Foreign hacks attack our democracy: Senator Kirk

"History,” President Ronald Reagan once said, “teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.” Today, the same could be said for cyber-wars and the price of cyber-aggression.

Whether you are an independent, a Republican or a Democrat, all Americans should be very concerned about any attempts by foreigners to influence or otherwise interfere in our elections.

Foreign threats to our democratic process, cyber or otherwise, are attacks on all Americans and the foundation of our free and fair elections. The state-sponsored Russian hackings of a major party candidate are the latest salvo in a cyber war. Russia seeks to degrade our electoral process and our faith in that process.

Our intelligence leaders formally accused the Russian government of directing these cyberattacks. “We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security reported in a joint statement on October 7th.

“These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the U.S. election process,” they added.  “Such activity is not new to Moscow — the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there.”

In a worrisome development, some states — including my home state of Illinois — have suffered foreign cyber attacks against their election-related systems. In August, the Illinois State Board of Elections disclosed that cyberattacks, possibly of foreign origin, had illegally accessed the personal information of as many as 200,000 registered voters, including the last four digits of Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers.

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While the Director of National Intelligence and Secretary of Homeland Security cautioned that they “are not now in a position to attribute this activity to the Russian Government", they confirmed many of these cyber attacks on the election-related systems of American states “originated from servers operated by a Russian company.”

In recent days, the White House has signaled it may be preparing responses to Russian-directed cyber attacks interfering in America’s elections. “We’re sending a message,” Vice President Joe Biden said in a taped interview last Sunday. “It will be at the time of our choosing, and under the circumstances that have the greatest impact.”

While it certainly seems curious for a senior American official to announce so publicly our government’s intent to take action before acting, the White House’s posturing points to the deeply fractured relations between the United States and Russia. Long gone are the days of the "Russian Reset" championed by President Obama and then-Secretary of State Clinton.

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Americans have lost faith in may areas of government. We cannot allow faith to be lost in our democratic process. Our political leaders — Republicans, Democrats and Independents — should act now to provide a united front to this grave threat or risk destroying a fundamental pillar of our democracy. Republicans who seek to legitimize these hackings in the hopes of short-term electoral gain are misguided, and are sowing the ground for greater foreign intrusions in our free elections.

While Republicans and Democrats compete, by constitutional design, in our political system, we should never forget we are not mortal enemies. Our response requires a political consensus that foreign actors interfering in our elections pose a clear danger to all of us. The health of our republic requires we look beyond the chaos of the last days of this election, come together as Americans and fight for our fundamental principles of liberty and representative government. We are, above all, Americans, and we should stand united in doing all we can to protect our elections — which form the cornerstones of our 238-year-old democratic republic — from any foreign interference whatsoever.

Mark Kirk is a Republican senator from Illinois.

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