The State Department and Department of Defense have announced a new $40 million initiative to improve offensive responses or countering disinformation campaigns ahead of anticipated Russian interference in the 2018 midterm elections.

DoD will transfer funds to the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) to work on building capabilities to deter election interference and fund joint pilot projects for countering threats to U.S. institutions, officials said Monday.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

The new partnership also established an Information Access Fund to support public-private partnerships needed for establishing threat information sharing opportunities.

“This funding is critical to ensuring that we continue an aggressive response to malign influence and disinformation and that we can leverage deeper partnerships with our allies, Silicon Valley, and other partners in this fight,” Steve Goldstein, the State Department’s under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, said in a statement. “It is not merely a defensive posture that we should take, we also need to be on the offensive.”

The new partnership follows bipartisan concerns from lawmakers over a diminishing role for cyber diplomacy at the State Department following Secretary Rex Tillerson’s department reorganization (Defense Daily, Jan. 17).

Tillerson announced a plan for a new cyber-focused bureau earlier in February to address worries his department wasn’t utilizing diplomatic initiatives to thwart future election interference attempts (Defense Daily, February 6). The new Bureau for Cyberspace and the Digital Economy would merge the department’s Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues and the Bureau of Economic Affairs’ Office of International Communications and Information Policy.

State Department officials first step for the partnership will be awarding $5 million in grants from the new Information Access Fund to private sector partners. Grant recipients are asked to develop data science techniques for analyzing potential interference threats.

The new partnership also allows DoD to assist with thwarting potential election interference campaigns.

Lawmakers at a Feb. 13 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing urged DoD officials to boost their role in election security operations (Defense Daily, Feb. 13).

Witnesses at the hearing pointed to inter-agency efforts, similar to the new partnership with the State Department, as a key step to improving information sharing needed to defend against election interference.

Under the new partnership, DoD and GEC officials will develop pilot projects to initiate new tactics for countering foreign disinformation and propaganda.