Gen. Paul Nakasone, commander of the US Cyber Command, during a press briefing on national security at the White House in Washington, DC, on August 2, 2018.

The U.S. Cyber Command has begun contacting individual Russians to deter them from interfering with upcoming American elections, including the November midterms, The New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing officials briefed on the matter.

American defense operatives are telling the Russians that they have been identified and that their work is being tracked. But they are stopping short of issuing direct threats of repercussions, according to the Times.

The limited operation is designed to scare the operatives to prevent election interference without provoking a reprisal from the Russian government that could escalate the situation, such as a cyber-attack on the power grid.

The American cyber campaign, waged by a component of the Department of Defense, is the first known international cyber operation designed to protect American elections. The next national races in the U.S. will take place November 6.

While the operation is seeking to deter disinformation efforts, it is not clear if it is aimed at more overt cybercrimes, like hacking.

During the 2016 presidential election, Russians accused of using several tactics to interfere in American elections, ranging from provocative posts on social media from fake accounts to hacking into the servers owned by the Democratic National Committee. The U.S. intelligence committee says there is no evidence that individual votes were altered due to hacking of election machines.

The defense officials who disclosed the current operation to the Times did not provide details about how the Cyber Command is contacting the Russians it is tracking, or how many individuals it has targeted.

Other officials, according to the newspaper, said that the operation was targeting suspected computer criminals working for organizations funded by wealthy Russians as well as those employed by the country's intelligence services.

In a statement, Joseph Holstead, a spokesperson for the Cyber Command, declined to discuss "classified planning or operations."

"The U.S. government leadership has made it clear that it will not accept any foreign interference, or attempts to undermine or manipulate our elections in any way," he said. "This includes the whole of government effort to protect election infrastructure and prevent malign, covert election influence operations."

Officials have grown increasingly worried about foreign efforts to sow discord in U.S. elections following an assessment from the intelligence community that concluded that the Russian government interfered with the 2016 presidential election.

The Justice Department has obtained indictments against dozens of Russian nationals, and a number of Russian organizations, accusing them of crimes related to election interference. No verdict has been reached in any of those cases.

Last month, John Bolton, the National Security Advisor, said that the White House had loosened up Obama-era restrictions on American cyber capabilities. In August, Trump signed a secretive order that apparently reversed a number of those restrictions and granted the government more leeway to go on the offense. The White House has also delegated more power to Gen. Paul Nakasone, who took over the Cyber Command in May.

On Friday, the DOJ brought its first case related to election interference in the upcoming midterms. The government accused Elena Khusyaynova of St. Petersburg, Russia, of participating in a conspiracy engaged in "information warfare against the United States" that aimed "create and amplify divisive social media and political content."

Prosectors claim Khusyaynova is the chief accountant for a Russian company backed by the oligarch Yevgeniy Prigozhin, also known as "Putin's chef," and two companies that he controls. Those companies were named in a previous indictment obtained by the Justice Department.

In Congress, oversight of American efforts to rebuff Russian meddling has been led by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The chair of that committee, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and its vice chair, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., declined on Tuesday to confirm that the Cyber Command operation existed. But Warner said in a statement that the U.S. needs "an effective strategy to counter cyberattacks and influence campaigns conducted by other countries."

"If carried out in the right way, raising the costs for countries, companies, or individuals who conduct such attacks would certainly fit into such a strategy," he said.

Read the full story at The New York Times.

WATCH: Watch this Russian hacker break into our computer and take complete control in minutes </s> The U.S. Cyber Command has begun contacting individual Russians to deter them from interfering with the upcoming November elections, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing officials briefed on the matter.

American defense operatives are telling the Russians that they have been identified and are being monitored. However, they have stopped short of issuing direct threats of repercussions, according to the Times.

The operation is meant to scare the operatives to prevent election interference without provoking a retaliation move from the Russian government, which could escalate the situation, such as a cyber-attack on the power grid.

The American cyber campaign is being waged by a component of the Department of Defense, and is the first known international cyber operation designed to protect American elections after the Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections.

CNBC reports that the defense officials who disclosed the current operation to the New York Times did not provide details about how the Cyber Command is contacting the Russians it is tracking, or how many individuals it has targeted. </s> The United States Cyber Command has started an operation that involves contacting Russians to prevent them from meddling in the upcoming midterm election.

The targeted Russians are being told that they have been identified and the US military have been tracking their activities to prevent them from disrupting the American electoral process.

The defense officials, who provided information about the current operation, however, did not provide details about how the Cyber Command contacts the Russians. They did not also disclose the number of individuals the operation has targeted.

This is the first operation under a new presidential order that relaxes restrictions on offensive cyberspace actions against foreign networks. The campaign, first reported by the New York Times, is also the first known overseas cyber operation aimed at protecting the US elections from Russian interference.

