#cyber war

[disease]

[DEATHLOK #20: (CYBER WAR: PART 4) | 1993]

[living-and-awaken]

Anonymous has used their ability to hack Russian TV. They are showing what's really going on in the war.

Here

[growingstronglikeahighgardenrose]

Russia's hybrid warfare: desinformation and press control

So usually, I'm too lazy and just reblog. But I didn't find anything satisfying on just how malevolent and genius Putin's communication is. AND IT MATTERS IN THIS CRISIS TOO. Putin is an expert at hybrid warfare. He employs both traditional war (army) as cyber warfare tto reach his goals

While Ukraine is currently being invaded, the troubles are far from over once the active combat is done. I'm just seeing all my (Master in Diplomacy and International Relationships) classes come to life in how he plays both the people within and outside Russia.

It has been predicted for years that Putin's investments in fake news, artificial intelligence, bots and other desinformation tools, would be used by him during conflicts like these. And it's insidious precisely because we in the West do not see this fake news. That news is angled only at the people at the Russian border to convince them to join Putin's and Russia's side so that, when Putin barges in to protect "these independent sovereign territories" they will hold referendums to join Russia, just like Crimea did. Putin has a long history of being interested in certain areas of nearby countries.

Okay okay, time for the deeds.

1) Misleading Russians by press control

Russians can't access objective information easily. This makes it hard for them to see conflicts from multiple perspectives and know what's really going on in their country. Each day, journalists are getting arrested, newspapers are getting either closed down or getting a tag from the state that basically says Russians shouldn't trust their magazine or newspaper.

The Russian press in this conflict so far has A) spread neonazi myths about Ukraine B) Portrayed Moscow as the saviour of eastern Ukraine C) denied the legitimacy of Ukraine D) portrayed the NATO as an organisation deliberately trying to make Ukraine join them so they could "threaten" Russia, longish conflict and many international agreements were made on this point over the years but the fact is that Ukraine wanted to join NATO, I'm not focussing on the other points right now E) portrayed the west as crazy and hungry for war, classic propaganda speech "they want war, we don't".

During the Crimean war, news was also untrustworthy, and many myths and desinformation were spread. This turned the Russian people into a pro-war mindset, and influenced Russians living abroad. Remember 2014? The fundamental purpose of dezinformatsiya, or Russian disinformation, is to undermine the official version of events — even the very idea that there is a true version of events — and foster a kind of policy paralysis. Back when the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed above Ukraine, Russian desinformation blamed the C.I.A. and, most outlandishly, Ukrainian fighter pilots who had mistaken the airliner for the Russian presidential aircraft.

2022: https://www.euronews.com/2021/05/03/world-press-freedom-day-which-are-europe-s-lowest-ranked-countries-for-journalistic-freedo

2022: https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/propaganda-confusion-and-an-assault-on-press-freedom-as-russia-attacks-ukraine.php

2022: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-entertainment-media-europe-moscow-a760a2b6dcf5ef820cee7138336a5b3b

2016: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/29/world/europe/russia-sweden-disinformation.html

2) Misleading information for Ukrainians

The invasion of Ukraine’s territory and annexation of Crimea was proceeded by a propaganda campaign by Russian state media, such as Russia 24, NTV, Channel One (ORT), and Russia-1. See above; strongly controleld Russian press. BUT Russia also blocked Ukrainian channels and made sure only Russian POV's with fake news and alternative realities were spread amongst the people of Crimea. Bots on twitter and trolls on instagram, facebook and twitter also added to confusing fake news, desinformation and manipulation. If he does this again, the people of Luhansk and Donetsk of Ukrain can truly start to believe Ukraine is against them, and that joining Russia or becoming independent is in their own importance. And then Putin will be there to protect them while they have their referendums.

In 2022 Zelensky spoke to Ukrainians and Russians in RUSSIAN but said he KNEW the people he meant the information for would never be able to hear it. Okay but what information is Putin giving to Ukraiians?

Well, in 2014 many Ukrainians protested against corruption and the anti-western oppressive policies of the regime in Kyiv. Zelensky became president because the previous one, widely believed to be one of Putin's puppets who actively blocked trade agreements with Europe during his reign, didn't advocate the Ukrainians wellbeing. This was the view in the West of Ukrain. A very different narrative was broadcasted to Crimeans about those events. Putin's narratives led people in Crimea to believe their lives and freedoms were in danger from their fellow citizens in Kyiv.As the result, when the Russian military came offering protection, many gladly accepted, justifying it with the ethnic belonging to Russian culture.

