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Germany's foreign intelligence chief is warning of cyberattacks aimed at political destabilization as the country prepares for an election next year, and says evidence suggests Russian involvement in hacking during the U.S. campaign.
Bruno Kahl, who leads the Federal Intelligence Service, told Tuesday's edition of the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung that his agency knows of "cyberattacks that have no other point than causing political insecurity." He said that "Europe is in the focus of this attempted disruption, and Germany in particular."
U.S. authorities have concluded Russia was responsible for hacking Democratic National Committee emails, which Russia denies. Kahl said he has "indications it comes from those quarters."
He said it's technically difficult to assign blame to any "state actor"—but that "some things speak for it being at least tolerated or wished for on the part of the state."
"The perpetrators have an interest in delegitimizing the democratic process as such—whomever that later helps," Kahl was quoted as saying. "I have the impression that the outcome of the American election isn't causing mourning in Russia so far."
Traces left on the internet suggest that those responsible wanted to demonstrate what they can do, "and not just in the U.S. elections," he said.
tl;dr: Something bad might happen; Give us more money.
(Score: 2) by tfried on Thursday December 01 2016, @11:12AM
Well, I wouldn't trust an intelligence chief on anything, so don't consider me convinced. But the guy isn't stupid. First, of course, the "cyberattack" he's talking about is leaking the DNC mails to Wikileaks, not to Trump, directly. No doubt that "hack" occurred. Second, Putin was very, very open about preferring Trump over Clinton, so only DNC mails leaked, and no similarly large leak on the other side would fit the picture.
Quite possibly it's a plain lie. But unsurprisingly, coming from a professional liar, it's a fairly plausible one, at least.