May 09, 2017

Russia is still waging cyberwar against Western democracy. It’s time to push back.

By Matt Olsen and Edward Fishman

The West can breathe a sigh of relief. Emmanuel Macron has won the French presidential election, despite yet another Russian intervention in support of a candidate (Marine Le Pen) whose views are decidedly illiberal and pro-Kremlin.

But just because Russia came up short this time doesn’t mean that we can relax. On the contrary, the French election — months after a U.S. election marred by Russian meddling — demonstrates that cyber-subversion has become a central feature of Moscow’s statecraft.

Russia will continue to use hacking as a tool of subversion until it meets resistance. So far, Moscow has incurred minimal costs for its mischief-making. It’s time for this to change. The West must urgently adopt a strategy to stop this onslaught against democracy.

Read the full article at The Washington Post.

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