Category Archives: Russian interference

Russia is planning to interfere in 2020 presidential election: report

Posted on by

Russia is working to interfere in the 2020 presidential election in an effort to get President Donald Trump re-elected, according to a briefing delivered to the House Intelligence Committee last week. According to a report in the The New York Times, the briefing detailed evidence that Moscow is trying to duplicate its efforts during the 2016 presidential elections, where Russia developed a “clear preference” for Trump and sought to “denigrate” the candidacy of the potential Democratic nominee. The briefing, delivered by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s election security lead Shelby Pierson, reportedly upset Trump because he suspected Democratic committee members would use the information against him, according to the Times and The Washington Post. Trump mistakenly thought that the information was supplied exclusively to Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., despite the fact that multiple committee members from both parties were briefed. Trump was so infuriated by the briefing […]

The post Russia is planning to interfere in 2020 presidential election: report appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Russia is planning to interfere in 2020 presidential election: report→

Lawmakers offer Illinois election work as blueprint to secure 2020

Posted on by

U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday heard from Illinois officials who were on the front lines of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election in a hearing that held the state up as a model for election security. Since Russian hackers breached Illinois’ voter registration database in 2016, Illinois officials have set up an internal computer network to better protect voter data, established a “Cyber Navigator” program that embeds IT specialists in local election offices, and used the Illinois National Guard to protect the 2018 midterm vote. “It’s my hope that programs such as this can serve as models for other states,” said Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Illinois, vice chairwoman of the House Homeland Security Committee, which held the hearing. She was referring to the Cyber Navigator program, to which Illinois has dedicated roughly $6.9 million, the great majority of it federal grant money. To build on progress in Illinois and elsewhere, election security experts have called for larger […]

The post Lawmakers offer Illinois election work as blueprint to secure 2020 appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Lawmakers offer Illinois election work as blueprint to secure 2020→

FBI, DHS advise states on potential Russian voter suppression tactics in 2020

Posted on by

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have issued an advisory to state election officials that the Russian government could use voter suppression tactics in an attempt to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election, according to U.S and state officials familiar with the memo. The advisory sent this week to states’ secretaries of state and security advisers cautions that Moscow could try to keep Americans away from the polls next year by, for example, trying to breach voter registration databases or fanning political tensions online, said the officials familiar with memo, which is titled, “Russia May Try to Discourage Voter Turnout and Suppressing Votes in 2020 US Election.” The document is marked “For Official Use Only.” The officials described the advisory as a proactive effort to stay on top of the threat. “We want to make sure we’re pushing out as much information as possible to the front lines,” a senior Trump administration […]

The post FBI, DHS advise states on potential Russian voter suppression tactics in 2020 appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading FBI, DHS advise states on potential Russian voter suppression tactics in 2020→

U.S. Treasury sanctions Russian financier for 2018 election interference attempt

Posted on by

The U.S. Treasury announced Monday it is sanctioning Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Russian financier and six Russian operatives behind the Russian troll farm Internet Research Agency that sought to interfere in both the 2016 and 2018 elections. “Treasury is targeting the private planes, yacht, and associated front companies of Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Russian financier behind the Internet Research Agency and its attempts to subvert American democratic processes,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement. “Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of American democracy, and we will use our authorities against anyone seeking to undermine our processes and subversively influence voters.” Specifically, the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control is sanctioning three aircraft and four entities associated with Prigozhin. It is also designating six IRA members, Dzheykhun Nasimi Ogly Aslanov, Mikhail Leonidovich Burchik, Vadim Vladimirovich Podkopaev , Vladimir Dmitriyevich Venkov, Igor Vladimirovich Nesterov, and Denis Igorevich Kuzmin, four of whom […]

The post U.S. Treasury sanctions Russian financier for 2018 election interference attempt appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading U.S. Treasury sanctions Russian financier for 2018 election interference attempt→

Russia’s trolling tactics are getting more elaborate

Posted on by

Facebook’s early May takedown of a Russian political disinformation operation was much larger than previously thought, according to research published this weekend by the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. The Russian-linked actors behind the campaign went well beyond just amplifying political narratives on Facebook, and in fact began much earlier by planting false stories and then later amplifying these fake stories using fake accounts. In one case, these Russian-linked actors impersonated Sen. Marco Rubio’s Twitter account in a tweet that made it look like he was disparaging Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters. Then-Defense Secretary of the UK Gavin Williams was also victim to a similar photoshop effort. One of the false stories that the Russian trolls created and amplified through fake accounts includes a storyline that a Spanish intelligence agency rooted out an anti-Brexit pilot to assassinate Boris Johnson. Johnson is now in the running to serve as the UK’s next prime minister. As many Russian-linked […]

The post Russia’s trolling tactics are getting more elaborate appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Russia’s trolling tactics are getting more elaborate→

