U.S launches operation to deter Russian meddling

Campaign of ‘information warfare’ suspected.

The United WASHINGTON —

States Cyber Command is targeting individual Russian operatives to try to deter them from spreading disinformation to interfere in elections, telling them that U.S. operatives have identified them and are tracking their work, according to officials briefed on the operation.

The campaign, which includes missions undertaken in recent days, is the first known overseas cyberoperation to protect U.S. elections, including the November midterms.

The operations come as the Justice Department outlined Friday a campaign of “information warfare” by Russians aimed at influenc- ing the midterm elections, highlighting the broad threat the U.S. government sees from Moscow’s influence campaign.

Defense officials would not say how many individuals they were targeting, and they would not describe the methods that Cyber Command has used to send the direct messages to the oper- atives behind the influence campaigns. It is not clear if the information was delivered in an email, a chat or some other electronic inter- vention.

Senior defense officials said they were not directly threatening the operatives. Still, former officials said anyone singled out would know, based on the U.S. government’s actions against other Russian operatives, that they could be indicted or targeted with sanctions. Even the unstated threat of sanctions could help deter some Russians from par- ticipating in covert disinformation campaigns, said Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a former intelligence official now with the Center for a New American Security.

The Cyber Command oper- ations appear relatively measured, especially in comparison with the increasingly elaborate and sophisticated efforts by Russia to use disinformation to sow dissent in the United States.

But the U.S. campaign undertaken in response to Russia’s information offen- sive is limited in large part to keep Moscow from esca- lating in response by taking down the power grid or con- ducting some other reprisal that could trigger a bigger clash between great powers. Compared with traditional armed conflict, the rules of cyberwarfare are not well-defined.

Cyber Command was founded in 2009 to defend military networks, but has also developed offensive capabilities. The command shares a headquarters and leadership with the National Security Agency, which collects electronic and signals intelligence. A joint Cyber Command-NSA team has been working on the effort to identify and deter foreign influence campaigns.

U.S. officials also said the campaign is one aspect of a broader effort, which includes purges by social media companies of fake accounts that spread propaganda, to fight Russian intrusion in democratic elections. Cyber Command has also sent teams to Europe to shore up the defenses of U.S. allies and partners so they can combat Russian intrusions on their own government networks.

U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that Russia is unlikely to try to hack into voting machines or directly manipulate voting results this year.