President Donald Trump keeps acting like there is some uncertainty as to who meddled in the 2016 U.S. Elections. When he says things like, “It could have been Russia, it could have been someone else” that is complete nonsense.
The way the internet works is each server is assigned a four-part address, such as 255.255.255.255. This number shows servers on the Internet how to find each other. Now, while it is possible to “spoof” or lie about where information is coming from, the information still has to travel a pathway through other servers.
The Internet service provided to individuals and organizations in each country is connected to an Internet Backbone. The Internet Backbone in each country is a group of extremely powerful computer servers connected with super high-speed connections to allow Internet information to move quickly from city to city and town to town. In the U.S., these Internet Backbone servers are managed by the U.S. Government, and U. S. Security Agencies, like FBI, CIA, and NSA have access to those servers
HACKING WITHIN THE UNITED STATES
If Russian agents within the U.S. are doing hacking, the U.S. backbone will show it virtually all the time. If, however, the hackers are hacking a computer within their own city, the U.S. Security Agencies might have to narrow their search to the companies providing Internet service to that specific city, but that usually is only necessary if both the hackers and the computer that was hacked are using the same Internet service.
HACKING THE U.S. FROM OUTSIDE THE U.S.
If the hacking comes from outside the United States, that is still very simple for U.S. Security agencies to track. The vast majority of Internet connections from countries located in North and South America come into the U.S. by overland cables either from Canada or Mexico, although some of the traffic comes from undersea cables from South America (a link to the undersea cables map is here). These cables coming into the U.S. all connect to U.S. backbone servers, which the Security Agencies have access to.
The vast majority of Internet traffic sent to North And South America from the other continents travels on undersea cables laid by cable ships (1). For the undersea cables connecting to the U.S., these cables all connect to U.S. backbone servers. So you see, all the traffic in the U.S., and all the traffic coming from outside the U.S., has to go through these Internet Backbone servers, which the Security Agencies can monitor. These Agencies also have information sharing agreements with other governments friendly to the U.S. such as all of our NATO allies, and they have access to the backbone server information from these countries upon request.
So, let us say, for example, that hackers in Russia want to mess with computers in the United States. Let us say that their Internet connections travel from Russia through several countries before getting to France, and then to England, and finally use an undersea cable to get into the U.S. backbone. First of all, the U.S. Security agencies will be able to see that the connection came into the U.S. using an Atlantic undersea cable originating from England. Now, even if the Russians are “spoofing” (faking) the information about the origin of where the hack comes from, the U.S., working with our English and French allies, will be able to trace the hack back to Russia (If you want to read about a real-life example of how the U.S. tracked down a teenager in Germany hacking into U.S. servers, read, “The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage”).
So, to sum up, if a hack happens within the U.S., our Security Agencies can track the hack through the U.S. Internet Backbone. If the hack originates outside the U.S., the Security Agencies use the Internet Backbone to trace the hack to where it entered the country, then use the servers of U.S. allies to verify the point of origin. So, when President Donald Trump says, “Maybe it is the Russians, but it could be somebody else”, the answer is one word: HOGWASH.
***Note: (1) Changed the phrase “cable submarines” to “cable ships” per DailyKos user “Just Bob” in the comments below. Thank you for the correction, Just Bob. You know, I knew these cables were laid by ships because I read a long WIRED magazine article about that years ago, but dopey me, I saw the words "submarine cables” and my brain just pictured submarines laying cables. :)
Peace, everyone. :)