The Russia watchRussia & Irish life; disinformation & armed conflict; Russia attacks U.S. aviation, and more

Published 19 March 2018

· Russia ‘has fingers in all sectors of Irish life’

· I was a double-agent for Russia and they’re at it again

· Litvinenko detective: Investigating Skripal’s poisoning presents danger for Scotland Yard in Russia

· On Russia, there are two Trumps

· Pentagon blames ‘misinformation’ for Serbia defense minister comment

· Russia hates our century of spying success

· Disinformation campaigns can create ‘true armed conflict’: The Ukrainian experience with Russian propaganda

· Is your county elections clerk ready for Russian hackers?

· Why Russian hackers aren’t poised to plunge the United States into darkness

· Russian hacking of U.S. infrastructure included aviation

· Five things to know about Russian attacks on the energy grid

Russia ‘has fingers in all sectors of Irish life’ (John Mooney, Times)
Russia’s overseas intelligence service has sent agents to Ireland to spy on people involved in politics, economics, business and technology using diplomatic accreditation provided by the Department of Foreign Affairs, according to Irish intelligence sources. The security services and military believe the SVR, which is the successor to the KGB, also sent an agent to Dublin to cultivate contacts under the guise of working in the media.

I was a double-agent for Russia and they’re at it again (Naveed Jamali, Daily Beast)
For years Naveed Jamali worked for the FBI while pretending to spy for Russia. He says what happened in 2016 was right out of Moscow’s playbook.

Litvinenko detective: Investigating Skripal’s poisoning presents danger for Scotland Yard in Russia (Nico Hines, Daily Beast)
A notorious band of ex-KGB agents greeted Scotland Yard’s last murder inquiry in Moscow. Detectives trying to solve Sergei Skripal’s poisoning should prepare for even worse.

On Russia, there are two Trumps (Michael Crowley and Blake Hounshell, Politico Magazine)
His team is going hard after Moscow. The president is not.

Pentagon blames ‘misinformation’ for Serbia defense minister comment (Idrees Ali, Aleksandar Vasovic, Reuters)
The Pentagon on Thursday said “misinformation” led Serbia’s defence minister to criticise a top U.S. general who had warned that Russia was meddling in the Balkan country’s affairs. U.S. Army General Curtis Scaparrotti, the head of U.S. forces in Europe, said in Congressional testimony earlier this month that Serbia was vulnerable to Russian interference. Shortly afterwards, Serbian Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin slammed Scaparotti, saying the U.S. general had accused Serbia of being a danger to the Balkans.

Russia hates our century of spying success (Ben Macintyre, Times)
Kremlin’s desire to eliminate its enemies on British soil is a backhanded compliment to the skills of MI6

Disinformation campaigns can create ‘true armed conflict’: The Ukrainian experience with Russian propaganda (Lianne Chia, Channel News Asia)
Propaganda is a “powerful weapon” which can be pointed to any country at any time, very quickly, said co-founder of Ukrainian volunteer organization StopFake Ruslan Deynychenko, who was sharing his experience at the public hearing of the Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods.

Is your county elections clerk ready for Russian hackers? (Matt Vasilogambros, Pew Trus)
The weakest link in any local voting system is that one county clerk who’s been on the job for three days and opens up an email file that could take down the whole system.

Why Russian hackers aren’t poised to plunge the United States into darkness (Philip Bump, Washington Post)
Since at least March 2016 Russian hackers have “targeted U.S. government entities and multiple U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including the energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors,” The FBI and DHS said last Thursday.
The natural question that emerges is: How serious is this hacking? The idea of Russian hackers having access to the control switches of America’s power infrastructure is particularly unnerving, raising the idea of waking up one morning to learn that the United States has simply been switched off. Several experts who spoke with The Washington Post explained, though, that this is not only oversimplistic but also that it is almost certainly impossible. The effects of infiltration of America’s power grid would be much more geographically limited thanks to the distributed, redundant nature of the system.

Russian hacking of U.S. infrastructure included aviation (Bloomberg)
Russian hackers attempted to penetrate the U.S. civilian aviation industry early in 2017 as part of a broad assault on America’s sensitive infrastructure.

Five things to know about Russian attacks on the energy grid (Morgan Chalfant, The Hill)
Here are five things to know about Russian cyberattacks against U.S. infrastructure.