Election security

 

Former NSA chief says Russia unlikely to target infrastructure to try to change votes

Admiral Mike Rogers, former head of the National Security Agency and commander of U.S. Cyber Command, said Sunday that while Russia is attempting to influence the 2020 presidential election, it's unlikely the Russians will target election infrastructure to try to change votes.

"Do they have capability? Yes. Is it likely? No," Rogers said on "Face the Nation" when asked whether the Russians have the capability to alter votes and possibly change the outcome of the election. "We haven't seen anything to date that would suggest that. We're certainly seeing in cyber the same level of activity that we saw back in 2016. I would say where I think the Russians are doubling down is a little less on cyber activity directed directly against voting infrastructure."

Rogers said instead that the Russians are using disinformation through social media and other areas in an effort to "polarize our nation, to incite violence, to incite hatred and to attempt to pull us apart."

"Using false identity, using false information, attempting to manipulate images, the use of videos that are distorted to create an impression that is not based in fact, to try to energize individual's emotions, their prejudices, their viewpoints, to galvanize them, to work against, if you will, an outcome that brings us together," he said.