Information security

Ex-CIA operative: Agency can't reveal Russian hacking evidence because lives would be at risk

A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative has spoken out about the complex dangers of declassifying secret information detailing how Russian state-sponsored hackers allegedly helped to influence the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election.

Steven L Hall, a 30-year veteran of the clandestine agency, who retired in 2015, warned it would be "complicated" for US intelligence to publicly disclose any evidence without also exposing its human sources, their secrets and expensive methods of intelligence gathering.

"Facts may help resolve the matter, but in revealing the facts, the government may also reveal how we got them," he wrote in The Washington Post. "Worse — and I do not exaggerate — if it were human sources that provided the information, they could lose their lives."

Previously, in October, a joint statement from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) asserted that "senior" officials in Russia likely sanctioned hacks at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and other key political entities.