let's stop Russian fakes

Kremlin cybercriminals are attacking government websites and companies in Belgium

Hackers use DDoS attacks to overload servers with an excessive number of malicious requests, making websites inaccessible to real users.
In particular, the websites of the banking federation Febelfin, the Ministry of Economy, and the port of Antwerp-Zebrugge are not working. The website of the Belgian Cyber ​​Security Center is also unavailable.

According to VRT (https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2024/10/10/hackerscollectief-opnieuw/), the pro-russian hacker group NoName057 is involved in cyberattacks. Hackers claim that their actions are a response to the statement of Defense Minister Lyudivin Dedonder about the intention to purchase three Caesar artillery installations for Ukraine.
Let's add that NoName057 has been carrying out attacks on allied sites since the beginning of the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine.
At the same time, a fairly powerful cyber community is also working on the side of Ukraine, which neutralizes similar hacker groups, as well as institutions involved in the kremlin's armed and informational aggression. You can join here

"Reporters Without Borders" is launching a project to analyze the impact of propaganda and disinformation in the world

The key goal of the "Propaganda Monitor" project is to highlight the mechanisms and multifaceted nature of propaganda, increase public awareness of the problems it covers, and help better navigate the information space.As stated on the organization's website, the first season of the project will be devoted to Russian propaganda, with a special emphasis on the Kremlin-controlled media "rt".

"If the promotion of credible journalism is the antidote to disinformation and propaganda, then understanding their mechanisms and identifying their subjects is a necessary condition for blocking them," RSF believes. In addition, the Propaganda Monitor section of the site brings together RSF's previous research and analysis on the topic, portraits, interviews and other content produced by international teams.

Russia bribed more than 130,000 citizens of Moldova to prevent its accession to the EU

In Moldova, a large-scale operation by russia with the aim of influencing the results of the referendum on the country's accession to the European Union and the results of the presidential elections was revealed. The head of the General Inspectorate of the Police of Moldova, Viorel Chornuetsanu, said that only in September, 15 million dollars were transferred from russia to the accounts of Moldovan citizens. They were supposed to spread disinformation, carry out provocations and attack state institutions.

"russia seeks not only to corrupt voters, but also to provoke protests and destabilization on the territory of Moldova," Chernuetsanu said.
As a reminder, a referendum will be held in Moldova on October 20, during which voters will answer the question: "Do you support the introduction of European integration into the constitution of Moldova." Based on its results, countries can make changes to the basic law related to European integration. At the same time as the referendum, the presidential election of Moldova will be held.

Russian special services are recruiting Europeans with pro-Russian views to Telegram

The messenger, originating from russia, has become a tool for illegal networks recruiting young men in EU countries for the purpose of murder and sabotage. According to Western security services, the kremlin's special services are involved in these illegal actions.As indicated in the investigation by OCCRP (an international non-governmental investigative journalism organization that covers topics related to organized crime, corruption, etc.), one of these cases was an appeal to the fictional character Valery Ivanov, who was offered money for sabotage through the "Hello Bot" account - attacks on NATO military facilities or assassinations.

Similar Telegram channels are actively advertised in pro-russian media, including the "grey zone" channel (mercenary media of the Wagner group, russia). This method of recruitment has a low success rate, but is cheap for russia and can create chaos in Western societies, which is one of the main goals of the kremlin. Read the full text of the investigation here: https://www.occrp.org/en/investigation/make-a-molotov-cocktail-how-europeans-are-recruited-through-telegram-to-commit-sabotage-arson-and- murder

Russia uses AI to spread fakes about Western companies in Ukraine

To carry out disinformation attacks, moscow's special services created fake news sites londoninsider.co.uk and talk-finance.co.uk with registration in Great Britain. These fake media copy British media resources. As established (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/22/fake-uk-news-sites-spreading-false-stories-about-western-firms-in-ukraine) The Guardian investigators, under the russian propaganda operation was caught by the American firm Sarn, which works in Ukraine in the field of energy and military equipment.

