Russian Info, Cyber and Disinformation (Jan-June 2017).

[OUTLAW 09]

GOP firm leaks personal data on >198 million US voters incl home address, birthdate & phone numbers‼️

APPEARS GOP has no explanation on just how they aquired 198M individual datasets....
http://gizmodo.com/gop-data-firm-acc...-ne-1796211612

Political data gathered on more than 198 million US citizens was exposed this month after a marketing firm contracted by the Republican National Committee stored internal documents on a publicly accessible Amazon server.

The data leak contains a wealth of personal information on roughly 61 percent of the US population. Along with home addresses, birthdates, and phone numbers, the records include advanced sentiment analyses used by political groups to predict where individual voters fall on hot-button issues such as gun ownership, stem cell research, and the right to abortion, as well as suspected religious affiliation and ethnicity. The data was amassed from a variety of sources—from the banned subreddit r/fatpeoplehate to American Crossroads, the super PAC co-founded by former White House strategist Karl Rove.

Deep Root Analytics, a conservative data firm that identifies audiences for political ads, confirmed ownership of the data to Gizmodo on Friday.

Dulles, VA & Alexandria, VA., Aug 13 - A leading center-right data organization, Deep Root Analytics (DRA), announced today a partnership with FourthWall Media™, the largest independent source of cable set top box viewing data. Deep Root is the first Republican analytics firm to leverage FourthWall’s TV viewing data to micro-target political campaign television advertising. FourthWall Media, through its MassiveData division, maintains a panel of 4.7 million individuals in over 1.8 million homes.

“Television continues to be campaigns’ dominant communications medium, but it has typically been the least data-driven,” said Alex Lundry, Co-founder of DRA. “Campaign resources are a precious commodity, so it is important that political television buying decisions be better informed by data. We need to approach big media with big data. Big data allows us to target our most important voting segments with messages that not only inform and influence, but create passion. Integrating FourthWall’s exclusive data with Deep Root’s unique blended media database will help campaigns target their paid media in a far more effective way than they had previously. What FourthWall’s exclusive second-by- second viewership data gives us is the ability to spend our advertising dollars more effectively and to target our message into individual homes for maximum political impact.”

In the upcoming election cycle, Republican candidates and conservative causes will be more successful if they can better target critical voters with the right message,” said Sara Fagen, Co-founder of DRA. “When we combine our unique voter segmentation with FourthWall’s second-by-second viewing data, we can dynamically match a voter’s interest in issues with their viewing habits to build persuasion models that allow us to more effectively and cost-efficiently make our case to the American people. This is a critical advantage the GOP needs going forward and we look forward to working with FourthWall to employ their unique data.”

[OUTLAW 09]

GOP firm leaks personal data on >198 million US voters incl home address, birthdate & phone numbers‼️

APPEARS GOP has no explanation on just how they aquired 198M individual datasets....
http://gizmodo.com/gop-data-firm-acc...-ne-1796211612

HOW is it possible that a single "GOP big data firm" literally parks the personal data of virtually ALL American voters on an Amazon cloud server without any security to speak of...not even password enabled.....

Let's not even get into the issues of Privacy law violations....

The bigger question is WHERE did they get ALL the personal voter data even on Democratic voters??????

[OUTLAW 09]

Azor.....I keep taking you back to this.....reference the recent shooting.....

What no one is saying about the shooter: he was also radicalized by Russian propaganda which was being aimed by the Wikileaks leaking directly at Sanders supporters and a narrative of hating Clinton.

[OUTLAW 09]

EU wants to pursue and punish cyber hackers:https://www.neweurope.eu/article/eu-...-cyberattacks/


1. Trump still has to yet release his stated in 90 days plan for cyber defense of the US that he made public via tweets and a statement...

2. Trump still believes it was a 400lb kid with a laptop on a bed and or the Chinese who hacked the US....CERTAINLY not the Russians....

[OUTLAW 09]

@WarOnTheRocks: 2016 hacks were latest in a long line of Russian attempts to meddle in US.
https://warontherocks.com/2017/06/mo...80-years-ago/#

[OUTLAW 09]

HOW is it possible that a single "GOP big data firm" literally parks the personal data of virtually ALL American voters on an Amazon cloud server without any security to speak of...not even password enabled.....Let's not even get into the issues of Privacy law violations....The bigger question is WHERE did they get ALL the personal voter data even on Democratic voters??????

The most disturbing part of this isn't the volume & detail of voter info that was compromised......It's the collection of it.

The leaked info "paints a detailed portrait of virtually all of America’s 200 million voters."https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/06/19/republican-contractor-database-every-voter-exposed-internet-12-days-researcher-says/


"These political data firms might as well be working for the Russians."
...do we know they aren't?

This is a such an important point: Taken to this extreme level, voter targeting really is a threat to democracy.

[OUTLAW 09]

In the Age of Fake News.......

