Collaborate Disseminate
Under a new policy, US organizations and individuals will be told if they’re the target of foreign operations trying to influence elections. Continue reading DOJ to publicly disclose election tampering schemes
Microsoft said it detected and helped the US government to block Russian hacking attempts against at least three congressional candidates this year, a Microsoft executive revealed speaking at the Aspen Security Forum today.
Although the company refuse… Continue reading Microsoft Says Russia Tried to Hack Three 2018 Midterm Election Candidates
The same Russian hacking group that breached the Democratic National Committee (DNC) also tried to penetrate the campaigns of several candidates running for the midterm elections, a Microsoft executive revealed for the first time Thursday. The disclosure marks the first known case of a foreign government explicitly targeting the 2018 election. Speaking on an election security panel at the Aspen Security Forum, Tom Burt, vice president for customer security and trust at Microsoft, said there had been three separate attempts to hack 2018 midterm campaigns earlier this year. Microsoft’s security team, which counts both Republican and Democratic campaigns among its clients, detected a series of spear phishing emails sent to midterm candidates. The emails paralleled similar activity from 2016 previously attributed to Russian hacking group “APT28,” also known as “Fancy Bear.” Burt declined to name the campaigns but said: “I can tell you that they were all people who, because […]
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Continue reading Microsoft reveals first known Russian hacking attempt aimed at 2018 midterms
Remote-access software and modems on election equipment ‘is the worst decision for security short of leaving ballot boxes on a Moscow street corner.’ Continue reading Top Voting Machine Vendor Admits It Installed Remote-Access Software on Systems Sold to States
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
Indictments are part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 elections. Continue reading Justice Department Indicts 12 Russian Nationals Tied to 2016 Election Hacking
A former National Security Agency contractor pleaded guilty Tuesday to espionage, becoming the first person to be prosecuted under the Trump administration for leaking classified information. Continue reading Reality Winner, N.S.A. Contractor, Sentenced to 5+ Years in Leak Case
Another Democrat-Republican feud is showing that when it comes to politically charged hacking, politics may not stop at the water’s edge. The divide is focused on whether political parties should be allowed to use insider information that’s provided by hackers; similar to what occurred at the state level in 2016. Last week, a Democratic lawmaker on the House Intelligence Committee introduced a bill that would punish federal candidates if they fail to notify the FBI whenever a suspected hacking group offers them political dirt. On Thursday, Rep. Eric Swalwell introduced the “Duty to Report Act.” The proposed law would make it a crime for campaign staffers to not tip the government off to certain suspected hacking activities. Swalwell unveiled the bill on the same week as the two-year anniversary of the now infamous Trump Tower meeting, where Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer who ambiguously offered damaging political […]
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Continue reading Democrats and Republicans split over using hacked material in campaigns
Hackers reportedly breached election systems in a third state, in addition to the already disclosed incidents involving Arizona and Illinois, during the 2016 campaign cycle. On election day 2016, a hacker successfully penetrated a server hosting Alaska’s main election website, the Anchorage Daily News reported on Monday night, citing documents obtained through a public records request. The breach is not connected to the previously reported hacking attempt made by Russia-linked hackers to access Alaska’s primary voter registration database. Alaska was one of 21 states that were previously informed by the Department of Homeland Security of similar Russian probing activity on their election systems. Security experts told ADN that, although the newly reported incident was a successful intrusion, the Alaska Division of Elections’ appear to have prevented the attackers from changing content on the server. ADN reports that the hacker exploited a vulnerability in the Alaska election website’s PHP script, a commonly used web […]
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Continue reading Alaska election website was hacked on election day in 2016: report
Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Facebook’s security team identified Russian government hackers targeting US presidential campaigns and notified them of the hack attempts. Continue reading Zuckerberg: Facebook Identified and Notified Presidential Campaigns of Russian Hacking Attempts in 2016