Collaborate Disseminate
Meta researchers said the operation relied on thousands of accounts to spread pro-Chinese messages and attack critics of Beijing.
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A suspected Russian disinformation campaign used manipulated images and fabricated internet personas to promote false narratives online in an effort to sow mistrust in Sweden and Europe, according to new findings. The propaganda effort known as Secondary Infektion is “highly likely” behind an effort that involved a photoshopped screenshot meant to appear as if it originated on the website of Sweden’s Riksdag, the national legislature, the threat intelligence company Recorded Future said in a report published Tuesday. Secondary Infektion is an operation dating back at least two years, with researchers blaming the suspected Russian outfit for forging documents, stirring outrage via social media and generating negative sentiment around the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in countries such as Ukraine. Researchers have pointed to Secondary Infektion as an example of political warfare that uses digital means to try to destabilize foreign governments. In the latest case, Recorded Future investigators observed an account […]
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Operators of an apparent Russian propaganda campaign shared coronavirus disinformation in an effort to influence the American far-right, according to a report out Tuesday by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. The findings are included in a new report shedding light on a long-running Russian propaganda campaign known as Operation Secondary Infektion. The years-long campaign has used regional European websites, forged documents and throwaway accounts to further Russia’s political agenda in Europe. Secondary Infektion is perhaps best known for spreading disinformation through small, local websites, then promoting fabricated narratives on social media, with mixed success. Secondary Infektion promotes narratives in line with Russia’s political agenda in Europe, leading researchers to believe the group supports Russia’s intelligence apparatus. Since 2014 the group has staged a number of campaigns, including using fake tweets from accounts like Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. to spread a false narrative that British citizens planned to assassinate Prime Minister Boris […]
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A propaganda campaign is using the coronavirus pandemic to inflame anxieties about NATO troops throughout Eastern Europe, security researchers have determined. The group, dubbed Ghostwriter, has been focused on amplifying anti-Western narratives in Poland, Latvia and Lithuania since 2017. Operatives have planted fabricated diplomatic documents, tried spreading the false narrative that Canadian soldiers had been spreading COVID-19 through Latvia and leveraged news sites to spread articles that appear to be legitimate, according to a report the security firm FireEye published Tuesday. While researchers have not attributed the effort to the Russian government, the findings are the latest addition to a growing consensus that pro-Kremlin entities are seizing on COVID-19 to inflame existing political divisions. Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, is using three websites to try to spread disinformation about the U.S. response to the virus, U.S. officials told the Associated Press. “We believe the assets and operations…are for the […]
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British officials expressed confidence that Russian operatives tried to interfere in the U.K.’s most recent general election by using social media to promote documents that were stolen and leaked from the government. Dominic Raab, the U.K.’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, said in a statement Thursday that “it is almost certain that Russian actors” aimed to intervene in the 2019 election in which Boris Johnson defeated Jeremy Corbyn in the race for prime minister. The campaign utilized “illicitly acquired” government documents about the U.K.-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, which were posted on Reddit and promoted elsewhere in an apparent attempt to influence potential voters’ opinions. “There is an ongoing criminal investigation and it would be inappropriate for us to say anything further at this point,” Raab said in a statement. “The Government reserves the right to respond with appropriate measures in the future.” The attribution is a reference to Operation Secondary Infektion, […]
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A years-long propaganda effort that relied on thousands of blog articles and internet forgeries to discredit adversaries of Russian President Vladimir Putin is the latest reminder that Kremlin operatives are trying to influence foreign affairs, even if their level of success often is difficult to measure. Since 2014, Russian disinformation specialists have authored roughly 2,500 anonymous blog stories, social media posts and other techniques in an attempt to amplify Kremlin messaging, according to findings published Tuesday by social media analysis firm Graphika. The activity focused on a range of other topics long-favored by Russian propaganda, such as the Ukrainian government, former U.S. presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and the World Anti-Doping Agency. One facet of the campaign portrayed German Chancellor Angela Merkel as an alcoholic. Graphika describes the scheme as Operation Secondary Infektion, borrowing the name from a KGB plot which suggested the U.S. had invented the AIDS virus. While researchers noted […]
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Polish security services on Thursday suggested the Russian government could be behind a cyberattack against an elite Polish military academy and an ensuing effort to undermine U.S.-Polish relations. Stanislaw Zaryn, a spokesman for Minister-Special Services Coordinator, which oversees Polish security agencies, announced that hackers had breached the website of Poland’s War Studies University. The attack was followed by a disinformation campaign, Zaryn said, in which attackers posted a letter where the head of the university purportedly described the U.S. troop presence in Poland as an “American occupation.” The fake letter was picked up by at least three Polish websites, one with a history of pushing disinformation, Polish officials said. Poland’s government did not conclusively blame the Russian government for the information operation. However, Zaryn said the effort, apparently meant to sow discord between the U.S. and a key ally in Central Europe, would be “congruent with disinformation activities carried out by the Russian Federation against Poland.” “Poland’s special services are […]
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