Who's hacking U.S. election databases and why are they so difficult to identify?

In the case of the DNC hacks, “Gucifer 2.0,” the hacker who claimed responsibility, is suspected to be a cover for a group of state-sponsored hackers. These hackers could be government employees or freelance hackers who were asked by the Russian government to target U.S. political organizations. The Russian government may want to influence the outcome of the election, perhaps because of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s critical comments about Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Alternatively, the Russian government could be showing off its cyber-prowess and testing the response to these kinds of hacks. Electoral organizations like the DNC are not considered part of U.S. national security concerns, despite their importance. This means that they don’t benefit from additional protection from the Department of Homeland Security and could be targeted and breached without serious consequences. Considering Russia’s current tendency to push up against and test the limits of international norms, it’s possible that Russia just wanted to see how the United States would respond.

Pro-government hackers are not necessarily paid government employees clocking in and out during normal business hours. Instead, hackers can both be patriotic and self-employed –particularly in places where the United States is seen as an adversary. In such places, there may be overlap between government and hacker goals, without the hacker officially on the government payroll.