Oren Falkowitz on Preventing Hacking in the 2020 Elections

OREN FALKOWITZ, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, AREA 1 SECURITY: I think what Chairman Schiff is referring to is that the intelligence community has a very important responsibility to kind of address geopolitical or what the kind of art of possible it is as it relates to hacking. But the intelligence community does not inform Congress, nor does it keep track of every cyber-campaign that’s going on in the world today. Every company, whether it’s a small- or medium-size business in Ohio or a multinational conglomerate, faces the risk of phishing attacks. And the damages from that have been growing at an exorbitant rate. And so that’s why companies like Area 1 and the unique technology they build are so critical. And our report really shows that we have very unique capability here, and we can highlight that and also leverage it for…

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Yes, but it’s very important, if it is leveraged and it’s used to be — to stop, because this is a question of almost, here we go again. We have had it in the 2016 election, this — the implication — and tell me if I’m wrong — that this is to potentially affect the 2020 election. You know, both the U.S. and the British intelligence…

FALKOWITZ: I think here we go again is a significant step forward to, oh, it — it has happened again, right?

AMANPOUR: OK.

FALKOWITZ: And, you know, being able to provide an early warning that these types of attacks are coming and provide specific-use cases, like we did, rather than talking about it abstractly, as it’s been done for the last four years, is a very different tone for the cybersecurity community.

AMANPOUR: OK.

FALKOWITZ: And I think that’s a — it’s a massive step forward.

AMANPOUR: So, very sort of briefly, if you can, what do you think they were looking for? I mean, again, this is about a company that once had Hunter Biden on. And we know that at the center of the impeachment allegation is President Trump’s call, which has been described as trying to get Ukraine to dig up dirt on his rival, Joe Biden. What do you think this phishing — or what do you know that this phishing attempt was to get?

FALKOWITZ: Well, I will say two things. One, it’s impossible to know what the goals of someone else are. But what I can tell you is what this phishing could possibly do. When you get the username and password for someone’s e-mails, it gives you a number of opportunities. The first is to read all of their e-mails and the documents contained within. You don’t have to steal them to know things. That’s basic espionage. The second one would be to take the data and potentially release it publicly at a later time. The third might be to use that e-mail account to send further e-mails to other people and to assume the authenticity or masquerade as that person. So, there’s a lot of potential. I don’t know what the — what the Russian actors were trying to do. We know that they sent phishing attacks. That’s what happens in nine in 10 cyberattacks. We know that they were successful. And we know that Burisma is a company that’s been entangled in foreign and domestic politics. And I think it has shown to have good early warning for the 2020 elections.