2022: https://jsis.washington.edu/news/russia-disinformation-ukraine/

so many examples, I'm just going to dump this here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian%E2%80%93Ukrainian_information_war

3) Making Ukraine look weak through cyber attacks

Cyberattacks on Ukraine’s government institutions and critical infrastructure destabilize the country. Some 6,500 cyberattacks occurred in the last two months of 2016. Hacks of Ukraine’s power grids left over 230,000 people without electricity for six hours in the Western Ukraine. A year later, the capital city of Kyiv was a test ground for a new Russian cyber weapon aimed at critical infrastructure. Invisible saboteurs have turned off the electricity to hundreds of thousands of people. Each blackout lasted a matter of hours, only as long as it took for scrambling engineers to manually switch the power on again.Wave after wave of intrusions have deleted data, destroyed computers, and in some cases paralyzed organizations’ most basic functions.

2016: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-crisis-cyber-idUSKBN14I1QC

2017: https://www.wired.com/story/russian-hackers-attack-ukraine/

Concluding Remarks

This post shows the power of cyberwar and desinformation campaigns. They're important to influence the public at home, and abroad so that they will become pro-Russian. It makes sure this war will be supported, and that it will seem logical to side with Russia. Putin also has a lot of other tricks. It's worth checking out how he uses Soviet Union narratives, propaganda speech, twisted a-historical ideas about the history of Russia and Ukraine, and so much more. He's also taking full advantage of his and China's veto power in the UN and meanwhile NATO can't activate article 5 and 6, so he has the world in a tight grip.

If you want to know more of the geopolitical difficulties you should also check out the link between this conflict and Russia's relation with the US (they both still try to keep the bipolar world order from the cold war in place while they're both being fast replaced by countries that are richer and stronger than them like China), the link between Russia's gas supplies to Europe and Europe's response, the routine nature of diplomacy (you can never just accuse a country of something, everything is very formulaic), global trade, spheres of influence, the relationship between Russia and China (obviously, China approves of this as it weakens the West).

You must also know that this is no first for Russia. Russia's done similar things to Moldova and Georgia. The Kremlin has long used so-called “frozen conflicts” to extend its reach beyond Russian borders. For the past three decades, it has backed a pro-Russian regime in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria. In 2008, it launched a conventional invasion of Georgia in support of separatist governments in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two provinces with large Russian-speaking populations. Six years later, Russia seized Crimea. And guess what? You can't join things like the NATO when your borders are being disputed. How coincidental. Not.

And not to worry you guys but I hope you're all aware that Russia's building fortresses and a fleet to battle for the North Pole to claim its resources once the ice caps start to melt and it wants control over the northern sea passage that could open up between the atlantic and china. It's already disputing the UN deep sea clause and sea miles rules in regards to the North Pole. One more reason to stop climate change. Sleep tight!

[parttimereporter]

RUSSIA WARNS SATELLITE HACK COULD BE ‘ACT OF WAR’

RUSSIA has warned that hacking its satellites is an act of war after the country's space agency was reportedly hit by a cyberattack.

Yesterday hacker group Anonymous claimed it had shutdown Roscosmos so that officials have "no more control over their spy satellites."

Russian space chief Dmitry Rogozin has denied that the agency was breached, but issued a chilling message to anyone who might attempt to do so.

"I want to warn everyone who tries to do it that it is essentially a crime, which should be toughly punished," he told Russian media.

"Because disabling the satellite group of any country is generally a casus belli, that is, a reason to go to war.

"And we will be looking for those who organised it.

"We will send all necessary materials to the Federal Security Service, the Investigative Committee, and the Prosecutor General's Office for relevant criminal cases to be opened."

[andrea-biraghi]

Guerra Informatica: obiettivi dell’hybrid warfare le infrastrutture critiche                                

 Andrea Biraghi 29, 03, 2021 - Cyber Security.                                

Mentre la guerra informatica continua ad essere combattuta tra gli stati, continua anche la corsa della sicurezza informatica che ad oggi deve essere ritenuta esponsabilità del paese nel suo complesso e non solo relativa ad un individuo o ad un’organizzazione.

Nel corso degli anni, abbiamo assistito a un’escalation nella serie di hacking sui servizi sanitari, le reti elettriche, le centrali nucleari e la nostra privacy. Le minacce non vengono solo da Cina, Russia, Corea del Nord o qualsiasi attore statale o non statale con l’intento di destabilizzare un paese. Le minacce informatiche, in continua evoluzione, mettono così anche a rischio le infrastrutture critiche che sono in definitiva veri e propri sistemi strategici, essenziali per una nazione.

