Collaborate Disseminate
A report published today by DomainTools, a provider of cyberthreat intelligence tools and services, details how one small group of activists is allegedly employing astroturfing techniques to create the appearance of a nationwide grassroots effort thro… Continue reading Report: Domains Promoting Resistance to COVID-19 Orders Tied to One Owner
More evidence that a group of conservative political activists is operating a network of websites meant to inflame pandemic-related tension in the U.S. and solicit donations has been uncovered by a Seattle-based cybersecurity company. Threat intelligence firm DomainTools released research Friday indicating that pro-gun activist Aaron Dorr appears to be using widely available software to operate dozens of websites, many of which include “reopen” in the URL. DomainTools researchers have conducted a technical examination of “reopen” sites — like “ReopenMN” and “ReopenWI” — to determine just how consolidated the sites are, despite the appearance that they exist as standalone entities. The sites are registered to local gun advocacy groups and utilize One Click Politics, a digital organizing service that allows a single person to manage dozens of websites, run email promotion and collect money. The network starts with Dorr’s personal website on top, at least 13 gun rights coalition groups on the […]
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Continue reading Researchers discover how far-right coronavirus protest websites are organized
The past few weeks have seen a large number of new domain registrations beginning with the word “reopen” and ending with U.S. city or state names. The largest number of them were created just hours after President Trump sent a series of all-caps tweets… Continue reading Who’s Behind the “Reopen” Domain Surge?
Far-right Twitter accounts apparently originating in the U.S. amplified pro-Brexit propaganda between December and February and December, according to research published Tuesday by F-Secure, a Finnish cybersecurity company. An analysis of 24 million tweets related to Brexit from 1.65 million users uncovered “inorganic” activity on both sides of the debate, though disinformation was “far more” frequent in among supporters of the United Kingdom’s scheduled withdrawal from the European Union. “At the very least, our research shows there’s a global effort amongst the far-right to amplify the ‘leave’ side of the debate,” Andy Patel, a senior researcher with F-Secure’s Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence, said in a statement Tuesday. Researchers determined that several separate accounts retweeted messages from @Brexiteer30, @UnityNewsNet and @JackBMontgomery, an editor with the alt-right Breitbart News. Nearly 6,000 accounts magnified messages from those three far-right accounts, F-Secure found. Many of those pages also included some version of #MakeAmericaGreatAgain […]
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New York has expanded its probe to subpoena 14 industry groups and lobbyists, saying that fake comments “distort[ed] public opinion.” Continue reading Up to 9.5 million net neutrality comments were fake
While there certainly remains a global hierarchy when it comes to cyber capabilities, smaller state and non-state actors are increasingly exploiting the asymmetric nature of cyberspace to achieve a broad range of objectives. Continue reading Smaller Nation State Attacks: A Growing Cyber Menace
95 percent of all organic comments favored net neutrality, according to the analysis. Continue reading More Than 80% Of All Net Neutrality Comments Were Sent By Bots, Researchers Say
Sockpuppets are real, but astroturfing isn’t limited to fake accounts. Continue reading The 2016 Election Is Turning Us All into Caricatures