Kevin Collier

@kevincollier
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Cyber reporter at NBC. Also privacy, elections, infrastructure, etc. I like to tell stories about the cyber affecting everyday people.

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Post election statement this morning from CISA director Jen Easterly: "election infrastructure has never been more secure."

No mentions of the bomb threats sent to dozens of polling places in swing states across the country. None were deemed credible but several temporarily evacuated.

We are in full blown election disinfo whack-a-mole mode.
"All my phone froze" an instant classic
We don't know who's behind the network, though signs point toward it being a cheap pro-GOP domestic political op. Very notably, while the US has polished up its apparatus to fight foreign disinformation, there's no reason to think this breaks federal law.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/republican-bot-campaign-trump-x-twitter-elon-musk-fake-accounts-rcna173692
An AI-powered bot army on X spread pro-Trump and pro-GOP propaganda, research shows

The bot network supported Republican candidates in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania and boosted North Carolina’s Republican-led voter identification law.

NBC News
If you've heard of Dead Internet Theory — where you don't realize everybody you're talking to is a bot — this is evidence of the first step toward that. Network of seemingly real people making unique replies to people to advocate a political agenda.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/republican-bot-campaign-trump-x-twitter-elon-musk-fake-accounts-rcna173692
An AI-powered bot army on X spread pro-Trump and pro-GOP propaganda, research shows

The bot network supported Republican candidates in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania and boosted North Carolina’s Republican-led voter identification law.

NBC News
Per NYT, X's crackdown on Ken Klippenstein and the Iran-hacked Vance doc came after the Trump campaign reached out. Well within each party's right, but this is the exact same thing Musk, Trump, and the right threw a yearslong fit about over Hunter Biden.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/11/us/politics/elon-musk-donald-trump-pennsylvania.html
Elon Musk Is Going All In to Elect Donald Trump

Elon Musk is planting himself in Pennsylvania, has brought his brain trust to help and may even knock on doors himself.

The New York Times
Can't say I recall the last time an FCC chair traveled to a disaster area. From FCC media email, don't see it published to their site.
The cybersecurity industry a few declared a few years ago that every October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Dumb marketing gimmick, but whatever. Much, much worse is that some PR people have decided that what they're talking about this month is...CSAM.
The US is sanctioning former FSB officer Eduard Benderskiy, the father-in-law of EvilCorp’s leader. This, from Treasury this morning, is the most explicit connection I've seen the US make between a top ransomware gang and Russian intelligence services.
Pretty nervy of the Harris campaign to release an economic policy plan this close to Cybersecurity Awareness Month and yet
https://kamalaharris.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Policy_Book_Economic-Opportunity.pdf