US officials said that during the 2018 midterm elections, the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency (IRA), which is a known troll farm owned by an oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, was cut off from the Internet by the US Cyber Command. The aim of the operation, which Pentagon officials consider to have been a success, was to thwart Russian attempts at election meddling.
Some Senators, including Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), applauded the role of Cyber Command in preventing Russian interference in the midterms. “The fact that the 2018 election process moved forward without successful Russian intervention was not a coincidence,” Rounds stated, adding that without the efforts of Cyber Command, there “would have been some very serious cyber-incursions.”
