U.S. Pentagon ran secret COVID-19 anti-vaccination campaign to undermine China

June 17, 2024 by 1 Comment

Coronavirus COVID-19THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT of Defense ran a secret psychological operation on multiple social media platforms, aimed at undermining Chinese-manufactured vaccines against COVID-19. The controversial campaign was met with objections by several U.S. government officials, but continued for over a year, spanning both the Trump and Biden administrations.

According to the Reuters news agency, which uncovered the alleged plot, the psychological operation initially targeted the Philippines in the spring of 2020. During that time, the Southeast Asian nation relied heavily on the CoronaVac, also known as the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, which was manufactured by the Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech. The CoronaVac vaccine was approved for human consumption by the World Health Organization.

An investigation by Reuters determined that the U.S. Pentagon attempted to undermine the efficacy of the Chinese-manufactured vaccine, in order to sabotage the relations between China and the Philippines. Over time, the Pentagon project morphed into an anti-vax campaign that questioned the quality of Chinese-produced coronavirus test kits and Chinese-supplied face masks. There was also an attempt to stigmatize Chinese-produced medical supplies relating to COVID-19. The campaign argued that the coronavirus had originated in China, which made Chinese-manufactured medical supplies suspect.

The psychological operation utilized hundreds of fake social media accounts on multiple platforms, which were unified under the hashtag #Chinaangvirus —Tagalog for “China is the virus.” By early 2021, the campaign had expanded to the Middle East and Central Asia. Some social media posts claimed that Muslims should not be using the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine because it contained pork gelatin and should thus be considered forbidden under Islamic law. These tactics raised objections by some U.S. government officials, notably from the State Department, who expressed them in meetings with Pentagon personnel. The secret campaign was terminated in June of 2021.

The Reuters news agency spoke to Greg Treverton, former chairman of the U.S. National Intelligence Council, which ensures that the work of the nation’s intelligence agencies reflect the government’s policy priorities. Treverton told the news agency that getting “as much vaccine in people’s arms as possible” would have been in the national interest of the U.S., adding that the Pentagon’s secret operation “crosses a line”. Reuters said that a senior Pentagon official acknowledged a secret psychological operation was indeed launched, in order to “disparage China’s vaccine in the developing world.” However, the official “declined to provide details” of the operation.

► Author: Ian Allen | Date: 17 June 2024 | Permalink

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U.S., Russian spy agencies publish rival ads encouraging would-be informants

May 18, 2023 by 2 Comments

Russia Ukraine WarRIVAL ONLINE CAMPAIGNS BY American and Russian intelligence agencies are encouraging each other’s citizens to contact them, share information and possibly even defect. At least three ads have been  on social media, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issuing the earliest one in February of this year. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its Russian counterpart, the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), are now believed to have published similar ads.

The FBI ad initially appeared on Twitter, directing users to the website of the Bureau’s Washington Field Office. There, a text in Cyrillic urges Russian nationals to “change [their] future” by contacting the FBI. The CIA followed suit on Monday of this week by posting a video on its new channel on Telegraph, a popular social media platform among young Russians. The CIA video portrays frustrated Russian government employees morally torn by the Kremlin’s policies. It concludes with them contacting the CIA through a secure online connection. A narrator’s voice states, “my family will live with dignity thanks to my actions”. Viewers are then assured that their safety is the CIA’s highest priority, should the choose to do the same.

Shortly after the CIA video appeared online, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Director of Information, Maria Zakharova, said that the Russian government would respond “appropriately” to what she called a “CIA provocation”. On Wednesday, a number of Western media outlets reported that the SVR had unveiled a short recruitment video seemingly targeting Americans. The video, shared on Telegram, includes archival news footage of United States military and police personnel, flag-burning demonstrators, and protests against abortions. It concludes with footage of President Joe Biden overlaid with a sniper crosshairs. A narrator states in English: “If you want to help normalcy, help the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation”.

Amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, both the United States and Russia are engaging in extensive cyber-enabled operations aimed at each other’s targets. However, these recruitment videos underscore the continued need for highly placed human sources and their central role in multi-platform intelligence collection efforts.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 18 May 2023 | Permalink

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Foreign spies target Australians on dating websites, messaging apps, report warns

February 10, 2022 by Leave a comment

ASIO AustraliaAUSTRALIAN CITIZENS WITH ACCESS to sensitive information are being targeted for recruitment by foreign spies, who are increasingly using social media platforms, including dating applications, according to a new government report. The report, known as the Annual Threat Assessment, was issued on Wednesday by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), which operates as the nation’s counter-terrorism and counterintelligence agency.

Speaking in conjunction with the release of the Annual Threat Assessment, ASIO Director Mike Burgess said on Wednesday that foreign intelligence operatives are carefully cultivating online relationships with Australian citizens, who are believed to have access to sensitive information. These individuals are then targeted with “innocuous approaches” on social media, which can lead to actual recruitment pitches. These techniques have become more elaborate and wider in scope during the COVID-19 pandemic, Burgess said.

According to the Annual Threat Assessment, the ASIO has been detecting systematic “suspicious approaches” on a variety of messaging platforms, such as WhatsApp, which Burgess described as an “easy way for foreign intelligence services to target employees of interest”. However, relationships with carefully targeted Australians are also cultivated through dating platforms, such as Tinder, Hinge and Bumble, according to ASIO.

Other social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, are used to target “current and former high-ranking government officials, academics, members of think-tanks, business executives and members of diaspora communities”, Burgess said. Pitches begin with “seemingly innocuous approaches”, such as offers for well-paid consultancies or even full-time employment. The job offers then progress to “direct messaging” on various encrypted platforms, such as WhatsApp. In some cases, these approaches lead to in-person meetings, “where a recruitment pitch is made”, said Burgess.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 10 February 2022 | Permalink

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Israel Security Agency uses Facebook to reach out to young Palestinians – report

December 7, 2021 by Leave a comment

Israeli West Bank barrier

AN ARTICLE PUBLISHED LAST month in one of Israel’s leading newspapers, Haaretz, shed light on how the Israel Security Agency (ISA) is using Facebook to combat militant groups in the Palestinian occupied territories, namely the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. According to the article’s author, Amira Hess, the ISA operates about 35 Arabic-language profile pages on Facebook, which are accessible in the various Palestinian areas under Israeli occupation.

ISA case officers (agent handlers) with Arabic monikers are in charge of various regions. For example, the officer in charge of the Hebron area is known as “Captain Eid”, the officer in charge of the Al-Amari refugee camp is known as “Captain Zaker”, and so on. Every Facebook profile page has a telephone number for users to send messages using WhatsApp. In addition, a general Facebook page of the ISA was opened under the heading in Arabic, “Badna Naish” (“Want to Live” in Arabic).

The transition to using Facebook pages is in the spirit of the times, and reflects the fact that many younger Palestinians receive their daily news through social networks, and not through traditional media, such as radio or television. The purpose of the ISA’s open-referral method using Facebook is to talk to the Palestinian population directly, and especially to the younger generation, who is very active on social networks. This also allows social media users to pass on security information to thwart terrorist attacks without disclosing their identity. The Facebook pages also serve the ISA as a tool for recruiting Palestinians who are willing to help Israel.

Additionally, the ISA uses Facebook’s pages to warn Palestinians who plan terrorist acts before they go into action. Here are some examples of the use of Facebook’s pages: In March of this year, an ISA case officer using the moniker “Captain Eid” wrote on his Facebook page covering the Hebron area that he called several masked men who fired shots in the air while welcoming the released terrorist Mahmoud Hushia, and warned them that their identities were known. “In their deeds, they will be punished. Please stay away from unnecessary problems”, wrote Captain Eid. Read more of this post

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Russia-linked PR firm asked social media influencers to spread doubts about vaccines

May 27, 2021 by Leave a comment

Coronavirus COVID-19

A PUBLIC RELATIONS FIRM with alleged links to Russia offered to pay French and German social media influencers if they published content casting doubts on the safety of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The allegations about the firm’s efforts were made on Twitter and on French websites, and later appeared in Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

According to the reports, French and German social media bloggers and influencers who are active on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms, were contacted last week by a public relations firm. The firm is called Fazze. It claims to be based in London and describes itself as an “influencer marketing platform […] connecting bloggers and advertisers”.

