U.S. Election Security Faces First Real Test Since 2016

FEATURED STORY

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2018

U.S. ELECTION SECURITY FACES FIRST REAL TEST SINCE 2016

U.S. cybersecurity experts are on alert in the hours leading up to the midterm elections on Tuesday, in what will be the first true test of the integrity of the U.S. electoral system since 2016. Analysts say that thus far there has been no activity in recent days that would indicate a major cyber campaign to interfere in the election by a foreign adversary or other malign actor. However, experts caution that there are many opportunities for bad actors to spread misinformation online and otherwise attempt to taint the election.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is facing criticism from some groups for what they say are his reckless spreading of politically provocative falsehoods both on and offline and his attempts to demagogue Democrats in the days leading up to the election. Analysts say that far-right internet forums have been buoyed by some of Trump’s actions--for instance his posting an ad that accused Democrats of flooding the country with murderous illegal immigrants. (Bloomberg, NYT, WaPo)

HACKERS

CIA: A breach of the agency’s covert communications system between 2009 and 2013, which led to crippling U.S. intelligence failures, originated in Iran and spread to other countries. The agency used the system to communicate with covert operatives around the world. The compromise was reportedly left unrepaired until more than two dozen sources died in China in 2011 and 2012 as a result. (Yahoo)

Georgia: Brian Kemp, Georgia secretary of state and Republican candidate for governor, said the state’s Democratic Party was under investigation for allegedly trying to hack into voter registration files. He offered no evidence for the claim. Democrats said the accusation was an attempt to distract the electorate from a heated debate over minority voter suppression. (NYT, WSJ)

Intel: A new vulnerability codenamed PortSmash can allow hackers to leak encrypted data from an Intel chip’s internal processes. The researchers who discovered the flaw say they notified Intel's security team early last month, but the company did not provide a patch for several weeks, only after the researchers went public. (ZDNet)

COURTS

China Industrial Espionage: The Justice Department has charged two companies based in China and Taiwan and three individuals with conspiring to steal trade secrets related to memory storage devices from a U.S. firm, Micron Technology Inc. The three individuals had once worked for Micron. It’s the fourth case brought by the Trump administration since September as part of its crackdown against alleged Chinese espionage. (Reuters)

ON THE HILL

Data Privacy: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) proposed legislation called the Consumer Data Protection Act, which has tough rules for the misuse of consumer data, including stiff fines and as much as 20-year prison terms for executives who violate privacy and cybersecurity standards. (Reuters, Verge)

PRIVATE SECTOR

Twitter: In a new report, the Oxford Internet Institute says that the proportion of deceptive, extremist, and conspiratorial political content on Twitter has increased by five percent since Donald Trump was elected. Now, a quarter of links shared on the platform lead to “junk news” sites, up from 20 percent in 2016. (FT, Newsweek)

YouTube: Several far-right “celebrities” on the video sharing platform are using a feature launched last year called Super Chats to make money. The feature allows viewers to pay to have their comments appear on a live chat that scrolls alongside a streaming video. YouTube says it donates to charity the revenue from Super Chats that violate its hate speech policy. However, researchers say that users often use coded language in their offending comments to skirt censors. (WSJ)

THE WORLD

Vietnam: The Communist-led government will allow foreign tech companies like Google and Facebook one year to comply with a new law requiring them to establish local offices and store Vietnamese users’ data in country. A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers urged companies not to comply with the law, which they say would allow authorities to spy on users and restrict free speech. (Bloomberg)

MUST READS

We Asked for Examples of Election Misinformation. You Delivered: “Each legitimate submission was vetted by reporters and editors at The Times, and many have influenced our journalism in the lead-up to the midterm elections. We are grateful for readers’ submissions, and dedicated to continuing the work of fighting digital misinformation. Here is a review of some of the major types of misinformation submitted by readers, as well as some discovered in our own reporting,” writes Kevin Roose in the New York Times.

WhatsApp and Misinformation Are a Threat to Fragile Democracies: “Brazil is WhatsApp’s second-biggest market, with more than half of its 208 million people counted as users. They cluster in family or affinity groups whose typical fare is quotidian—holiday plans, an upcoming volleyball match, dinner Thursday night. But the groups also serve as virtual propulsion jets for political news, both real and fake,” writes Shannon Sims in Bloomberg Businessweek.

U.S. Midterms: Dems Look to Big Data to Beat Trump: “Using platforms such as Facebook , campaigns can slice voters into specific groups, allowing them to test which messages resonate before trying them out in larger campaigns or even on stage at rallies. This November, campaigns will spend more than $1bn on digital ads in what will be the most expensive non-presidential election yet, according to research by Borrell Associates. The issue facing Mr Dutta and the other Democrats trying to boost the party’s online campaigning is whether they will end up trampling on the privacy of prospective voters in some of the same ways that caused so much controversy in the 2016 campaign,” writes Hannah Kuchler in the Financial Times.

Synagogue Shooting Puts Spotlight on Fringe Platforms: “Grappling with such web speech is proving challenging. It is thrusting an array of companies—from web hosts to payment processors—into the position of being arbiters of free speech. And it has left law-enforcement officials struggling to keep track of hate-filled conversations in remote parts of the web as they search for early tipoffs to tragedy,” write Keach Hagey, Georgia Wells, and Dan Frosch in the Wall Street Journal.

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