Obama’s Plan To Address Election-Day Cyber Hacking Included A Military Response
Geo Beats
2017-07-22
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The Obama administration prepared for the possibility that Russia would try to hack the U.S. election.
The Obama administration prepared for the possibility that Russia would try to hack the U.S. election.
Time magazine recently shared a copy of the 15-page plan online; the unclassified document stated that its objective was to establish “the federal response plan for a cyber incident that is...likely to result in demonstrable impact to election infrastructure during the 2016 United States election.”
After indicating that the federal government would respond to issues reported by local and state governments as needed, it described the preparations that took place in advance of the election including the formation of an inter-agency cybersecurity working group and training about voter protection and election crime.
For election day itself, the document outlined the FBI-led monitoring that was slated to take place at a central command post along with its 56 field offices.
According to Axios, during this time, if a “significant incident” were detected, armed federal agents, military forces, and National Guard troops would be deployed.
The document went on to indicate that the plan would remain active until November 11, “in order to be ready to address any post-election cyber-incidents (e.g. planted stories calling into question the results.”
Former President Obama has been criticized for delaying taking action after becoming aware of Russia's efforts to meddle in the 2016 election.
As one senior administration official reportedly told the Washington Post last month, “It is the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend. I feel like we sort of choked.”
President Trump also blasted his predecessor, saying several weeks ago, “...Barack Obama, when he was president, found out about this, in terms of if it were Russia, found out about it in August. Now, the election was in November. That's a lot of time. He did nothing about it.”
However, Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson defended their approach, telling the House Intelligence Committee, “We were very concerned that we not be perceived as taking sides in the election, injecting ourselves into a very heated campaign or taking steps to delegitimize the election process and undermine the integrity of the election process.”
The Obama administration prepared for the possibility that Russia would try to hack the U.S. election.
Time magazine recently shared a copy of the 15-page plan online; the unclassified document stated that its objective was to establish “the federal response plan for a cyber incident that is...likely to result in demonstrable impact to election infrastructure during the 2016 United States election.”
After indicating that the federal government would respond to issues reported by local and state governments as needed, it described the preparations that took place in advance of the election including the formation of an inter-agency cybersecurity working group and training about voter protection and election crime.
For election day itself, the document outlined the FBI-led monitoring that was slated to take place at a central command post along with its 56 field offices.
According to Axios, during this time, if a “significant incident” were detected, armed federal agents, military forces, and National Guard troops would be deployed.
The document went on to indicate that the plan would remain active until November 11, “in order to be ready to address any post-election cyber-incidents (e.g. planted stories calling into question the results.”
Former President Obama has been criticized for delaying taking action after becoming aware of Russia's efforts to meddle in the 2016 election.
As one senior administration official reportedly told the Washington Post last month, “It is the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend. I feel like we sort of choked.”
President Trump also blasted his predecessor, saying several weeks ago, “...Barack Obama, when he was president, found out about this, in terms of if it were Russia, found out about it in August. Now, the election was in November. That's a lot of time. He did nothing about it.”
However, Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson defended their approach, telling the House Intelligence Committee, “We were very concerned that we not be perceived as taking sides in the election, injecting ourselves into a very heated campaign or taking steps to delegitimize the election process and undermine the integrity of the election process.”
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