A comprehensive, weekly recap of the news and events that define ASD’s work and mission.
Our Take It is a mistake to view Russia’s interference as focused on a particular candidate or party; instead, it is part of a broader effort to sow chaos and make democracy appear ineffective, Head of Research and Policy Jessica Brandt told Bloomb [...]
Our Take When political leadership casts doubt on the integrity of democratic institutions, particularly without any evidence, it is extremely damaging to the function of those institutions, Director Laura Rosenberger said in an interview with The [...]
Our Take One of the greatest hindrances to doing more to combat foreign interference is the politicization of the issue, Director Laura Rosenberger said on PBS NewsHour, and she told NPR’s “All Things Considered” that participating in democracy is [...]
Our Take The Alliance for Securing Democracy released the Election Official’s Handbook which highlights six recommendations local election officials can implement at relatively little cost to fortify their election systems before the 2020 president [...]
Our Take There is no evidence that the Iowa app was hacked or manipulated in any way, but that is not the impression many voters were left with — and the impression of insecurity can be just as damaging as insecurity itself, Head of Policy and Rese [...]
Our Take There are not enough robust, multilateral mechanisms to share information about cyber threats, best practices, or lessons learned, Director Laura Rosenberger said on The Council on Foreign Relations’ podcast Why it Matters. Rosenberger als [...]
Our Take The threat landscape for disinformation has grown exponentially since 2016, as the tools and techniques of information manipulation become cheaper and more widely accessible, explained Media and Digital Disinformation Fellow Bret Schafer o [...]
Our Take The rollout of 5G wireless networks will likely be a defining geopolitical dilemma of 2020, but American and European consumers could easily mistake 5G for just another marketing ploy for early adopters—to the detriment of democracies worl [...]
Our Take Russia wrote the playbook on foreign interference; other governments are now mimicking their tactics, Deputy Director Dave Salvo said in an interview with 91.5 KJZZ Phoenix. It is imperative that platforms and policymakers make the informa [...]
Announcements At the Alliance for Securing Democracy, we are working to develop comprehensive strategies to defend against, deter, and raise the costs on state actors’ efforts to undermine democracy and democratic institutions. We hope you will con [...]
Our Take Russia’s strategy in the information space is to create the impression that it is impossible to know who is behind a particular narrative, Director Laura Rosenberger explained in a story about the Russian-backed campaign to frame Ukraine f [...]
Our Take Foreign adversaries could rely on some voters’ expectation of manipulation to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the democratic process, warned Fellow for Elections Integrity David Levine in Fortune. Elections are just one target of much broa [...]
Announcement The Alliance for Securing Democracy is proud to partner with Microsoft in bringing together representatives from government, industry and civil society to counter cyber threats to elections and democracy more broadly as part of the Par [...]
Our Take Although bipartisanship will not be possible in every instance, on the right set of common objectives, Congress has a path forward when it comes to combatting foreign interference, Head of Research and Policy Jessica Brandt argued in Lawfa [...]
Our Take Beijing is interested in weakening democratic institutions in order to remake them in a way that is advantageous to China, explained Director Laura Rosenberger at the Atlantic Council’s Global Forum on Strategic Communications 2019. China [...]
Announcements The Alliance for Securing Democracy is hiring: We are looking for a Research Assistant to join our Washington, DC-based team. Click here for more information and to apply. Our Take Structural approaches that facilitate a whole-of-so [...]
Announcement The Alliance for Securing Democracy is hiring: We are looking for a Research Assistant to help us in our work researching and tracking developments in foreign state actors’ efforts to undermine democratic institutions. Knowledge of the [...]
Our Take A new bill to outlaw anonymous shell companies has broad bipartisan support and is a rare example of Congress working exactly as it is supposed to, argues Fellow for Malign Finance Josh Rudolph in The American Interest. Austria’s recent el [...]
Our Take The Kremlin’s prolonged efforts to airbrush Russian history have recently become a messaging priority for the country’s diplomatic and government messengers abroad, as evidenced by a recent Twitter campaign targeting #WWII historical narra [...]
Our Take The widely varying disclosure standards set by social media companies in some ways serve to confuse the general public, warned Director Laura Rosenberger in an interview with OpenSecrets. One of the goals of the Chinese Community Party’s d [...]
