Alaska Summit: Trump May Raise Cybersecurity Issue

On the eve of the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, the U.S. president indicated that the recent hacking of U.S. courts, linked to Russia, might be raised during his talks with Putin.

According to citing Politico, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he might bring up the recent hacking of the federal court data during his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

At a press conference on Wednesday, in response to a journalist’s question about whether he would raise the issue of cyberattacks with Putin at Friday’s meeting, Trump stated: “I think I can [bring it up]; are you surprised? They hacked. That’s what they did. They are good at it, and we are good too; actually, we are better than them.”

According to Politico, some analysts believe that hackers, including a number of Russian activists, infiltrated the U.S. court electronic filing system, exposing sensitive court information in several states. Most of these hacks were initially reported by Politico last week. This is the first time since the disclosure last week that Trump has officially confirmed the U.S. court hacking issue.

Previously, Trump avoided public confrontation with Russia regarding digital intrusion activities. In a 2018 meeting with Putin, he opposed the findings of the U.S. intelligence agencies and stated that Russia had not interfered in the 2016 presidential election. This, however, contradicted the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies.

Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, and Donald Trump, President of the United States, are scheduled to meet in Alaska on Friday to discuss the issue of Ukraine.