Russia Is Now Working to Protect Puppet President Trump from Attacks from the Right

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Tuesday August 21, 2018 · 5:18 AM PDT

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The NY Times is reporting that Microsoft has found evidence of Russian hacking directed at Republican groups — specifically those that have broken with Trump. Reporters David E. Sanger and Sheera Frenke have the story:

BOSTON — The Russian military intelligence unit that sought to influence the 2016 election appears to have a new target: conservative American think tanks that have broken with President Trump and are seeking continued sanctions against Moscow, exposing oligarchs or pressing for human rights.

In a report scheduled for release on Tuesday, Microsoft Corporation said that it detected and seized websites that were created in recent weeks by hackers linked to the Russian unit formerly known as the G.R.U. The sites appeared meant to trick people into thinking they were clicking through links managed by the Hudson Institute and the International Republican Institute, but were secretly redirected to web pages created by the hackers to steal passwords and other credentials.

Microsoft also found websites imitating the United States Senate, but not specific Senate offices or political campaigns.

The shift to attacking conservative think tanks underscores the Russian intelligence agency’s goals: to disrupt any institutions challenging Moscow and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

And, efforts to sow division on the left continue as well.

...Only days later, in a report first released to members of Congress, Facebook revealed that it had discovered and eliminated an influence operation aimed at fueling divisions among Americans by targeting progressive groups. Facebook stopped short of naming Russia as the culprit of that campaign, although the social media company pointed to similarities between the influence operation and previous work by the Russian state-linked Internet Research Agency.

We are effectively at war with Russia, if ‘only’ digitally. The fact that our government is currently led by a toddler-in-chief backed by a party of oligarchs, racists, and partisan hacks who are fine with that only makes it worse.

It’s bad enough dealing with a criminal regime and a corrupt political party — being targeted by those who do not have our best interests at heart is something we need to remember as well. Constant vigilance!

The day of reckoning is not going to be pretty. Remember in November.