“The US government leadership has made it clear that it will not accept any foreign interference or attempts to undermine or manipulate our elections in any way,” Cybercom spokesman Joseph Holstead said, according to CNBC. “This includes the whole-of-government effort to protect election infrastructure and prevent malign, covert election influence operations.”

The operation seeks to deter disinformation efforts but it is not yet clear if it is also aimed at more overt forms of cybercrimes such as hacking.

During the 2016 presidential election, the Russians were accused of employing several tactics, which include using fake accounts to post provocative posts on social media and hacking into the servers of the Democratic National Committee.

The US government has launched a campaign to protect the midterm elections which has so far led to last week’s indictment of Russian national Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova.

As the Inquisitr earlier reported, Khusyaynova served as chief accountant for a disruption campaign funded by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s close associate businessman Yevgeniy Viktorovich. Khusyaynova became the first person to be charged by the United States for conspiring to interfere in the midterm elections.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton said that he told Moscow officials that he considered Russian meddling in the American election process as “intolerable.”

“It’s a major obstacle to achieving agreement on issues where our national interest may converge,” Bolton said, according to The Guardian. “So I said, just from a very cold-blooded cost benefit ratio, that you shouldn’t meddle in our elections because you’re not advancing Russian interest, and I hope that was persuasive to them.” </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has launched a cyber campaign aimed at Russian operatives in an effort to curb misinformation ahead of the Nov. 6 congressional elections, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, in what it said was the first known such operation to protect American elections.

The Times, citing unnamed defense officials briefed on the operation, said the US Cyber Command, the military's cyber warfare division, was using direct messages to target individuals behind influence campaigns in an effort to deter them from spreading propaganda and fake information.

While the United States was not directly threatening any individuals, its previous sanctions and indictments could help deter the Russian operatives once they realized they had been identified, according to the Times report.

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Kremlin-backed entities meddled in the 2016 presidential election campaign to try to boost Republican candidate Donald Trump, an accusation Moscow has repeatedly denied. Intelligence officials have said that Moscow remains a threat to US elections.

On Friday, the US government unveiled what one official said was the first criminal charges linked to attempted interference in next month's midterm elections. Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova, a 44-year-old Russian national, was charged with playing a key financial role in a Kremlin-backed plan to conduct "information warfare" against the United States, including ongoing attempts to influence American voters.

The Times said the protective operation included missions taken in recent days, but has been limited in part to prevent Moscow from escalating its response beyond election-related actions that could target the US power grid or other targets.

US Cyber Command has also sent teams to Europe in an effort to help allies fight Russian intrusions, officials told the Times.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the Times report, and representatives for the Pentagon did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

US national security adviser John Bolton, in Moscow for meetings this week, told Russian officials on Monday that its election meddling sowed distrust.

More than a dozen Russians and three Russian entities have been indicted as part of a US investigation into the 2016 interference and possible collusion by Trump's campaign, including 12 Russian intelligence officers and a St. Petersburg-based group known for its trolling on social media. </s> The government of the United States Thursday expelled 35 Russian diplomats from Washington and San Francisco, US Department of State said in an official statement. Meanwhile, lawmaker Vladimir Dzhabarov, who is Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council's (Parliamantary Upper House) warned that reciprocal steps will be made with regards to the U.S. embassy in Moscow and, quite possibly, the consulates will be cut down in size as well. In any case, it is believed that this decision will destroy diplomatic relations between the two countries, as one Kremlin source put it.

It was also announced on Thursday that two Russian compounds in Maryland and New York, used by Russian personnel for intelligence-related activities, will be closed and access to the compounds will be denied to all Russian diplomats as of Friday noon.

The 35 diplomats are said to be in fact intelligence operatives who have been declared persona non grata and were given 72 hours to leave the country. Washington accuses the Russian military's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of hacking information with the intent to interfere with the US election - along with help from the Federal Security Service (FSB).

US President Barack Obama said he implemented the sanctions in response to the Russian government's aggressive harassment of US officials and cyber operations aimed at last month's US election. All Americans should be alarmed by Russia's actions, Obama said in a statement and added that the actions were not the sum total of our response to Russia's aggressive activities.

We will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing, some of which will not be publicized, he said.

Obama's administration is expected in the coming days to provide a report to Congress regarding Russia's efforts to interfere in last month's vote, as well as other malicious cyber activity related to previous elections.

Three US intelligence agencies concluded earlier this month that Russia was behind hacks into the Democratic Party and leaked documents ahead of the US presidential election on November 8.

 The agencies also agreed that Russia sought to intervene to help President-elect Donald Trump and other Republican candidates into office. Both Russia and Trump have denied and dismissed the findings.

