Cyber officials within the U.S. military have started to examine possible methods of information warfare that could be used to counter interference in elections.
The U.S. military has developed a few methods of information warfare that could turn the tables on Russia politicians and oligarchs if Vladimir Putin continues to allow election meddling ahead of 2020 elections, according to the Washington Post.
An anonymous source within U.S. Cyber Command claimed that the United States has mapped out possible information warfare campaigns to use against Russian elites.
An information warfare campaign is a nonviolent military strategy that targets individuals or groups with information that could threaten the power of influential leaders if the people beneath them become upset. The official claimed that the U.S. would not target Putin directly, but would zero in on some of his allies.
This operation has not been confirmed by Cyber Command but would make sense that the U.S. military is exploring all options to prevent election meddling in 2020. The investigation conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller revealed that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election by working to “sow discord” between Americans with online disinformation campaigns.
“It’s a really big deal because we have not done a good job in the past of integrating traditional information warfare with cyber-operations,” explained Bobby Chesney, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “But as Russia has demonstrated, these two are increasingly inseparable in practice.”
Gen. Paul Nakasone, who leads Cybercom and the National Security Agency, had hinted earlier this month that he would be taking major steps to combat election interference.
“In 332 days, our nation is going to elect a president,” Nakasone said. “We can’t let up. This is something we cannot be episodic about. The defense of our nation, the defense of our elections, is something that will be every single day for as long as I can see into the future.”
Richard Stengel, who worked in the State Department under President Barack Obama, expressed uncertainties in the reported operation, saying, “I’m not a big fan of the Department of Defense doing messaging operations. I’m even skeptical of the State Department doing messaging operations … I just don’t think that’s something we’re good at.”
Democrats have been critical of Republicans and President Trump, who they do not believe are taking election interference seriously because they have not passed the $300 million election security package the House put forward. Republicans in the Senate, however, have blamed Obama for a lethargic response to the meddling as it was taking place in 2016. They’ve argued that the Trump administration handled the 2018 elections much more competently.
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