The Siberian candidate: Russia’s 2-pronged campaign to undermine the U.S. political system
The hackers could use the information they collect to suppress Democratic votes by removing the names of tens of thousands of voters in Democratic-leaning areas from the roles; they could send e-mails to voters in Democratic areas – e-mails which contain misleading information about voting locations or the eligibility of the e-mail recipient to vote, and much more.
The voting machines are not connected to the Internet – but the reports from each polling station to the state’s central election body, and the reports from state election bodies to the federal election authorities, are carried across the Internet. It is not far-fetched to imagine a piece of malware being stealthily deposited on the computer systems of, say, the State of Pennsylvania’s election authority – a piece of malware which contains the instruction to count every fourth vote for Clinton as a vote for Trump.
Pennsylvania is mentioned here not only because it is a battleground state – but because the state does not provide for a paper record of the electronic vote to be created. This means that the only records of votes in the state are digital – and can thus be digitally manipulated, without the state having any way to compare the digital tally to a paper record.
The Russian long-term effort aims to weaken the United States by undermining the confidence Americans have in their political system and institutions.
— Even if Trump loses on 8 November, which now appears likely, Putin and Russia still win by fueling doubts about the integrity of the U.S. election process and American political institutions. This, in turn, will deepen suspicions about and mistrust of the American political system, especially among a segment of the U.S. electorate which already feels frustrated and alienated because of economic and demographic developments of the last two or three decades.
In fact, Trump’s entire candidacy has been based on stoking and inflaming this sense of alienation, frustration, mistrust, and fear. He openly urges his listeners to believe in the most bizarre conspiracy theories (remember the one about Ted Cruz’s father being linked to the assassination of JFK? More recently, he has been telling his audiences that a cabal consisting of Hillary Clinton and “international bankers” are plotting to steal the elections from him), promoting a Manichean world view in which he is the White Knight (“Only I can…” as he said the Republican Convention) standing in the way of dark forces about to engulf the country.
Two-and-a-half months ago (Ben Frankel, “Will Putin pick the next U.S. president? He just might” HSNW, 1 August 2016), writing about the fact that the Trump campaign not only failed to condemn Russia’s interference in the U.S. election process, but that Trump and his spokeswoman actually invited Russia to engage in even more hacking of the Clinton campaign, I wrote:
The two candidates for president; their campaigns; and anyone associated with their campaigns should unequivocally and unambiguously reiterate this straightforward principle [reiterated in a statement issued by the Aspen Institute Homeland Security Group] and their adherence to it: “Our president should be chosen by American citizens, not by foreign adversaries or interests.”
We should all ask ourselves: Have both candidates done so? Have both campaigns done so?
If one of the two candidates, and the candidate’s campaign, have failed to do so – if, in fact, they give every impression of encouraging “foreign powers and adversaries” to meddle in our politics and help choose our president – should we not all be worried? Very worried?
The Russian digital campaign of interference in the U.S. electoral process has intensified. We can only guess what additional actions the Russian government hackers will take in the days immediately before 8 November – and on election day itself.
Should we not all be worried? Very worried?
Ben Frankel is the editor of the Homeland Security News Wire
