Category Archives: election interference

Foreign influence ops are adapting to U.S. defenses, DHS chief says

Posted on by

Foreign adversaries are adapting their influence operations spreading disinformation to U.S. government and corporate defenses, making them more difficult to detect, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Friday. The Department of Homeland Security has worked with Facebook, for example, to combat influence operations (also known as information operations), but adversaries are modifying their behavior in response, according to Nielsen. “I think the nation-states have become aware of that [work], so what they are doing now is they will take otherwise legitimate content by a non-nation-state actor, and then they will amplify it in a way to continue that conversation,” she said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City. Ahead of the midterm elections on Tuesday, Nielsen highlighted the department’s work since 2016 to make election infrastructure more secure from hackers. Election officials have many more security clearances, for example, and there is now a threat-sharing hub specific […]

The post Foreign influence ops are adapting to U.S. defenses, DHS chief says appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Foreign influence ops are adapting to U.S. defenses, DHS chief says→

Bolton confirms offensive cyber-operations conducted to protect midterms

Posted on by

Days before the midterm elections, the United States is undertaking offensive cyber-operations to protect against foreign interference, White House national security adviser John Bolton said Wednesday. “We are right now undertaking offensive cyber-operations in connection with defending the integrity of our electoral process,” Bolton said at an event hosted by the Alexander Hamilton Society. Bolton said it was “too soon to tell,” whether the offensive was affecting adversary behavior, but added that he expects attackers to realize a distinct uptick from how the previous administration conducted cyber-operations. The operations were first made public and described by a New York Times story last month. According to the story, U.S. Cyber Command operators have sent direct messages to those who are conducting influence campaigns aimed at sowing discord in American society for the midterm elections. The Department of Justice last month charged a Russian national for her alleged role in a Russian conspiracy […]

The post Bolton confirms offensive cyber-operations conducted to protect midterms appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Bolton confirms offensive cyber-operations conducted to protect midterms→

Trump administration touts “extensive, historic” actions to secure elections

Posted on by

Numerous Trump administration officials spent Thursday expounding upon the efforts the government is taking to curb Russian-linked actors’ efforts to interfere with the 2018 midterm elections. National security adviser John Bolton, for example, issued a vigorous defense of President Donald Trump’s “extensive, historic” efforts to strengthen the security of U.S. elections while offering lawmakers classified briefings on these efforts. In a rebuttal to congressional Democrats, who have criticized Trump’s election-security efforts as insufficient, Bolton asserted that National Security Council meetings on the subject in July and May were evidence of “a level of dedication and action with respect to this threat that far exceeds that of previous administrations.” In a letter to five Democratic senators, Bolton said the Trump administration is taking “unprecedented action to punish Russia for its efforts to disrupt the political and electoral processes core to American democracy and the American way of life.” The Senate Democrats had written Bolton asking the White […]

The post Trump administration touts “extensive, historic” actions to secure elections appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Trump administration touts “extensive, historic” actions to secure elections→

Trump chairs election-security meeting as Democrats call for strategy

Posted on by

President Donald Trump chaired an election-security meeting Friday afternoon with his top advisers as Democrats called on the White House to delineate a clear strategy to counter foreign attempts to meddle in the U.S. electoral process. The National Security Council meeting “addressed threats posed to our elections from malign foreign actors, efforts underway to provide cybersecurity assistance to state and local authorities, and actions to investigate, prosecute, and hold accountable those who illegally attempt to interfere in our political and electoral processes,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, National Security Agency Director Paul Nakasone, CIA Director Gina Haspel and FBI Director Christopher Wray were among the officials at the meeting, according to the White House. “The president has made it clear that his administration will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections from any nation-state or other malicious actors,” Sanders […]

The post Trump chairs election-security meeting as Democrats call for strategy appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Trump chairs election-security meeting as Democrats call for strategy→

Chinese hackers breach Cambodian government ahead of country’s general election

Posted on by

In the run up to Cambodia’s general election on July 29, a hacking group tied to China has been breaking into multiple organizations that share a connection to either the country’s main opposition party, voting process or human rights movement, according to new research and additional analysis provided by U.S. cybersecurity firm FireEye. The findings — made possible through a glaring operational security mistake where hackers left their attack servers exposed on the open internet — help illustrate how governments are leaning on cyber-espionage capabilities to learn about foreign elections. FireEye collected this intelligence by directly accessing the attack servers, which weren’t protected with a password. The firm was able to identify breaches through established lines of communication that existed between the servers and victims. The hacking group in question, known as “TEMP.Periscope,” has been tied multiple times to Chinese-linked cyber operations that used a suite of unique tools to […]

The post Chinese hackers breach Cambodian government ahead of country’s general election appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Chinese hackers breach Cambodian government ahead of country’s general election→