US security officials and intelligence agency fear that Russian hackers might launch a huge wave of cyber attacks on the election day.
US intelligence warned Russia that any attempt to affect the voting or vote counting next Tuesday would be considered as a serious breach, multiple media reports have said.
Effort is being coordinated by the White house, Department of Homeland Security and National Security Agency to prepare for possible worst-case scenarios including blackouts and internet outages, reports NBC News.
Multiple officials said to media that a lower-level effort by hackers to peddle misinformation by manipulating Facebook, Twitter and other social media should be expected on the election day.
Adam Schiff,the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told The Washington Post that Russian intelligence services were likely to be “looking through their troves of hacked documents and seeing what they can release”.
According to NBC report, officials fear an 11th hour release of fake documents implicating one of the candidate in an explosive scandal without time for the media to fact check it.
US officials have already linked Russia to numerous data-leaks , including the recent Wikileaks releases.
Earlier, Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump has consistently claimed that the election is “rigged”.
