Podesta.
The report is detailed and very technical, describing the tools that were used by the hackers. The report refers to the Russian hackers as “Grizzly Steppe.”
The JAR was released today, as part of a package of sanctions imposed by President Barack Obama. The report is designed to “name and shame” Russian civilian and military intelligence agencies who participated in the hacking.
An earlier report was released in October, naming the Russians as the perpetrators of the cyber attack, but leaving out the key details of what exactly had been done by whom. Today’s more elaborate report includes information gathered by private security firms which looked into the hack. They were able to provide more details about exactly who the information was gathered and passed on to WikiLeaks, who then released the information to the public.
The JAR thanked those investigators, saying:
“The Joint Analysis Report recognizes the excellent work undertaken by security companies and private sector network owners and operators, and provides new indicators of compromise and malicious infrastructure identified during the course of investigations and incident response.”
The report went on to state that the two agencies involved in the hacking continued to attack the Democratic Party even after the election.
While the JAR does not specifically state that the cyber attack was intended to assist Republican Donald Trump, it does say that the Democrats were targeted and that the information was then released to the public.
Donald Trump continues to deny that the Russians are involved in the cyber attack on our election. He has brushed off the idea of sanctions, saying “I think we need to get on with our lives.”
Now that there is clear and definitive evidence of Russia’s involvement, it will be interesting to see how a new President Trump reacts.
This will be his chance to prove that he really is planning to put “America first” instead of catering to Moscow’s needs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmsAtXumFnw
Featured image via YouTube screengrab.
