Russia, Iran, North Korea Launch Hundreds of Cyberattacks on U.S. Political Groups, Microsoft Says

Trump welcomed them with open arms, so why not?


https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia...al-groups-microsoft-says-11563397201?mod=e2tw

Suspected nation-state hackers from Russia, Iran and elsewhere have launched nearly 800 cyberattacks against political organizations over the past year that have been detected by Microsoft Corp. , with the vast majority of the attempts targeting groups based in the U.S.

Think tanks and nongovernmental groups that work with candidates or political parties—or on issues important to their campaigns—have suffered most of the attacks. The assaults could be a precursor to direct attacks on campaigns and election systems, a trend in recent election cycles in the U.S. and Europe, Microsoft said Wednesday.

The findings are the latest indication that foreign governments are laying the groundwork ahead of the 2020 presidential election to potentially disrupt American politics, as senior U.S. intelligence officials have repeatedly warned.

...

“Democracy-focused organizations in the United States should be particularly concerned,” said Tom Burt, Microsoft’s senior vice president of customer security and trust, in a blog post.


“By nature, these organizations are critical to society but have fewer resources to protect against cyberattacks than large enterprises,” Mr. Burt said, adding that “the problem is real and unabated.”

..

Some federal offices have also adapted to the new threat. The Department of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies have formed new teams and marshaled staff to focus on election security.

Despite the efforts, a Wall Street Journal/NBC survey in May found that 73% of American adults said they had just some or no confidence at all in the federal government’s ability to prevent foreign countries from interfering in U.S. elections, and 45% said they were fairly worried or very worried about foreign interference.

 

I agree with your 2nd sentence. It's unfortunate that we have such an idiot as head of state and his messages and actions (or lack of) will certainty make it more likely for this to continue, to accelerate even.

As a review...

- Our Intel community and the world know how much the Russian interfered in our 2016 election.
- Trump repeatedly sided with Russia government over our his our intel agency on election interference by the Russian government.
- Trump and his son-in-law refuses to rule out using data illegally obtained from foreign government. Translation - he would consider using it and would use it if it's stuff that benefit him.
- Trump has shown no ethical boundaries and there are plenty of suggestions that he can be influenced by money and valuable data. NK leader giving him a shinny letter stroked his ego... how about them giving him his opponent 2020 election strategy?

Those are clear messages to the world to go ahead and hack Trump political opponents. Not only will you not be punished in anyway, the President will take your words over his own intel agencies.

As this admin and Congress hasn't shown any seriousness in working to protect our election integrity, it also makes it easier for foreign gov to interfere in our election in whatever way that benefit them.

 

That's just against political organization and only detected by Microsoft. The number is likely higher.

In the private sectors, it is likely much higher. Attacks happen all the time and are very frequent and is done by all sort of entities from individuals to governments such as NK. The private sectors already seen the impact to them in both brand and cost and are spending resources to protect them. The US government usually stay out of this lane and let the private sector handle it themselves, but occasionally they enter to send a strong message. e.g. The Obama admin issued additional sanction on NK after the Sony Picture hack by NK.

The political organizations, especially smaller one that lack funding is definitely more vulnerable. Since this is interfering with our election, the US gov should absolutely play an active part to protect and fight back these cyber attacks. That's what is lacking... not just lacking, but the top of our government is sending the very wrong message.

 

No one said anything about the 2000 election.

It's not an either or thing.

Preparing for cyber warfare has been going on for a while now. The Pentagon isn't going to broadcast their capability, and there have been report that they aren't going to tell the POTUS certain things because of their concern that it would get to the Kremlin.

 

Very late but some positive news. Don’t tell trump.



Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats has installed a new czar to oversee election security efforts across the spy world, he announced on Friday.

A veteran agency leader, Shelby Pierson, has been appointed to serve as the first election threats executive within the intelligence community, or IC, Coats said.

"Election security is an enduring challenge and a top priority for the IC," said Coats.

