Clinton campaign manager compares DNC hack to Watergate

Before the DNC was hacked, he wrote that he viewed hacking as a “prank by mischievous tech-savvy people to get revenge.” 

 

{mosads}”It wasn’t until I lived through the Russian hackings of Democratic staff members and organizations that I realized how dangerous such an attitude could be,” he wrote.

 

The perception of cybercrimes has to change, Mook said, noting he wasn’t referring specifically to the incident at the DNC but rather to cyber crimes in general.

 

“Unless we realize how vulnerable we are, we are playing into the hands of foreign aggressors like Mr. Putin,” he wrote.

 

Mook went on to criticize Donald Trump, saying skeptics like the president-elect have “compared hacks to leaks to the news media.”

“They’re not the same. A leak occurs when someone who is authorized to have information gives it to a reporter without authorization,” he said, citing the release last year of a 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump is heard making lewd comments about women.

“Leaks are frustrating, and they happen all the time,” he wrote.

“What Mr. Putin did by dumping Democrats’ emails wasn’t a leak; it was an attack with stolen information.”

Mook said the issue of cybersecurity is not a partisan issue, noting Russian President Vladimir Putin is not a registered Democrat or Republican, but is instead “anti-American.”

“To justify what Mr. Putin did, or to blame the victim, as Mr. Trump and his staff have chosen to do, simply leaves them, and all of us, under threat, because the next attack may be aimed not at a political party, but at the White House or the Pentagon,” he wrote.

Americans must do a better job of protecting themselves, he said.

“Law enforcement needs to create better bridges between the intelligence services that monitor attacks and the individuals and organizations they affect,” he wrote.

“There are very few protocols for the FBI and CIA to alert and assist potential victims. Our democratic structures — elections equipment and officials, elected officials and candidates, activists and reporters — must be elevated as a priority.”

Mook noted that the Obama administration earlier this month announced it had designated the country’s election infrastructure as “critical.”

“But we must do much more to protect the people who animate our democratic process. Imagine how stolen information could be (or already has been) used to influence or corrupt officeholders, or voters themselves,” he said.

“Watergate inspired greater vigilance in the press and prompted major reforms to safeguard our democratic institutions. We need to do that again.”

The intelligence community said in a declassified report earlier this month that Putin had ordered a widespread influence campaign intended to help elect Trump. The report said Russia’s goals were to “undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency.”

After the release of the report, members of Trump’s team blasted the DNC for not having better protections in place and emphasized Russia’s failure to actually disrupt the country’s democracy and influence election results.