Cyberwarfare by Russia: Difference between revisions
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It has been claimed that '''Internet operations by Russian secret police services''' include a variety of "[[active measures]]" to influence the world events, including [[DDoS attack|denial of service attacks]], [[Cyberwarfare|hacker attacks]], dissemination of [[disinformation]] over the internet, [[Web brigades|participation of state-sponsored teams in political blogs]], internet [[Surveillance|surveillance]] using [[SORM]] technology, and [[Political repression of cyber-dissidents|persecution of cyber-dissidents]]. According to investigative journalist [[Andrei Soldatov]] <ref name="Soldatov"> [http://www.echo.msk.ru/programs/albac/41311/ State control over the internet], a talk show by [[Yevgenia Albats]] at the [[Echo of Moscow]], January 22, 2006; interview with [[Andrei Soldatov]] and others </ref>, some of these activities are coordinated by the Russian [[FAPSI|signals intelligence]], which is currently a part of the [[Federal Security Service (Russia)|FSB]] but has been formerly a part of 16th [[KGB]] department, but others are directed by the [[Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs]]. This point is, however, disputable (see below). |
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==Propaganda and disinformation== |
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According to former senior [[Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)|Russian intelligence]] officer [[Sergei Tretyakov (intelligence officer)|Sergei Tretyakov]], who defected in the [[United States]] in 2000, he often sent his servicemen to branches of [[New York Public Library]] where they got access to the Internet without anyone knowing their identity. They placed [[propaganda]] and [[disinformation]] to various web sites and sent it in e-mails to US broadcasters <ref name="Comrade J">[[Pete Earley]], "Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War", Penguin Books, 2007, ISBN-13 978-0-399-15439-3, pages 194-195</ref>. The articles or messages were not written by the intelligence officers, by prepared in advance by Russian experts, often with references to bogus sources<ref name="Comrade J"/>. The texts were mostly accurate but always contained a "kernel of disinformation". The purpose of these [[active measures]] was to support [[Foreign relations of Russia|Russian foreign policy]], to create good image of Russia, to promote [[Anti-Americanism|ant-American feelings]] and "to cause dissension and unrest inside the US"<ref name="Comrade J"/>. Tretyakov did not specified the targeted web sites, but made clear they selected the sites which are most convenient for distributing the specific disinformation. During his work in [[New York]] in the end of 1990s, one of the most frequent disinformation subjects was [[War in Chechnya]]. |
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According to Soldatov, one of the Russian teams, who called themselves [[GRU]] officers, was actively involved in a disinformation campaign prior to [[US invasion of Iraq]]<ref name="Soldatov"/>. |
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==Cyberattacks== |
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Some believe that Russian secret police services organized a number of [[DDoS attack|denial of service attacks]] as a part of their [[Cyber-warfare]] against other countries <ref> [http://www.scmagazineus.com/Cyberspace-and-the-changing-nature-of-warfare/article/115929/ Cyberspace and the changing nature of warfare]. Strategists must be aware that part of every political and military conflict will take place on the internet, says Kenneth Geers. </ref>, most notably [[2007 cyberattacks on Estonia]] and |
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[[2008 cyberattacks on Georgia and Azerbaijan]]. One of young Russian hackers said that he was paid by the [[Federal Security Service (Russia)|Russian state security services]] to lead the hacker attacks on [[NATO]] computers. He was majoring computer sciences at the ''Department of the Defense of Information''. His tuition was paid by the FSB <ref> Andrew Meier, ''Black Earth.'' W.W. Norton & Company, 2003, ISBN 0-393-05178-1, pages 15-16. </ref> According to Soldatov, a hacker attack on his web site [[Agentura.Ru|Agentura]] was apparently directed by the secret services in the middle of [[Moscow theater hostage crisis]]<ref name="Soldatov"/>. |
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==Persecution of cyber-political activists== |
