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Dan Coats, the top US intelligence official, said last week that "the warning signs are there" with regard to Russia and other foreign governments conducting cyberattacks against the US United. He again pointed out Thursday at the Aspen Security Forum, Colorado, a crazy week that began with the election of Donald Trump in Helsinki by Vladimir Putin and the promise of the Russian president on that of the chiefs of intelligence.
And while the mid-term elections are looming in November, it seems that Russia has already interfered.
A Microsoft official told the Aspen Security Forum Committee – the same as Coats and other US officials – have detected. Phishing attacks targeting three US congressional candidates, a bit like the strategy used by Russian GRU agents in the 2016 elections against Democrats and Hillary Clinton.
Tom Burt, vice president of security and customer trust at Microsoft, told the public in Colorado that earlier in the year, the company had discovered that a fake domain Microsoft had was created as a landing page. candidates to click so that they are vulnerable to a phishing attack. "We have seen metadata suggesting that these phishing attacks were directed against three candidates who were all running for the mid-term election," said Burt, vice president of security at Microsoft. three candidates in the 2018 midterms "that would be interesting from the point of view of espionage." I would not reveal who they are. #AspenSecurity
– Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) July 19, 2018
Cyber attacks have failed to hack the three candidates. Burt did not identify them by name, but described them as "interesting targets from the point of view of espionage".
Burt stated, according to the BBC, that Microsoft had detected suspicious activity on web domains had been linked to a Russian intelligence-related group that had been active in 2016.
The hacks will continue to happen, even if Trump thinks that they are not
The Microsoft account confirms what the secret services repeat – despite the contradictory messages from the White House: Russia will continue to to hack and try to exploit American partisanship on social media. When asked if Russia was still trying to target the United States this week, Donald Trump said, "No. The White House spokesman responded by saying that he meant "no" to journalists' questions.
But back and forth have highlighted concerns about the US government's ability to combat these attacks, and how they will be able to warn and inform the public, especially with Trump as " skeptical … in chief. "
Senior administration officials are moving forward with measures to counter-attack such foreign attacks, with or without Trump." At the same forum, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein presented the Department of Justice's cyber-digital working group, a comprehensive report on the threats, key targets and how the United States should combat them.As for the US political system, it will encompass everything from attacks on election infrastructure targeting private candidates through propaganda and divisive news that Russian agents spit on social media.Russia has tried each of these influence operations in 2016.
" Russian intelligence officers did not stumble over the idea of hacking American computers and displaying misleading messages because they had a free afternoon. "C & # 39; ;East what they do everyday. "