In an email sent to social media influencers, Fazze reportedly asked them to post information that draws attention to “the death rate among the vaccinated with Pfizer which is almost 3x higher than the vaccinated by AstraZeneca” [sic]. The email from Fazze also reportedly asked the social media influencers to draw attention to a leaked report that supposedly questions the safety of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The report, published recently by French newspaper Le Monde, is based on an internal document that was stolen by Russian hackers from the European Medicines Agency and was later posted on the Dark Web. The document contains no evidence of the supposed danger of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. However, it has become the basis of anti-vaccine conspiracies on social media in Europe and the United States.

The social media influencers were encouraged to tell their audiences that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is “dangerous to the health of the people” and to question why “governments [are] actively purchasing” this vaccine. They were also instructed to “act like you have the passion and interest in this topic” [sic] and to present the material “as your own independent view”. When asked, Fazze reportedly refused to identify its client, but said that its budget for the project was “considerable” and invited the social media influencers to name “the rate you wish” for their financial compensation.

The company claimed to be based at 5 Percy Street in London, but it is not registered there, according to the Guardian. The British paper also claimed that the company’s management “come from Moscow and have worked for an agency reportedly founded by a Russian entrepreneur”.

► Author: Ian Allen | Date: 27 May 2021 | Permalink

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Chinese hackers used Facebook to target Uighur activists with malware

March 25, 2021 by 4 Comments

Facebook

CHINESE HACKERS USED FAKE Facebook accounts to target individual activists in the expatriate Uighur community and infect their personal communications devices with malware, according to Facebook. The social media company said on Wednesday that the coordinated operation targeted approximately 500 Uighur activists living in the United States, Canada, Australia, Syria, Turkey and Kazakhstan.

At least 12 million Uighurs, most of them Muslims, live in China’s Xinjiang region, which is among the most impoverished in the country. The Chinese state is currently engaged in a campaign to quell separatist tendencies among some Uighurs, while forcibly integrating the region’s population into mainstream culture through a state-run program of forcible assimilation. It is believed that at least a million Uighurs are currently living in detention camps run by the Communist Party of China, ostensibly for “re-education”. Meanwhile, thousands of Uighur expatriates, most of whom live in Kazakhstan and Turkey, are engaged in a concerted campaign aimed at airing human-rights violations occurring in the Chinese detention camps throughout Xinjiang.

According to Facebook, Chinese hackers set up around 100 accounts of fake personas claiming to be journalists with an interest in reporting on human rights, or pro-Uighur activists. They then befriended actual Uighur activists on Facebook and directed them to fake websites that were designed to resemble popular Uighur news agencies and pro-activist websites. However, these websites were carriers of malware, which infected the personal communications devices of those who visited them. Some Facebook users were also directed to fake smartphone application stores, from where they downloaded Uighur-themed applications that contained malware.

Facebook said it was able to detect and disrupt the fake account network, which has now been neutralized. It also said it was able to block all fake domains associated with the hacker group, and notified users who were targeted by the hackers. It added that its security experts were not able to discern direct connections between the hackers an the Chinese state.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 25 March 2021 | Permalink

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Dutch hacker says he logged into Trump’s Twitter account by guessing password

October 23, 2020 by 1 Comment

Twitter IA

A DUTCH ETHICAL COMPUTER hacker and cybersecurity expert claims to have logged into the personal Twitter account of United States President Donald Trump, reportedly after guessing his password. The hacker, Victor Gevers, took several screenshots of the private interface of Trump’s Twitter account, and shared them with Dutch news media, before contacting US authorities to notify them of the breach.

Trump attributes much of his popularity and electoral success to social media, and is especially fond of Twitter as a means of communication. He has tweeted nearly 20,000 times since 2015 (including re-tweets), with at least 6,000 of those tweets appearing in 2020 alone. His personal account, which uses the moniker @realDonaldTrump, has almost 90 million followers.