Democrats ask Trump administration to publish 2018 election security report

Posted on by

Democratic lawmakers are calling on the Trump administration to release a public report on efforts to secure the 2018 midterm elections so the country can learn what worked and what didn’t. “It’s important for the public to have confidence in our election systems,” Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., told CyberScoop Wednesday. “In order to have confidence, I think there has to be transparency.” The departments of Homeland Security and Justice on Feb. 4 sent a classified report to President Donald Trump assessing foreign attempts to interfere in the 2018 midterms. Officials found no evidence that foreign operatives had a “material impact on the integrity or security” of election or campaign infrastructure used in the midterms, according to a statement summarizing the report. That terse statement is insufficient for lawmakers like Langevin. In the interest of transparency and making improvements, they say, the administration should publish an assessment of security in the […]

The post Democrats ask Trump administration to publish 2018 election security report appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Democrats ask Trump administration to publish 2018 election security report→

Russian disinformation ops were bigger than we thought

Posted on by

Through a flurry of social media posts ahead of the 2016 U.S. election, Russian trolls sought to deter African-Americans from voting, according to a report prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Internet Research Agency, a social-media propaganda machine based in St. Petersburg, Russia, encouraged African-American voters to boycott the 2016 election or follow incorrect voting procedures, according to the report by researchers from the University of Oxford and social-media analysis company Graphika. The broader Russian propaganda operation, which continues to this day, has also leaned more heavily on Instagram to sow discord that was previously understood, according to a second report prepared for the committee by private researchers from New Knowledge, Columbia University, and Canfield Research LLC. The reports, released Monday by the committee, represent the most comprehensive independent analyses of the Russian disinformation efforts. They show how, through hundreds of millions of interactions on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, the IRA looked for every opportunity […]

The post Russian disinformation ops were bigger than we thought appeared first on CyberScoop.

Continue reading Russian disinformation ops were bigger than we thought→

Sen. Warner calls for a ‘whole-of-society’ U.S. cyber doctrine

Posted on by

Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election laid bare the vulnerabilities in American society and institutions to hacking and information operations. Two years later, policymakers are still searching for a comprehensive strategy for dealing with those vulnerabilities. In a speech Friday, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, proposed a “whole-of-society” cyber doctrine rather than one that treats the cybersecurity challenges in government and private sector separately. “It’s not enough to simply improve the security of our infrastructure, computer systems, and data,” Warner said at the Center for New American Security in Washington, D.C. “We must also deal with adversaries who are using American technologies to exploit our freedom, our openness, and basically attack our most important asset — our democracy.” Warner called on the U.S. to redouble its pursuit of global cyber norms; social-media companies to do more to combat disinformation; the Pentagon […]

The post Sen. Warner calls for a ‘whole-of-society’ U.S. cyber doctrine appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Sen. Warner calls for a ‘whole-of-society’ U.S. cyber doctrine→

Why we’re still not ready for ‘like-war’

Posted on by

American social media companies simply weren’t prepared for what hit them in 2016: a barrage of accounts spewing disinformation in an unrelenting influence operation against the U.S. presidential election. It was a subversion of Silicon Valley’s altruistic intent, a turning of America’s digital openness against itself. It was, as Peter Singer and Emerson Brooking explain in their eponymously titled book, “like-war.” “If cyberwar is the hacking of the networks, ‘like-war’ is the hacking of the people on the networks by driving ideas viral through likes and lies,” Singer said in an interview. While the Russian campaign to interfere in U.S. democracy involved plenty of hacking, “it was the ‘like-war’ side, the influence operation side, that gave it its impact,” he added. Tech companies may have been ready to defend their networks from hacking, but they were blindsided by the disinformation offensive, according to Singer, a senior fellow at New America, a […]

The post Why we’re still not ready for ‘like-war’ appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Why we’re still not ready for ‘like-war’→

Dutch ditch Kaspersky on fears of Russian government influence

Posted on by

The Dutch government announced Monday that it will end use of Kaspersky Lab’s anti-virus software, citing the Moscow-based cybersecurity firm’s alleged ties to the Russian government.  The Russian government has an “offensive cyber program that targets among others the Netherlands and Dutch interests,” wrote Justice Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus in a letter to parliament that outlined the decision.  Grapperhaus explained that because Kaspersky Lab is headquartered in Moscow, it is subject to Russian laws and the could be forced to comply with state interests.  Cybersecurity experts and U.S. intelligence officials have previously said the same, fearing that Russian intelligence could use the company’s anti-virus program as a platform for targeted espionage.  All U.S. federal agencies were ordered by the Department of Homeland Security to stop using Kaspersky products in December 2017. That same month, the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre warned government agencies to avoid Russian anti-virus software.  In April, […]

The post Dutch ditch Kaspersky on fears of Russian government influence appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Dutch ditch Kaspersky on fears of Russian government influence→