Europe sounds alarm on Putin’s cyber meddling in its elections
GOVERNMENTS and security services across Europe have sounded public warnings about Russian interference in upcoming elections, amid concern about a spate of cyber attacks on political parties and government institutions.
Officials and security officers in France, Germany, and the Netherlands have agreed to share information as they brace for “influence operations,” including the leaking of hacked emails and using internet bots to spread fake or misleading news on social media, in the run-up to presidential and general elections this year.
In the starkest warning yet, the DGSE, France’s equivalent of MI6, said last week that it expected Russia to intervene in the presidential election in April and May on the side of Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-Right Front National. The agency’s director general believes Russia will use internet bots to spread fake news favourable to Ms Le Pen on social media and may leak embarrassing emails stolen from her opponents by hackers.
Yesterday, Emmanuel Macron’s party chief and now Ms Le Pen’s main opponent said the presidential candidate was a “fake news” target of Russian media and his campaign was facing thousands of cyber attacks.
In the past two weeks, Denmark has identified Russia as a cyber espionage threat, Norway said its Labour Party and email accounts belonging to several civil servants had been targeted by a Russian hacking group, and Italy said it suspected Russia was behind a fourmonth malware attack against its foreign ministry last year.
Last week the Dutch government scrapped vote-counting computers and ordered March’s general election to be counted by hand because of fears votecounting software could be hacked.
Geert Wilders, leader of the Netherlands’s far-Right Party for Freedom, Ms Le Pen, and Frauke Petry, leader of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany, have all called for the EU to drop sanctions imposed on Russia.
Their Euroscepticism, like Mr Trump’s view of Nato as “obsolete,” fits with Russia’s longer-term goal of dismantling what it views as a hostile Cold War-era security regime in Europe. The idea that the Kremlin is prepared to interfere in elections gained traction last month when the US intelligence services said they believed Vladimir Putin had ordered an “influence campaign” to assist Donald Trump and embarrass Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential race.
The East StratCom Task Force, set up by the EU to respond to Russian propaganda, believes Russia is now preparing a similar effort in Europe. Angela Merkel, who will seek a fourth term as chancellor at federal elections in September, has been singled out, the group warned. March’s vote in the Netherlands, the French presidential elections, and polls in Norway, the Czech Republic and Serbia may also be targeted.
Observers claim the Russian strategy of using leaks and misinformation was on display last week, when Russian news outlets ran stories about Mr Macron, the only French presidential candidate who does not advocate a rethink of Paris’s position on sanctions.
An interview run by Sputnik, the Russian state news agency, quoted a conservative French MP who said Mr Macron works for US banking interests, is supported by a “powerful gay lobby,” and is rumoured to be in an extramarital affair with a man. Mr Macron rejected the allegations, saying yesterday: “If you’re told I lead a double life with Mr Gallet [his alleged lover] it’s because my hologram has escaped.”
Some Western politicians believe “Russian hacking” has become a convenient means with which to smear the Eurosceptic right, while other experts claim there is a risk of over-reacting.
“A couple of months ago we underestimated Russian influence in media and cyber attacks – no one was looking at it,” said Dr Stefan Meister, who studies Russian propaganda in Germany.
“Now it is just the opposite – we are overestimating Russian ability to influence electoral behaviour. There is even a kind of a panic now.”