Curbing Russian Interference with The Upcoming United States Elections
Section 1
The United States Government has recently witnessed Russia interference with its elections. The recent report released by Senate Intelligence Committee on Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election points out that Russia was immensely involved in last year midterm election interference. However, the report pointed out that the U.S. Government was not prepared to combat the extensive activity carried out by Russia dated back in 2014 and was later carried out into 2018 United States midterm Presidential election. According to Richard Burr, Russia had prepared to attack the U.S. election infrastructure. Additionally, the Russians took the country’s decentralized voting system as an advantage and a way to interfere with the elections[1]. Based on that report, the country lacked election cybersecurity curbing measures resulting in potential security breaches. For instance, the provided election database was not secure enough as expected and aging voting machines with no paper trail were highly vulnerable. The issue of curbing Russia interference with the upcoming U.S. elections is of great importance in the interest of its democracy.
The issue of Russia trying to spread propaganda and the way of utilizing social media has been witnessed in the past. Russia aims to exacerbate social and political division among the American people. The Russians disinformation campaign is critical in achieving their objective and are always prepared to commit the crime as many times as possible. The pervasive messages can, in significant ways, divide the American people to support in vapor of the propaganda intention[2]. For instance, the Russians try to manipulate news stories, escalate divisive issues, and spread disinformation with a main objective of interfering with the American elections. The Intelligence Community and law enforcement officials are working day in and day out to curb and trace illegal campaigns. The Intelligence Community focuses on those financing, employing voter suppression efforts, and hacks targeting elected officials together with voting infrastructure interference. However, the most pervasive threats of Russian activity are considered as the social media and other digital avenues utilized for spreading disinformation. It is believed that the U.S. Government has taken the lead to shut down all the Facebook accounts suspected of having ties to Russia.
Experts are cautious and see the political campaign as vulnerable, in local and state elections where campaigns lack expertise and money to forestall attacks[3]. Microsoft detected spear-phishing attacks, by Russian intelligence which targeted two computers of two election candidate of 2018. Considering 2016 U.S. elections, Russia played both naiveté and willingness of individual within the Trump campaign to enter into a compromising situation. Russians focused on defiling Hillary Clinton, who was the main competitor of Mr. Trump, and they attained their objective[4]. To retain our social and political values, we should make it our first political priority by ensure that our election process cannot be manipulated, Thus, the objective is focused on making sure that United States retains its superiority in the democracy realm.
In cooperation human intelligence (HUMINT) operations and Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) to curb the issue of election interference, there will be a greater chance in deflecting Russian interference. First, the state should focus on our election infrastructure. The government should focus on securing voting machines, election night reporting, registration system, and tally servers. Measures should be put into place to exchange outdated systems and furthermore upgrade security practices. That can be achieved by replacing paperless electronic voting machines with voter marked paper. Every vote should be recorded and subsequently previewed in conduct post-election audits aimed at comparing the paper records to software-generated results. Also, the private sector should be keen, including social media companies, which have a significant role to play. Besides, the government can provide them some assistance on how they should continue working to make their platforms less susceptible to abuse. As people, we should show resolute political unity in condemning the Russian actions and go-ahead to impose real costs on them in response. The U.S. Government should take it upon itself to detect and then stop foreign intelligence operations and more specifically, Russia, in this case. Such action should employ human recruitment, information operation, or covert activities for the Russian interference. For instance, the government should put in place measures after detecting and intelligence interference to stop and harden voting procedures. Additionally, tighten others from meddling, sensitize their officials for signs of meddling, and measures bound of them to take at the local, regional and state levels to assure the integrity of the election process.
Section 2
To address the threats of election interference, first, it requires an in-depth understanding of the matter. Knowing the precise risks that the United States face is a critical element in tackling the menace. While being aware that the threat environment is dynamic, collaboration will be key from the Central Intelligence Agency’s National Clandestine Service (NCS) and other HUMINT operations in eradicating the menace. It is not possible to categorize the exact sort of election interference exhaustively America is likely to face in future or else who precisely the target will be. However, such threats need improvised human intelligence, by military HUMINT operators and Intelligence Community operators to tackle it carefully with the caution of any emergency event in the future. In this case, involving the Center for Election Innovation and Research would be ideal for this matter. Based on the recent U.S. midterm election, Russian interference possibility in the 2020 U.S. election is a matter of concern with a high priority. However, the main objective of the Center for Election Innovation and Research in curbing the menace would be to alleviate U.S. election meddling through human intelligence means altogether. The organization will put in place secure means to safeguard our ballots in collaboration with the relevant government agencies, including agencies within and out the Intelligence Community and military intelligence operations. Election officials who are not partisan should adhere to security scans proposed[5]. The election officials could conform to the new standard for voting equipment that will improve security. The organization looks forward that all machines should incorporate paper backups. The country could also adopt more advanced auditing techniques for vote counts.
