Trump campaign’s information sharing with Russia; Steel Dossier: 2 years on; Russia & U.S. electrical grid, and more

Whether such violations of federal campaign finance law by the Trump campaign would be criminal violations, or merely civil violations, would depend on whether Manafort and any other involved campaign personnel acted knowingly and willfully. As explained in the Department of Justice manual, Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses, campaign finance law violations “become potential crimes when they are committed knowingly and willfully, that is, by an offender who knew what the law forbade and violated it notwithstanding that knowledge.” This was Manafort’s fifth presidential campaign, and he appears to have a disregard for legal rules. It is fair to presume he knew what the law forbade and pursued the clandestine course of action in any case.
Any way you cut it, illegal coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia undermines American democracy. But the accidental revelation this week from the Manafort court document suggests special counsel Mueller is digging deep and following the facts wherever they lead. The American people are entitled to answers and accountability, so the Mueller investigation must be allowed to continue to its conclusion.

PayPal drops sanctioned Russian propaganda site (Lachlan Markay, Daily Beast)
The Treasury Department forbade U.S. individuals and businesses from transacting with the USA Really’s site; its parent company, Russia’s Federal News Agency; and its founder.

Israel says it can foil foreign election meddling amid scare (Aron Heller, AP)
Israel’s internal security service said Wednesday it was prepared to thwart any foreign intervention in the upcoming elections, after its director warned such efforts were being made by a world power, with suspicions falling on Russia.
The unusual Shin Bet statement followed a TV report that Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman recently told a closed audience that a foreign country was trying to intervene in the April elections via hackers and cyber technology.
Argaman did not say for whose benefit the alleged meddling was being done. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has grown closer to Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent years.

America’s electric grid has a vulnerable Back Door—and Russia walked through it (Rebecca Smith and Rob Barry, Wall Street Journal)
A Wall Street Journal reconstruction of the worst known hack into the nation’s power system reveals attacks on hundreds of small contractors

Countering Russian disinformation the Baltic nations’ way (Terry Thompson, GCN)
As the new Congress begins, it will soon discuss the comprehensive reports to the U.S. Senate on the disinformation campaign of half-truths, outright fabrications and misleading posts made by agents of the Russian government on social media in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
After years of anemic responses to Russian influence efforts, official U.S. government policy now includes taking action to combat disinformation campaigns sponsored by Russia or other countries. In May 2018, the Senate Intelligence Committee endorsed the concept of treating attacks on the nation’s election infrastructure as hostile acts to which the U.S.“will respond accordingly.” In June, the Pentagon unleashed U.S. Cyber Command to respond to cyberattacks more aggressively, and the National Cyber Strategy published in September 2018 clarified that “all instruments of national power are available to prevent, respond to, and deter malicious cyber activity against the United States.”
There are already indications that Cyber Command conducted operations against Russian disinformation on social media, including warning specific Russians not to interfere with the 2018 elections. However, low-level cyberwarfare is not necessarily the best way. European countries, especially the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, have confronted Russian disinformation campaigns for decades. Their experience may offer useful lessons as the U.S. joins the battle.

Older people shared fake news on Facebook more than others in 2016 race, study says (Niraj Chokshi, New York Times)
When it came to sharing fake news on Facebook during the 2016 election, no age group was quite as active as those aged 65 and older, according to a new study.
The study, published Wednesday in Science Advances, quantifies how aggressive seniors were in spreading misinformation, though the findings suggest that sharing such stories was relatively rare.

Russian firm barred from US networks as a spy threat helped the NSA nab suspect in massive breach (Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post) \
The National Security Agency discovered what has been called the largest breach of classified data in its history after a tip from a Russian cybersecurity firm that the U.S. government has banned from its networks as a spy threat, according to people familiar with the matter.
Federal prosecutors in August 2016 arrested a former NSA contractor, Harold Martin, accusing him of taking home without permission at least 50 terabytes of data - the rough equivalent of 500 million pages of material - that included highly sensitive hacking tools.

Grading the Steele dossier 2 years later: what’s been corroborated and what’s still unclear (Sonam Sheth, Business Insider)
Thursday marks two years since the so-called Steele dossier, an explosive collection of memos alleging collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia, was published. The document was compiled by the former British spy Christopher Steele. Many of the dossier’s claims remain uncorroborated, but several allegations have held up.