Category Archives: propaganda

Russia poses largest cybersecurity risk to U.S., Rep. Ruppersberger says

Posted on by

Although all of America’s adversaries present serious cyberthreats, Russia’s hackers are the most dangerous right now, says the Maryland congressman whose district houses the National Security Agency. “Cyber issues [are] so important to what we do. And what’s kind of keeping me up a little bit right now, it’s not China,” Democratic Rep. Dutch Ruppersburger said at the 2017 Digital Nation Summit presented by SAP and FedScoop. “I mean, we have to always look at China, and you have to look at Iran, you have to look at North Korea … but I think right now, where we have to focus especially in this field, is Russia.” Russian President Vladimir Putin is shrewd, smart and motivated to reunite the Soviet Union, and he’s pouring the country’s funds into cybersecurity, military and space, said Ruppersberger, who has served on several key committees during his long tenure in Congress, including the House Intelligence panel. His suburban Baltimore […]

The post Russia poses largest cybersecurity risk to U.S., Rep. Ruppersberger says appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Russia poses largest cybersecurity risk to U.S., Rep. Ruppersberger says→

Cyber Command head: We are not prepared to counter info operations

Posted on by

U.S. Cyber Command is not “optimized” today to combat information operations orchestrated by foreign powers, NSA Director and U.S. Cyber Command head Adm. Michael Rogers said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday. “It right now is not in our defined set of responsibilities per say,” Rogers told lawmakers. “I would be the first to admit that [information warfare] is not what our workforce is optimized for … we are certainly not where we need to be.” Even so, Cyber Command is concurrently engaged in an expansive counter-messaging campaign against ISIS, Rogers acknowledged. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the clandestine hacking operation is aimed at the areas surrounding Syria and largely focused on compromising electronic devices belonging to terrorists, which carry content typically shared online. Depending on one’s definition of “information warfare,” it’s arguable that Cyber Command is already involved in such efforts. “I think one of our […]

The post Cyber Command head: We are not prepared to counter info operations appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Cyber Command head: We are not prepared to counter info operations→

Cyber Command head: We are not prepared to counter info operations

Posted on by

U.S. Cyber Command is not “optimized” today to combat information operations orchestrated by foreign powers, NSA Director and U.S. Cyber Command head Adm. Michael Rogers said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday. “It right now is not in our defined set of responsibilities per say,” Rogers told lawmakers. “I would be the first to admit that [information warfare] is not what our workforce is optimized for … we are certainly not where we need to be.” Even so, Cyber Command is concurrently engaged in an expansive counter-messaging campaign against ISIS, Rogers acknowledged. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the clandestine hacking operation is aimed at the areas surrounding Syria and largely focused on compromising electronic devices belonging to terrorists, which carry content typically shared online. Depending on one’s definition of “information warfare,” it’s arguable that Cyber Command is already involved in such efforts. “I think one of our […]

The post Cyber Command head: We are not prepared to counter info operations appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Cyber Command head: We are not prepared to counter info operations→

Armies of pro-Trump Twitter bots are now promoting WikiLeaks’ CIA dump

Posted on by

An army of pre-programmed Twitter accounts — many of which are actively associated with online campaigns to post pro-Donald Trump content — are now actively promoting a cache of leaked CIA files published last week by WikiLeaks, according to new research. About 32,000 unique Twitter accounts — more commonly known as “bots” — tweeted more than 170,000 times using the #Vault7 hashtag on March 8, the day the leaked information was made public. The #CIAHacking hashtag was also used in another 3,800 tweets authored by 2,600 bot accounts. The network was identified by social media researcher Vlad Shevtsov, who used a software tool to analyze upwards of 44 million tweets; looking for “multiple synchronous operations” to identify “automatic control of an artificial audience.” He described his methodology in greater detail in a blog post written earlier this month. Many of the same bots creating tweets around Vault 7 can also […]

The post Armies of pro-Trump Twitter bots are now promoting WikiLeaks’ CIA dump appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Armies of pro-Trump Twitter bots are now promoting WikiLeaks’ CIA dump→

Experts warn Congress of ongoing Russian information warfare against Europe

Posted on by

Russian intelligence forces are currently involved in an online disinformation campaign to undermine several crucial European elections, former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves told lawmakers during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Thursday. IIves was one of four experts who spoke Thursday on Capitol Hill about Russian hacking and propaganda efforts designed to undermine The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and European Union. IIves was president of between 2006 and 2016, during a period in which Russian hackers launched a massive distributed denial of service-style attack on the country’s government agencies and private sector. “I would argue this will be the main battlefield over the next year,” IIves. “There are a number of key elections coming up among major countries … [and] in all cases we’ve seen significant meddling. The Dutch are so afraid they’ve decided to go back to paper balloting because of what might happen.” Lawmakers in Washington have […]

The post Experts warn Congress of ongoing Russian information warfare against Europe appeared first on Cyberscoop.

Continue reading Experts warn Congress of ongoing Russian information warfare against Europe→

Research into the Root Causes of Terrorism

Posted on by

Interesting article in Science discussing field research on how people are radicalized to become terrorists. The potential for research that can overcome existing constraints can be seen in recent advances in understanding violent extremism and, partly, in interdiction and prevention. Most notable is waning interest in simplistic root-cause explanations of why individuals become violent extremists (e.g., poverty, lack of education,… Continue reading Research into the Root Causes of Terrorism→