PUBLISHER'S NOTE:In previous posts I have discussed some of the negative inroads that algorithm based technology is making into courtrooms in North America and elsewhere, such as for purpose of determining crucial matters such as eligibility for bail, and the sentence to be imposed. (Functions that are better left to the human beings we call judges); I also looked at threats posed to the fact-finding process through difficult to detect digital alteration of documents, photos and videos. In today's post, Washington Post reporter Bastien Inzaurralde presents another potential impact of technology on the judicial process - a full-frontal cyber attack an a nation's judicial system. Image what havoc that could entail. So much grist for our mill!
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
---------------------------------------------------------------
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Russia’s digital campaign to influence the 2016 presidential race in favor of President Trump put election security in the national spotlight, resulted in congressional investigations and prompted lawmakers on Capitol Hill to set aside federal funding for states to strengthen their election systems. By contrast, Russia's apparent attempts to use similar tactics of spreading propaganda and disinformation on social media platforms to corrode the legitimacy of the U.S. judicial system have drawn much less scrutiny from policymakers. The band of experts, doing research for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is tracking how Russian operatives tend to exploit sensitive issues such as immigration and race in posts designed to drum up backlash to the justice system."
STORY: "The Cybersecurity 202: Russia is trying to undermine Americans’ confidence in the justice system, security experts warn," by reporter Bastien Inzaurralde, published by The Washington Post on December 5, 2018. (The passages in Italics are the Washington Post's. HL);
GIST: "A group of cybersecurity, national security and legal experts is warning that Russia’s efforts to weaken America’s democratic institutions aren’t limited to elections — but also extend to the U.S. justice system. “While we all focused on the electoral system, I think this disinformation effort is organized to really attack any of the pillars of democracy,” Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, a former general counsel at the National Security Agency and the CIA, told me. “And when you think of the system that is the most highly regarded among the three branches of government, it is the court system. If you were installed in the position of a Russian disinformation planner, wouldn’t you want to erode that?” Russia’s digital campaign to influence the 2016 presidential race in favor of President Trump put election security in the national spotlight, resulted in congressional investigations and prompted lawmakers on Capitol Hill to set aside federal funding for states to strengthen their election systems. By contrast, Russia's apparent attempts to use similar tactics of spreading propaganda and disinformation on social media platforms to corrode the legitimacy of the U.S. judicial system have drawn much less scrutiny from policymakers. The band of experts, doing research for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is tracking how Russian operatives tend to exploit sensitive issues such as immigration and race in posts designed to drum up backlash to the justice system. Suzanne Spaulding, a former undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration who oversaw cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection, and Harvey Rishikof, a visiting professor of law at Temple University Beasley School of Law, are also part of the think tank’s “Defending Democratic Institutions” project. Spaulding, now a senior adviser to CSIS, says she plans to brief lawmakers on the research this month. The threat to the justice system, Spaulding warns, could spread beyond influence campaigns and into actual hacking. She worries Russian operatives could launch ransomware or distributed denial-of-service attacks against courts’ computer systems, leak or alter court documents and steal judges’ email communications. “The notion of a nation-state targeting them for the purpose of really making them look bad I think is not something that has been on their radar screen,” Spaulding said of her conversations with judges before adding that “they immediately understand” once they get briefed that such potential cyberattacks could damage public confidence in the courts. For the research, Spaulding is gathering open-source material on Russia’s influence campaigns. She has in part relied on Hamilton 68, an online tool from the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, which monitors Twitter accounts that spread Russian propaganda. In an article published on Lawfare in September, Spaulding and Rishikof gave an example of the kind of fake posts they're seeing. They wrote that in the summer of 2016, Russian operatives sought to inflame tensions in the case of a sexual assault investigation in Twin Falls, Idaho. Using a deceitful Facebook account, Russians helped further spread “rumors that a young girl had been raped at knifepoint by Syrian refugees” and “accused government officials, including the prosecutor and judge in the case, of conspiring to protect the immigrant community by covering-up the true nature of the crime,” Spaulding and Rishikof wrote. Russian operatives used Facebook to organize a protest in Twin Falls titled “Citizens before refugees,” the Daily Beast reported. The Twin Falls case illustrated Russia’s attempts at “sowing discord and painting the justice system as an agent of politicians,” Spaulding and Rishikof wrote. In their quest to push disinformation, Russian trolls don’t advocate for one position over another but instead promote opposite arguments on the same subject, according to Rishikof. “They take both sides because the goal is to whip up controversy and discredit institutions,” he said. Spaulding said she has found signs that Russian trolls have also targeted special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russia’s election interference and the trial of Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, an undocumented Mexican immigrant, in the death of Kate Steinle in San Francisco.
The entire commentary can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/
