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FBI Director Says Foreign Disinformation Campaigns “Never Stopped” after 2016 Elections (Maggie Miller, The Hill)
FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday that foreign disinformation efforts against the U.S.“never stopped” after Russian actors used them on social media platforms during the 2016 elections.
The FBI chief also told lawmakers during a House Judiciary Committee hearing that malicious foreign influence campaigns are now targeting more than just elections.
“That is in some ways an even more challenging area, not the least because it never stopped, it happened in 2016 and it’s been continuing ever since then. It may have an uptick during an election cycle, but it’s a 24/7, 365 days a year threat,” Wray said of disinformation campaigns.
A report compiled by former special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that the Russian Internet Research Agency carried out a social media campaign designed to benefit President Trump and hurt Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, with the goal of ultimately “sowing discord in the U.S. political system.”
Mueller, along with intelligence agencies and the Senate Intelligence Committee, also concluded that the Russians had attempted to hack into voting infrastructure across the U.S.
As part of his investigation, Mueller indicted 12 Russian agents in 2018 for successfully hacking into email accounts of Clinton campaign staffers and Democratic National Committee networks. 
On Wednesday, when asked if he had seen any efforts by the Russians to interfere again in U.S. elections, Wray said that Russian disinformation efforts remain a key threat.
“While I don’t think we’ve seen any ongoing efforts to target election infrastructure like we did in 2016, we certainly are seeing and have never stopped seeing really since 2016 efforts to engage in malign foreign influence by the Russians,” Wray said, pointing to evidence that Russians are using “false personas, fake media accounts” online. 
Wray emphasized though that other “adversary nations” were looking at Russian interference efforts in 2016 and “giving active consideration to whether that is a playbook they should adopt.”

What Estonia Knows about Thwarting Russians (Christa Case Bryant, Christian Science Monitor)
Russian hackers penetrated voting systems in all 50 states in 2016. Now, as 2020 U.S. voting begins, Estonia offers lessons on how to avoid breaches and counter disinformation, enlisting everyone from IT “nerds” to grandparents.