The Russia watchMueller’s Phase Two: The Middle East connection; Russia takes fresh aim at America; hacking the 2020 election, and more

Published 13 December 2018

  Get ready for Mueller’s Phase Two: The Middle East connection

·  Accused Russian secret agent pleads guilty

·  Russia’s disinformation chief takes fresh aim at America

  Despite inactivity during midterm elections, hackers are likely to ramp up attacks in 2020

·  Troll factory contributes to Russia’s worldwide interference

·  Google’s public response to Russian trolls is very different from Facebook’s

·  Russia and collusion: ‘Peanut stuff’ or elephant in the room?

·  Criminals act like nation-state attackers in Russian campaign

 

Get ready for Mueller’s Phase Two: The Middle East connection (Erin Banco, Daily Beast)
The ‘Russia investigation’ is set to go global. In court filings due to drop in 2019, prosecutors will unveil Middle Eastern countries’ attempts to influence U.S. politics.

Accused Russian secret agent pleads guilty (AP)
A woman accused of being a secret agent for the Russian government has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in federal court in Washington. Maria Butina appeared in court after reaching a deal with prosecutors. As part of that deal, she says she tried to infiltrate the National Rifle Association and relay intelligence on American politicians to a Russian government official.

Russia’s disinformation chief takes fresh aim at America (Anna Nemtsova, Daily Beast)
In an exclusive interview, the head of the Russian Federal News Agency opens up about his pro-Kremlin propaganda and setting up a fake news outlet in the U.S.

Despite inactivity during midterm elections, hackers are likely to ramp up attacks in 2020 (Catherine Stupp, Wall Street Joiurnal)

A new fear: Deep fakes that use AI to create doctored videos that appear realistic

Troll factory contributes to Russia’s worldwide interference (WBUR)
Russia’s disinformation campaign has gotten a lot of attention in the U.S., but it isn’t just an American phenomenon. Two-thirds of the tweets posted by Russia’s “troll farm” aren’t even in English.

Google’s public response to Russian trolls is very different from Facebook’s (Daniel Howley, Yahoo Finance)
Google is still fighting Russian agitators seeking to penetrate its services in an effort to spread disinformation and sow discord among Americans. That’s according to CEO Sundar Pichai, who sat before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday to discuss how the search giant collects user data.
The hearing, which conservative lawmakers primarily used to grill Pichai about a perceived, but unproven, liberal bias in the search giant’s products, also touched on the clarity of Google’s terms of service, its proposed Chinese search engine, and how the company protects user data.
However, one of the more interesting parts of the hearing centered on Google’s efforts to combat combat Russian, and now Iranian, operatives who are trying to game the company’s systems to spread propaganda. Pichai’s comments on that point provided a stark contrast to how Facebook has been handling its ongoing fight against Russian and Iranian trolls.

Russia and collusion: ‘Peanut stuff’ or elephant in the room? (Editorial, USA Today)
President Donald Trump insists all is innocent. But so much lying by his associates smacks more of cover-up than ‘no collusion’: Our view

Criminals act like nation-state attackers in Russian campaign (Warwick Ashford, Computer Weekly)
Security researchers have uncovered evidence of a sustained effort targeting Russian state-owned critical infrastructure companies by financially motivated non-state actors