[mtgx]

As Snowden recently said (and it was already logical to assume that) the NSA should have the proof if the hacks as described by the U.S. government right now happened.

And they wouldn't really have to "burn sources" to do it, at least not in the sense that they would put spies in danger. But seriously, if this was such an issue, I would've rather they'd pulled those spies and showed the proof, than just trust them to start WW3 over "secret info that's totally real."

[ivan_gammel]

This case does not worth to pull the spies. If such intelligence was collected by spies (which I highly doubt), it would mean they have extraordinary access to information and they are too valuable to be exposed on such cause (it's much more important to keep them on their place and continuously monitor cyberwarfare capabilities of Russia). Protecting them would be the top priority and there would be a whole another game to hide their traces (probably not pointing to Russia at all and taking hidden asymmetric measures). So, I don't believe such information could be collected by spies if intelligence community presents it this way.