Putin ordered ‘influence campaign’ to damage Clinton, intelligence agencies say

In March, Russian intelligence forces under the order of Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a sophisticated influence campaign against then democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, according to a newly released report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

In March, Russian intelligence forces under the order of Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a sophisticated influence campaign against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, according to a newly released report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Putin ordered the campaign to “denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency,” ODNI states.

The multifaceted operation included the digital theft of information held by U.S. political campaigns and organizations, think tanks and lobbying groups, which Russian officials viewed as likely to shape future policy. Democratic and Republican organizations were targeted.

Russian intelligence first gained access to Democratic National Committee, or DNC, networks in July 2015. The hackers were able to maintain access until at least June 2016, around the same time when private cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike was contracted by the organization.

U.S. spies confirmed that the documents, communications and other information stolen from the DNC and political operatives by the Russians was ultimately passed onto WikiLeaks, state-backed Russian news networks and multiple proxy disclosure websites — including a blog used by a faux hacker named Guccifer 2.0 and the site DCLeaks.com.

“We assess with high confidence that the GRU used the Guccifer 2.0 persona, DCLeaks.com, and WikiLeaks to release US victim data obtained in cyber operations publicly and in exclusives to media outlets,” the declassified report reads.

Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• The G7 tells industry to hurry up and prep for post-quantum encryption

Technology

• European parliament members call for slowdown of Serbia’s EU entry over spyware use

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• The Collective Cyber Defense letter wrote your next vendor questionnaire

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure