U.S. Cyber Command operation disrupted Internet access of Russian troll factory on day of 2018 midterms

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-cyber-command-operation-disrupted-internet-access-of-russian-troll-factory-on-day-of-2018-midterms/2019/02/26/1827fc9e-36d6-11e9-af5b-b51b7ff322e9_story.html

By Ellen Nakashima
National security reporter
The Washington Post
February 26, 2019

The U.S. military blocked Internet access to an infamous Russian entity seeking
to sow discord among Americans during the 2018 midterms, several U.S. officials
said, a warning that the Kremlin’s operations against the United States 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 them 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 Trump and Congress last year to bolster offensive
capabilities. The president approved of the general operation to prevent Russian
interference in the midterms, officials said.

[...]

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