Page 41 - Cyber Warnings

DNC, Clinton campaign hacks highlight need for journalists to

move past content and focus on how easily it was stolen

By Andrew Conte, director of the Center for Media Innovation at Pittsburghs Point Park
University, and Brian Nussbaum, assistant professor of Homeland Security and Cyber Security at
the University of Albany, SUNY

The U.S. intelligence community recently released substantial documentation of both the
forensic investigation around the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, as well as
broader influence operations through hacks of officials such as Clinton campaign chairman John
Podesta and the use of false and manufactured stories on social media. Russia’s civilian and
military intelligence services have been identified as the source of this information and attacks.

Yet, until national intelligence officials released these details, news stories focused almost
exclusively on the contents of the pilfered messages – rather than how easily such sensitive
materials were stolen.

According to the United States intelligence community, the focus on those contents appears to
have been the goal of a broad information operation by the Russian state designed to have
political effects in the American electoral system.

This is arguably the largest cybersecurity story since Stuxnet; but for most of it, the focus was
on the trees rather than the forest.

As the pace and size of online theft grows exponentially, reporters must keep up even though
it’s yet another added challenge to a media industry already under assault from cutbacks and
falling advertising revenues.

Certainly, many news outlets are aware of this need. The coverage of cybersecurity issues has
not only been deeper as of late, but broader as well.

Reporters at major national newspapers – such as Ellen Nakashima at The Washington Post
and Nicole Perlroth at The New York Times – have offered continuous streams of reporting
across aspects of cybersecurity.

Other national papers have introduced new sections, such as the Christian Science Monitor’s
“Passcode,” to focus on these issues. Large national news magazines – Wired, Forbes, and
Bloomberg Businessweek – consistently have offered excellent coverage of cybersecurity
issues.

41 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – March 2017 Edition
Copyright © Cyber Defense Magazine, All rights reserved worldwide