Russian Subversion in the Information Age

[AdamG]

The Trump administration accused Russia on Thursday of engineering a series of cyberattacks that targeted American and European nuclear power plants and water and electric systems, and could have sabotaged or shut power plants off at will.

United States officials and private security firms saw the attacks as a signal by Moscow that it could disrupt the West’s critical facilities in the event of a conflict.

They said the strikes accelerated in late 2015, at the same time the Russian interference in the American election was underway. The attackers had compromised some operators in North America and Europe by spring 2017, after President Trump was inaugurated.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/15/u...erattacks.html

[davidbfpo]

This is a new book by Clint Watts, who once frequented the Forum and the full title is: 'Messing With The Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World Of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians and Fake News'. In an email his short description is:

....explores how bad actors have come to social media to rally their allies and take down their adversaries. I discuss the tricks and tactics of the Kremlin’s trolls, social media conversations with terrorists, and the future of social media influence. I finish with some thoughts on how countries, corporations and citizens - each of us - can survive in a hyperconnected social media world.

Available via:https://www.amazon.com/Messing-Enemy...70_&dpSrc=srch

He was on Bill Maher's show two weeks ago; in an eight minute clip via:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IwdIxhAkBc

[AdamG]

Detailed article on the attack on A.P. Møller-Maersk.

In the spring of 2017, unbeknownst to anyone at Linkos Group, Russian military hackers hijacked the company’s update servers to allow them a hidden back door into the thousands of PCs around the country and the world that have M.E.Doc installed. Then, in June 2017, the saboteurs used that back door to release a piece of malware called #NotPetya, their most vicious cyberweapon yet.

https://www.wired.com/story/notpetya...shed-the-world

[AdamG]

The US Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) is engaging in a campaign to deter further disinformation operations by Russian operatives—individuals like those employed through Russian companies as part of the "Project Lakhta" program described in last week's Justice Department indictment of Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova—by letting them know that they are being watched. According to a report from the New York Times' Julian E. Barnes, USCYBERCOM has directed operations to identify, track, and directly message individuals involved in disinformation campaigns associated with the upcoming midterm elections.

The Cyber Command operation, described by unnamed senior military officials, is limited in scope and does not involve directly threatening Russian operatives. The measured steps are meant to avoid an escalation of operations by Russia to more serious computer-based attacks on US information systems and infrastructure.

https://arstechnica.com/information-...rmation-trolls