US election 'in chaos' again because of hackers

(Baonghean) - While the US Democratic Party and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are still struggling to deal with the aftermath of a hacker attack on the Democratic National Committee that leaked tens of thousands of confidential documents, last weekend, a hacker continued to infiltrate the Democratic Party's computer system, even brazenly revealing the password to access the system. These consecutive intrusions are putting great pressure on the US both domestically and internationally, as the final election round on November 8 is approaching.

Skeptical voters

The latest intrusion was carried out by a hacker nicknamed Guccifer 2.0 on August 13, then "released" online internal documents of the Democratic Party related to the upcoming presidential election, including information of all Democratic members of the House of Representatives including names, phone numbers, email addresses and even... passwords to log into the system.

Much information from the Democratic Party's election campaign was made public online. Photo: AFP.

With the stolen documents, Guccifer 2.0 accused the US presidential election of being “manipulated from behind the scenes”, and that American voters would not be allowed to play a decisive role in this “political show”.

The hacking of the Democratic Party's computer network immediately triggered public opinion to turn to the 20,000 Democratic Party emails released by WikiLeaks on July 22. The content of the emails exposed the relationship between Democratic Party officials and a number of influential figures in the American media, while at the same time coordinating with Mrs. Hillary Clinton to eliminate rival candidate Bernie Sanders.

The Democratic Party's system has been repeatedly hacked in less than a month, causing great concern among voters with just over three months left until the US presidential election. In the July incident, an official from the Democratic Party's election committee revealed that hackers had accessed the analysis program server for about five days.

In the recent incident, Guccifer 2.0 was quite sarcastic about the password setting for the system, saying that “The complexity of the passwords is … admirable” with words like “welcome” and “democrat” being repeated many times. Guccifer 2.0 also said that the information theft this time was much easier than the theft of nearly 20,000 emails from the Democratic Party!

Amid concerns that hackers could attack and change the results of the November election, the US Department of the Interior has had to speak up to pledge that the agency will work with states and counties to maintain the security of the election system and respond to any security incidents that arise. However, this assurance is not enough to dispel the doubts of American voters if confidential documents related to the election process continue to appear on social networks as they have recently.

Challenges in relations with Russia

Along with stabilizing the internal situation and reassuring the American people about the transparency of the race to the White House, the hacking of the Democratic Party's computer system has also caused the US to have a "headache" in finding a way to handle the relationship with Russia. Up to now, all suspicions about the mastermind behind the hackers' actions have focused on Russia.

List of Democratic members of the House of Representatives posted on Guccifer 2.0's personal page

After Guccifer 2.0 said the documents he obtained were mainly taken from the computer of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Ms. Pelosi held a press conference and accused “It's the Russians” - despite Guccifer 2.0's assertion that he is Romanian.

Previously, US intelligence agencies also said they were confident that Russian black hat hackers were behind the attack on the Democratic Party's server system in July. On July 26, US President Barack Obama and Mrs. Hillary Clinton both spoke out on July 31, accusing Russian intelligence of attacking the Democratic National Committee's computer system to try to influence the US election.

According to the American argument, when the race to the White House is almost a “two-horse race” between Mrs. Hillary Clinton and Mr. Donald Trump, it seems that Russia prefers Mr. Trump to be the winner. Explaining the relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, people also believe that in the role of a businessman, Mr. Trump and his top advisors have a big business relationship with Russia.

Meanwhile, Russia also hopes that Mr. Trump will be someone who takes a less hard-line stance on relations with Russia, and Mr. Trump's statement "not to help NATO members if attacked by Russia" - whether true or not - probably made Mr. Putin quite happy. However, all of these views are just speculations without any weighty evidence.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Russia of being behind the latest cyber attack. Photo: AFP.

That is why Russia has remained relatively quiet so far, leaving the US to “single-handedly” rather than participating in the “debate” as usual. Since the incident, Russia has only spoken out once, saying that the US’s accusations were “absurd”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also affirmed: "Russia has never interfered and will never interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, especially the election process in countries including the United States."

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is still investigating who is behind the hacker attacks on the US Democratic Party's computer system. An unnamed official in the Obama administration said on August 11 that the US is considering imposing new sanctions on Russia because of this incident.

Analysts say that whether the FBI finds “something” related to Russia or not, in any case, the US needs to react to Russia. The difficult question is how to react, how severe or light, so as not to show that the US is weak, and not to worsen the already “frozen” relationship between the US and Russia, especially when the US needs Russia to solve the hot spot in Syria and many other issues.

Thuy Ngoc