The United States government has officially accused Russia of being behind the recent wave of hacking attacks, in a bid to interfere with the country's upcoming national elections.
The accusation was made through a joint statement released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security.
According to the statement, the United States Intelligence Community is said to be confident that Russia directed the hacking attacks that breached the emails of people and institutions in the country, including political organizations.
"The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts," the statement said, adding that all these activities have the goal of interfering with the national elections, which will start on Nov. 8.
The statement also said that, based on the sensitivity and scope of the hacking attacks, only the top officials of Russia could have given the signal to go ahead with them. Russian President Vladimir Putin was not named, but that appeared to be the statement's intention.
The allegation made against the Russian government and Putin was welcomed by both Democratic and Republican senior lawmakers, who are calling for the outgoing Obama administration to retaliate against the Kremlin to discourage such attacks in the future.
"The United States must upend Putin's calculus with a strong diplomatic, political, cyber and economic response," said Senator Ben Sasse, who is Homeland Security Committee member.
What kind of retaliation could the United States government be thinking in response to Russia's alleged cybersecurity breaches? Among the possible forms are targeted economic sanctions and covert actions against the computer servers in Russia and in other locations that were said to be where the attacks have come from. No formal recommendation has been made to the president so far, however.
Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, has dismissed the accusations of the United States government, stating that Russia receives tens of thousands of hacking attempts daily originating from the United States but does not blame the government to be behind them.
The latest hacking attack believed to have been initiated by Russia was revealed just a few days ago, as Guccifer 2.0 uploaded documents that were said to have been acquired from the systems of the Clinton Foundation. It is believed that Guccifer 2.0 is a cover for Russian intelligence agents.
The documents reveal donor information, including the fact that certain banks have donated some funds that they received under the Troubled Asset Relief Program to the Democratic party.
