Over the past few months, an escalating series of attacks on computer networks—many of them inflicted by something called the Mirai botnet, which uses a web of infected DVRs, webcams, and other “smart” devices to drown targeted websites in traffic—have wrought unprecedented havoc all over the world. Experts have speculated that these distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks are a “rehearsal” for something bigger. Meanwhile Russian hackers have been busy throwing monkey wrenches into the American presidential election, breaking into the computers of the Democratic National Committee this summer and (it seems) leaking emails from John Podesta, a high-level aide to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. The confluence of these two threats—a super-powerful botnet and the specter of Russian influence on the contest between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump—has stoked fears of a massive cyberattack that could upend the vote on November 8. So, yes, the government and the cybersecurity industry are on high alert. “A lot of actors will try to take advantage of a high-profile event to cause trouble or raise their profiles,” says Ian Gray, a cyber intelligence analyst for Flashpoint, which has been at the center of monitoring and mitigating attacks by Mirai. But intelligence does not point to a connection between the autumn spree of DDOS attacks and a state-sponsored effort to hack the election itself. And government officials say they don’t believe an attack is likely to black out some massive chunk of the internet in order to wreak political havoc on Tuesday.
Headed into the election, law enforcement, intelligence, and military teams are on standby to defend the nation’s internet infrastructure, and the Department of Homeland Security’s hacking mitigation teams are likewise ready to assist private sector or government websites targeted by an attack. Cyber command posts like the DHS’ National Cybersecurity & Communications Integration Center in Northern Virginia and the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center, will be carefully monitoring web traffic. “We’re being hyper-vigilant to look for any activity that appears to be out of the norm,” says one high-ranking intelligence official who would only speak anonymously. “The full resources of our cyber operations are engaged.”
Thanks to preparations over the last two weeks, officials expressed cautious optimism that they’d be able to ensure that any Election Day cyberattacks might be minimized quickly. However, officials also say that amid the public hype about cyber shenanigans, they’re anticipating confusion between real attacks and run-of-the-mill technical issues—computer crashes, power failures, or overloaded websites that, in an instant news-cycle, might engender fear of a looming attack. “We’re definitely expecting the cyber equivalent of the forgotten backpack in the airport,” one senior official says.
They’re not getting ready for doomsday—it’s more like getting ready for an inbound hurricane. One senior official compared the preparations to those that accompanied the Y2K scare in 1999. Another said it was the “cyber equivalent of the physical security that would go into a presidential inauguration.” No extra personnel are getting sent to government bunkers. This, administration officials say, is standard Continuity of Government and Continuity of Operations-level preparedness—nothing like the more extensive and eminently scarier-sounding Enduring Constitutional Government and Continuity of the Presidency protocols that secure the nation’s leaders and military chain of command and would point to something more catastrophic.
Full Article: Your Government Isn’t That Worried About An Election Day Cyberattack | WIRED.