A new non-profit cybersecurity group US CyberDome, was launched on Tuesday, with the goal of protecting presidential campaigns from foreign cyber-attacks, at no cost to the campaigns.
The website says, “US CyberDome is a 501(c)(4) organization that provides cybersecurity services to political campaigns for elected officials and candidates across party lines at no cost to the campaigns. Our objective is to ensure integrity of the election process and confidence in the outcomes. Donation funded; we help our donors Put Your Money Where Your Democracy Is!”
The launching of US CyberDome comes after a Federal Election Committee ruling to allow non-profits to provide free or discounted cybersecurity to presidential campaigns. According to Politico, US CyberDome has already reached out to every presidential campaign and is hoping to be announcing their clients soon.
The group’s advisory board is full of former US intelligence officials who have been all over the mainstream media for the past three years, stoking fear about Russian interference in US elections.
The lead advisor of the group is Jeh Johnson, former Secretary of Homeland Security under President Obama. He is also a member of the board of directors of Lockheed Martin. Johnson is a strong believer in the idea that the Russian government orchestrated an attack on US elections in 2016.
In 2018 Johnson told the Senate Intelligence Committee, “In 2016 the Russian government, at the direction of Vladimir Putin himself, orchestrated cyberattacks on our Nation for the purpose of influencing the election that year – plain and simple.”
Michael Morrell another advisor, served as Obama’s Deputy Director to the CIA and spent some time as the Acting Director. Morrell worked for the CIA for over 30 years.
In an interview published in December 2016 Morrell likened the supposed Russian interference to 9/11, “A foreign government messing around in our elections is, I think, an existential threat to our way of life,” Morell said. “To me, and this is to me not an overstatement, this is the political equivalent of 9/11.”
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is another advisor. Clapper has been one of the most vocal critics of Russia in recent years, spewing some of the more xenophobic rhetoric. In 2017 Clapper said the US and Russia could never be allies because it is in the Russian’s “genes to be opposed, diametrically opposed to the United States and to Western democracies.”
Michael Chertoff, former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush is also on the advisory board. Chertoff has made many appearances on mainstream outlets, warning of Russian interference in the upcoming 2020 election.
It is not yet clear what role US CyberDome will have in the upcoming elections. The members of the advisory board all have strong media presence. If they get access to presidential campaigns they will be quick to identify any attempted hacks or scans on the campaigns as Russian, whether they have the proof or not.
This is laughable but chertoff, et al will never pass up an opportunity to make several $million in hyping the threat.
Everyone I see on their website is either a politician, former intel head or some CEO-level “cybersecurity expert” with no indication if any of them has ever even seen a penetration test, let alone done one.
In other words, it’s just a propaganda organization to keep up the “Russia, Russia, Russia” hoax.
As far as I know, no state hackers are even interested in US elections, because they know there is nothing they can do to influence them, even if they hack the voting computers. The US is not some Third World country or even an Eastern European country. The election process here is too big and too convoluted to manipulate. And certainly the Russians know that.
Back in the last Russian election, there was a panel discussion on Russian TV about whether the US would interfere in the election. The consensus was that there was no way the US could influence the election more than what the Russians themselves could do.
If that is true, how much more true is it of the much larger and more expensive US elections?
As far as hacking goes, all of the alleged hacks of voter registration offices are easily explained by the fact that ordinary hackers are constantly looking for PII – Personal Identifying Information – which is the coin of the realm on the Dark Web. These guys aren’t state hackers trying to influence the election – they are trying to make a buck by stealing data they can sell to other hackers and fraudsters. Social Security numbers, names and addresses, phone numbers – all of that is valuable and all of that is obviously going to be available in election connected computers during an election year.
There might be some nation state hacking of political organizations in order to gain background intelligence on persons involved in setting policy in the US, but that’s about it for “election hacking.”
If there was any hacking of the DNC in 2016 by Russians, it would have been that sort of thing. I can perfectly well believe that may have occurred, but it wasn’t by “Guccifer 2.0” or any of the alleged perpetrators and it had nothing to do with Wikileaks. If Russian state hackers penetrated the DNC or any other political organization, it would likely not have been detected at all and whatever data was taken probably went unnoticed by the targets.
And that will continue to be true because there is no way anyone – especially these clowns – can make US elections “secure” – because there is no such thing as “computer security.”
Things are only “secure” until someone else with resources and patience doesn’t want them to be.
That is a perfect assessment. Russia was used as an excuse for a poorly run campaign with a terrible candidate. Everyone responsible for that campaign should have been given their walking papers and newer, younger progressives should have taken over. Instead the blame was deflected and we are now left with the same people in charge making the same mistakes again.
You got it. Great post.
Anybody who has ever worked elections as any sort of official (like me) knows one simple fact: the only people who can steal an election are inisde the system. That is, it is Americans cheating other Americans. Ask African Americans about electoral fraud, cheating, lying, etc. Or ask all the Bernie supporters who had their party affliation changed in Brooklyn during the NY primary in 2016. Not a Russian in sight.
As for CyberDome, want to bet that candidates will be required to allow CyberDome acces to their various databases in order to protect them from some drunk Russian in Moscow.
Two criminals like Michael Chertoff and James Clapper in the same phony outfit. Says all that needs to be said about our “two party” system.
The neocons, neoliberalcons and just plain conmen keep assembling and reassembling in an ever increasing array of security organizations which provide employment for an ever increasing number of hacks who lecture us on the dangers of Russia, China and Iran.
But China, Russia and Iran have not sent any Americans to their deaths. It is these people who have peddled the endless wars and interventions that have killed millions among them thousands of Americans.
They not China or Iran or Russia are the number one enemy of the American people – and of the peoples of the world.
Russian Collusion was “Saddam’s WMD 2.0”, and the American Sheeple go along with the propaganda.