The political climate this season has been contentious and antagonistic, to put it mildly. When it was learned that the DNC had worked to undermine Senator Bernie Sanders' bid for the democratic presidential nominee in favor of former State Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat voters booed (former) DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz in her opening speech in Florida and continued to demonstrate at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, showing that the party was not united.

It had been thought all along that the DNC was promoting Clinton's campaign, and thanks to Guccifer 2.0, some Russian hackers and WikiLeaks, the American public learned the rumor was true. The DNC's reputation has fallen, and with it the American public's belief in a fair political system.

The hack lost people their jobs. Donors have been the targets of identity theft. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is now facing a class action lawsuit. Every little ugly detail about the democratic political campaign has been aired. Though if you believe Julian Assange, there's still more on the way. Would any of this have come to light if the DNC had had a stellar cyber insurance package?

The DNC Hack
At some point in mid-2015, Russian cybercriminals were able to infiltrate the DNC network undetected. The American public didn't know about the security breach until mid-June 2016. In July, nearly 20,000 emails were published electronically, showing that before the democratic primaries were even over, the DNC had accepted that Hillary Clinton would be the nominee. By mid-August, close to 200 email addresses and cell phone numbers of donors and lawmakers were published, including SSNs. As result of this hack, the public has lost faith in the democratic primary voting system. The democratic candidate, who had already had a questionable trustability record, sunk further. The question is, how long had the hackers been in the DNC's electronic files?

What's a Good Reputation, Anyway?
The DNC learned of the hack in April 2016. This means the system had been infiltrated for nearly a year without detection. How did no one notice? It has now been determined that the hack was committed by a group of cybercriminals in Russia. This demonstrates that hacks can be committed on a global scale. If a foreign country doesn't like a presidential candidate, they can become a target. It doesn't help matters when other nominees ask these same hackers to go after more emails, even if said in supposed jest.

What has been learned from this massive cyber attack is that any type of organization can be successfully infiltrated. A once long-standing and accomplished organization has lost all credibility and its reputation. How can an organization that had promoted integrity and truth bounce back after it has been shown that they partook in these back-alley deals? It's believed that there are still more damning emails to come; what more will the public learn?

Hacks can influence our perception of world leaders and the people who work for them. It might even swing an election. Do you want your company to become an enemy's target?

Visit CyberPolicy.com today, to see what cyber insurance can do for you.