"In order to build on our successful approach to the 2018 elections, the IC must properly align its resources to bring the strongest level of support to this critical issue. There is no one more qualified to serve as the very first election threats executive than Shelby Pierson, whose knowledge and experience make her the right person to lead this critical mission."

...


Her appointment isn't the only change Coats announced on Friday. He also is directing other agencies within the extended family of spy services to appoint their own executives responsible for election security efforts.

"These agency leads will work with the [election threats executive] to help ensure IC efforts on election security are coordinated and prioritized across all IC elements," Coats said.

...

The intelligence community was not structured to handle the breadth of threats to American elections, which can range from sophisticated cyberattacks against political targets to widespread threats against state and local elections infrastructure, to targeted agitation on social media platforms.
...


Uncertain standing for the DNI

The headlines on Friday about Coats' efforts within the intelligence community also provided a reminder about what could be his perilous position within the administration.

Anonymous sources told correspondents for several news organizations earlier this month that Trump has been considering firing Coats, who has never appeared to mesh well with the president.

One reason is ongoing tension between the intelligence community and Trump over its findings versus his wishes.

 

Republicans only cares about protecting their puppet in the White House, not democracy. Shameful bunch.



Senate Republicans blocked two election security bills and a cybersecurity measure on Wednesday in the wake of former special counsel Robert Muellerwarning about meddling attempts during his public testimony before congressional lawmakers.

Democrats tried to get consent to pass two bills that would require campaigns to alert the FBI and Federal Election Commission about foreign offers of assistance, as well as a bill to let the Senate Sergeant at Arms offer voluntary cyber assistance for personal devices and accounts of senators and staff.

 

Well, this is just wonderful. No wonder Mueller said it's among the most serious attack on our democracy.

Next step, they will enter all 50 states, but this time they make sure you, the public, know they were there playing around. Chaos induced.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/us/politics/russian-hacking-elections.html

WASHINGTON — The Senate Intelligence Committee concluded Thursday that election systems in all 50 states were targeted by Russia in 2016, an effort more far-reaching than previously acknowledged and one largely undetected by the states and federal officials at the time.

It concluded that while there was no evidence that any votes were changed in actual voting machines, “Russian cyberactors were in a position to delete or change voter data” in the Illinois voter database. The committee found no evidence that they did so.

 

This is an awesome podcast... Part 1, which covers Russian active measures is as awesome. Extremely well done and very informational (plus non-political).

https://www.lawfareblog.com/report-episode-2-hack-dump-divide

Last week, we released the first episode of a narrative audio documentary, The Report, which tells the story Robert S. Mueller lays out in his famous 448 page document. This week, Mueller testified before the House of Representatives in what many people hoped would be hearings that brought the document to life. Whatever role Mueller’s testimony may or may not have played in that regard, we are pleased to bring you Episode 2 of our effort to bring the Mueller Report into narrative form.

Episode 2 focuses on the Russian hacking operation, the stealing of documents and emails from the DNC, DCCC and figures associated with the Clinton campaign, and the leaks of the stolen materials timed to impact the US election. The episode tells the story of the GRU operations, the Russian attempts to cover their tracks, and the involvement of Wikileaks and Julian Assange.

It features Thomas Rid, Ben Buchanan, and Laura Rosenberger.

As we scripted and edited this episode, we were worried that this part of the report might end up being too dry and technical for listeners; after all, it’s a bunch of details about technical stuff that happens on computers. We were wrong. As you’ll hear in the episode, the GRU operations were an audacious and brazen attack against the US and it was one the public witnessed in real time, without fully understanding what was happening.

We were stunned last week by the reception to this podcast series, which debuted at #1 on the iTunes chart for all podcasts. We hope people continue to engage at such a high level with the material we putting together.

We are grateful to the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Democracy Fund for their support for this project. If you want to support work of this type at Lawfare, please consider becoming a monthly donor by clicking here.