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When Russian president [[Vladimir Putin]] called on his nation's women to have more children, journalist Vladimir Rakhmankov published a satiric article on the Internet calling Putin "''the nation's [[phallus|phallic symbol]]''". Rakhmankov was found guilty and fined by the court. <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gdf.ru/digest/digest/digest298e.shtml#rus1|title=GLASNOST DEFENSE FOUNDATION'S DIGEST No. 298|date=[[2006-09-26]]|accessdate=2007-05-11}}</ref> <ref>[http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/6/DF7B2E15-2F9F-4A8B-AAF0-A7622F0D33F7.html Russia: 'Phallic' Case Threatens Internet Freedom]</ref> <ref>[http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/09/A178BEAC-9BF7-4D59-B3B7-D6F07D4A0636.html U.S. Media Watchdog Criticizes Russia] </ref> <ref>[http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/27/europe/EU_GEN_Russia_Journalists_Trial.php Media freedom watchdog condemns conviction of journalist in Russia] </ref> Journalist [[Boris Stomakhin]] and director of [[Russian-Chechen Friendship Society]] Stanislav Dmitrievsky were convicted in [[2006]] for publishing articles on the internet. <ref> [http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/02/04/russia12604.htm Russia: Activist’s Conviction Hurts Freedom of Expression] statement by [[Human Rights Watch]] </ref> <ref name="Novo"> [http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=416&issue_id=3942&article_id=2371691 KAVKAZ-CENTER WRITER APPEALS JAIL SENTENCE] - by Jamestown Foundation </ref> |
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==Disruption of political blogs== |
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{{main|web brigades}} |
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The appearance of Russian state security teams in [[RuNet]] was described in 2003 by [[journalist]] Anna Polyanskaya <ref name=Pol1>[http://maof.rjews.net/authorg.php3?id=966&type=a Articles by Anna Polyanskaya], MAOF publishing group</ref> (a former assistant to assassinated [[Russians|Russian]] politician [[Galina Starovoitova]]<ref>{{ru icon}} [http://www.vestnik.com/issues/2003/0611/win/polyanskaya.htm "They are killing Galina Starovoitova for the second time"], by Anna Polyanskaya</ref>), [[historian]] Andrey Krivov and political activist Ivan Lomako. They claimed the appearance of organized and fairly professional "brigades", composed of ideologically and methodologically identical personalities, who were working in practically every popular [[Liberalism|liberal]] and pro-[[democracy]] Internet forums and Internet newspapers of RuNet.<ref name="Polyanskaya"> [http://www.vestnik.com/issues/2003/0430/win/polyanskaya_krivov_lomko.htm ''Commissars of the Internet. The FSB at the Computer''] by Anna Polyanskaya, Andrei Krivov, and Ivan Lomko, Vestnik online, [[April 30]], [[2003]] ([http://lrtranslations.blogspot.com/2007/02/commissars-of-internet.html English translation])</ref>. |
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===Russian agents in Polish web sites=== |
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According to claims of unnamed "Polish experts on Russian affairs", reported by the Polish newspaper [[Tygodnik Powszechny]] in 2005, at least a dozen active Russian agents work in Poland, also investigating the Polish Internet. The source also claims that the agents scrutinize Polish websites (like those supporting [[Belarus]]ian opposition), and also perform such actions, as—for instance—contributing to Internet forums on large portals (like Gazeta.pl, Onet.pl, WP.pl). Labeled as Polish Internet users, they incite anti-Semitic or anti-Ukrainian discussions or disavow articles published on the web, according to the source.<ref name="Tygodnik"> [http://tygodnik.onet.pl/1547,1220890,dzial.html Operation "Disinformation" - The Russian Foreign Office vs "Tygodnik Powszechny"], [[Tygodnik Powszechny]], 13/2005</ref> |
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==="LiveJournal fighters"=== |
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A member of [[National Bolshevik Party]] Roman Sadykhov claimed that he secretly infiltrated pro-Kremlin organizations of "[[LiveJournal]] fighters", allegedly directed and paid from the Kremlin and instructions given to them by [[Vladislav Surkov]], a close aide of [[Vladimir Putin]] <ref>{{ru icon}} [http://www.grani.ru/Society/m.119861.html Interview with Roman Sadykhov], grani.ru, [[3 April]], [[2007]]</ref> Surkov allegedly called Livejournal "a very important sector of work" <ref name="Surkov">[http://www.newtimes.ru/index.php?page=journal&issue=6&article=231 Military wing of Kremlin (Russian)], ''[[The New Times]]'', [[19 March]], [[2007]]</ref> and said that people's brains must be "[[Nationalization|nationalized]]". |
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===Criticism=== |
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Alexander Yusupovskiy, head of the analytical department of the [[Federation Council of Russia]] (Russian Parliament) published in 2003 an article "Conspiracy theory" in [[Russian Journal (website)|Russian Journal]] with criticism of theory of web brigades. <ref name="Usup"> [http://old.russ.ru/politics/20030426-yusup-pr.html Conspiracy theory], by Alexander Yusupovskiy, Russian Journal, [[25 April]], [[2003]]</ref> |
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His points included: |
