Re: Russia manipulating US election?
They did a terrible job of trying to hide what they were doing in the Ukraine. I think you're giving them too much credit. Gone are the days of mysterious men in trench coats burning hand-written messages in dark alleys with only - dare I say removable - human eyes to see. The digital era provides greater capabilities but it has also made it easier to get caught than it used to be.
Maybe. Maybe not. True, that trench coats and handwritten notes are probably no longer used such as you describe, but I don't think the Russians have ignored computing technologies, such as what it appears you are suggesting.
As an example, It is known, as a certainty, that an MS Exchange server, such as Hillary's, can be hacked, all the emails copied off, and any traces of the intrusion removed. Without a trace of the intrusion, there's no leads to follow, and if you did have some leads, it probably is walking all over the Internet hop to hop to hop, from anonymizing server to anonymizing so as leaving the finding the end destination next to impossible. Yes, such capabilities and skills in setting up are now part of spy-craft, and the Russians would have the resources to have multiple isolated teams trained in the art.
Being breached and leaving no trace, this is what I believe that happened Hillary's server, and it is consistent with Comey's congressional testimony. But the real bottom line is that no one knows for sure, only the hackers, should they exist, would know.
I think it likely this server was breached. Such a juicy target, with no doubt US national secrets and classified documents and other compromising materials stored there, it would have been irresistible to the private hacking community. They believe that there would be no repercussions from their hacking, and as often as not, they'd be right. A mere fraction of these hacking episodes are ever investigated, much less prosecuted.
If on the national level, the games field and players change, significantly, as do the repercussions. Repercussions that might cause any leader of state, any head of a spy agency legitimate reason to pause, and reconsider authorizing the attempt.
Information Security prudence would dictate that response should be as if a breach happened and also as if a breach could happen. It's clear that neither of these positions were ever taken with that particular email server.
