Information Warfare – Cyber Warfare by another name

Less than 24 hours after my last blog, in which I presented my simple model trying to illustrate how Cyber Warfare fits into Warfare and my definition of it, a story broke in America which I think confirms some of my ideas.

A number of sources report that the US Justice Department had charged a Russian woman, Elena Khusyaynova, for conspiring to interfere with the 2018 United States elections.  They all report pretty much the same thing, so I include only one reference, which is the CNBC report (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/19/woman-linked-to-russian-troll-farm-charged-with-interference-in-2018-midterms.html).  Here are the key points extracted from it:

• Khusyaynova is charged with trying to interfere and “sow discord” in the American political system, including in the 2018 midterm elections as part of a conspiracy that exploited thousands of social media accounts and emails that claimed to be owned by U.S. residents
• She is accused of participating in a conspiracy engaged in “information warfare against the United States” that aimed to “create and amplify divisive social media and political content.”
• The case against Khusyaynova is the first to involve alleged interference in next month’s Congressional elections.
• Prosecutors claim Khusyaynova is the chief accountant for a Russian entity dubbed Project Lakhta, and managed the group’s financing.
• That group is backed by a Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, who has been called “Putin’s chef”.
• Prosecutors noted that the conspirators’ activities “did not exclusively adopt one ideological view; they wrote on topics from varied and sometimes opposing perspectives.”  “Members of the conspiracy were directed, among other things, to create ‘political intensity through supporting radical groups” and to ‘aggravate the conflict between minorities and the rest of the population’.  The effort targeted both Democrats and Republicans.
• The Justice Department said it had received “exceptional cooperation” in its probe from Facebook, Twitter and other “private sector companies.”

 

This is all very interesting and fascinating.  My comments are:

1. The reference to ‘information warfare’ and the description of Project Lakhta’s purpose fits into my model and definition of Cyber Warfare.
2. Surely President Putin has to be connected to this through Prigozhin?  Although he and his regime are at an arm’s length, I see this activity at least being state sponsored cyber warfare.
3. There is much to read between the lines in the references to exceptional cooperation from Facebook, Twitter and other private sector companies (and this itself begs many questions, which I may consider another day).  We can only speculate about how the US Government identified this operation, but the Americans are clearly confident enough to go public and prosecute.  Presumably they themselves have been in cyberspace tracking the Project Lakhta activity.
4. This is more than just a criminal prosecution.  This is a state to state message sending exercise.  This article (https://www.wired.com/story/russia-indictment-twitter-facebook-play-both-sides/) makes the point that the US government is saying ‘We know what you were doing, here’s how much we know’ as part of an increasingly aggressive strategy of naming and shaming foreign government operatives, making it clear that Russia cannot act with impunity.

Furthermore, knowledge of Project Lakhta seems to be old news.  A quick google pulled up this article published eight months ago (https://www.cyberscoop.com/how-russias-2016-election-information-warfare-worked/).  The article states more of the same, Russian operatives ‘…stealing the identities of U.S. citizens, renting servers based in the U.S. and using a VPN all while posting targeted propaganda on social media to disrupt American politics’ to again interfere with U.S. politics.

I did not expect or plan to post articles on subsequent days, but yesterday’s news was too interesting and significant to leave it to the end of next week.  It shows that the Cyber world is dynamic and fast moving.

 

Works referenced:

Mangan, Dan, ”Information warfare:’ Feds charge Russian woman with interference in US political system, midterm elections’, CNBC, 19 October 2018. <https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/19/woman-linked-to-russian-troll-farm-charged-with-interference-in-2018-midterms.html> [accessed 21/10/2018]

O’Neill, Patrick Howell, ‘Indictments reveal how Russia’s 2016 election information warfare worked’, cyberscoop, 16 February 2018. <https://www.cyberscoop.com/how-russias-2016-election-information-warfare-worked/> [accessed 21/10/2018].

Graff, Garrett M., RUSSIAN TROLLS ARE STILL PLAYING BOTH SIDES—EVEN WITH THE MUELLER PROBE, Wired, 19 October 2018. <https://www.wired.com/story/russia-indictment-twitter-facebook-play-both-sides/> [accessed 21/10/2018]