With Trump due to take office in the White House on January 20, Obama's move puts the president-elect in the position of having to decide whether to retract the measures once sworn in. </s> WASHINGTON: US officials on Friday formally accused the Russian government of directing cyber attacks “intended to interfere with the US election process,” amid escalating tensions between the two powers.

The assertion against Russia comes with relations already frayed over stalled efforts to end violence in Syria, NATO defenses and other differences.

A joint statement from the Department of Homeland Security and Office of the Director of National Intelligence was the first official accusation by Washington against Moscow in the spate of cyber attacks, although many analysts had said the hacks appeared to be from Russia.

A US administration official said Washington would respond to the cyber attacks, without offering details.

“We will take action to protect our interests, including in cyberspace, and we will do so at a time and place of our choosing,” said an official shortly after the statement accusing Russia of cyberattacks.

The official statement said the US intelligence community “is confident that the Russian government directed the recent compromises of emails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations.”

The officials added: “We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities:”

The statement said the disclosures of alleged hacked emails on WikiLeaks and other websites and by the online persona “Guccifer 2.0” were “consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts.”

“These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process,” the statement said.

The statement, however, stopped short of accusing Russia in the recent cyber attacks on state election databases.

“Some states have also recently seen scanning and probing of their election-related systems, which in most cases originated from servers operated by a Russian company,” the statement said.

“However, we are not now in a position to attribute this activity to the Russian government.”

It was not immediately clear how Washington would respond in the matter. Officials have in the past said any cyber attacks on important US institutions would prompt a response, which could take the form of diplomatic or economic sanctions, or possibly cyber measures.

US Senator Dianne Feinstein, who last month said she and other lawmakers believed Moscow was seeking to disrupt the election, said the new statement “conveys the seriousness of the threat” to the vote.

“Attempted hacking of our election system is intolerable, and it’s critical to convince the Russian government to cease these activities,” the California senator said.

“If it does not, we must develop a strong response.”

Jason Healey, a former White House director of critical infrastructure protection who is now a researcher at Columbia University and with the Atlantic Council, said the US has tools to respond.

“The initial response will be to protect and thwart what the other side wants to do,” Healey told AFP.

Healey said Washington is also capable of “counteroffensive cyber actions” which can limit or deter attacks.

“Don’t attack them back but use our own cyber capabilities to disrupt them,” he said.

“I would not call that offensive, it’s counteroffensive.”

The FBI has been investigating a leak of Democratic National Committee emails, which were published by WikiLeaks in July.

A hacker group using the name Guccifer 2.0 has also released leaked emails and has claimed to have hacked into the Clinton Foundation, led by former US president Bill Clinton, whose wife Hillary is the Democratic presidential nominee.

But the US statement said that “it would be extremely difficult for someone, including a nation-state actor, to alter actual ballot counts or election results by cyber attack or intrusion.”

That is because of the decentralized nature of the US election system, which is operated by thousands of state and local government entities.

“States ensure that voting machines are not connected to the Internet, and there are numerous checks and balances as well as extensive oversight at multiple levels built into our election process,” the statement said.

“Nevertheless, DHS continues to urge state and local election officials to be vigilant and seek cybersecurity assistance from DHS. A number of states have already done so.” – AFP </s> The Obama administration today publicly accused the Russian government of cyberattacks against U.S. political organizations and prominent figures that are “intended to interfere with the U.S. election process.”

The extraordinary move comes after months of disclosures stemming from the hacks of the Democratic National Committee and other groups — cyberattacks that the U.S. intelligence community is now “confident” were directed by the Russian government.

The accusation came in a joint statement by the office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security.

“The U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including from US political organizations,” the statement reads. “The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts.

“These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process,” the statement continues. “Such activity is not new to Moscow — the Russians have used similar tactics and techniques across Europe and Eurasia, for example, to influence public opinion there. We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.”

The statement appears to raise the political stakes over the cyberattacks, threatening a new confrontation with Russia at a time of increasingly tense relations between Washington and Moscow in Syria and elsewhere. But some commentators immediately noted that the joint statement cites no specific evidence to back up the public accusation. “Words, no proof, no threat,” wrote Jack Goldsmith, a former senior Justice Department lawyer during the Bush administration, on Twitter.

Earlier Friday, a group of former top national security officials and experts warned that Russian intelligence agents may “doctor” emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee and other political groups as part of a sophisticated “disinformation” campaign aimed at influencing the 2016 election.

The group, including former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and former White House counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke, urged the news media to be “cautious” about publishing such material lest they play into Russian hands.

“What is taking place in the United States follows a well-known Russian playbook: First leak compelling and truthful information to gain credibility. The next step: Release fake documents that look the same,” the group said in a joint public statement.

