Skip to main content

Obama orders full investigation into cyberattacks during past few elections

White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser Lisa Monaco said during an event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor that President Barack Obama ordered the intelligence community to conduct a thorough investigation of the cyberattacks and foreign intervention that took place during the 2016 election.

Monaco said on Friday that Obama wants a full review of what happened during the election process and a report on his desk before leaving the Oval Office on January 20. Obama called this investigation “a major priority of the president of the United States” while White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said the investigation would be a “deep dive.”

Recommended Videos

News of Obama’s report arrives a few months after Vice President Joe Biden admitted on Meet The Press that the White House sent a “message” to Russian president Vladimir Putin warning that the United States will take aggressive action if Russia continued to interfere with the elections. The White House accused Russia of cyberattacks against the Democratic Party prior to November 8.

“He’ll know it,” Biden said, referring to the “message sent to Putin. “And it will be at the time of our choosing. And under the circumstances that have the greatest impact.”

Cyberattacks during the election process are not anything new, but there seems to be an unspoken concern regarding Russia’s possible involvement, Donald Trump’s relationship to the Russian president, and Trump’s eventual victory in the presidential race. As Reuters points out, Trump seemed rather wishy-washy regarding his stance with Putin, stating that he didn’t personally know the man one moment and praising Putin in the next. He even called on Putin to dig up missing emails regarding Hillary Clinton.

Obama’s investigation partly stems from Democratic lawmakers who want the White House to take action against Russia for its involvement. They also want to declassify the information so that the data can be made to the public for transparency reasons. Monaco said on Friday that the results of the investigation will indeed be provided to lawmakers, and other individuals and organizations.

“The president has directed the intelligence community to conduct a full review of what happened during the 2016 election process … and to capture lessons learned from that and to report to a range of stakeholders, to include the Congress,” Monaco said.

The investigation will look for a pattern to the cyberattacks that have taken place over the last several years. It will go back as far as 2008 when the FBI discovered that China infiltrated the presidential campaign networks of then-Senator Obama and Republican candidate John McCain. Monaco specifically mentioned the 2008 attack when she described the recent 2016 election attacks as “malicious.”

Schultz conducted a press meeting at the White House echoing Monaco’s statements. He said that there weren’t any noted “intrusions” in 2012, but the investigation will use the latest cybersecurity tools to go back and examine both elections. The investigation seems to focus on Russia even though China was involved in 2008.

“We’re going to make public as much as we can,” he told the press. “So you can imagine a report like this is going to contain highly sensitive and even classified information perhaps. So when that report is submitted, we’re going to take a look, we’re going to make sure we brief Congress and relevant stakeholders like possibly the state administrators who operationalize the elections.”

The Department of Homeland Security officially pointed a finger at the Russian Government on October 7, stating that the U.S. Intelligence Community is confident that Russia compromised emails from “U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations.”

Kevin Parrish
Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then…
SpaceX’s Starlink rival is about to launch more internet satellites — here’s how to watch
Amazon's KA-01 mission for Project Kuiper gets underway from the Space Coast.

[UPDATE: A technical issue with the rocket has caused the launch to be postponed. We'll update this article with the new launch schedule just as soon as it becomes available.]

Amazon is preparing to launch its second batch of Project Kuiper internet satellites to orbit as it seeks to build out a constellation to take on SpaceX’s Starlink service.

Read more
Weird Mac mini issue prompts Apple to take action
A top-down view of the Mac Mini.

Following multiple reports of specific Mac mini computers failing to power on, Apple has launched a global repair program to sort the problem out.

Apple launched the  M2 Mac mini in January 2023, though the affected units were made between June 16 and November 23 of 2024, according to a notice about the repair program that was first spotted by MacRumors.

Read more
Don’t miss this chance to buy a MacBook Air at $200 off
The MacBook Air on a table in front of a window.

For those who have always wanted to get one of Apple's MacBooks but can't stomach the price tag, here's your chance to buy one for a relatively affordable price. Best Buy has slashed the price of the 13-inch Apple MacBook Air M3 to only $699, for savings of $200 on its sticker price of $899. You need to act fast though, as there's always high demand for MacBook deals. The stocks that are up for sale may already be gone as soon as tomorrow.

Why you should buy the 13-inch Apple MacBook Air M3

Read more