ASD contributes long and short form research products and analysis to inform and engage our audience on a range of issues related to malign foreign interference. In addition, we develop policy recommendations and strategies to close vulnerabilities and safeguard institutions from authoritarian threats.
The Election Official’s Handbook: Six steps local officials can take to safeguard America’s election systems
Protecting the 2020 Election Intelligence and law enforcement agencies warn that Russia, China, Iran, and other foreign actors will seek to interfere in the 2020 presidential election.U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. De [...]
Securing Democracy Dispatch
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 [...]
Hamilton Weekly Report: February 1-7, 2020
From February 1-7, the Russian media ecosystem was largely preoccupied with the novel coronavirus; however, there was also a clear push to fuel conspiracy theories related to the Iowa caucus and, to a more limited degree, the ongoing war in Syria. O [...]
Competing Information Operations Target Americans in the Wake of Soleimani’s Killing
As has become the norm in moments of international crisis, the fallout from the killing of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani last month unleashed a flood of disinformation onto social media. In crisis environments, where unconfirmed facts of even benign or [...]
Deepfakes and the 2020 Election: How Are the Platforms Poised to Respond?
Deepfake technology that uses artificial intelligence to create and modify videos, images, and audio recordings to place individuals in situations they were never in, or put false words in their mouths, has burst onto the scene as the latest technol [...]
Securing Democracy Dispatch
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 [...]
Hamilton Weekly Report: January 25-31, 2020
Each week, ASD researchers will analyze Hamilton 2.0 data to understand the narratives and topics the Russian government and Russian state-funded media are promoting on Twitter, YouTube, broadcast television (RT), and state-sponsored news websites. [...]
Securing Democracy Dispatch
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 [...]
Combating the Latest Technological Threat to Democracy: A Comparison of Facebook and Twitter’s Deepfake Policies
Deepfake technology that uses artificial intelligence to create and modify videos, images, and audio recordings to place individuals in situations they were never in, or put false words in their mouths, has burst onto the scene as the latest technol [...]
Securing Democracy Dispatch
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 [...]
Hamilton 2.0 – Analysis 3 – Why the Jeffrey Epstein saga was the Russian government-funded media’s top story of 2019
Overview In a year featuring a presidential impeachment, Brexit, mass protests in Hong Kong, and widespread geopolitical turmoil, few topics dominated the Russian government-funded media landscape quite like the arrest and subsequent suicide of bil [...]
2020 NDAA: Important Steps toward Addressing Foreign Interference
The United States Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, an annual bill designating funding for the Department of Defense, on a bipartisan basis. Priorities outlined in the NDAA will drive important elements of [...]