US Campaigners Get Trained About Cyber Threats
While US Presidential candidates were focused on campaigning in 2016, Russians were carrying out a devastating cyber operation that changed the landscape of American politics, with after-shocks continuing well into Donald Trump's presidency. It all started with the click of a tempting email and a typed-in password.
Whether presidential campaigns have learned from the cyberattacks is a critical question ahead as the 2020 election approaches and preventing theses attacks won't be easy or cheap.
"If you are the Pentagon or the NSA, you have the most skilled adversaries in the world trying to get in but you also have some of the most skilled people working defense," said Robby Mook, who ran Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016. "Campaigns are facing similar adversaries, and they don't have similar resources and virtually no expertise."
Traditionally, cybersecurity has been a lower priority for candidates, especially at the early stages of a campaign.
They need to raise money, hire staff, pay office rents, lobby for endorsements and travel repeatedly to early voting states. Particularly during primary season, campaign managers face difficult spending decisions: Air a TV ad targeting a key voting demographic or invest in a more robust security system for computer networks?
"You shouldn't have to choose between getting your message out to voters and keeping the Chinese from reading your emails," said Mook, now a senior fellow with the Defending Digital Democracy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center. Mook has been helping develop a plan for a nonprofit to provide cybersecurity support and resources directly to campaigns.
The Department of Homeland Security's cyber agency is offering help, and there are signs that some Democratic campaigns are willing to take the uncomfortable step of working with an administration they are trying to unseat.
DHS has had about a dozen initial discussions with campaigns so far, officials said. Its focus has been on establishing trust so DHS can share intelligence about possible threats and receive information from the campaigns in return, said Matt Masterson, a senior DHS cybersecurity adviser. The department also will test a campaign's or party's networks for vulnerabilities to cyberattack.
Candidates can also get some advice from the Republican and Democratic national committees, which are in regular contact with Homeland Security and focus on implementing basic security protocols. Republican National Committee press secretary Blair Ellis said the group also works with state Republican parties and emphasises training. The organization is also developing an internal platform to share real-time threat information with state parties.
"Data security remains a top priority for the RNC," she said.
The Democratic National Committee last year hired Bob Lord, formerly head of Yahoo's information security. He has created a checklist that focuses on basics: password security, web encryption and social media privacy. This is a bigger priority than talking about the latest network protection gadget.
The 2016 attacks were low-tech, with Russian agents sending hundreds of spearfishing emails to the personal and work emails of Clinton campaign staffers and volunteers, along with people working for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic National Committee.
After an employee clicked and gave up password information, the Russians gained access to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's networks and eventually exploited that to gain entry to the Democratic National Committee.
Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, fell for the same trick on his personal email account, which allowed Russians to steal thousands of messages about the inner workings of the campaign.
One of the most significant, and most disturbing, aspects of the Mueller report is the confirmation that Russia attempted to influence the 2016 election, based on the Special Counsel’s exhaustive collection and review of intelligence.
This campaign by a foreign adversary represents a serious threat to US national security and is reminiscent of Moscow’s actions during the Cold War. US policymakers now need a forceful response to Russia’s intelligence campaign.
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