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CIA Chief Warns of Russia's 'Sophisticated' Hacking Ability


FILE - Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) John Brennan talks to the press during a rare news conference at CIA headquarters in Virginia, Dec. 11, 2014.
FILE - Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) John Brennan talks to the press during a rare news conference at CIA headquarters in Virginia, Dec. 11, 2014.

CIA Director John Brennan warned Sunday of Russia's "exceptionally capable and sophisticated'' hacking capabilities, and said the U.S. must be on guard.

"I think that we have to be very, very wary of what the Russians might be trying to do in terms of collecting information in that cyber realm as well as what they might want to do with it," Brennan said Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation.

When asked whether Russia is trying to manipulate the U.S. presidential election, Brennan didn't say. But he noted that the FBI is investigating the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails, and he cited Moscow's aggressive intelligence collection and its focus on high-tech snooping.

"We've known this for quite a while. Their intelligence services are quite active around the world," he said. "And this is something that we have to make sure that we're on guard for, not just for our national security purposes, but also for making sure that our system of government here is going to be preserved."

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