On Tuesday, a trifecta of tech companies announced that they had thwarted what appear to be significant cyberattacks from Russia and Iran. First, Microsoft CEO Brad Smith announced that the company had caught another round of phishing attacks[1] on political groups in the United States, which it attributed to the Russian hacking group Fancy Bear. Then it was Facebook's turn. On a call with reporters, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company had shut down 652 pages, accounts, and groups[2] affiliated primarily with Iran, though some had ties to Russia. Twitter almost instantly followed suit, saying it too had taken 284 accounts offline, which appeared to have originated in Iran.
In Washington, the news was met with a mixture of gratitude and anxiety. Gratitude, because these companies are finally stepping up their efforts to stop attacks on democracy like the Russian government unleashed on the US during the 2016 election. Anxiety, because with 75 days left before the midterm elections, the announcements served as yet another reminder that these ad hoc efforts from the tech industry may be the country’s best hope at preventing another crisis.
“I’m glad that more and more people are engaged and want to help fix these things,” Raffi Krikorian, chief technology officer of the Democratic National Committee, said following Microsoft's announcement. “But it obviously freaks me out that they have to do this ... Where is the government on this?” On Tuesday, a private security firm also alerted[3] the DNC to an attempted attack on its voter database, which the DNC has since reported to the FBI.
When it comes to protecting democratic institutions, the tech industry is in a contradictory position. On one hand, it's been blamed for allowing trolls and cybercriminals to run amok