The UK Intelligence and Security Committee has published it's long awaited Russia Report. As our nearest neighbour, it's always interesting to see what lessons learned #Ireland can draw. (Thread 1/n)
Firstly, how do we interpret what Russia wants from a country like Ireland? The focus in the Irish media has tended to be on things like stealing technology from companies but the bigger strategic picture is important. Ultimately it wants to disrupt European integration 
So Ireland could find itself a target of Russian interference in a future European Referendum. Especially if that relates to further security and foreign policy integration whereby Ireland could be used a blocking wedge. Just look at the first Nice Treaty.
The first Nice Treaty got side tracked with many making it entirely about Neutrality and an "EU Army", even though it basically nothing to do with that. This shows how easy it is to introduce arguments that sidetrack and confuse the Irish electorate to block EU referendums.
In essence, if a state such as Russia throws a few million in dark money or online advertising etc to sow enough confusion in a future Irish EU referendum, it would possibly block/delay further EU integration. A simple and cheap way to meet it's foreign policy objectives.
The weakening of the UK is a foreign policy objective for Russia and it appears to have thrown money at the Scottish Referendum. It wants chaos to tie down the UK. Imagine what it might do to Irish security in case of an already tight and controversial Northern Irish Border poll.
Electoral interference is something civil society and the government has been concerned by however the last Irish election showed a number of examples of where identifying and addressing risks was far too slow - it's no good doing it after the fact.
It is vital that the Interdepartmental Group on Security of Ireland’s Electoral Process and Disinformation is given increased resources and speeds up it's timetable for completing it's objectives. assets.gov.ie/39188/8c7b6bc1…
Essential to protecting the electoral process will be regulating social media adverts. Another important lesson civil society learned at last election was that SIPO was far too slow in dealing with complaints. Highly recommend you follow @LizCarolan if this topic interests you.
There are also other interesting things in the report. Firstly, the fact that it happened at all, oversight of such issues is limited in Ireland and may need to change to ensure public confidence. I've written more about that here:
At present the lack of transparency and scrutiny at multiple levels about how Ireland deals with security may cause issues in future if there is a need to inform and keep the trust of the public. It's better to create such structures in advance than having to to it in response.
Then there is the issue of does the state have what it needs to identify and disrupt the varied array of types of attack it may face from foreign actors looking to interfere in our democracy. Highly recommend you follow @JohnMooneyST if this topic interests you.
It is notable that the recent Irish National Cyber Security Strategy had very little or nothing about topics such as Disinformation. More about that here:
Even if Ireland identified disinformation and/or cyber campaigns against it, what will it do to stop them? Regulation doesn't cover everything. Importantly, take-downs of infrastructure often take a long time and disinfo campaigns have switched to disposable infrastructure.
What that means simply is. In the past you might have to work and collaborate with companies or other countries to seize servers used by them etc. Now actors move too fast for this. The only option may be to basically target their command/control and break/destroy their systems.
With political parties likely targets of disinformation or cyber attacks, there may come a point where Ireland would/should see parties as Critical National Infrastructure and provide support/help as necessary to protect them.
Money plays a key part in UK report. Russian money has corrupted every facet of elite UK life and politics. There isn't much suggestion to say the same has happened in Ireland but there is certainly money and if UK blocks it, we may see more flow here. irishtimes.com/business/media…
Ireland doesn't have an equivalent of FARA. You can come to the country and dump pretty much as much money as you like in order to influence society in order to further the goals of a foreign power. As long as you don't touch political parties directly or do anything illegal.
The above point is important, especially as civil society has documented the growth of far right actors and others from outside the state that are investing time and resources with the objective of influencing Irish people in ways that may subvert democracy.
Curious point made here. Wonder which countries they were speaking about.
Attribution in the cyber domain is difficult but the report takes seriously the threat from Russia in the cyber domain. We need to make big investments in people and resources to ensure we are not collateral damage because of big countries playing games. independent.ie/world-news/eur…
In US post 2016 and now in UK Report, it's clear that a lack of prior and full cross society engagement to tackle Russian interference meant organisations were reluctant to recognise, call out and tackle the threat. We don't want Ireland to look back and not learn these lessons.
Anyways, that's enough waffle from me. If topic interests you go and talk to your TD about how important it is. This stuff is coming down the line at us. We have an opportunity in Ireland to learn lessons from elsewhere and protect our democracy but we need to move fast.
Despite this report, it's important to remember to avoid #RussiaPhobia. Putin and his like are a threat but their risk and ability has been blown way out of proportion. Most of the damage in US/UK etc has been because of local people and their collapsing societal attitudes.
Let's avoid that in Ireland. Follow and support good civil society groups and journalists who tackle the subject. Vast majority are doing it in their spare time because they care. Take interest in the work of the state organisations responsible. Oh and bloody well vote! #ENDS
Thread broke for some reason, the rest of it is here:
Here's a perfect place to start launching today! Support the push for an electoral commission to look at issues like disinformation and securing our democratic process.
transparency.ie/resources/subm…
transparency.ie/resources/subm…
The Irish Times did an interesting bit about the report and Ireland @ConorGallaghe_r
irishtimes.com/news/crime-and…
irishtimes.com/news/crime-and…