But Gevers, a self-described ethical computer hacker, cybersecurity researcher and activist, said he was able to guess the American president’s password and log into his Twitter account after four failed attempts. The hacker claims that Trump’s password was “maga2020!”. According to Gevers, Trump’s account did not require a two-factor authentication log-in process, which usually requires a password coupled with a numeric code that is sent to a user’s mobile telephone. As a result, Gevers said he was able to access Trump’s private messages on Twitter and —had he wanted to— post tweets in the name of the US president. He could also change Trump’s profile image, had he chosen to do so.

The Dutch hacker took several screenshots of the webpages he was able to access and emailed them to Volkskrant, a Dutch daily newspaper, and Vrij Nederland, an investigative monthly magazine. Shortly after accessing Trump’s account, Gevers said he contacted the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), which operates under the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. He said the US president’s password was changed “shortly after”, and that he was then contacted by the US Secret Service.

Also on Thursday, a Twitter spokesman said the company’s security team had seen “no evidence to corroborate” Gevers’ claim. He added that the San Francisco, California-based social media company had “proactively implemented account security measures for a designated group of high-profile, election-related Twitter accounts in the United States, including federal branches of government”. Such measures included “strongly” encouraging such accounts to enable two-factor authentication, said the spokesman. But he did not specify whether Trump’s account had activated this feature. The White House also denied Gevers’ claim, calling it “absolutely not true” and adding that it would “not comment on security procedures around the president’s social media accounts”.

► Author: Ian Allen | Date: 23 October 2020 | Permalink

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After dropping charges, US prosecutors broaden indictment against Saudi spies

July 30, 2020 by 4 Comments

TwitterTwo days after dropping charges against three Saudi men for spying on American soil, United States prosecutors submitted a new indictment that restates the two original charges and adds five more. The original complaint was filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in November of last year in San Francisco, California. It accused three men of “acting as unregistered agents” of Saudi Arabia since 2015. The phrase is used in legal settings to refer to espionage.

According to the FBI, the Saudi government allegedly contacted Ali Alzabarah, a 35-year-old San Francisco-based network engineer working for Twitter. Ahmed Almutairi (also known as Ahmed Aljbreen), a “social media advisor” for Saudi Arabia’s royal family, arranged for Alzabarah to be flown to Washington to meet an unidentified member of the Saudi dynasty. He and another Twitter employee, 41-year-old Ahmad Abouammo, were allegedly given money and gifts by the Saudi government. These were given in return for the email addresses, IP addresses and dates of birth of up to 6,000 Twitter users who had posted negative comments about the Saudi royal family on social media.

Earlier this week, however, US government prosecutors filed a motion to drop the charges against the three men. The two-page filing did not offer a reason behind this sudden decision by the US government. Interestingly, however, it included a request to have the charges against the three men dismissed “without prejudice”, meaning that the US government could decide to file new charges against them in the future.

This has now happened, as the US government has filed fresh charges against the three men. In addition to the two original charges, the men have now been charged with acting as agents for a foreign government without notifying the US attorney general. They have also been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, committing wire fraud and money laundering, aiding and abetting, and destroying, altering or falsifying records in a federal investigation. The indictment also specifies the financial rewards Abouammo allegedly received from the Saudi government in return for his services. These included a wire transfer for $200,000 to a shell company and associated bank account in Lebanon, as well as a luxury watch valued at $20,000.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 30 July 2020 | Permalink

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Without explanation, US dismisses charges against Saudis caught spying on US soil

July 29, 2020 by 3 Comments

Twitter IAIn a surprising move, the United States government is seeking to dismiss espionage charges it filed last year against three men, including a member of staff of Saudi Arabia’s royal family, who were caught spying on American soil. Last November, the Federal Bureau of Investigation filed a complaint in San Francisco, accusing the three men of “acting as unregistered agents” of Saudi Arabia. The phrase is used in legal settings to refer to espionage.

According to the FBI, the charges stemmed from an investigation that lasted several years and centered on efforts by the oil kingdom to identify and silence its critics on social media. In 2015, the Saudi government allegedly reached out to Ali Alzabarah, a 35-year-old network engineer working for Twitter, who lived in San Francisco. The complaint alleges that Ahmed Almutairi (also known as Ahmed Aljbreen), who worked as a “social media advisor” for Saudi Arabia’s royal family, arranged for Alzabarah to be flown from San Francisco to Washington to meet with an unidentified member of the Saudi dynasty.

