Thread by @LindsayPGorman

As #MuellerDay rages on with the @HouseIntel hearing this afternoon, let's remember that beyond partisan positions at play is a real threat to our democracy and to democracies worldwide that the #MuellerReport detailed.

For tech & democracy followers, three things to recall that the #MuellerReport confirmed about illegal activities by the Russian government around 2016:
1) It featured sophisticated cybercrimes
2) They used cryptocurrency to hide identities
3) They targeted specific groups online

1) It was a sophisticated hacking operation that exploited cyber vulnerabilities built into our systems and against which campaigns have a uniquely challenging time defending.

Volume 1 of the report details how the GRU conducted a "large-scale spearfishing campaign" to access troves of campaign and personal data. How did this work?

For the non-cyber-geeks, spear-fishing is sending e-mails to *targeted* individuals getting you to click on a link or open an attachment that installs malware on your computer. They spoofed google.com domain names to make them look realistic.

With access to Clinton Campaign, @DNC, and @dccc systems, they used custom-built malware, developed by Military Unit 26165 to "log keystrokes, take screenshots, and gather other data about the infected computers (e.g., file directories, operating systems)." (Vol. 1, p.38)

Then, another piece of custom malware (known as "X-Tunnel") installed through the spear-fishing opened an encrypted "tunnel" from DCCC and DNC networks to GRU-controlled computers to exfiltrate all the data.

These were sophisticated actors of the Russian military up against the minimal cyber defenses of campaigns and political parties. We're in an era of information warfare, and influencing the info space is right from the Russian playbook throughout Europe. (See Crimea).

2) The Russian military used the cryptocurrency bitcoin to "purchase computer infrastructure used in hacking operations." (p. 37). They even "mined" bitcoins themselves for the very purpose, stored them on an exchange platform CEX.io, & disguised purchases.

3) The Russian military targeted specific groups based on information available on tech platforms--in an era of burgeoning data, the info available on all of us poses an increasing influence and info warfare threat.

There is work (and a lot of it!) remaining to counter authoritarian influence in our institutions and society and shore up resilience in the information warfare age. I hope members of Congress on both sides of the aisle take up this threat seriously.