Russian Deputy FM says American hackers tried to meddle in country's vote amid growing row over online espionage

American operatives tried to hack Russia’s constitutional vote last summer, one of Moscow’s top diplomats has said in a series of explosive allegations, claiming the US is responsible for the majority of online attacks.

While America is currently gripped with hysteria over supposed Russian hacking, Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov says Washington is behind the raging cyber war. He told journalists on Monday that Russian specialists estimate that the US is behind the lion’s share of online breaches. “As for cyber threats in the information sphere,” he said, “most of the malicious activity is coming from within the US.”

Citing a study conducted in July, “which provided statistics on the impact [of hackers] on Russia’s digital systems during this year’s Constitutional Vote… we can see that large-scale attacks were recorded from the US, [but also from] Germany, the UK, Singapore, Taiwan, Ukraine and a number of Eastern European countries.”

Last week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed that Russia was behind a colossal breach in the US’ information security systems, which one congressman called a “cyber-Pearl Harbour.” However, no concrete damage was identified as a result of the attack, which saw intruders gain access to government and company networks for at least nine months before it was detected.

In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of an escalating online battleground between nations around the world, saying that a “major strategic challenge is the risk of a large-scale confrontation in the digital field.” He proposed new bilateral talks on information security, and a pact in which countries would avoid using cyberwarfare to influence election processes. The US has not yet responded to this request.

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