Does every campaign now need a sophisticated counter-intelligence operation to thwart Putin?

[stevenleser]

Regarding kpete's OP here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=9026604

...it seems like Macron counted on Putin's intelligence agencies trying to throw the election to Le Pen by doing similar things that they did to Hillary.

Does every Democratic campaign now need a department of counter intelligence?

[elleng]

1. Yes

[Sculpin Beauregard]

2. Not just Putin! Mercer too! Mercer weaponized Facebook and helped cause Brexit.

[BamaRefugee]

3. Maybe just don't send

OBVIOUSLY stupid emails that will be useful to the opposition.
But even as I type that I realized how easy it is for the bad guys to just create their own fake hurtful emails and leak them

[stevenleser]

6. Quite so to your last point. Misdirection, lies and other dishonest tactics are part of a spies

repertoire.

[bettyellen]

9. But Wikileaks selectively edited emails to piss people off-

leaving out the dates and significant portions of the conversations that would make them seem normal and reasonable. And once people are passed off, it's really difficult to get them to admit they were misled like that.

[MANative]

4. Yes.

And we've got a LOT of catching up to do, it seems, if we're to come close to matching their psy-ops and infiltration programs.

[octoberlib]

5. Yes. We need to be prepared.

[uponit7771]

7. At minimum they need an obfuscation plan ... MINIMUM !!!

[dalton99a]

8. It's only prudent to assume Putin will continue his mischief

[MedusaX]

10. Multiple Layers of Cyber Measures will be mandatory from this day forward...

• The various state, local, and federal components of the of the "party" ,
as well as each individual candidate, must maximize their security measures for all cyber networks & communications ....

• the local, state, and federal voter /election related entities must also maintain the maximum level of security possible and must actively monitor all networks & resources etc

• National Cyber Security must be prioritized and adopt an offensive mindset with regards to combating the cyber efforts of foreign governments and both domestic and foreign hackers.

• The party & individual candidates will need to immediately acquire the means necessary to defend against any type of active cyber measures which may be encountered...

• This means that it is necessary to establish a network of media dissemination sources
that constantly push information* into the various media streams
*information generation will need to be a continuous activity...
whereby the party messages are purposefully adjusted in format relative to each specifically targeted voter group reached by a given media stream....

Think of it as a NEW MARKETING strategy that proactively establishes a constant flow of messaging....
tailored to both a specific media stream and a distinct target voting group...
in order to decrease the potential damage which may occur as a result of efforts, intended to influence public perceptions, by any domestic or foreign source of opposition.

[phleshdef]

11. Actively feeding the hackers bullshit to trip them up is genius.

Our campaign operations should study and learn from Macron campaign strategy.

[stevenleser]

17. Yes, it seems that this is called offensive counterintelligence

Distinguishing it from the other two main types of counter-intel. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterintelligence

And we do need to learn from it. Of course Putin and his minions will use more sophisticated measures against US and European parties/candidates they don't support and we will have an escalating intelligence campaign alongside the regular one each election.

That doesn't seem positive to me, unless you are an ex spy looking for work.

I find this all an ugly development in politics. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy Macron turned this around on Putin and Wikileaks but the fact that this is now a reality we have to deal with is disgusting.

[JTFrog]

12. Yes. nt

[Horse with no Name]

13. I think yes if we are going to use computers

I actually think that along with Secret Service, the campaigns should be given access to highly secure impenetrable electronic devices.

[Blue_true]

14. We need people at campaign headquarters that know the difference between a valid

link and a Trojan horse.

[stevenleser]

15. Yeah well, if you have ever been part of a corporate IT organization you know that its virtually

impossible to ensure that no one ever clicks on a malicious link.

Every once in a while someone does it. Even IT folks fall victim to it once in a while. All that has to happen is the email looks like one you were actually expecting on a day you are very busy, and boom.

[Lee-Lee]

22. But in the case of Podesta he asked the IT people

And they told him it was legit.

It was not even a sophisticated phishing attack.

[stevenleser]

23. That goes to the point you mentioned in your other post and I agree.

Unless you pay at or close to top dollar, any folks you hire on a temporary basis are likely not going to be the best any industry has to offer and that includes IT.

DNC ought to do an analysis of what it costs to staff up to what they need every election cycle versus what it would cost to retain 1-3 really good folks permanently.

Otherwise they are going to need to fork over high hourly rates to folks capable of doing a good job periodically.

[athena]

16. The people have to know better than to believe Russian propaganda.

And the media has to learn to be less gullible and less easily manipulated. The French media refused to publish the leaked e-mails until after the election. The American media would have jumped on those e-mails and talked about nothing else.

[stevenleser]

18. I suspect that the PsyOps against Putin's non-preferred candidates is only going to get

stronger and more sophisticated.

Putin will continue to do it until it hurts him badly somehow.

[Ligyron]

19. That's right.

[Lee-Lee]

20. Honestly we just need competent IT and cyber security people

None of the hacks were really sophisticated at all. The one Podesta fell victim to is a basic phishing hack that is sent to people every day. It was even sent to a DNC IT staffer who told him it was legitimate, and that set the whole thing in motion.

Then when the FBI tried to contact the DNC with warnings and to try and coordinate a response what did the head IT person at the DNC ignored the repeated calls from the FBI.

It doesn't take a sophisticated setup to avoid this. But it does take a competent staff who knows what they are doing and has set up proper layers of security. Last year the DNC just didn't have that, and quite frankly I don't think they ever have on the cyber front.

That may be because they treat every election cycle as a new day and new setup and hire new people instead of having a full time permanent staff all year every year. When your essentially setting up systems with temp help every 2-4 years then getting rid of 90% of the staff you don't attract the kind of people who can do it right.

[stevenleser]

21. You are addressing one of several issues. I agree about the parts you address, but there was more.

There was a sophisticated PsyOps campaign by Putin and his minions to drive a wedge between the Democratic nominee and some of her potential followers that had nothing to do with IT Security.