Alzabarah, along with another Twitter employee, 41-year-old Ahmad Abouammo, were allegedly given money and gifts by the Saudi government in return for supplying it with private information about specific Twitter users, according to the FBI complaint. The information provided by the two Twitter employees to the Saudi authorities allegedly included the email addresses, IP addresses and dates of birth of up to 6,000 Twitter users, who had posted negative comments about the Saudi royal family on social media. Special Agents from the FBI’s Settle field office arrested Abouammo at his Seattle home. However, Alzabarah managed to flee the United States along with his family before the FBI was able to arrest him, and is believed to be in Saudi Arabia. The FBI issued a warrant for his arrest.

In a surprising move, however, US government prosecutors have now filed a motion to drop the charges against the three men. The motion, filed on Tuesday in San Francisco, is asking for permission from the judge in the case to have all charges against the three men dismissed “without prejudice”, meaning that the US government could decide to file new charges against them in the future. The two-page filing does not offer a reason behind this sudden decision by the US government. The Bloomberg news service, which reported the news on Tuesday, said it inquired about this case by calling and emailing the Saudi Embassy in Washington, the San Francisco US Attorney’s office, and Twitter. It received no responses.

► Author: Ian Allen | Date: 29 July 2020 | Permalink

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Popular beer app used to trace movements of military and intelligence personnel

May 21, 2020 by 2 Comments

Untappd appResearchers have been able to uncover the identities and track the movements of military and intelligence personnel by using visual and geo-locational information found on a popular smartphone application for beer aficionados. The information uncovered included the home addresses of United States government personnel, some of whom were found to be working at a secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) facility.

The application, or “app” in question is Untappd, which is arguably the most popular social media platform for beer aficionados in the United States and much of Western Europe. The app is believed to have over 8 million users worldwide, with many of whom serving in the armed forces or intelligence agencies. Untappd users are able to rate beers, share reviews of breweries and bars, post photographs, and discuss their findings with other users.

Earlier this week, a team of researchers working for the investigative website Bellingcat said that visual and geo-locational information collected from Untappd users compromised the movements and whereabouts of military and intelligence personnel who used the app.

Much of the information was collected by monitoring the activity of app users at bars or breweries located near known facilities belonging to intelligence agencies or the military —including the Pentagon. In one case, the movements of an individual user were traced all the way from his home to the Armed Forces Experimental Training Activity (AFETA). Known as Camp Peary, AFETA is a United States Department of Defense facility that is believed to be home to the CIA’s training grounds.

In other instances, photographs of beers posted by Untappd users contained snippets of US government employee badges, sensitive or classified documents, and even credit card and other personal information. Used collectively, the data extracted from the app could be utilized to build travel and habit profiles of users, including the work and home locations of military and intelligence personnel, said Bellingcat.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 21 May 2020 | Permalink

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Europol culls thousands of Islamic State online accounts in ‘day of action’

November 26, 2019 by Leave a comment

Telegram AppThe law enforcement agency of the European Union, in cooperation with the popular online messaging service Telegram, has culled thousands of Islamic State online accounts in what it described as “a day of action”. The operation was coordinated by the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, better known as Europol. The agency coordinated its activities with the popular instant-messaging service Telegram, which the Islamic State has used as its main platform of mass communication since 2014.

In a press release that appeared on its website on Friday, Europol said that it had managed to locate “a significant portion of key actors within the Islamic State network on Telegram” and “push [them] away from the platform”. The messaging app confirmed the joint “day of action” with Europol and said it took down over 5,000 “terrorist accounts and bots” from its network on November 22 and 23. The company said this was nearly 10 times higher than the usual number of user accounts taken down daily for violating its user agreement.

The BBC said that the removal of the accounts appeared to affect heavily the activities of the Nashir News Agency, an Islamic State propaganda outlet that uses the Telegram app to publicize press releases from the Islamic State. Dozens of online channels and community groups that were moderated by Nashir News Agency editors were also impacted, as their moderators had disappeared from the network. On Saturday, some Telegram users began posting information about replacement accounts for Nashir News Agency press releases, but these too were taken down within hours.

