Feds: Russia Is Still Engaged in 'Information Warfare'

Trump assistants officials today—including FBI Director Christopher Wray, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen—warned the American public that Russia continues to target political campaigns and spread misinformation ahead of the midterm elections.

"We continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign past Russia to attempt to weaken and divide the United States," DNI Coats said during today's White House press conference. "We also know the Russians try to hack into and steal information from candidates and regime officials alike."

"Our republic itself is in the crosshairs," Secretary Nielsen added. "Our adversaries ... seek to sow discord and undermine our way of life [and] have shown they have the willingness and capability to interfere in our elections."

Co-ordinate to Director Wray, the Russians are not currently targeting election infrastructure like voter registration databases. Instead, they're conducting "malign influence operations, [or] information warfare."

That could change in an instant, Coats warned. "Nosotros're only one keyboard click abroad from finding out something that we oasis't seen up to this detail indicate in time," he said, a sentiment echoed by Manager Wray.

The briefing comes a few weeks later Microsoft revealed that it recently stopped an attempt to hack three United states of america candidates up for ballot this year. Co-ordinate to The Daily Animate being, one of those targets was Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat upwardly for re-election in 2022, also said on Face the Nation terminal week that people in her function have received "phishing east-mails with social media accounts," and that authorities are looking into it.

Today, Coats declined to say which campaigns accept been targeted by the Russians. The data, he said, is processed through the House and Senate, so he is "non in a position to release those names."

Yesterday, security and social media experts issued a similar warning on Capitol Hill. The success of the Russians, they said, have emboldened leaders around the world. Dr. Philip Howard, director of the Oxford Cyberspace Institute, told the Senate Intelligence Commission that his enquiry has "found evidence of formally organized social media manipulation campaigns in 48 countries, upward from 28 countries" in 2022.

Coats said the US intelligence community is "aware that Russia is not the only country that has an involvement in trying to influence our domestic political environment. We know there are others who have the adequacy and may exist considering influence activities," but so far, Russia is the biggest concern.

The effort in 2022 is "not the kind of robust campaign that nosotros assessed in 2022," Coats said, when Russia "stepped up their game big time." But annihilation is possible. "Russians are looking for every opportunity regardless of political party, regardless of whether or not it applies to elections, to keep their pervasive efforts to undermine our fundamental values," Coats warned.

Director Wray read off a laundry list of tactics the Russians have employed, including: "targeting U.s. officials and other The states persons through traditional intelligence tradecraft, criminal efforts to suppress voting and provide illegal campaign financing, cyber attacks against voting infrastructure along with computer intrusions targeting elected officials and others, and a whole slew of other kinds of influence, like both overtly and covertly manipulating news stories, spreading disinformation, leveraging economic resources, and escalating divisive issues."

Equally it did in 2022, DHS is offering assistance to state and local election officials who desire it. Co-ordinate to Sec. Nielsen, all 50 states, D.C., and 900 local governments have taken them upwardly on the offering.

The elephant in the room, of class, is President Trump. He has consistently called the Special Counsel's investigation into Russian election interference a "witch hunt," fifty-fifty though it recently indicted 12 Russians for the hack of the DNC. During his Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, Trump declined to forcefully admonish the Russian president.

"I take great confidence in my intelligence people, simply I will tell you lot that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today," Trump said during a press briefing in Helsinki.

Today, Coats declined to talk over his private conversations with Trump. "Our focus here today is simply to tell the American people, we acknowledge the threat, it is real."

Virtually Chloe Albanesius

Chloe has led PCMag's news coverage for more than than 10 years, editing and writing stories most the innovations that take shaped the last decade and the companies backside them. She also oversees the site'southward how-to coverage. Before joining PCMag.com, Chloe was a reporter covering tech policy on Capitol Hill for The National Journal's Engineering Daily and financial IT for Incisive Media in NYC. She's held internships at NBC's Meet the Press, washingtonpost.com, the Tate Gallery press office in London, Roll Call, and Congressional Quarterly. She graduated with a available's degree in journalism from American University in Washington, D.C.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/cybereason-ransomfree/28675/feds-russia-is-still-engaged-in-information-warfare

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