The Russia watchRussia is exploiting American white supremacy; U.S. voting systems have “staggering” vulnerabilities; latest Russian hacking indictment, and more
· Russia is exploiting American white supremacy over and over again
· Researchers: No evidence that Russia is messing with campaign 2018—yet
· Russia is winning the information war in Iraq and Syria: U.K. general
· Going on the offensive: A U.S. strategy to combat Russian information warfare
· Takeaways from the latest Russian hacking indictment
· U.S. voting systems have “staggering” vulnerabilities: Cyber researchers
· Mueller defends authority, hearkens back to Garfield administration
· Ken Starr: Trump’s defense team should be “very concerned”
· ‘Can you do this?’: Russia probe conflicts rampant among Rosenstein replacements
· New boss for Italian state TV is old fan of fake news
· Skripal poisoning: Reporter behind Salisbury exposé flees Russia
· Feds freeze Russian oligarch’s assets, Upper East Side mansion
· Trump team’s contact with Mueller targets could taint findings
Russia is exploiting American white supremacy over and over again (Spencer Ackerman, Daily Beast)
Russia’s troll army was not interested in stirring up generic ‘chaos’ in America. The Kremlin is strategically tapping into the inexhaustible fuel source of white grievance.
Researchers: No evidence that Russia is messing with campaign 2018—yet (Kevin Poulsen, Spencer Ackerman, Daily Beast)
By the first week of October 2016, Russia’s pawprints were all over the presidential race. Not this year, researchers say.
All eyes are peeled for foreign interference in November’s elections. But amid the Senate hearings on election security and indictments, the warning sirens and reports, experts in computer security and influence operations are quietly acknowledging an elephant in the room, or, more accurately, a bear that isn’t. With just 28 days to go before the midterm elections, they haven’t found any evidence yet of direct Russian interference in 2018’s races.
By the first week of October 2016, Russia’s paw-prints were all over the presidential race. Wikileaks had already dumped thousands of DNC emails stolen by Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate, the GRU, and was on the verge of doing the same to Clinton campaign chair John Podesta. A persona created by Russian intelligence was giving press interviews and chatting with a member of Donald Trump’s inner circle. Provocateurs at Russia’s infamous troll factory in St. Petersburg had already organized pro-Trump and anti-Clinton rallies around the country, drawing hundreds of Americans into the streets to wave MAGA signs and dangle from Vladimir Putin’s invisible strings.
This year, crickets.
Russian social media trolls are, of course, still promulgating fake news and slapping frantically at America’s hot buttons—tweeting wildly in favor of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, according to researchers, and pushing a counter-protest against last summer’s white supremacist Unite the Right 2 rally. The GRU is still hacking into computers in the U.S. and everywhere else. But so far, Russia-watchers say the trolls haven’t delved into the nitty gritty of 35 Senate campaigns and 435 House races. Nor has the GRU engineered the type of damaging email dumps that tent-posted the 2016 election circus. (Cont.)