An effort to undermine the midterm elections in 2018 was disrupted by the U.S., according to Paul Nakasone, director of the National Security Agency, and Michael Sulmeyer, senior adviser to the commander of U.S. Cyber Command.
Their comments came in a column posted by Foreign Affairs on Tuesday.
The two men said Cyber Command and the NSA worked together “to protect against meddling in the 2018 midterm elections.”
“Experts from both organizations formed the Russia Small Group, a task force created to ensure that democratic processes were executed unfettered by Russian activity” they said.
“It shared indicators of potential compromise, enabling DHS [Department of Homeland Security] to harden the security of election infrastructure. It also shared threat indicators with the FBI to bolster that organization’s efforts to counter foreign trolls on social media platforms.
“Thanks to these and other efforts, the United States disrupted a concerted effort to undermine the midterm elections.”
They said the U.S. must continue to be ready to fight off cyberattacks.
“As threats continue to evolve online, U.S. Cyber Command will remain ready to defend the United States in the years ahead,” they said.
Meanwhile, Facebook had said in July 2018 that it had uncovered “sophisticated” efforts, possibly linked to Russia, to influence U.S. politics on its platforms. The company said it removed 32 accounts from Facebook and Instagram because they were involved in "coordinated" political behavior and appeared to be fake.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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