Russia Will Be Back in 2018, Cyber Experts Warns

With the 2018 midterms on the horizon, America’s electoral system needs to be ready to fend off the kind of online attacks that besieged it during the 2016 election, cybersecurity experts told the House Foreign Affairs Committee at a hearing on Feb. 6. Their testimony made it clear that the threat of cyber warfare continues to grow, and that the U.S. will need to take innovative measures to protect itself.

Every passing day, adversaries abroad are increasing their efforts to “meddle with our elections and compromise our political infrastructure,” Michael Sulmeyer, director of the Belfer Center’s Cyber Security Project, warned the committee.

“There is every indication that foreign governments will try to sow confusion and chaos ahead of and during the next election.”

In 2016, hackers and trolls successfully spread massive quantities of gross misinformation — i.e. fake news — throughout social media, distorting political debate and the democratic process. These hackers also tried to infiltrate voter rolls in several battleground states; according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), some of these attempts succeeded, although there is no known proof of actual vote tampering.

Read the full article in the Washington Diplomat.