President Donald Trump's director of national intelligence warned on Tuesday that Russia would increase its attacks on American elections.
"We have entered a period that can best be described as a race for technological superiority against our adversaries who seek to sow division in the United States and weaken U.S. leadership," Director Dan Coats told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "This is more important than ever that we remain vigilant to the range of threats worldwide as we seek to do all we can to provide security to the American people."
Coats said that one of his "greatest concerns" is the "cyber threat."
"We are under cyber attack," he announced. "While state actors pose the greatest cyber threat, the democratization of cyber capabilities worldwide has enabled and emboldened a broader range of actors to pursue their activities against us."
"We assess that Russia is likely to continue to pursue even more aggressive cyber attacks with the intent of degrading our democratic values and weakening our alliances," Coats added.
The New York Times reported this week that the State Department has spent none of the $120 million that has been allocated to fight against foreign interference in elections.
Coats later admitted under questioning from Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) that "we don't" have an official government policy on Russian election interference.
GOP senator on Senate Armed Forces committee Sen Tillis asks DNI chief Dan Coats if we have a policy regarding Russian meddling in the upcoming midterm election. Coats answers ‘We don’t.’ #russianmeddling #midterms pic.twitter.com/EhwZwDPkOO
— Barry Thomas Goldberg (@barrytgoldberg) March 6, 2018