This was the second major “day of action” against online terrorist propaganda that Europol coordinated, with the first one being in April of last year. But critics argue that such efforts are unlikely to have a long-term impact on the ability of terrorist groups to spread online propaganda, unless they are constant and systematic. Meanwhile, Islamic State sympathizers criticized the Telegram service on other social media platforms and warned that moves to silence the group would result in its membership going deeper underground.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 26 September 2019 | Permalink

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FBI charges Twitter employees with working as spies for Saudi Arabia

November 7, 2019 by 1 Comment

TwitterUnited States authorities have charged two employees of the social media firm Twitter and a member of staff of Saudi Arabia’s royal family with spying for Riyadh. The Federal Bureau of Investigation filed a complaint on Wednesday in San Francisco, accusing the three men of “acting as unregistered agents” for Saudi Arabia. The phrase is used in legal settings to refer to espionage.

According to the FBI, the charges stem from an investigation that lasted several years and centered on efforts by the oil kingdom to identify and silence its critics on social media. In 2015, the Saudi government allegedly reached out to Ali Alzabarah, a 35-year-old network engineer working for Twitter, who lived in San Francisco. The complaint alleges that Ahmed Almutairi (also known as Ahmed Aljbreen), who worked as a “social media advisor” for Saudi Arabia’s royal family, arranged for Alzabarah to be flown from San Francisco to Washington to meet with an unidentified member of the Saudi dynasty.

Alzabarah, along with another Twitter employee, 41-year-old Ahmad Abouammo, were given money and gifts by the Saudi government in return for supplying it with private information about specific Twitter users, according to the complaint. The information provided by the two Twitter employees to the Saudi authorities allegedly included the email addresses, IP addresses and dates of birth of up to 6,000 Twitter users, who had posted negative comments about the Saudi royal family on social media.

Special Agents from the FBI’s Settle field office arrested Abouammo at his Seattle home on Tuesday. However, Alzabarah is believed to have fled the United States along with his family before the FBI was able to arrest him. He is currently believed to be in Saudi Arabia and is wanted by the FBI, which has issued a warrant for his arrest. The Saudi government has not commented on the case. Twitter issued a statement on Wednesday, saying it planned to continue to cooperate with the FBI on this investigation.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 07 November 2019 | Permalink

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Facebook shuts down suspected state effort to prop up Sudanese military regime

September 11, 2019 by Leave a comment

Sudan civil unrestFacebook has shut down a well-funded online campaign to support Sudan’s military regime, which some say is part of wider efforts by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to stop democratic reforms in Sudan. The northeast African country has experienced civil unrest for more than a year. In February Sudan’s longtime strongman, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, fell from power after 30 years, following prolonged popular protests. But the new military junta that succeeded him launched a violent campaign of suppression against the country’s pro-democracy movement. The junta’s leaders have relied heavily on ample support provided by three close American allies, namely Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile, the student-led pro-democracy movement has taken to the Internet to mobilize the Sudanese population. The regime has at times shut down the Internet in an attempt to stop pro-democracy organizers from spreading their message online.

Now it has emerged that Facebook detected and terminated a systematic misinformation campaign to promote the views of the Sudanese regime while also slamming the pro-democracy movement as reckless and irresponsible. The campaign was reportedly carried out by two self-described “digital marketing” companies: New Waves, headquartered in Egypt, and Newave, which is based in the Emirates. According to Facebook, the two companies worked in parallel to establish hundreds of fake accounts on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. They also spent nearly $170,000 to promote material that was posted online by an army of paid users. The latter were allegedly paid $180 a month to post disinformation and other forms of carefully directed propaganda on social media. A total of 13.7 million Facebook and Instagram users were reached in the course of the disinformation campaign, according to Facebook. Twitter and Telegram were also employed by the two companies to post messages in favor of the Sudanese military. Other messages extoled the Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar, as well as Muse Bihi Abdi, president of the self-declared state of Somaliland. Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates are staunch supporters of both Haftar and Abdi.

