CIA chief expects more data leaks before election

CIA Director John Brennan “wouldn’t be surprised” to see more hacked information leaking out prior to the November election, he told CBS News in an interview aired Wednesday night.

“I think there are capabilities that a number of our adversaries have — and again I’m not just talking about nation-states or other countries — I’m talking about individuals who may want to demonstrate that they’re able to hack into systems and release things for whatever their agenda might be, whether it be a political agenda or one that is just trying to undermine our system of democracy here,” Brennan said.

{mosads}Materials stolen from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) were published on the anti-secrecy platform WikiLeaks on the eve of the Democratic National Convention in July, embarrassing officials and leading to the resignation of the party’s chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.). 

The attack was widely seen as an effort by Russia to influence the outcome of the election.

Then this week, a series of stolen emails from the account of former Secretary of State Colin Powell were made public by a site with reported links to Russian intelligence. 

Although Brennan did not specifically blame Russia for the attack on the DNC, according to CBS, he did point to Russia’s known history of meddling in other countries’ elections.

The White House has refused to publicly attribute the attack to Russia, despite nearly unanimous consensus from security experts. Law enforcement officials, speaking anonymously, have also indicated that all signs point to Russia.