U.S. Cyber-Warriors Disrupt Russian Election Attacks

It started in mid-October 2018, when Russian operatives of the Internet Research Agency started getting emails and direct messages on social media letting them know that the United States was watching them, that it knew their names and where they worked. Then, on Nov. 6, 2018, everything went dark for the Russians. The once-feared IRA found itself with no internet access at all. As you might expect, the series of contacts from U.S. agencies had already rattled the Russians, and authorities inside the IRA were trying to figure out who had leaked the information to the Americans. Then, without warning, chaos. Reportedly, the Russian operatives were complaining to their support teams that they’d been taken offline and investigations ensued, but the ability of the Russian operatives to access the internet didn’t return for several days, during which the IRA’s disinformation campaigns ceased and the attempts to interfere with the U.S. elections went nowhere.