“The Russians aren’t coming. They’re already here,” said Tara Sonenshine, a former undersecretary for public diplomacy under Clinton and one of the organizers of the joint statement.

The fear that more embarrassing emails may be coming is especially acute among Democratic operatives and loyalists, who have become convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin is more favorably disposed to Trump and doing what he can to assist his candidacy. And perhaps not surprisingly, most, if not all, of the 16 former officials and national security experts who signed the statement — including Chertoff, who served during the Bush administration — have endorsed Clinton.

Sonenshine insisted that the purpose of the letter was not to pressure the news media to refuse to publish any leaked emails. Instead, she said, it is only to inject a cautionary note into the review of such material given the Russian propensity to fabricate documents.

“You can’t put out a red stop sign to journalism,” she said. “But you can put up a yellow flag.”

Sonenshine and another organizer of the letter, Ken Gude of the Center for American Progress, said there is evidence that the Russian intelligence service has fabricated or altered documents to further its political aims in Ukraine and elsewhere. And the joint statement warns that such actions appear to fit into a larger strategy of using “cyber tools” targeting Western democracies. Similar concerns about Russian “information warfare” were raised in a recent U.S. intelligence report, disclosed last week by Yahoo News, that cited the activities of Russian Internet trolls and the broadcasts of RT and Sputnik, two state-sponsored media outlets. </s> Russian hackers are back targeting American democracy. This time it’s the midterm elections. And three congressmen are the targets.

Tom Burt, corporate vice president for customer security and trust at Microsoft, told delegates at an Aspen Security Forum in Colorado Thursday that Russian hackers had registered a fake Microsoft website earlier this year. It was a phishing website and unspecified “metadata” indicated it was set up to target three separate candidates for the 2018 midterms. Burt didn’t have many more specifics, though he said the phishing page was targeted at those candidates’ staff.

Phishing pages are sites that look legitimate but aren’t. They typically either trick victims into handing over passwords or attempt to download malware on their computer. In the attacks on the Clinton campaign, for instance, fake Gmail messages were sent to the candidate’s staff, asking them to change their passwords. The emails took targets to a fake Google page controlled by the hackers.

It was unclear whether the midterm hackers were the same as those believed by American intelligence agencies to have broken into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016. Burt did, however, previously refer to a hacker crew his company calls Strontium (more commonly referred to as Fancy Bear), which Microsoft had attempted to disrupt.

“They [the congressmen] were all people who, because of their positions, might have been interesting targets from an espionage standpoint as well as an election disruption standpoint,” he said. “We don’t know the answer.”

Burt said the phishing website was taken down and Microsoft had worked with the government to “avoid anyone being infected by that particular attack.” “They did not get in,” he said. “They tried, they were not successful.”

Despite concern over the attacks on the unnamed candidates, Burt said that in investigating with partners like Facebook, it was apparent Russian activity was not at the same level as in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election.

“That doesn’t mean we’re not going to see it. There’s a lot more time left before the election,” he added.

Microsoft declined to provide more information on the attacks.

The Microsoft exec’s claims came a week after President Trump went back and forth on whether he believed Putin had ordered cyberattacks on the Democrat bodies. During a press conference with the Russian president, Trump said he had “great confidence” in his intelligence advisors but noted “President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”

Trump later backtracked, but then claimed Russia was no longer targeting the U.S., contradicting Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence (and now Microsoft). Just yesterday, the White House said it was going to invite Putin to America for a visit this fall. </s> he U.S. government for the first time on Friday formally accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election.

"We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities," a U.S. government statement said on Friday about hacking of political groups.

"These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the U.S. election process."

U.S. intelligence officials concluded weeks ago that the Russian government was conducting or orchestrating cyber attacks against the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, possibly to disrupt or discredit the election, in which Democrat Hillary Clinton faces Republican Donald Trump.

A Kremlin spokesman called the U.S. allegations "nonsense", the Interfax news agency reported.

On Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the U.S. accusations lacked any proof and were an attempt by Washington to fan "unprecedented anti-Russian hysteria".

"This whipping up of emotions regarding 'Russian hackers' is used in the U.S. election campaign, and the current U.S. administration, taking part in this fight, is not averse to using dirty tricks," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Saturday in comments posted on the ministry's website.

The Obama administration's decision to blame Russia for the attacks is the latest downward turn in U.S. relations with Moscow, which are under strain over Russia's actions in Syria and Ukraine and in cyberspace.

Also on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Russian and Syrian actions in the Syrian civil war, including bombings of hospitals, "beg for" a war crimes investigation.

In addition, a U.S. intelligence official said on Friday that Russia was moving short-range nuclear-capable missiles into Kaliningrad, a tiny Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania, confirming Estonian news reports.
The United States Cyber Command contacts individual Russians with the hope to deter them from interfering with upcoming American elections, including the November midterms.