Election interference to be sniffed out by early-alert system

An early warning system to spot attempts to subvert elections is being developed by an organisation backed by former US Vice-President Joe Biden.

The not-for-profit Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity was created to combat efforts to skew election debate.

Its software scours social media and other parts of the net to hunt out attempts to seed subversive content.

But experts warn nation states may answer with more sophisticated tactics.

Compelling picture

"We're trying to create high reliability and easy-to-use tools for civil organisations to use and see what's happening in real time so they can counter it," said Fabrice Pothier, a spokesman for the commission.

The need for such tools became apparent after the 2016 US election, which was subject to widespread interference by Russia, said Mr Pothier.

Examples of the kinds of activity the software will watch out for include:

the use of fake accounts to spread messages on social networks

the passing of damaging information about politicians, stolen or fake, to opposition groups

the development of malware designed to spy on political figures' communications

the hacking of election computer systems

Too often, Mr Pothier said, knowledge about interference came only after votes had been cast and politicians had taken office.

"After an election, we put the picture together and can say there's been multi-dimensional interference," he said.

"One goal is to fix that analytical part by having a more systematic handle on how elections are influenced.

"It's a tool that gives us a real-time scan during a campaign of how certain groups inject information, how much is injected into social media, their interference and how it evolves and what effect it has."

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https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/technology-44820416

NSA and Cyber Command to coordinate actions to counter Russian election interference in 2018 amid absence of White House guidance

The head of the nation’s largest electronic spy agency and the military’s cyberwarfare arm has directed the two organizations to coordinate actions to counter potential Russian interference in the 2018 midterm elections.

The move, announced to staff at the National Security Agency last week by NSA Director Paul Nakasone, is an attempt to maximize the efforts of the two groups and comes as President Trump in Helsinki on Monday said Russian President Vladi­mir Putin was “extremely strong and powerful” in denying Russian involvement in the presidential election two years ago.

It is the latest initiative by national security agencies to push back against Russian aggression in the absence of direct guidance from the White House on the issue.

“Nakasone, and the heads of the other three-letter agencies, are doing what they can in their own lanes, absent an overall approach directed by the president,” said Michael V. Hayden, who has headed the NSA and the CIA. “As good as it is, it’s not good enough. This is not a narrowly defined cyberthreat. This is one of the most significant strategic national security threats facing the United States since 9/11.”

Nakasone, who became the chief of both NSA and U.S. Cyber Command in April, told Congress in his confirmation hearings earlier this year: “The most important thing is we want the [Russians’] behavior to change. . . . We want them to pay a price.”

He added that one of the most disturbing facts is that the United States’ adversaries, including Russia, “don’t fear us.”

On Friday, the same day that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III announced the indictment of 12 Russian military intelligence officers for hacking Democrats’ emails, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats issued a new alert on Russia. “The warning lights are blinking red again,” he said, also likening them to the danger signs that presaged the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“Today, the digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack,” he said, adding that if Russia continues to assault the United States in cyberspace, the government should “throw everything we have got into it.”

More;

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-and-cyber-command-to-coordinate-actions-to-counter-russian-election-interference-in-2018-amid-absence-of-white-house-guidance/2018/07/17/baac95b2-8900-11e8-85ae-511bc1146b0b_story.html?utm_term=.04a2db05f0d9