They are also passing intelligence to social media firms, and helping state and local election officials shore up their defenses. The goal is to prevent them from attacking U.S. voting systems, according to security officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity. Targeting the trollsIn 2016, some state election officials were wary of allowing the federal government to help them safeguard their systems. Gen. Joe Hartman, Cyber Command election security lead, said in an interview, without discussing operations. In each case the accounts and pages were removed before they could accrue large followings and spread content virally — an improvement over 2016, officials said.

Source: Washington Post October 21, 2020 16:18 UTC