…le vere vittime sono imprese, organizzazioni e cittadini, che ne subiscono gli effetti. Allo stesso tempo, si assottiglia la linea di separazione tra azioni statali e “semplice” criminalità informatica.

Ma la maggiro parte dei cyber attacchi sono diretti alle infrastrutture critiche e il cyber spazio ha assunto un ruolo primario nei nuovi scenari geopolitici internazionali. Quali sono i nuiovi scenari? Nemici da remoto che utilizzano armi come virus informatici, malware e programmi che alterano l’operabilità di un sistema o avviano uno spegnimento completo del sistema. Gli attacchi informatici saranno il nuovo campo di battaglia – invisibile, invisibile e imprevedibile –  dove hacker di varie nazioni competeranno per distruggere economie e vite.

Continua a leggere: Guerra Informatica: obiettivi dell’hybrid warfare le infrastrutture critiche                                

[jerseydeanne]

Kill Chain: The Cyber War on America’s Election

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Venezuela: Calling the arsonist to put out the fire

Chavistas flood Caracas in mega anti-imperialist rally, March 9, 2019

By Cheryl LaBash

On Sunday morning March 10, electricity was largely restored in Venezuela after the sabotage of its power grid that began on March 7. Even in the midst of the crisis, Bolivarian Venezuelans with their elected president, Nicolás Maduro Moro, mobilized in a massive united anti-imperialist demonstration on March 9.

The U.S. government bears as much responsibility for these new hardships in Venezuela as was caused by its targeted bombing of Iraqi electric infrastructure in 1991.

Of course, no U.S. Air Force bombs rained down on Venezuela’s Guri hydroelectric complex. None were needed to inflict more economic suffering on the Bolivarian people. Equally devastating and lethal methods are now in imperialism’s toolbox, including cyber weapons and the cruel reality hidden behind the innocuous and nonthreatening term “sanctions.”

[thesecuritysleuth]

The Cyber War is not real .... yet

This post is derived from a few of the pieces of work I have put out in other channels recently. The work comes partly from realisation and party from frustration that a message is being broadcast which is essentially not entirely true. Increasingly in the last 2 years there has been mountains of content produced from a range of knowledgeable people either in the industry or close to the industry to totally uninformed outsiders about cyber war and whats happening right now. From everything I have read I can say without doubt 95% is fear mongering that the cyber war is going on right now all around us. This is false, I'll now elaborate why this is false now as many people will jump to tell you the opposite.

There is no clear definition. The term cyber war is fuzzy and deliberately ethereal. Nobody knows what it means but it makes it easier to get clicks on news articles and sell books. Because it’s fuzzy its also super easy for anybody with a little knowledge more than the average person to become a cyber war pundit. If your reading this please don’t become a cyber war pundit.

Cyber weapons are not the same as traditional weapons. A cyber weapon is not the same as a regular weapon. When somebody fires a missile and it reaches its target it blows up causing mass devastation. A cyber weapon can cause mass devastation luckily at the time of writing there has been no major incident which has caused mass death but there have been many notable examples which caused frustrating sabotage for those targeted. Where a cyber weapon is different from a missile is that the victim of the attack can find the weapon take it apart, understand it and then potentially fire it back at you. So if you are not careful you could potentially be giving your enemy a way to fire back at you or your allies in the future. I don’t think this has ever happened before in the history of the warfare.

Actions that are pegged as cyber war are really espionage and sabotage. Many of the examples quotes as “classic” examples of cyber war such as stuxnet are really espionage and sabotage efforts. Espionage and sabotage definitely take place in war however they are not enough to encompass the entire concept of war. These activities are more James Bond than Band of Brothers.

The attribution problem. One of the hardest things in cyber security is attribution it’s often very hard to tell between whats real and what evidence has been manufactured even when you are an expert. Actions that usually spark wars require very clear attribution. With malicious cyber attacks most go past without any attribution ever occurring.

A never ending conflict. Cyber war like many other “the war on <insert concept>” is large and fuzzy as mentioned earlier this nature makes it perfect for certain people and groups to take advantage of. That means it also can be used as a cash cow. asa . As a general rule if a concept is vague it needs to be refined down, we need to do this with the term cyber war otherwise it will turn into another “the war on <insert concept>” that never seems to end or due to its nature it can never end successfully for everyone involved.

It’s the early days. Obviously the above can all change in an instant, I hope it doesn’t but its easier to be optimistic some days more than others. Think of these thoughts as a snapshot in time and something we should strive to preserve because like nuclear warfare if cyber war becomes real theres no going back, we can’t put the lid back on Pandora’s box.

Hope you found this useful! Feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on Cyber War.

Until Next time!

The Security Sleuth