The Director of National Intelligence James Clapper informed a spy summit in Washington that US systems are under constant barrage from foreign cyber intruders.
The admission comes amid heightened suspicions that Russia was behind high-profile hacks in recent months that targeted political organizations like the Democratic National Committee and statewide electoral systems in Arizona and Illinois.
Clapper did not assign Russian culpability to those particular attacks, but spoke broadly on the state of affairs in the cyber realm.
“The Russians hack our systems all the time,” he told attendees Wednesday at the Intelligence and National Security Summit. The comments were first reported by The Hill.
“Not just government but also corporate and personal systems,” Clapper added, noting, “so do the Chinese and others, including non-state actors.”
The spy director dodged commenting on the DNC hack specifically. He pointed to an ongoing FBI investigation into the matter.
“The point is, cyber will continue to be a huge problem for the next presidential administration,” Clapper said.
Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has promised to stake out a more aggressive position in response to foreign hackers. Clinton spoke at the American Legion Convention in Cincinnati last week, where she stated that as president she would “treat cyber attacks just like any other attack.”
“We will be ready with serious political, economic and military responses,” Clinton added.
Unlike Clapper, the Democratic nominee and her surrogates are not waiting on a pending FBI investigation to accuse the Russian government of perpetrating the DNC hack. They’ve also used the breaches for rhetorical purposes in an attempt to cast their GOP opponent, Donald Trump, as an agent of the Kremlin.
As the nation’s top spy, Clapper has generally urged caution and restraint in response to foreign cyber operations. He has also been quite candid about similar activities conducted by Washington.
Last September, he described the hacking and stealing of information from the US government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM)—believed to have been carried out by the Chinese government—as a “passive intelligence collection activity—just as we do.”
Clapper then cautioned lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee, invoking the old saying about those who live in glass houses. “We should think before we throw rocks,” he said.
On Wednesday, Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a report on last year’s data breach at OPM, which led to the theft of more than 20 million personnel records.
The committee blamed lax cyber security at the agency, alleging that safeguards that could have prevented the intrusion were never put into place. The report also noted that OPM had been warned of its digital security weaknesses, dating all the way back to 2005, but it never implemented the necessary upgrades.
