I think we have to recognize this for what it is, which is a new kind of threat.
My concern sometimes is that the work our governments do looking at cybersecurity is to defend institutions and infrastructure from direct cyber-attack. Have we been looking for this more subtle approach of undermining democracy and public confidence in institutions through, not a direct cyber-attack, but by using data information to try to influence the outcome of elections?
There could be different motivations for people doing that. Is the motivation of the company doing that—using, as we've been told, what would be considered weapons-grade information warfare in other countries and our own country—just to make money, or is it about political influence?
For the Russian state, it seems that their modus operandi is to create discord, to turn communities against each other. They may not necessarily have a direct political interest in the outcome, but they want to create as much disruption as possible to undermine people's confidence in democracy.
It could be that these actors may have common but separate interests. I think they've recognized that you can use these tools, particularly on social media, to support these campaigns and also to polarize political debate and opinion. The consequence of that has been, in many countries, particularly in Europe, the collapse of the centre in politics, people pushed increasingly to the margins, and political debate and discourse being increasingly aggressive. I think we have to recognize this as a major threat to democracy.