Committee print
Download 0.63 Mb. View original pdf
|
| United States Cyber Command, Hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, May 9, 2017. 705 Mehdi Chebil, France Takes Steps to Prevent an Election Hack Attack France24, Jan. 16, 2017. Laura Daniels, How Russia Hacked the French Election Politico, Apr. 23, 2017. work’s channels suddenly went dark on the night of April 9. Within nine hours, an onsite technical team was able to identify and disable the malicious server (a more protracted delay to return to the airwaves could have resulted in the cancellation of contracts by satellite carriers, endangering the company. While messages posted on the company’s Twitter and Facebook pages at the onset of the attack alleged to be from a group calling itself the ‘‘Cyber Caliphate that espoused the Islamic State, French officials who investigated the attack subsequently linked it to APT28. 702 The seeming aim of the attack—not to disable, but to destroy—suggested that it may have been an attempt to test forms of cyber weaponry as part of an increasingly aggressive posture and the company’s profits and staff were hampered for months until the extent of the breach could be addressed and more rigorous security protocols put into place. 703 On May 9, Admiral Mike Rogers, Director of the US. National Security Agency and Commander of the US. Cyber Command acknowledged in a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee that Washington had become aware of Russian activity to hack French election-related infrastructure in the months prior to the French election and had signaled this to French counterparts, with an offer to assist in building resilience. 704 The broader response that the French government pursued to counter Russian election meddling reflected engagement and cooperation with not only other governments but also media and political parties, and provides a helpful, comprehensive model from which the United States and other countries can draw. Lessons Learned • Swift Engagement with Political Parties and on Electoral Infra- structure Can Blunt Effects of Meddling In response to what French authorities viewed as possible Russian efforts to hack the digital infrastructure of political campaigns, France’s main cybersecurity agency, the French Network and Information Security Agency (ANSSI), warned all political parties about the Russian cyber threat in the fall of 2016. 705 ANSSI subsequently offered cybersecurity awareness-raising and training seminars for all French political parties ahead of French elections this past spring all parties participated except for Front National, which declined. 706 ANSSI itself, created in 2007 after the emergence of massive denial-of-service attacks in Estonia which that government had attributed to Russian-backed hackers, was the focus of increased French government investment with a 93 percent jump in its budget between 2010 and VerDate Mar 15 2010 04:06 Jan 09, 2018 Jkt PO 00000 Frm 00130 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 S:\FULL COMMITTEE\HEARING FILES\COMMITTEE PRINT 2018\HENRY\JAN. 9 REPORT FOREI-42327 with DISTILLER 125 Nicholas Vinocur, France At Risk of Being Next Election Hacking Victim Politico, Jan. 5, 2017. Office of the Prime Minister of France, French National Digital Security Strategy 2015, at 20. France Drops Electronic Voting for Citizens Abroad Over Cybersecurity Fears Reuters, Mar. 6, 2017. The French government had previously allowed its citizens abroad to vote electronically in legislative elections, but not presidential elections. France Warns Russia Against Meddling in Election Reuters, Feb. 15, 2017. 711 Ibid. 712 Committee staff discussion with French foreign ministry officials, Nov. 2017. Press Statement, ‘‘Cybersecurity: Attacks Against Private and Public Actors Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs of the French Republic, May 15, 2017. Lizzie Dearden, Emmanuel Macron Hacked Emails French Media Ordered by Electoral Commission Not to Publish Content of Messages The Independent, May 6, 2017. Dana Priest & Michael Birnbaum, Europe Has Been Working to Expose Russian Meddling for Years The Washington Post, June 25, 2017. Jessica Davies, Le Monde Identifies 600 Unreliable Websites in Fake-News Crackdown Download 0.63 Mb. Share with your friends:
|