How Russian Hackers May Disrupt Civil Society Groups Next

With Susan Landau, Bridge Professor in Cyber Security and Policy at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University 

Cybersecurity has been a hot button topic since the dawn of the digital age, but the issue has a new sense of urgency since Russian attempts to meddle in the United States election came to light.

While targeting a country’s elections and top officials to influence its politics may not be all that far-fetched, using hacking techniques to sow discord within the American public shouldn’t be dismissed.

When it comes to democracies, religious organizations, charities, unions and advocacy groups are some of the main groups that have an impact on political life. That’s why Susan Landau, a professor at Tufts University and author of the forthcoming book “Listening In: Cybersecurity in an Insecure Age” says they will be the next major targets in hacking campaigns.

“All of these different groups function within a democratic society to connect the people and the government. If you’re trying to disrupt a democracy, you disrupt the elections, but you also try to disrupt the people’s connection to the government,” Landau said.

Landau said that because most people don’t follow day-to-day governing decisions or have official roles in lawmaking, civil society organizations are particularly influential in shaping public opinion and political involvement, especially in democracies.

So how well prepared are advocacy groups, nonprofits and think tanks for a potential cyberattack? In Landau’s opinion, not well enough.

“Many of these civil society organizations work on a threadbare budget,” said Landau. “This is not the kind of attack they expect.”

Landau said hacking for the purpose of influencing public opinion instead of the daily operations of a country was unexpected, too.

“We anticipated that any kind of cyberattack would be a disruption of critical infrastructure (like) the power grid or the financial sector or water and dams. This one instead works on people’s heads and it disconnects people from each other and from the government,” she said.

While most citizens may not have the power to retaliate against a cyber threat from Russia, Landau said that people can still do something to not fall prey to hacking. It starts with the advice many experts have given in the era of fake news: be skeptical where necessary and protect yourself online.

“We have to just learn to read and think far more critically,” said Landau. “And we also have to learn to use information security techniques far more broadly.”

This piece was republished from Wisconsin Public Radio.