McAfee proves that Russia used ‘Fake News’ to influence 2016 US Election voters

McAfee which released a recent report on security threats has confirmed that Russian hackers influenced the US 2016 Poll results by propelling fake news to distract and confuse voters. This led to the crowding of genuine information that could have better guided their decisions.

Vincent Weafer, Vice President of McAfee Labs said that such incidents make it harder for companies operating in the cyber security field to focus on the worst threats. He added that such dangers can spread more panic among a country’s populace than a terror-drove bomb attack or a serial blast.

According to the McAfee Labs threat report published last week, three types of cyber attacks are now being highly witnessed. The first happens to be Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) where hackers harness thousands or millions of computing devices send service requests to a website or servers. This eventually leads to a heavy traffic and shut down of service. Sometimes, the DDoS assault can cause significant harm to a business financially and can even tarnish the image of a firm on a permanent note.

McAfee report has confirmed that the total number of malware attacks detected in 2016 rose to 638 million- a 24% rise when compared to 2015. Moreover, in the last couple of years, cybercrooks have managed to mimic the sophistication of advanced legitimate tools used in the tech industry and this includes software as service tools.

The latest report of McAfee on ‘Fake News’ can be used as confirmation docs for the reports put forward by CIA and FBI which substantiate that Russia was indulged in favoring Donald Trump’s win in US 2016 polls.

In January 2017, after taking the oath as the 45Th President of United States, Donald Trump admitted that “Fake news” articles are a threat to the security and integrity of America.

Meanwhile, Ex-US President Barack Obama recently admitted on a morning hour show that fake news did help Donald Trump to win elections. But he refused to divulge more details on how and why his officials could let it this cyber space disaster happen in reality.

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Naveen Goud
Naveen Goud is a writer at Cybersecurity Insiders covering topics such as Mergers & Acquisitions, Startups, Cyber Attacks, Cloud Security and Mobile Security

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