Remnick: “We’ve reached the summit of bull#### mountain... and you have to wonder if we’ll find our way down again.”
https://www.theguardian.com/cannesli...e-news-cannes#

[OUTLAW 09]

Putin Falls for Fake News” by @DFRLab
https://medium.com/dfrlab/putin-fall...-9d4e50fc1865#

[OUTLAW 09]

Stop Fake @StopFakingNews
Russia uses money and threat of prosecution to hide Russian soldiers’ deaths in Ukraine

http://www.stopfake.org/en/russia-us...s-in-ukraine/#

[OUTLAW 09]

How the entire nation of #Ukraine became Russia's test lab for cyberwar
https://www.wired.com/story/russian-...ttack-ukraine#

[OUTLAW 09]

The most disturbing part of this isn't the volume & detail of voter info that was compromised......It's the collection of it.

The leaked info "paints a detailed portrait of virtually all of America’s 200 million voters."https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/06/19/republican-contractor-database-every-voter-exposed-internet-12-days-researcher-says/


"These political data firms might as well be working for the Russians."
...do we know they aren't?

This is a such an important point: Taken to this extreme level, voter targeting really is a threat to democracy.

Appears that the loss of 198M US voters' personal information and voting information which could provide a rather detailed voter preference which was "stolen" by unknown persons BECAUSE it was left on an open unsecured location on an Amazon cloud server for 21 days was handled by a US defense contractor SCL...

SCL used to be owned by Trump special advisor Bannon before he sold it to Cambridge Analytica now owned by billionaire Mercer....

SCL is now being investigated by UK concerning this data breach which effected virtually ALL US voters.....

UK Information Commissioner opens a formal investigation into the use of data analytics for political purposes:
https://iconewsblog.wordpress.com/20...al-purposes/#…

They are investigating as well the connections between the US defense contractor SCL and CA and whether they are actually the same company just different names...

SCL and CA pride themselves in being "big data" and storage companies YET this was a massive breach and caused by themselves...

Some of the data sets that SCL had ......

[OUTLAW 09]

IMHO this is one of the worst data breaches in the last ten years of really bad data breaches YET it has not rated much comment in US MSM......

When coupled with data mining taken from social media on virtually all of these voters it is extremely easy to formulate and distribute targeted political media messaging much in the fashion of informational warfare which is the core of the Russian non linear warfare....

So it begs a serious question...if hacking of voter databases is considered to be "bad" as that would be seen as "direct meddling in an US election".....WHAT is then the effective use of targeted media directed against voters THAT could in fact get them to change their vote????

This data held by SCL when coupled with social media big data mining can in fact produce very accurate explicit psychographic scores THAT then can be converted into specific targeting of voters with messaging that "appeals" to their psychological voter profiles.

We are now seeing a modern Gobbels approach to impacting voting habits...

When one really takes the time to read the Russian doctrine on information warfare...it clearly states the end goal is the changing of opinions, attitudes and thinking of an entire society just not individuals...

AND if we look at the latest CBS polling also posted here we are seeing a not so subtle shift by a group of voters which had previously been largely negative towards Russian NOW being accepting of Russia and its current actions....

[OUTLAW 09]

Russian propaganda hard at work.....

Kommersant source claims Poroshenko promised Trump lucrative contracts in Donbas if he helps with settlement.
http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3330740

Nothing is written in Kommersant without Kremlin approval....

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REALLY WORTH reading and then rereading and then looking at some of my posting here to fully understand the depth of the previous postings on the "loss" of 198M voter datasets....AND then understand why they were being "collected" ie "harvested"......

"Most powerful when bots and trolls work together." Must-read from @oiioxford on bots, automation and propaganda:
http://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-conte...veSummary.pdf#


Computational propaganda is the use of algorithms, automation, and human curation to purposefully distribute misleading information over social media networks. We find several distinct global trends in computational propaganda.

• Social media are significant platforms for political engagement and crucial channels for disseminating news content. Social media platforms are the primary media over which young people develop their political identities. o In some countries this is because some companies, such as Facebook, are effectively monopoly platforms for public life. o In several democracies the majority of voters use social media to share political news and information, especially during elections. o In countries where only small proportions of the public have regular access to social media, such platforms are still fundamental infrastructure for political conversation among the journalists, civil society leaders, and political elites. • Social media are actively used as a tool for public opinion manipulation, though in diverse ways and on different topics. o In authoritarian countries, social media platforms are a primary means of social control. This is especially true during political and security crises. o In democracies, social media are actively used for computational propaganda either through broad efforts at opinion manipulation or targeted experiments on particular segments of the public. • In every country we found civil society groups trying, but struggling, to protect themselves and respond to active misinformation campaigns.

[OUTLAW 09]

Example of the above posting hard at work...driven by server controlled bots...

DFR Lab‏
@DFRLab

NOT BREAKING NEWS - Contrary to Russian social media, US bomber did not drop bomb on Lithuania by mistake.

For analysis of this fake news story...
https://medium.com/dfrlab/fakenews-a...a-6ae64241fe9e

VERY GOOD analysis of how a fake news story is generated and pushed.....