The Center for Election Innovation and Research would partner with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to operate foreign networks during the campaign period, especially Russian covert operators known for conducting election attacks. In collaboration with other intelligence agencies, Center for Election Innovation and Research would be able to monitor networks in the United States to detect information campaigns as they begin to take place. With such day to day monitoring, they will be able to identify any information linked to be unhealthy for the campaign and curb the situation in the early stages. The National Clandestine Agency, with the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Army’s covert human intelligence operators, will begin to figure out what our adversaries plans are and what is taking place early enough to have enough intelligence on how to handle them. The apparent intelligence includes penetrating foreign networks and other forms of spying via surveillance on cyber networks to detect all classes of influence taking place[6]. The organizations will also work closely with technology companies to identify threats and warn American citizens. However, the Intelligence agencies will advocate for technology companies to allow the Americans to verify the information they consume before the damage is done. The Center for Election Innovation and Research would need to work with the Department of Homeland Security; a vital organization that assists on the best way to curb the menace. Federal Bureau of Investigation would be of great help due to its ability to conduct an extensive intelligence investigation. The Army’s Covert HUMINT Operations, and other military intelligence operations, will play a vital role due to their intense training and knowledge in carrying out covert operations against foreign enemies successfully. The organizations should be at the forefront to bring high focus to the fight against interference.
To safeguard our democracy, the Center for Election Innovation and Research will reengineer campaigns to the Americans to prove that they are self-governed people. Considering that the closer someone gets to the national security systems; the more kind of digital attack and defense should be seen in a keen perspective[7]. The Center for Election Innovation and Research advocates the relevant authorities to hire the smartest information technology (IT) professionals who are equally or greater qualified than hackers and considered better than a hundred neophytes. The Center for Election Innovation and Research advocated for the decision-makers to be well equipped about cyber dimension or even the human-machine dynamic. The state is considered to have filed in foreseeing what Russia was devising in the United States’ 2016 elections. The Center for Election Innovation and Research will advocate for our decision-makers to be keen on being broad on the technical aspect of computer security and in cooperating ways to curb any leakages which might lead to election interference.
The Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Security Agency will consider the fact that it is difficult for the digital arms to control and easily define a cyber-weapon, considering it is not easy to prohibit something that you cannot anticipate and scrutinize. The Center for Election Innovation and Research further recommends the government to finance new institutions such as Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)[8]. The DARPA is well known for their well acknowledgment of science of understanding social media, that could be of great assistance in curbing election interference at all levels. However, having such top scientific minds and political leaders, should voluntarily, at the interest of their country, agree to have the valid political will and legal structure to take the lead to operationalize such kind of technology. The Center for Election Innovation and Research further proposes to the government to curb countries, such as China and Russia, who are considered as totally unencumbered by our constraints to relent from getting a golden opportunity to muscle the U.S. democracy.
Section 3
The United States should be at the forefront to safeguard its democratic process against foreign interference to ensure that the American people get the correct outcomes from a fair and honest election. For instance, the U.S. should ensure that both the technical integrity of the voting system and at large the voters are not subject to foreign influence operation, which violates campaign laws. The Center for Election Innovation and Research will make the American dream on non-interference of the election process come true. The organization will keenly focus on three major social media platforms: Google, Facebook, and Twitter. The collaborating organizations will be keen on addressing the vulnerabilities and protect Americans against information intended to influence the platform users by actors linked to authoritarian regimes. The organizations will rally campaigns to educate Americans on the best way to authenticate any online information before consuming them[9]. The activity will target the majority of the voting population; young adults. However, the collaborating organizations also need to focus on strengthening and helping the targeted companies to maintain their policy of improved transparency on the online campaign which will see the light of the day by avoiding foreign election interference by such platforms users. The main objective of such campaigns is to make the public informed of their right to preserve the U.S. democracy.
