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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 2018)
Page 10A NATION/WORLD East Oregonian Campaigns on their own as cyber threats roil midterms By STEVE PEOPLES and CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY Associated Press NEW YORK — Kamala Harris has been the target of social media misinforma- tion campaigns since she became a U.S. senator. Every month for the last 18 months, her office has discovered on average between three and five fake Facebook profiles pretend- ing to be hers, according to a Harris aide. It’s unclear who creates the pages, which are often designed to mislead American voters about the ambitious Democratic sen- ator’s policies and positions. The aide spoke on the condition of anonymity, like more than a half dozen cam- paign officials contacted for this story, for fear of attract- ing unwanted attention from adversaries or scrutiny on the Senate office’s evolving cybersecurity protocols. Such internet mischief has become commonplace in U.S. politics. Facebook announced earlier this week that it uncovered “sophis- ticated” efforts, possibly linked to Russia, to influ- ence U.S. politics on its plat- forms. Senior intelligence officials declared Thurs- day that foreign adversaries continue waging a quiet war against U.S. campaigns and election systems. Still, one thing has become clear: With the mid- term elections just three months away, campaigns are largely on their own in the increasingly challenging task of protecting sensitive information and countering false or misleading content on social media. The Democratic National Committee has worked to strengthen its own inter- nal security protocols and encouraged state parties to do the same, according to Raffi Krikorian, who previ- AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File Intelligence officials warn that foreign adversaries con- tinue to wage cyber warfare against the U.S. election systems. But with the midterm elections just three months away, political campaigns report that they’re largely on their own in the increasingly challenging task of protecting sensitive information and counter- ing false or misleading content on social media. ously worked for Uber and Twitter and now serves as the DNC’s chief technology officer. But in an interview, he acknowledged there are lim- its to how much the national party can protect the thou- sands of Democratic cam- paigns across the country. “We’re providing as much assistance to cam- paigns as we can, but there’s only so much we can do,” Krikorian said. “For all the high-level campaigns I’m worried, but at least there are peo- ple to talk to,” he continued. “The mid-sized campaigns are at least getting techni- cal volunteers, but the truly down-ballot campaigns, that’s where the state parties and coordinated campaigns can help, but there’s no doubt that this is an uphill battle when we’re dealing with a foreign adversary.” Officials in both polit- ical parties have intensi- fied cybersecurity efforts, although the known cases of interference have so far overwhelmingly focused on Democrats. The DNC now has a staff of 40 on its technical team, led by Krikorian and other Silicon Valley veter- ans hired in the months after Russians hacked the party’s email system and released a trove of damaging messages in the months before Presi- dent Donald Trump’s 2016 victory. Top U.S. intelligence and homeland security officials raised new alarms Thurs- day about outside efforts to influence the 2018 and 2020 elections during a White House press briefing. Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen said: “Our democracy is in the cross- hairs,” while Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats added: “We continue to see a pervasive messag- ing campaign by Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States.” Facebook said it removed 32 accounts from its site and Instagram because they were involved in “coordi- nated” political behavior and appeared to be fake. Nearly 300,000 people fol- lowed at least one of the accounts, which featured names such as “Black Ele- vation” and “Resisters” and were designed to manipu- late Americans with particu- lar ethnic, cultural or politi- cal identities. In many cases, House and Senate political cam- paigns said they’re just beginning to adopt basic internal security protocols, such as two-step verifica- tion for all email, storage and social media accounts and encrypted messaging services such as Wickr. There is no protocol in place for campaigns or national parties to monitor broader social media mis- information campaigns, however. Nor is there any sign that law enforcement is playing a proactive role to protect campaigns from meddling on a day-to-day basis. The FBI has set up a For- eign Influence Task Force and intelligence agencies are collecting information on Russian aggression, but campaigns report no regular contact with law enforce- ment officials. “At the end of the day, the U.S. government is not putting any type of a bub- ble around any (campaign). They do not have the author- ity, capacity or capability to do it,” said Shawn Henry, a former senior FBI official who now leads the cyber- security firm CrowdStrike, which works with political campaigns. “NSA is not sit- ting in the ISPs filtering out malicious traffic.” Henry added: “They’ve got to take pro-active actions themselves.” Saturday, August 4, 2018 BRIEFLY Judge says reuniting families is government’s sole burden SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge on Friday said the Trump administration was solely responsible for reuniting hundreds of children who remain separated from their parents after being split at the U.S.-Mexico border, puncturing a government plan that put the onus on the American Civil Liberties Union. “The reality is that for every parent that is not located, there will be a permanently orphaned child and that is 100 percent the responsibility of the administration,” U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw said. His remarks in a conference call came a day after the administration and the American Civil Liberties Union submitted widely divergent plans on how to reunify more than 500 still-separated children, including 410 with par- ents outside the United States. The government proposed Thursday that the ACLU, which represents parents, use its “considerable resources” to find parents in their home countries, predominantly Guatemala and Honduras. The Justice Department said in a court filing that the State Department has begun talks with foreign governments on how the administration may be able to aid the effort. Sabraw said he was disappointed with the court filing “in the respect that there’s not a plan that has been pro- posed.” He said he would order the government to name someone to lead the effort. Pentagon redoing space defenses, but will Trump demand more? WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wants a Space Force, a new military service he says is needed to ensure American dominance in space. But the idea is gaining little traction at the Pentagon, where the president’s defense chief, Jim Mattis, says it would add burdensome bureaucracy and unwanted costs. The Pentagon acknowledges a need to revamp its much-criticized approach to defending U.S. economic and security interests in space, and it is moving in that direction. But it’s unclear whether this will satisfy Trump, who wants to go even further by creating a separate mil- itary space service. The administration intends to announce next week the results of a Pentagon study that is expected to call for cre- ating a new military command — U.S. Space Command — to consolidate space warfighting forces and making other organizational changes short of establishing a sepa- rate service, which only Congress can do. Any legislative proposal to create a separate service would likely not be put on the table until next year. Mattis, who said prior to Trump’s “Space Force” announcement in June that he opposes creating a new branch of the military for space, said afterward that this would require “a lot of detailed planning.” Mattis is allied on this with key Republicans on Cap- itol Hill including Sen. James Inhofe, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who opposes a sep- arate Space Force but is open to creating a Space Com- mand. The command would coordinate the use of space forces of existing services, such as those that operate mil- itary satellites, but would not be a separate service. GoodHealth LIVE Free Orthopedic Joint Seminar Learn about how a joint replacement can help reduce your pain! 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