I remember a time when suggesting that voting machines could be rigged or influenced was tinfoil hat talk.
Whether it's done by Russians or not, it's now mainstream to worry that the elections are rigged. Nice.
You're exactly right, that what the cybersecurity chief says here is yuge and should be reported as "Russians successfully hack in", as you're reporting it.
If Russians can hack it, I wonder what anyone closer and better connected to the US government or to individual state governments could do.
So I don't know if the takeaway worry should really be about the Russians and what specifically happened this time as much as it should be about having a fundamentally insecure process.
Whether or not by design, this was a great way to introduce and desensitize people to the idea that there might be some funny business going on in these elections.
"Russian hackers" are always a good villain, and floating the idea that Trump coordinated with them makes it so a chunk of the populace won't want to hear it or act on it
I doubt the cybersecurity chief is admitting this at random or without appreciating what she's doing.
Consider: If you're guilty of something, and you're not totally sure that you covered all your footprints, you might want to blame it on someone else rather than say it didn't happen. So if I had to guess I'd say forces that are closer to the US government are covering themselves with the "Russian hackers" thing.
::shrug:: #foodforthought
(It doesn't make sense that the chief would bring this information to the attention of the American public, but do it in a way where she sort of encourages us to see it as not a big deal at all.)
Very well said, thank you!