U.S. military blocked Russian trolls

The U.S. military blocked internet access to a Russian entity seeking to disrupt the 2018 midterm elections.

The U.S. military blocked internet access to a Russian entity seeking to sow discord among Americans during the 2018 midtermelections, several U.S. officials said, a warning that the group’s operations against the U.S. are not cost-free.

The strike on the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg, a company underwritten by an oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin, was part of the first offensive cyber campaign against Russia designed to thwart attempts to interfere with a U.S. election, the officials said.

“They basically took the IRA offline,” according to one individual familiar with the matter who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified information. “They shut ’em down.”

The operation marked the first muscle-flexing by U.S. Cyber Command, with intelligence from the National Security Agency, under new authorities it was granted by President Donald Trump and Congress last year to bolster offensive capabilities.

Russia’s tactics are evolving, and some analysts were skeptical of the deterrent value on either the Russian troll factory or on Putin, who, according to U.S. officials, ordered an “influence” campaign in 2016 to undermine faith in U.S. democracy. Officials have also assessed that the Internet Research Agency works on behalf of the Kremlin.

Cyber Command and the NSA declined to comment.

Disruption to Internet Research Agency networks took place as Americans went to the polls and a day or so afterward, as the votes were tallied, to prevent the Russians from mounting a disinformation campaign casting doubt on results, according to officials.

The blockage was so frustrating to the trolls that they complained to their system administrators about the disruption, the officials said.

The Internet Research Agency, according to federal prosecutors, is financed by Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a tycoon from St. Petersburg and an ally of Putin. Prigozhin, the Internet Research Agency and a company Prigozhin runs called Concord Management and Consulting, were among 16 Russian individuals and companies that a grand jury indicted a year ago as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Another element of the Cyber Command campaign, first reported by the New York Times, involved “direct messaging” that targeted the trolls as well as hackers who work for the Russian military intelligence agency, the GRU. Using emails, pop-ups, text or direct messages, U.S. operatives beginning last October let the Russians know that their real names and online handles were known and they should not interfere in other nations’ affairs, defense officials said.