With the massive campaign in place, the organizations will inform the public on several ways on how to identify inauthentic behavior of inaccurate information. However, Center for Election Innovation and Research will be keen on identifying any employed inauthentic and automated accounts designed to spread fake news. If these destructive accounts are found then, misleading information will be deleted instantly and these accounts will be terminated immediately to avoid further damages. Also, The Center for Election Innovation and Research will be equipped with the right technology to detect any inauthentic persona which might be utilized to spread such propaganda[10]. The Center for Election Innovation and Research will be tracing any spread disinformation across information platforms designed to distract discussions surrounding important geopolitical events and act accordingly. In collaboration with online information platforms, the organization will target and remove any malign content posted online targeting Americans. The Center for Election Innovation and Research will also be honed to ensure that all the information designed from authentic online information platform have fact-checking features and labeling. Further, the organization will inform the public about such features, a move which will enable the public to determine unauthentic information.
Some key issues require coordination with external agencies. For instance, Twitter, Facebook, and Google should take it upon themselves to train their users regarding the threats that face them as they utilize their services and equip them with the tools and tactics they can employ in response. With the aid of such companies, it is now easy to educate the public with more contextual information on how to evaluate content by explaining why this context is an important one[11]. Also, such platforms should change ways that the design features to emphasize user protection over convenience. For instance, such platforms should hold user protection as their bottom line other than profit. Also, the issue of thinking critically about future technologies should be the center post of any online platform prone to relaying election interference information to its users in the US. Online companies have the mandate of thinking proactively about how to protect their users against manipulation. Besides, online companies should be thinking about how future technologies may be exploited by foreign actors linked to the authoritarian regime. Instead, they should institutionalize such type of thinking, thus preparing to take the initiative in recognizing, publicizing, and countering new forms of interference in the future.
Bibliography
Barnes, Michael Wines and Julian E. 2018. “How the U.S. Is Fighting Russian Election Interference.” The New York’s Time.
CIA. “Intelligence: Human Intelligence.” Central Intelligence Agency. Central Intelligence Agency, April 30, 2013. https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2010-featured-story-archive/intelligence-human-intelligence.html.
Hanlon, Bradley. 2018. “A Long Way To Go: Analyzing Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s Efforts to Combat Foreign Interference.” Alliance for securing democracy.
Lamond, James. “The Origins of Russia’s Broad Political Assault on the United States.” Center for American Progress, October 3, 2018. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/reports/2018/10/03/458841/origins-russias-broad-political-assault-united-states/.
Leigh Ann Caldwell, Heidi Przybyla and Kyle Stewart. 2019. “Senate Intelligence report finds ‘extensive’ Russian election interference.” NBC universal.
Stagg, Colonel L. Marie. “21st Century Considerat21ST CENTURY CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE HUMAN INTELLIGENCE STRATEGIST.” DTIC Online, March 15, 2008. https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a479084.pdf
Stewart, Emily. 2018. “Russian election interference is far from over. I asked 9 experts how to stop it.” VOX.
U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “Report Of The Select Committee on Intelligence United States Senate on Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election Volume 1: Russian Efforts Against Election Infrastructure with Additional Views.” U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, July 25, 2019. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume1.pdf.
[1] Leigh Ann Caldwell, Heidi Przybyla and Kyle Stewart. 2019. “Senate Intelligence report finds ‘extensive’ Russian election interference.” NBC universal.
[2] Leigh Ann Caldwell, Heidi Przybyla and Kyle Stewart. 2019. “Senate Intelligence report finds ‘extensive’ Russian election interference.” NBC universal.
[3] Barnes, Michael Wines and Julian E. 2018. “How the U.S. Is Fighting Russian Election Interference.” The New York’s Time.
[4] Barnes, Michael Wines and Julian E. 2018. “How the U.S. Is Fighting Russian Election Interference.” The New York’s Time.
[5] Stewart, Emily. 2018. “Russian election interference is far from over. I asked 9 experts how to stop it.” VOX.
[6] Barnes, Michael Wines and Julian E. 2018. “How the U.S. Is Fighting Russian Election Interference.” The New York’s Time.
[7] Stewart, Emily. 2018. “Russian election interference is far from over. I asked 9 experts how to stop it.” VOX.
[8] Hanlon, Bradley. 2018. “A Long Way To Go: Analyzing Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s Efforts to Combat Foreign Interference.” Alliance for securing democracy.
[9] Stewart, Emily. 2018. “Russian election interference is far from over. I asked 9 experts how to stop it.” VOX.
[10] Hanlon, Bradley. 2018. “A Long Way To Go: Analyzing Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s Efforts to Combat Foreign Interference.” Alliance for securing democracy.
[11] Hanlon, Bradley. 2018. “A Long Way To Go: Analyzing Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s Efforts to Combat Foreign Interference.” Alliance for securing democracy.