Russia’s new cyber targets; 2016: Kremlin’s beta attack; meddling beyond elections, and more

Contrasting China’s and Russia’s influence operations (Peter Mattis, War on the Rocks)
In a series of presentations, conferences, and phone calls over the last year the discussion of Chinese intelligence and information operations invariably raises the question: “How do the Chinese compare to the Russians?” I have attempted to describe the differences with three distinctions between Russian and Chinese influence operations: set-piece operations vs. playing the man; service-led operations vs. service-facilitated operations; and agents of influence vs. influenced agents.

Russian disinformation campaign has been ‘extremely successful’ in Europe, warns EU (Jon Stone, Independent)
An “orchestrated” propaganda campaign by the Russian government has been “extremely successful” at spreading disinformation throughout the European Union, the European Commission has warned. Julian King, the Commission’s security chief, said the EU had identified “3,500 examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation contradicting publicly available facts repeated in many languages on many occasions.” King said the Russian military viewed information as “another type of armed force” and that the EU would unveil a new strategy for combating fake news in the spring of 2018.

EU names China and Russia as top hackers (Andrew Rettman, EUObserver)
ENISA, the EU Agency for Network and Information Security, said that in 2017 it had encountered a vast diversity of the cyber threats that offered some key insights. “We gained tangible evidence regarding monetization methods, attacks on democracies, cyber-war, transformation of malicious infrastructures and the dynamics within threat agent groups.”

Sweden raises alarm on election meddling (Andrew Rettman and Lisbeth Kirk, EUObserver)
Sweden aims to create a new government agency to protect its upcoming election from Russian and other propaganda.

Facebook to continue its probe into Russian meddling on Brexit (Terry Collins, C|Net)
The social network agrees to reopen its investigation after initially saying it found only a minimal amount of UK-related activity.

Russia closing gap with NATO, top U.S. general in Europe warns (John Vandiver, Stars and Stripes)
NATO’s military edge over Russia could soon be threatened if allies fail to keep adapting, the alliance’s top general warned on Wednesday.

France’s attempt to outlaw fake news raises controversy (AP)
Critics say law is dangerous and could lead to censorship

DHS giving ‘active defense’ cyber tools to private sector, secretary says (Morgan Chalfant, The Hill)
The Department of Homeland Security is providing tools and resources to private companies to engage in “active defense” against cyber threats, its secretary said Tuesday, a practice that has drawn scrutiny from some legal and cybersecurity experts.

Twitter to alert users who saw Russian propaganda during election (Phil McCausland, NBC News)
Have you been the victim of Russian tweet trolls? You may soon find out. A representative for Twitter said in testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday that the social media company would inform users who were exposed to Russian propaganda during the 2016 election.

FBI investigating whether Russian money went to NRA to help Trump (Peter Stone And Greg Gordon, McClatchy)
The FBI is investigating whether a top Russian banker with ties to the Kremlin illegally funneled money to the National Rifle Association to help Donald Trump win the presidency, two sources familiar with the matter have told McClatchy. FBI counterintelligence investigators have focused on the activities of Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of Russia’s central bank who is known for his close relationships with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and the NRA, the sources said.

Rubio’s push for swift Russia sanctions is latest quiet break from Trump (Alex Daugherty, Miami Herald)
Marco Rubio’s new bill that would swiftly punish Russia for any future election meddling is the latest evidence of a subtle split between the Florida Republican and certain elements of his party who parrot President Donald Trump’s argument that the investigations into Russian meddling amount to a partisan witch hunt.

Google and Twitter face more questions in Washington over Russian interference (Hamza Shaban, Washington Post)Initiatives by Twitter and Facebook are the latest examples of major social-media companies grappling with the fallout of foreign election meddling, attempting to repair their reputations after lawmakers heavily criticized Silicon Valley for allowing its platforms to be widely exploited.