Collaborate Disseminate
Lord cleaned up the Democratic Party’s cybersecurity practices in the aftermath of the 2016 hacks.
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Starting Sept. 1, Google will crack down on misinformation, a lack of transparency and the ability to amplify or circulate politically influential content. Continue reading Google Updates Ad Policies to Counter Influence Campaigns, Extortion
The Republican National Committee is relying on authentication tools and careful social media behavior in order to avoid a devastating data breach like the kind that derailed its Democratic counterparts in 2016. The RNC, which develops and promotes the party’s platform and currently supports President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, is banking on Duo Security, which specializes in multi-factor authentication, to keep state-sponsored hackers out of party accounts, according to recent Federal Election Commission filings. Even if a user’s password credentials are stolen, an extra layer of authentication can ensure that only the legitimate account holder could access his or her communications. Since March of this year, the RNC has paid just over $1,000 per month to Duo, according to FEC filings. The RNC started using Duo in 2016, just days before the election. And it’s not just email account access the RNC is trying to protect — the RNC uses multiple layers of authentication to protect other […]
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The Pentagon once again is sending cyber personnel overseas to gather intelligence to help protect the 2020 presidential elections against foreign interference, the U.S. Embassy in Montenegro announced this week. U.S. European Command and U.S. Cyber Command are deploying an undisclosed number of staffers to Montenegro in order to gain insights into cyber threats from adversaries before both the U.S. and Montenegrin elections next year. It’s the second time in as many years the Department of Defense is running going through the effort as part of a partnership that’s uniquely poised to provide insights on possible Russian election interference. Montenegro and the U.S. both have been targeted by the Russian government-linked hacking outfit APT28, or Fancy Bear. If Cyber Command uncovers similar activity again in Montenegro, those insights could inform decisions on how to safeguard the U.S. “Montenegro is among the first in Europe to face unconventional attacks on its democracy and freedom […]
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During a controversial phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in July, Trump asked Zelensky for a “favor” to help locate a “server” linked with security company CrowdStrike, according to an unclassified transcript of the call released Wednesday. “I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike … I guess you have one of your wealthy people … The server, they say Ukraine has it,” Trump said, according the document released by the White House. “I think you’re surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the [U.S.] Attorney General [William Barr] call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom […]
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Microsoft has notified 10,000 customers in the past year that they have been the brunt of nation-state cyberattacks — some of which were successful — from Iran, North Korea, and Russia, Microsoft announced Wednesday. “This data demonstrates the significant extent to which nation-states continue to rely on cyberattacks as a tool to gain intelligence, influence geopolitics or achieve other objectives,” Tom Burt, corporate vice president of customer security & trust at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post on the matter. Microsoft has linked the attacks with a group linked with Iran broadly known as APT 33, with a group from North Korea known as APT 38, as well as two groups linked with Russia, APT 28 and APT 29, which Microsoft dubs Strontium and Yttrium respectively. APT 28 was behind the intrusions at the Democratic National Committee. Some of the attacks observed appear to be related to U.S. politics and […]
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The National Republican Congressional Committee – the House GOP’s campaign organization – suffered a cyber intrusion during the 2018 election, a committee spokesman said Tuesday. “The NRCC can confirm that it was the victim of a cyber intrusion by an unknown entity,” NRCC spokesman Ian Prior said in a statement. “The cybersecurity of the committee’s data is paramount, and upon learning of the intrusion, the NRCC immediately launched an internal investigation and notified the FBI, which is now investigating the matter,” said Prior, a vice president at Mercury Public Affairs, a firm helping the NRCC respond to the breach. The NRCC had no further details beyond the statement. The breach exposed thousands of NRCC emails and appears to be the work of a sophisticated actor, a source familiar with the matter told CyberScoop. Politico was first to report on the NRCC breach, citing three senior party officials. Those officials would […]
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“All I want to do now is look at u again and again.” Continue reading The Russians Who Allegedly Hacked the DNC Sexted a Playboy Model and ‘Bond Girl’
Not long ago, an official from the former Obama administration warned that the US is the most vulnerable nation to cyberattacks. While the Trump administration appeared to be making some efforts to redefine the role and authority of the CISO, something… Continue reading Trump casts doubt on Justice Department investigation; wants joint cybersecurity team with Russia
The move comes after special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of 12 Russians believed to have used the accounts as fronts in US election hacking. Continue reading Twitter shutters accounts linked to US election hacking