I accept that I do not have access to the information to form any strong opinion on these subjects. The people who have security clearances are giving mixed reactions and providing me with no evidence. Unless I have a security clearance I have no way to know if the Russian government had anything to do with the DNC hack even if the hack were done by Russian citizens or Russian IP addresses.
Basically if the evidence is classified we have no way to form a conclusion on incomplete information. We can form conspiracy theories until enough information is released that we can narrow down the likely scenarios. The only thing very likely is Russian hackers did it, but the links to Putin and other stuff we don't have evidence for yet.
Correct... yet as a person (me) who does deal with hackers on at least a monthly basis I can and am telling you the type of information that is transmitted over the internet.
So you have IP Addresses and Logs as possible if you get access to the server, but that IP address could and likely is just the first HOP if the hacker has the slightest clue what they are doing.
The other thing you could have is testimony from someone in Russia that saw it, if those are strong testimonies.
You could also trace money if there was any exchange of money for the services.
The government hides TOO OFTEN behind things being classified these days.
I can think of no reason for this information to be classified. Not a single reason.
I don't buy into Appeal to Authority, and I know quite a lot about this aspect of security.
I do know if they are monitoring and trying to catch someone in the act, steps can be taken. After the fact though it doesn't really mean shit.
It'd be pretty easy to spoof and mock up IP address data, I can do that. Yet it won't prove who did it.
Hell until about 20 years ago I could send email saying it came from the whitehouse, I could even make it look like it came from Obama. They patched the issues with that... added a lot of security to lock that down.
Yet the rest of the internet was designed just as much without security as an issue on the basic IP traffic and doesn't really carry enough data to tell you everything you'd need to have to track someone after the fact.