The U.S. Cyber Command blocked internet access of a Russian troll factory on the day of the 2018 elections, The Washington Post is reporting.
The command basically shut down the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg. The company is underwritten by an oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the newspaper. The Post said the U.S. officials believe the IRA works on behalf of the Kremlin.
“They (cyber command officials) basically took the IRA offline,” one source told the Post. “They shut ‘em down.”
And one defense official added: “Part of our objective is to throw a little curve ball, inject a little friction, sow confusion. There’s value in that. We showed what’s in the realm of the possible. It’s not the old way of doing business anymore.”
Officials at the Pentagon and some congressional lawmakers called the action “a success.”
“The fact that the 2018 election process moved forward without successful Russian intervention was not a coincidence,” said Sen. Mike Rounds R-S.D., who did not discuss the specific details of the operation. Without CyberCom’s efforts, there “would have been some very serious cyber incursions.”
The IRA has sought to undermine the U.S. political system, according to the Justice Department. Russian trolls as early as 2014 and right through the 2016 presidential election, had sought to inflame tensions over race, sexual identity and guns in social media posts, the newspaper reported.
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