Facebook said it had been unable to collect evidence of a direct link between the New Waves/Newave disinformation campaign and the governments of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. But it added that the features of the campaign bore the hallmarks of a state-run operation. The New York Times, which reported on the story last week, said the Emirati company, Newave, did not respond to several requests for a comment. Amr Hussein, an Egyptian former military officer who owns the Cairo-based New Wave, issued a public statement calling Facebook “liars” and denying he had any links to the Emirates.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 11 September 2019 | Permalink

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Many countries, not just Russia, are trying to influence US elections, experts warn

July 29, 2019 by 6 Comments

TwitterSeveral countries are behind organized efforts to influence electoral politics in the United States, with Russia being one among a growing list of culprits, according to experts. Speaking to The Washington Post last week, cybersecurity experts issued what they described as “a wake-up call” to voters and warned that America’s information space is becoming “a free-for-all for foreign intelligence”. Foreign spy services that are utilizing information operations in order to influence US elections reportedly include —aside from Russia— Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela and China.

The majority of foreign information operations take place on social-media platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. But there are also campaigns to influence more traditional American media, for instance by tricking newspapers into publishing letters to the editor that are in fact authored by foreign intelligence operatives. Analysts from FireEye, Graphika and other cybersecurity and network-analysis firms told The Post that some information operations are difficult to detect, because the presence of a state security service is not always apparent. However, the messages that are communicated in tweets, Facebook postings, online videos, etc., tend to echo —often word for word— the rhetoric of foreign governments, and promote their geopolitical objectives. As can be expected, these objectives vary. Thus, Russian, Israeli and Saudi information operations tend to express strong political support for US President Donald Trump, arguably because these governments see his potential re-election as a development that would further their national interest. In contrast, Iranian information operations tend to lambast Trump for his negative stance on the Iranian nuclear deal and for his support for Saudi Arabia’s intervention in the Yemeni Civil War.

The Washington Post article notes that all major social-media companies employ teams of screeners whose mission is to detect and eliminate disinformation campaigns by both state and non-state actors. However, experts remain skeptical about their ability to combat the phenomenon, given that the quantity and sophistication of disinformation campaigns is constantly increasing. Many countries —including Israel and the United States— now maintain advanced information operations targeting national elections on several continents. There are also many governments —such as Qatar, the Philippines and Turkey— that use these techniques on their own voters and could potentially use them in the near future to target foreign populations, including Americans. The 2020 presidential election in the US is expected to be the most hotly contested in many decades, so it is certain that numerous foreign spy agencies will try to influence it in numerous ways, says The Post.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 29 July 2019 | Permalink

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Election meddling by foreign powers already underway, says Canadian spy agency

April 9, 2019 by 3 Comments

CSE CanadaThe manipulation of social media by foreign governments aiming to sow division in Canada ahead of the country’s federal election in October is growing, according to the country’s signals intelligence agency. In a report published Monday, the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Canada’s national communications interception agency, warns that election meddling by foreign powers is already taking place. The report, titled “2019 Update: Cyber Threats to Canada’s Democratic Process”, says that voters, as well as specific political figures, have been targeted by foreign powers since 2015 in the North American country.

The foreign intelligence agencies behind the efforts to manipulate Canada’s electoral process have systematically attempted to “polarize Canadians or undermine Canada’s foreign policy goals”, says the report. These efforts will continue and intensify in the run-up to October, claims the report, and concludes by warning that Canadians should expect to “encounter some form of foreign cyber interference ahead of, and during, the 2019 federal election”. However, foreign cyber interference on the scale that was experienced in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election in the United States is improbable, according to the CSE.

Meanwhile, in an unrelated development, the former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Canada’s primary national intelligence service, said in an interview last week that Ottawa would have to be patient in dealing with Russia and —especially— China. Speaking at a public forum hosted by the Canadian International Council in Vancouver, Richard Fadden noted that neither China nor Russia wish to go to war with the West. What they want instead is to “fragment the West” and thus increase their own influence on the international scene, said Fadden, who directed the CSIS from 2009 to 2013. It would be fair for Canada to “poke back”, he said, but would have to be “careful how [to] do it”, he added. “We need to be realistic. We’re dealing with an emergent superpower and […] we’re going to have to be patient”, Fadden concluded.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 09 April 2019 | Research credit: C.D. | Permalink

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