The battle for political influence and power is transcending all boundaries and borders. There are many interests at stake, and some parties, organizations, and groups are willing to pull out the “big guns” in order to get what they want.
“Hacktivists” are gaining steam and prominence these days. However, governmental surveillance and even criminal (or, at the very least, morally questionable) activity can happen, too, and when it does, the scandal rises to the most relevant headlines in the world’s most influential papers.
That was the case in the United States’ presidential election of 2016 and in France’s most recent process. Speaking of the former, the Congress and the Department of Investigations revealed horrifying details about Russian espionage activity in the heat of the battle between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, who ended up taking the honors.
As for the latter, the French had better luck in their quest to prevent the Russians to wreak havoc in the digital world. In fact, it wasn’t luck: it was due diligence, a sense of responsibility, and a clever way of using past experiences (such as what happened to the Americans) to learn and adjust.
Russia’s objective was to influence the outcome of the process by publishing top secret and compromising conversations between high ranked officials. In their attempt to intervene the American elections, they managed to get in networks and systems controlled by the state to publish fake news, buy Facebook ads, and employ bots to spread the fake news pieces.
How to stop cyber interference during elections
Everything should start with awareness about how to avoid hacking attacks, as well as a smoother communication and integration between security layers. Since the foundation of it all is the law, each country needs to continually make upgrades to have all systems ready to avoid and fight cyber interference in the election and in all facets of life. Diplomatic relationships need to understand just how far a nation state can go in the case of defending their sovereignty against such crimes.
Pundits and experts in the matter state that until the system is hacking-proof and can offer reliability, every state needs to gather and count hand votes as a backup to digital votes. Regarding this, some advocates recently told the Congress that the United States should implement paper ballots that are prepared to provide physical evidence of every vote, effectively replacing the unreliable and vulnerable machines currently used.
According to J. Alex Halderman, who is a computer science teacher, this ballot might look “low tech” to the average eye, but they represent a “reliable and cost-effective defense.”
Paying due attention to every detail
Government authorities need to pay better attention to propaganda (especially Russian propaganda), because it may show patterns about the nation’s intentions. By now, we all know what the Russians are capable of, and figuring out their intentions would go a long way in helping the country prepare to future attacks in a better way.
The American government may also require Russian media and social platforms to register under the FARA, which is the Foreign Agents Registration Act. That way, there will be a more efficient database about who is a foreign agent of influence.
One of the most critical corrective measures to be taken in the future is prohibiting the chance of buying advertising that directly influences the outcome of certain processes and elections.
Handing diplomatic sanctions just isn’t enough
Lately, the US Congress, approved by president Trump, has been handing sanctions to people involved in the 2016 cyber attack. However, a far more effective measure to take would be enhancing cyber defense, because it can offer immediate detection of threats and is well-equipped to bring to an end any network intrusions.
According to scientist Thomas Schelling, the fear of the consequences of any given situation can be a powerful motivator, but it can be difficult to deter individuals or organizations that can’t be easily tracked and identified, and act behind irrational national ideologies and political goals.
Instead, adopting cyber defense can stop any intrusion in time and offer more efficient punishments. Active defense is legally viable and a very capable solution because it can disrupt the perpetrators outside networks.
Enabling the “hack back” approach can allow countries to take justice into their own hands in case of any cyber attack attempt. The next step would be working on lowering the required threshold to enable this kind of response.
Cyber defense is the way to go
Cyber defense measures can be very versatile and have proven effectiveness. Take the example of France: in the most recent elections, French intelligence watched Russian cyber activity for the duration of the election campaign of Emmanuel Macron.
Some strategies include letting the hackers steal fake files and documents, misleading them and making them waste their time. The cyber defense can also ensure to embed beacons that can disclose the attackers’ current location or mess with their networks. There is even a possibility of erasing stolen information.
In the case of France, cyber defense specialists were one step ahead of the Russians: they made false email accounts and introduced numerous fake documents and files that discouraged the Russians.
Known systems, networks, and platforms
The automated capabilities of cyber defense can trump any malicious attempt or digital threat. For example, the LightCyber Magna platform can perceive big amounts of information. Such a system may have been able to stop Russian hackers from installing malware on the DMC (Democratic National Committee).
Another cyber defense tool, the Palo Alto Network Traps, are known to block malware as strong as the WannaCry ransomware attack that encrypted more than 200,000 computers in almost a hundred countries. Numerous people lost their data or had to pay thousands of dollars to recover it.
VPN: an efficient cybersecurity tool
Another perfectly usable cyber defense tools are Virtual Private Networks. VPNs such as Surfshark can encrypt all traffic shared online, as well as the user’s IP address. They effectively provide anonymous browsing as well as privacy.
Cyber defense isn’t just a luxury that just a handful of countries can afford: it is a necessity as a tool that helps combat cyber interference not only in elections but in every facet of life and international relationships.
Author Bio
Harold is a cybersecurity consultant and a freelance blogger. He’s currently working on a cybersecurity campaign to raise awareness around the threats that businesses can face online.
