PD Editorial: Keeping the public in the dark about Russian hacking

Federal officials know that hackers associated with the Russian government targeted election systems in 21 states during last year’s presidential campaign. In most cases, the hacking got no further than the equivalent of a burglar rattling doorknobs and checking windows of a targeted neighborhood. But in some cases, visitor information was stolen and thousands of voter records were accessed and pilfered, according to Time magazine.

Yet the American public still isn’t allowed to know which specific states were targeted.

Under questioning before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, Jeanette Manfra of the Department of Homeland Security refused to identify the states, arguing that she was bound to secrecy because of confidentiality agreements.

Arizona and Illinois have already disclosed that they were among those that were hacked. But why should the remainder of the states be a secret known only to the intelligence community - and, of course, the Russians? Worse, by what authority does one public entity have the right to gag another about an issue with such enormous public interest and concern?

According to a leaked National Security Agency document, a Florida polling software system also was targeted. But the concerns are not contained to that state. Humboldt County reportedly used the same software last year, prompting California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to send a scathing letter to the NSA asking why the state had not been informed earlier.

This is just the latest example of how the public as well as regional election officials have been kept in the dark about what may have been the biggest breach of election security in the history of our country. And too many in Washington, including the president and Republican leadership in Congress, are showing alarming indifference to it all.

Donald Trump and his supporters have dismissed any suggestion of collusion between his associates and Russian hackers. Trump recently blasted the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller as a “WITCH HUNT” based on “phony” accusations of collusion.

But the public remains unconvinced. A recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll shows 68 percent of Americans are at least moderately concerned about the possibility the Trump campaign worked with the Russians while roughly half of Americans say they are “very concerned.”

Either way, we’re confident that the question of collusion will be addressed through Mueller’s investigation and the House and Senate investigations now under way.

But what’s irrefutable is that the Russians sought to tamper with the U.S. election and achieved some success. That, in and of itself, should have elected officials of all stripes howling.

In testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the scale and scope of what Russia was doing to meddle in the election was “unprecedented.”

A day later, the FBI’s assistant director of counterintelligence, Bill Priestap, testified before the Senate that the Russians also pushed false news reports and propaganda online with historic “aggressiveness.”

This is aside from the information already confirmed by U.S. intelligence officials that Russian hackers acquired and orchestrated the release of emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta as a means of dampening her support.

And yet White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on Wednesday he did not know whether Trump believed Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

The question is long past whether to believe it. The question is what is going to be done to assure it doesn’t happen again.

Johnson has suggested that the federal government work with the states to set up a “uniform set of minimum standards for cybersecurity” for election systems and voter databases. Uniform standards is a good idea. So is being honest and upfront with the public.