A comprehensive, weekly recap of the news and events that define ASD’s work and mission.
News and Commentary Russian hacking group launches powerful new cyber weapon: Fancy Bear, a hacking group linked to Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU), has developed a powerful new cyber weapon that resists conventional counter-methods. Th [...]
News and Commentary White House unveils national cyber strategy to deter foreign adversaries: On September 20, the Trump administration announced a new cyber strategy, which outlines how the administration will approach cybersecurity and deter and [...]
News and Commentary President Trump signs Executive Order on investigating and imposing sanctions for election interference: On September 12, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) to clarify and streamline the process of detecting and sanc [...]
News and Commentary In Senate hearing, Twitter and Facebook executives admit to mistakes, while Google is conspicuously absent: Facebook COO Sharyl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appeared in front of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligenc [...]
News and Commentary Efforts to secure the November midterms are still lagging: The Secure Elections Act, which seeks to improve the security of U.S. election systems, is currently stalled in the Senate. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) [...]
News and Commentary Microsoft and social media companies uncover influence campaigns from Iran, Russia: Last week, Microsoft announced it dismantled a phishing campaign by the Russian state-sponsored hacking group Fancy Bear (also known as APT28 or [...]
News and Commentary Federal and state officials address vulnerabilities ahead of midterm elections: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hosted a three-day “National Election Cyber Exercise” to “identify best practices and areas for improvemen [...]
News and Commentary U.S. sanctions Russia over Skripal poisoning: The United States announced new sanctions on Russia as mandated under the 1991 Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act for the “attempt to assassinate U.K [...]
ASD Congressional Testimony on "Foreign Influence Operations on Social Media" The Alliance for Securing Democracy’s Director Laura Rosenberger testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on August 1 to discuss foreign adversaries’ [...]
News and Commentary U.S. lawmakers push for more sanctions against Russia: Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) announced their push for additional sanctions against Russia for its attempts to undermine democracies. The senators s [...]
News and Commentary Department of Justice announces steps to counter malign foreign influence: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said on July 18 that the Justice Department will notify American citizens, companies, and organizations being targ [...]
News and Commentary Mueller indicts 12 Russian intelligence officers for 2016 election hacks: Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian GRU (military intelligence) officers on July 13 for “gain[ing] unauthorized access (to ‘hack’) into the [...]
Report Launch: Policy Blueprint for Countering Authoritarian Interference in Democracies Please join the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD) for a discussion with U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Ch [...]
News and Commentary The U.S. annual defense spending bill includes measures to improve cybersecurity, but not election security: On June 13, the House Appropriations Committee approved the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that will al [...]
News and Commentary The Allies Take a Stand: Following the chemical attack on Russian former double agent Sergei Skirpal and his daughter in Britain, Prime Minister Theresa May ordered the immediate expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats identified as u [...]
News and Commentary Russia casts a shadow over elections in Italy and Mexico: Anti-establishment and far-right parties, which were the big winners in Italy’s election yesterday, could throw “the eurozone’s third-largest economy into political gridl [...]
News and Commentary DOJ forms cyber task force: Attorney General Sessions announced that the Department of Justice is forming the Cyber-Digital Task Force to “better combat global cyber-threats, including efforts to interfere with elections or dama [...]
Special Edition: Mueller Indictment Mueller indicts Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA), 13 Russians and 3 other entities for meddling in 2016 presidential election: Special Counsel Mueller’s indictment on Friday recounted facts about Russia’s [...]
News and Commentary Tracking China’s efforts to expand its influence in Europe: A new report by the Global Public Policy Institute finds that “China’s rapidly increasing political influencing efforts in Europe and the self-confident promotion of it [...]
News and Commentary Social media companies continue to respond to new revalations: In an updated blog post on its investigation of Russia’s use of its platform to interfere in the 2016 election, Twitter announced that the number of people who retwe [...]
News and Commentary Social media companies continue to respond to new revelations: In an updated blog post on its investigation of Russia’s use of its platform to interfere in the 2016 election, Twitter announced that the number of people who retwe [...]
News and Commentary Russia’s next cyber targets: According to cybersecurity firm Trend Micro, the same Russian hackers who hacked the DNC in 2016, Fancy Bear, have been trying to infiltrate the U.S. Senate’s email servers since 2017 using phishing [...]
News and Commentary Russia’s next cyber targets: According to cybersecurity firm Trend Micro, the same Russian hackers who hacked the DNC in 2016, Fancy Bear, have been trying to infiltrate the U.S. Senate’s email servers since 2017 using phishing [...]
Our Take Happy New Year! Our regular edition of Securing Democracy Dispatch will return on January 8, but we wanted to share a few items from our team in the meantime in case you missed them over the holidays. In Democracy Journal, Laura Rosenberge [...]
News and Commentary Russian disinformation during Brexit: Following a request from Britain’s Electoral Commission, Facebook and Twitter provided data on Russian-purchased political advertising, but the focus on purchased advertising left open the q [...]
News and Commentary Russian entities pose as U.S. news sites: According to Tim Chambers with DFR Lab, News-Store.com, a new “junk news site” that is retweeted by conservatives and claims to be located in the United States, is actually promoted by b [...]
News and Commentary Russia may build its own Internet: RT reported that the Russian government will build an “independent Internet” to connect the BRICS countries — Brazil, India, China, and South Africa, in order to guard against “global Internet [...]
News and Commentary Continuing social media response to Russian disinformation: Facebook announced that it is developing a tool in its Help Center that will show users a list of their followed or liked Facebook and Instagram accounts that were deve [...]
News and Commentary Continuing social media response to Russian disinformation: Facebook announced that it is developing a tool in its Help Center that will show users a list of their followed or liked Facebook and Instagram accounts that were deve [...]