Our Take Chinese information operations are a significant, growing threat to Western democracies, as well as social media platforms that remain vulnerable to manipulation by foreign actors seeking to interfere in democratic debate, argued Co-Direct [...]
Announcements The Alliance for Securing Democracy launched Hamilton 2.0, a new dashboard tracking Russian government-backed information operations online and on state-sponsored broadcast television. The interactive, publicly accessible dashboard ca [...]
Announcements The Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD) announced today that Zack Cooper, Research Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has joined our team as Co-Director, bringing extensive experience in Chinese statecraft to the role. Jam [...]
Our Take Beijing’s use of English-language inauthentic social media accounts demonstrates its desire to manipulate the flow of information outside its borders, argued Director Laura Rosenberger to the Washington Post. Using fake social media posts [...]
Our Take The Kremlin’s operatives are adept at jumping on divisive narratives in the news cycle, with the goal of dividing Americans, noted Director Laura Rosenberger in the Washington Post. The United States should pay greater attention to Russia’ [...]
Our Take Online platforms should conduct takedowns in a clear and consistent manner, rather than in response to intermittent public pressure, Fellow for Emerging Technologies Lindsay Gorman told the Washington Post. To close tempting entry points f [...]
Our Take Participating in our democracy is one important way to protect it, argued Director Laura Rosenberger in an interview with the Bertelsmann Foundation. Political leaders on both sides of the aisle must come together to secure American electi [...]
Our Take In testimony to Congress last week, former Special Counsel Robert Mueller highlighted the scope of the threat posed by Russian interference, Director Laura Rosenberger emphasized for NPR and in Just Security. On NPR’s All Things Considered [...]
Our Take States need additional federal funding to address election security vulnerabilities, according to a report co-authored by ASD Deputy Director David Salvo and Head of External Affairs Rachael Dean Wilson with the Brennan Center for Justice, [...]
Our Take It is imperative the United States secure forms of advanced technologies that underlie our economy and military, ASD Advisory Council member Michael Chertoff argues in an opinion piece for CNBC. Modern Russia is ideologically amorphous, AS [...]
News and Commentary Joint Staff report urges whole-of-government response to Russian malign influence: The United States still does not understand the scope of the Russian government’s aggression, including its use of disinformation, political infl [...]
Our Take Europe needs a continent-wide buy-in on a new strategic approach to tackling authoritarian interference, ASD argues in a comprehensive report that details European efforts to defend against such threats and identifies specific, actionable [...]
Our Take Partisan politics stands in the way of implementing many commonsense measures to address foreign interference in U.S. democratic processes, ASD Deputy Director Dave Salvo argues in an op-ed for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Disinformation su [...]
Our Take AI-powered systems generate modified content and advance digital forgeries that are harmful to American interests, said ASD Non-Resident Senior Fellow Clint Watts testifying before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. The [...]
Our Take Political campaigns lack the necessary resources and expertise to defend against cyberattacks, ASD Director Laura Rosenberger said to the New York Times. The US-China “tech cold war” puts Europe in the middle, writes ASD Fellow for Emergin [...]
Our Take Insight into the state of political affairs in Europe: ASD Senior Fellow Kristine Berzina appeared on Euronews’ Raw Politics to discuss the fallout from the recent Austrian political scandal and the latest developments related to the Europ [...]
Our Take The Kremlin’s use of malign finance to undermine democracy: ASD Director Laura Rosenberger will testify before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, Energy, and the Environment on “Undermining Democracy: [...]
Our Take Internet Research Agency (IRA) operatives attempt to hijack American social movements: ASD Social Media Analyst Bret Schafer’s essay on the IRA’s imitation of African-American activists online, featured in the National Urban League’s State [...]
Our Take Russia’s use of the “Energy Weapon” to interfere in democracy: ASD, in collaboration with the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), published The Energy Weapon, the second in a series on vectors of Russian malign influence, which ex [...]
Our Take In Foreign Affairs, ASD Co-directors Laura Rosenberger and Jamie Fly argue that policymakers should put partisanship aside to work together to secure election systems and set consequences for foreign actors that interfere with U.S. democra [...]