The Russia watchRussia hacking of U.S. nukes; are free and fair elections impossible?; clever cyber spies, and more

Trump official on Russian hacking: “A national security issue” (Pam Fessler, NPR)
President Trump has shown little interest in fighting the threat of Russians hacking U.S. elections. He’s shown a lot of interest in fighting voter fraud, something he insists — without evidence — is widespread. Parts of his administration are doing just the opposite.

The other scary foreign hacking threat Trump is ignoring (Sarah Kendzior, Fast Company)
Russia didn’t just meddle in the U.S. election: it’s trying to hack our critical infrastructure–and Trump may be keeping Americans in the dark.

Trump-Russia investigation far from over as Mueller adds veteran cyber prosecutor to his team (Ryan Sit, Newsweek)
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating the Trump campaign’s alleged Russia ties has added a veteran cyber prosecutor—the latest sign that the investigation is far from over, contrary to what President Donald Trump’s lawyer has told him.

Russia has been meddling in foreign elections for decades. Has it made a difference? (Lucan Ahmad Way and Adam Casey, Washington Post)
Russian interference in the 2016 election has gotten an enormous amount of U.S. media attention. But Russia has been intervening in foreign elections for decades. Has it been effective?

Russian meddling: are free and fair elections impossible? (The Week)
Russia is accused of interfering in votes in Mexico, US, UK, Catalonia and Kenya - and beyond

Republicans are AWOL on Russian election meddling (Daniel B. Baer, Foreign Policy)
The GOP’s absence from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s report on Russian interference is sad and abnormal.

Russian cyber-spies are carrying out some pretty clever hacks these days (Catalin Cimpanu, Bleeping Computer)
Some cyber-espionage outfits are so advanced that it takes months of sleuthing and digging through malware code to discover the ways they’ve carried out some of their hacks.

Kremlin’s new subs set sights on internet’s undersea backbone (Levi Maxey, Cipher Brief)
The U.S. and its NATO allies have warned that an uptick in Russian submarine activity near undersea fiber optic cables means Moscow may be plotting to disrupt or intercept sensitive or other critical internet communications, in the event of a confrontation with the West. Their warning serves as a plea to western civilian leaders for greater funding to monitor such activity – and also, serves as a public demarche to Russia to cease and desist, that is likely to be ignored.

Homeland Security speeds up election security aid to states (Morgan Chalfant, The Hill)
A top cybersecurity official at the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that he expects the department to complete rigorous election security tests requested by a number of states by April.

‘42 states haven’t upgraded their election equipment in over a decade and Russia knows it’ (PBS)
Primary voting in the 2018 elections is set to being in just two months. Is the U.S. voting system secure in case Russia tries to interfere? A bipartisan groups senators says the system is insecure.

I blew the whistle on Russian meddling. Now I’m running for Congress. (Tom Malinowski, Politico)
Here are three things we need to do right now to secure our democracy.

Steve Bannon lawyers up… as Russia investigators get ready to pounce (Betsy Woodruff, Lachlan Markay, and Asawin Suebsaeng, Daily Beast)
Trump’s former chief strategist has largely avoided the spotlight of the Russia probe—until now.

Rohrabacher challenger slams Russia ties in new ad (Ben Kamisar, The Hill)
California Democratic House hopeful Harley Rouda is taking the accusations of Russia collusion to his potential opponent, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), in a new ad that frames the congressman as part of a joint effort with President Trump to side with Russia.