In the fake materials under the title "Guns, money and Sarn: How a Czech-American group looted Ukraine", the company is accused of alleged "arms trading", "judicial fraud" and "embezzlement of funds".
It is noted that the defamatory content on the sites has all the signs of using artificial intelligence, and the involved linguist came to the conclusion that the original text was created by a russian-speaking person. It was also found that under the materials on londoninsider.co.uk is the name of a real British journalist, but he denies any involvement with this resource.
According to the researchers, the increase in the number of fake British news sites is happening against the background of the intensification of disinformation campaigns on the Internet by russia. Please check the sources of information.

Russia intensified its information war against Moldova

On October 20, the people of Moldova will go to the polling stations to elect a new president. Also in the bulletin: questions about the country's future relations with the European Union. In anticipation of the double vote, the kremlin's disinformation machine started working with renewed vigor. moscow wants to convince Moldovans not to support the pro-European course of President Maia Sandu, which allegedly leads to the loss of sovereignty and threatens the country's security.Some pro-russian media outlets in Moldova engage in blatant outright disinformation, while others only quote opposition politicians fighting against Moldova's EU accession, such as former president Ihor Dodon, fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor, and former governor of Gagauzia Iryna Vlach.

Moldova received the status of a candidate for the EU in June 2022. The kremlin perceived this reversal of the former republic of the Soviet Union as the joining of Moldova to the anti-russian front, with which the West allegedly seeks to surround russia. For the past two years, pro-kremlin media have tried to portray Moldova's legal decisions on its path to the EU as "Russophobic" as part of the West's "hybrid war" against russia.And this despite the fact that russia illegally occupied part of the territory of Moldova (Transnistria) back in 1991, creating its own puppet government.Read more details about the information attacks of the kremlin in the article EUvsDisinfo:https://euvsdisinfo.eu/kremlin-disinformation-on-moldovas-referendum/

Russian fake factory attacks US presidential candidate Kamala Harris

This is stated in a new Microsoft report. The company's experts determined that russian web trolls were circulating a fake video purporting to show Harris causing a hit-and-run accident that paralyzed a 13-year-old girl in San Francisco in 2011.The researchers discovered that during this influence operation, a video was created in which the actors were paid to shoot. Microsoft says this video was created by Storm-1516, a group linked to russian special services: https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2024/09/17/russian-election-interference-efforts -focus-on-the-harris-walz-campaign/

In another fake video, the actress pretended to be Harris in order to fabricate false claims about Harris' involvement in the accident. According to Microsoft, each of these videos received millions of views, and one was released via a fake news outlet in San Francisco to make it seem more credible.Another kremlin group, Storm-1679, which spread fake news about the Paris Olympics, is now also spreading false content about Harris. One of the fake videos featured a fake billboard in New York City with false claims about her politics.From the editors: if russia attacks only one of the US presidential candidates in the information space, certain conclusions can be drawn about the relationship of the other candidate with the head of the kremlin.

Polish special services neutralized a group of cyberspies controlled by Moscow, and Norway is preparing for sabotage

The exposed cyber group is connected to the Belarusian and russian special services, Polish Minister of Digitalization Krzysztof Hawkowski said.
The attackers started their cyberespionage campaign with an attack on the website of the Polish Press Agency (PAP), and their key goal was to infiltrate various Polish institutions, government agencies and state-owned companies that are connected to the security sector to steal information.

The minister also noted that more than 400,000 incidents related to cyber attacks were recorded in just six months.
Meanwhile, in Norway, a change in the threat level of sabotage on critical infrastructure facilities by the russian Federation is recorded. According to intelligence data, russia has become more prone to sabotage, in particular at oil and gas facilities, than a year ago. As noted by the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SSR), Vice Admiral Nils Andreas Stensens, quoted by Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/norways-spy-chief-sees-russia-more-likely-attempt-sabotage- 2024-09-10/), this intensification is, among other things, related to the kremlin's attempts to stop Western support for Ukraine: "We are observing planned acts of sabotage throughout Europe, which indicates Russia's clear efforts in this direction."

Kremlin bots attacked Macron and France's agreement with the UAE

russian propaganda is actively spreading the lie that the United Arab Emirates, after the arrest of the owner of the Telegram social network Pavel Durov in Paris, allegedly froze an agreement with France to purchase a batch of fighter jets from it. Al Jazeera's fake story on this topic became the most viral video of the "matryoshka" and "doppelganger" disinformation network. He was picked up by the media of russia, Iran and India.

