Weekly round-up of cognitive security-related articles from the Washington Post. Twitter removed some accounts originating in Iran, Russia and Venezuela that targeted U.S. midterm election Tony Romm, Washington Post, January 31st, 2019 Twitter revealed Thursday that it had removed thousands of malicious accounts thought to have originated in Iran, Russia and Venezuela for spreading disinformation online, including […]Read More

Dispatch from the Alliance for Securing Democracy Our Take ASD Senior Fellow Joshua Kirschenbaum testified on January 29th before the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Financial Crimes, Tax Evasion, and Tax Avoidance regarding the vulnerability of the European Union’s financial institutions to money laundering and other financial crimes that originate in Russia and the Commonwealth […]Read More

Active Measures #22 – A Newsletter of Political Warfare, Influence, and Information Campaigns Here are the top stories seen this week: How Should Countries Tackle Deep Fakes | Charlotte Stanton | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Twitter and Facebook Say They Removed Thousands of Troll Accounts in Run-up to 2018 Midterms | Ben Colins | […]Read More

Twitter released their comprehensive review of their efforts to protect the integrity of the public conversation from last year’s elections.  Read the press release here and their report here. Some highlights: Twitter tells us that they learned that (1) partnerships matter, (2) threats change, and (3) cross-functional is key. Seems very reasonable, if not universal… More […]Read More

Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service: Russia to spend $350 million dollars to meddle in Ukraine’s 2019 elections January 25, 2019, Unian – Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service Chief – Russian authorities have allocated $350 million dollars for destabilization in Ukraine for meddling in the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections – Propaganda goes first. The ‘EU vs Disinformation’ […]Read More

Russia’s Hostile Measures in Europe Understanding the Threat by Raphael S. Cohen, Andrew Radin RAND Corporation Different regions of Europe pose different problems in terms of Russian threats and approaches The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are often cited as being among the members of the EU and NATO that are most vulnerable […]Read More

Does Facebook Really Know How Many Fake Accounts It Has? 116 million?  More? Jake Nicas of the New York Times reviewed a key facet of the discussion, just how big is this problem? Facebook sells advertisers on its access to real people — 2.32 billion of them, a network that exceeds the populations of North […]Read More

Weekly round-up of cognitive security-related articles from the New York Times. YouTube Promises to Stop Promoting Misleading Videos Associated Press in the New York Times, January 25th, 2019 If you believe the world is flat, don’t count on YouTube recommending videos supporting your theory. On Twitter, Limited Number of Characters Spreading Fake Info Associated Press in the […]Read More

Weekly round-up of cognitive security-related articles from the Washington Post. EU urges internet giants to work harder fighting fake news Kelvin Chan, Associated Press, January 29th, 2019 European Union authorities warned leading tech companies including Facebook, Google and Twitter on Tuesday that they need to work harder to combat fake news ahead of upcoming bloc-wide parliamentary elections. […]Read More

Dispatch from the Alliance for Securing Democracy Our Take ASD Senior Fellow Joshua Kirschenbaum spoke with ProPublica about the slow pace of reform in anti-money laundering enforcement for hedge funds, noting that: “It’s the kind of thing that should have taken two to three years, not 17.” Kirschenbaum will testify on January 29 before the […]Read More