Justice Dept. Accuses Russians of Interfering in Midterm Elections Adam Goldman, New York Times, October 19, 2018 Russians working for a close ally of Putin engaged in an elaborate campaign of information warfare to interfere with the midterm elections, federal prosecutors said on Friday.  Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova, 44, of St. Petersburg, was involved in an effort […]Read More

#TrollTracker Part Three — Assessing a covert Iranian social media influence campaign Twitter Troll Farm Archives, Digital Forensic Research Lab, Atlantic Council, October 17, 2018 Iranian trolls were aimed at influence, but it should not be confused with the concurrent Russian one. Some of its posts were aimed at polarized audiences in the U.S., notably the anti-Trump […]Read More

#TrollTracker: Part Two — How the Internet Research Agency regenerated on Twitter after its accounts were suspended Twitter Troll Farm Archives, Digital Forensic Research Lab, Atlantic Council, October 17, 2018 The chief lesson is that the Russian attempt to spread division continued after its initial accounts were suspended. This second wave of troll accounts masqueraded as hyper-partisan activists. […]Read More

#TrollTracker: Part One — Seven key take aways from a comprehensive archive of known Russian and Iranian troll operations Twitter Troll Farm Archives, Digital Forensic Research Lab, Atlantic Council, October 17, 2018 On October 17, Twitter released an archive of over ten million tweets posted and over nine million tweets were attributable to 3,800 accounts affiliated with the […]Read More

Twitter released all the accounts and related content associated with potential information operations found on their service since 2016. These large datasets comprise 3,841 accounts affiliated with the IRA, originating in Russia, and 770 other accounts, potentially originating in Iran. They include more than 10 million Tweets and more than 2 million images, GIFs, videos, […]Read More

This week’s Dispatch from the Alliance for Securing Democracy. News and Commentary Platforms move against U.S. actors engaging in inauthentic social media behavior: Americans on both the left and the right have begun to mimic the Russian playbook by creating fake accounts on Facebook and Twitter to promote “falsehoods meant to mislead and inflame” in […]Read More

A New Cold Front in Russia’s Information War by Reid Standish, Dispatch – Foreign Policy Magazine, October 3, 2018 Russia may be interested in sowing distrust and divisions within its Nordic neighbor as shutting down any spying on its undersea activities.  Early in 2017, Frode Berg, a 62-year-old pensioner and former border guard from Norway, […]Read More

How to Fight Russian Infowar in Central Europe Defense One, by Radu Magdin, October 12, 2018 Traditional counter-propaganda techniques are decreasingly effective. The next steps will require focus, engagement, and new thinking. After years of low awareness and fragmented approaches, the West is finally coming to grips with Russia’s hybrid warfare in Eastern Europe. The […]Read More

Facebook Tackles Rising Threat: Americans Aping Russian Schemes to Deceive New York Times, Sheera Frenkel, October 11th, 2018 Real-time spreading of disinformation started by Americans, for Americans Shift the flow of online disinformation to mislead and inflame Weeks before the midterm elections, influence campaigns are a domestic phenomenon fomented by Americans on the left and […]Read More

This week’s Dispatch from the Alliance for Securing Democracy. News and Commentary Russian GRU officers attempted to hack organization investigating the Skripal poisoning: On October 4, the Netherlands announced that it expelled four Russian military intelligence directorate (GRU) officers in April for attempting to carry out a cyber-attack on the Organization for the Prohibition of […]Read More