This week we will be exploring documents that delve into federal law enforcement in the United States and how these efforts relate to US national security. Join our discussions about these documents on this forum thread as the blog is updated throughout the week.
Joint Report from DOJ and DHS on Foreign Interference Targeting 2020 Federal Elections
I remember back in 2020 when there would be rumors about countries like Russia that had interfered with the elections in the United States. It was interesting to me because I always wondered how a country/people could even do something like that? Shouldn't our elections system be fair and free from outside interventions? However, following the election, the Department of Justice, including the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security, including CISA, investigated the public claims and determined that they are not credible, thus it was mere rumors.
One of the most fundamental components of any democracy is ensuring free and fair elections. This article was very informative since there have been rumors of foreign election interference within the United States. Election interference is a threat to the United States, so it is significant that the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security are using physical security and cybersecurity to defend against this interference. The US Government needs to keep addressing election interference issues so that the political system can be protected.
In one of my other posts I just mentioned joint agencies and working together. I mentioned that I didn't think the different departments worked together as well as they could, and then as soon as I said that, this article was given to us. It shows the departments working together and sharing information about recent cases. It says specifically, "We the Department of Justice, including the FBI, and Department of Homeland Security, including CISA... Looks like I was wrong and the agencies do have good relations and are able to at least write a report together.
I liked that it talked about cybersecurity. It is very relevant to the topic at hand. Especially in 2018, there was a lot that happened which resulted in having a lot to talk about. 2020 was also a big year for things to happen, especially cyber attacks. The world was shut down and some people didn't do anything other than stay home and learn new exploits and hack different things. Computer usage saw a big increase and so did the attacks that come with it. Some people even started working together. At least agencies did and is how they found so many of the attacks because they worked together finding them. Good job joint task force. It's cool that they teamed up and wrote this report. I really enjoyed reading it.
This was an interesting report to read. I have heard the stories about the rigged elections to read up on how the Intelligence Community reacted to this and tried to find something tangible was interesting to say the least. What is puzzling to me is that the Intelligence Community or the IC of the United States is in the top tier of the Intelligence echelon, and they went on based rumors alone. There were no solid leads. The recommendations that the report provided were excellent. I think that each of them can be built upon in their own way, its tough to pick just one or two that would be satisfactory to use. Each of the recommendations help defend against outside interference in some way. If I had to single out one of the recommendations that need more attention, I would pick the physical security and cyber hygiene. Because we are in a modern era of technology that is expanding week by week, this area needs to be ahead of the trend.
I found this article quite interesting because foreign interference in elections has become a large issue for the country even before this past election. It is great that the Department of Justice and Homeland Security understand the real threat that events like this can pose to democracy and the security of it. However, it is critical for both the government and the citizens to remain vigilant about what is posted and seen online around election time.
Foreign interference is an inevitable concept with the government and election systems veering g to a digital platform. Even North Korea, a nation politically isolated where its citizens cannot access digital technology for the most part, has trained individuals working for the regime that attack websites and government databases. The CIA and FBI indicate that North Korean hackers were responsible for the infamous WannaCry attacks that dismantled hundreds of information technology websites. I am sure that other nations with ideological differences and are political foes to the United States have tried to access our election systems and access government files. Yet simultaneously our nation's CIA has interfered with other countries elections and political systems as well, therefore foreign interference goes both ways. It is good to hear that foreign interference in the 2020 election did not impact the election to the extent that it did in 2016 with the Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee.
This article was very interesting, but I think it was needed long before this past election in 2020. I am glad that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are worried about foreign interference targeting the election. Although in the report they said that they didn't find anything relating to foreign interference, it is good that they are looking at least. I do think that they should focus domestically as well. Citizens of the United States attempt to manipulate voting. I think that they can help with this problem with the many recommendations they made at the bottom of the article. I hope that the U.S. government looks at these vulnerabilities that we have within our election process, that way we can prevent these things from happening, instead of election security being a huge problem every election we have. We need to fix things not let them keep happening.
This is a very important document for Americans to read because it confirms that there are attempts by foreign powers to manipulate our democracy, but our democracy has remained strong! However, it concerns me that the issue of election manipulation has become a baton for political opponents to try and hit each other with. To resolve that part of the problem, our security and intelligence communities should keep Americans as up-to-date as possible with election security information during an election cycle.
Foreign Interference Targeting Election Infrastructure Report:
I think there can often be claims of election fraud when the outcome isn't what was desired by the opposing side. Of course looking into these types of fraud, especially in such important elections is needed, but claims made can often be baseless. Myanmar also had an election in 2020 where the military alleged voter fraud when they didn't agree with the outcome and went so far as to use it as a reason for justifying the coup a few months later. Independent reports found there was no evidence of voter fraud in the Myanmar elections and so it really just came down to disagreeing with Aung Sang Suu Kyi winning the election. While Myanmar's situation is far more extreme than events in the U.S. following the election, I found the parallels to be interesting.
China Case Example:
Out of the entire document I thought the mitigation efforts listed were the most interesting. Most of what was recommended seemed like it should be commonplace for a company that has important information to protect. Especially for a company that is dealing with important information for the government that's worth a lot of money. Protocols like "ensuring proprietary information is carefully protected", conducting "in-depth" background checks are performed, and making sure that retiring or separated employees return company property all seem like they should have already been in place. It just seems odd to me that it would have been so easy for this information to be taken in the first place.