On the X network, it collected 7.7 million views, and the "Al Jazeera video" published by bots was actively distributed on X and Telegram. The promotion of the video was facilitated by the founder of the Mega file exchange and blogger Kim Dotcom, who published the video after the russian channels, - the analysis of the fact-checking journalist David Puente shows.For some reason, russia is very worried about the fate of a supposedly "independent businessman" who apparently secretly cooperates with the kremlin's special services (a recent meeting with putin's representatives confirms this). And the arrest of Durov was definitely not part of their plans.

Russia has created a network of influence on events in several countries in Meta

According to the August 2024 Meta study, this network originated in russia and focused on fake news websites that spread fake news about politics.In Georgia, the influence network criticized protesters against the "foreign agent law" and supported the ruling Georgian Dream party. In Azerbaijan, she spread negative messages about the West and local events. In Armenia, she supported russia, criticized the prime minister and promoted pro-russian narratives.The network used fake accounts to redirect people to its websites. In particular, she has collaborated with people in Armenia to create videos on TikTok, YouTube and Meta apps.
The network was discovered thanks to the notification of the non-profit organization ISFED from Georgia. 

The investigation also revealed ties to individuals associated with the moscow-based marketing firm IMA Digital.In August of this year, Meta also exposed a fake network spreading russian propaganda to a European audience. Meta has removed 20 Facebook accounts, 14 pages and 9 Instagram accounts for violating its policy against coordinated inauthentic behavior. This network, created in russia, was aimed at English-speaking and French-speaking audiences. Fake news websites such as Euro Top News used fictitious journalistic pseudonyms and fake addresses to appear legitimate. Content on websites and social networks was probably created with the help of artificial intelligence.UPD: Meta has closed access to all its platforms to the russian propaganda media group RT (Russia Today).“After careful consideration, we have expanded our current measures against Russian state media. Russia Today, RT and other related organizations are now banned from our apps worldwide due to foreign interference," the company said in a statement.

Journalists of the Washington Post refuted yet another Russian fake

Since the beginning of the offensive of the Ukrainian army on the Kursk region of russia, the kremlin's special services have launched a powerful disinformation campaign. One of the key topics in it is the killing and torture of the civilian population of the Kursk region by the Ukrainian military. Of course, the purpose of these fakes is to tarnish the reputation of the Ukrainian army and sow doubts in the countries allied to Ukraine regarding further support.

However, representatives of several world media over the last week managed to visit the areas of hostilities on the territory of russia. In particular, a recent report was published by the Washington Post. One of the journalists' conclusions is that there is no evidence that the Ukrainian military is purposefully killing, torturing or abusing local residents. On the contrary, the Ukrainian army is trying to provide humanitarian aid to everyone.Read the full report here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/08/18/ukraine-russia-sudzha-kursk/

Pro-Kremlin media spread fakes about "Democratic plans to kill Trump"

These sites masquerade as American news channels and are linked to John Mark Dugan, an ex-US military man who fled to russia and plays a key role in the kremlin's global disinformation network.According to disinformation researchers, hundreds of fake media outlets have recently appeared, which, thanks to available AI tools, are fueling a surge of false narratives ahead of the US presidential election, writes AFP. 

The articles about the "Democratic attempt on Trump" spread false claims and cited an audio recording of an allegedly private conversation between former President Barack Obama and a Democratic Party strategist.As reported by the NewsGuard organization, the audio recording was created with the help of AI for an article on the little-known website DeepStateLeaks.org. The audio was distributed through a network of 171 fake news sites, including the Atlanta Beacon and the Arizona Observer, which in turn cited DeepStateLeaks as its source.NewsGuard added that the articles appeared to be AI-rewritten versions of the same story.

Russia's ally has stepped up phishing cyberattacks against high-ranking US and Israeli officials

Hungary plans to make it easier for Russian agents to enter Europe

Western investors in big Russian business

The Kremlin and its allies intend to interfere in the USA elections

The Czech Republic has detected a number of hybrid attacks from Russia

The Russian Orthodox Church is expanding its sphere of influence

Manipulation of the statement of a high official of the European Union

In the Baltic countries and Poland, 8 sabotage attempts by Russia were recorded

TikTok found 41 fake accounts with political disinformation