The Russia watchDefining Russian election interference; Skripal attack & Russian tradecraft; hacking the Boy Scouts?, and more

Defining Russian election interference: An analysis of select 2014 to 2018 cyber-enabled incidents (Laura Galant and Shaun Lee, Atlantic Council)
The past five years have demonstrated at least one thing about election interference: though it keeps happening, nobody can agree on just what it is. The 2016 US elections served as a flashpoint in recognizing modern election interference, but there have been numerous instances of interference in other European elections that can provide valuable lessons, and this report aims to connect them into a coherent and singular framework. While not meant to be exhaustive, this report assesses four elections and a referendum that have been characterized by attempted foreign interference.

EU Elections 2019: Critical cyberattacks loom, Estonia warns (Samuel Stolton, Euractiv)
The 2019 European elections could be hit by a spate of cyberattacks, which could even prevent the new European Parliament from convening, a report led by the Estonian Information System Authority has warned.

Alleged Russian spy Butina tried to score Trump meeting a year before government claimed (Josh Meyer, Politico)
The early outreach illustrates Mariia Butina’s intent to cultivate Trump months before most were taking him seriously.

What the Skripal attack exposed about Russian tradecraft (Nick Fishwick, Cipher Brief)
Russian President Vladimir Putin says that two Russian nationals accused of poisoning British citizens in an attempted assassination of a former military intelligence officer, are just ordinary citizens themselves and not Russian agents. British Prime Minister Theresa May begs to differ.  May told Parliament last week that the two Russian suspects are “officers from the Russian military intelligence service” whose actions had been approved at “a senior level of the Russian state.” How did we get here and why are experts so concerned about what they see as a shift in Russian tradecraft? 

Can Mark Zuckerberg fix Facebook before it breaks democracy? (Evan Osnos, New Yorker)
The most famous entrepreneur of his generation is facing a public reckoning with the power of Big Tech.

Working with Russia on cybercrime is like hiring a burglar to protect the family jewels (David Ignatius, Washington Post)
The author, a veteran foreign correspondent-turned-columnist, writes: “The Russians are aggressively hacking U.S. and European political parties and infrastructure, according to U.S. intelligence reports. At the same time, they are pushing for international regulation of cyberspace—on their own terms. Russian plans to offer new U.N. cyber-regulation pacts were floated last month by Anatoly Smirnov, a top computer scientist at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations … He said Russia would soon introduce a cyber “code of conduct” and a pathway to a new cybercrime convention to replace one signed in Budapest in 2001. … Russia has tailored its new cybercrime convention to fit its authoritarian needs. … [I]t includes 72 articles that experts say would allow countries to censor internal debate, without adding significant new measures to curb malicious cybercriminals. …  Russia may offer a blander U.N. proposal to study an update to Budapest, as a first wedge. … It’s been clear for years that the United States doesn’t want an arms-control approach that would mandate unverifiable and potentially counterproductive rules. … Putin touted his plan for a “working group” with the United States on cybersecurity at the Helsinki summit in July. President Trump has signaled enthusiasm in the past, but this time wiser heads apparently prevailed. Even this administration understands that, for now, allying with Moscow to combat cybercrime would be like hiring a burglar to protect the family jewels.”

Why the Russians might hack the Boy Scouts next (Susan Landau, WTOP)
In the two years since Russia made headlines for targeting an American political organization – the Democratic National Committee – and undermining Hillary Clinton’s race for the presidency, Russian information warfare tactics have come a long way. That includes using more subtle means of hiding their traces. Recently, Microsoft announced that it had detected Russians targeting conservative think tanks. The Russians are not just aiming to influence political activities in the U.S. Rather, it’s extremely likely that they will soon target American civic society. They’re the local sports teams, charities, Kiwanis and Lions clubs, churches and even community groups like the Boy Scouts. Those are the groups that knit together a community and a society, providing connections that keep legitimate disagreement from exploding into acrimony and sharp divisions.

The Kremlin has weaponized doubt in Syria – and Labour is helping (Oz Katerji, New Statesman)
Labour is parroting Putin and Assad’s propaganda over war crimes in Syria.