Question

More specifically, according to the Mueller Indictments, how did the Russians use the following entities to their advantage (and to America’s disadvantage) during the 2016 election?

Give an example of each one:

a. Intelligence-gathering to inform U.S. operations

b. Use of U.S. social media platforms

c. Use of U.S. computer infrastructure

d. Use of stolen U.S. identities

Answer 1

a. In early January, 2017 Office of the Director of National Intelligence ( ODNI) released a report on Russia’s interference in the US presidential election. The report confirmed that Russia’s campaign included hacking personal mail accounts of democratic party officials and political figures. Also according to the report the purpose behind this was to impugn Hillary Clinton’s credibility and boost Donald Trump’s winning chances in the election and moreover to make look US election system untrustworthy.

b.Mueller’s indictments basically focussed on one particular Russian group- The Internet Research Agency which used social media posts, online ads etc to communicate misleading derogatory information about Clinton and other candidates.

Half of all news on twitter was found to be fake by professor Phillip N. Howard from Oxford university. In September,2017 Facebook discovered that hundreds of fake accounts linked to Russian troll farm had bought $ 100000 in advertisements targeting the 2016 election audience.

c.It was a cyber-war. According to one of the Bloomberg report 39 states were struck by hackers . Russian Intelligence services used the age old art of Kompromat-creating and plating compromising material and updating it for the digital age.

d. Identities of U.S citizens were stolen by Russian agents to pay for illegal campaign ads and other activities at platforms such as Facebook. The stolen identification information was used to open up at least 4 bank accounts at federally insured U.S. institutions and 5 pay-pal accounts. Apparently credit cards and bank account numbers were also bought from online sellers.