The hacking of Democratic National Committee emails, which were then sent out to the world via WikiLeaks, is embarrassing for the party – and potentially dangerous, according to one Silicon Valley data security expert who was actually named in the Wikileaks post. Scott Budman reports.
The hacking of Democratic National Committee emails, which were then sent out to the world via WikiLeaks, is embarrassing for the party - and potentially dangerous, according to one Silicon Valley data security expert who was actually named in the Wikileaks post.
Ajay Arora, CEO of Palo Alto-based Vera, said the hack is a "very serious thing" if it involves Russia, as many U.S. officials and cyber security experts contend.
"This classifies as cyber warfare between nation-states," Arora said.
The hack lifted 20,000 emails from the DNC and leaked them to the public just in time to disrupt the convention's opening in Philadelphia on Monday.
Arora himself was name-checked in the WikiLeaks release, after warning the Democrats about cyber security. "It's kind of surreal," he said.
Arora couldn't divulge whether the DNC is a client Vera is working with to help avoid such hacks and leaks. But he did say it's precisely the kind of job his company would do.
"It puts us in an interesting position," Arora said. "But we can very much help."
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Arora pointed out that because WikiLeaks often releases information in bunches, there could be a lot more to the DNC-related hack.