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*Authors exclude from their interpretation of events all other hypotheses, such as internet activity of a group of some "skinheads", [[National Bolshevik Party|nazbol]]s or simply unliberal students; or hackers able to get IP addresses of their opponents. |
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*According to Yusupovskiy, authors treat "independence of public opinion" in spirit of irreconcilable antagonism with "positive image of Russia".<ref name="Usup"/> |
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*Although Yusupovskiy himself has a list of claims against Russian security services and their presense in virtual world (as "according to statements of media every security service is busy in the Internet tracking terrorism, extremism, narcotic traffic, human trafficking and child pornography"), his claims are of different nature than those of Polyanskaya. |
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*Yusupovskiy himself didn't take Web brigades theory seriously, "naively" considering that officeers of GRU or FSB have more topical problems than "comparing virtual penises" with liberals and emigrants. His own experience at forums also did not give him a reason proving the theory.<ref name="Usup"/> |
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==Public discussions== |
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===Discussion on control over the Internet=== |
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In 2006 radio talk show hosted by [[Yevgenia Albats]] with a topic "Control over the Internet: How does that happen?", Russian intelligence expert [[Andrei Soldatov]] made the following points<!-- when asked by Albats about "web brigades" --><ref name=Albats_talk> [http://www.echo.msk.ru/programs/albac/41311/ Control over the Internet: how does that happen?], a talk show by [[Yevgenia Albats]] at the [[Echo of Moscow]], January 22, 2006; interview with [[Andrei Soldatov]] and others </ref>: |
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*There are countries with greater or less control over the Internet; but there is control over the Internet in Russia; |
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*During the [[US invasion of Iraq]], a group of people calling themselves [[GRU]] officers published allegedly internal GRU information on American losses in Iraq — this information was shown on the background of Anti-american hysteria and was well consumed. Later it turned out this information was not credible, but this effectively didn't change the result; |
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*After [[2005 Nalchik raid]] Russian [[Ministry_of_Foreign_Affairs_of_Russia|Ministry of Foreign Affairs]] issued a statement that [[Kavkaz Center]] "is a very bad resource", and after two days two teams calling themselves hackers appeared, to arrange hacker attacks against Kavkaz Center; |
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*Soldatov doesn't think web brigades are fiction. He had related issues with his own site, especially during such events like [[Moscow theater hostage crisis]]; |
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*One of structures having related business with the Internet is [[signals intelligence]], which is currently a part of the [[FSB]] and has been formerly a part of 16th [[KGB]] department; |
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*There is a related agency in [[Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs]] with competent people who can do such things. <ref name=Albats_talk/> |
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Other participant of the talk show, Russian political scientist [[Marat Gelman]] made the following points: |
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*There are countries with control over the Internet, there's none in Russia; there may be control understood as observation<!--surveillance-->, but there's no tool<!--mechanism--> to forbid any certain resource; |
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*Internet is good as the space where authorities and opposition are placed in absolutely equal conditions and they need to actually struggle and convince people. It's impossible to actually prohibit in the Internet, one needs to win [a game]; |
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*Professional activity exists for long in the Internet — as many sites are professional media-structures with a team and owners perhaps — in a way a newspaper is. And coordinated work of these resources is possible. Commenting on a possibility that besides open structures there are closed ones imitating activity of youths, Gelman said he had an exact feeling it's fake; |
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*Answering Albats' question about possibilities of control over Internet as a means to exert influence on youths, Gelman asserted that authorities, opposition and America are all equal players in question of control and attempts of influence. Unlike e.g. television or newspapers all players in the Internet have equal possibilities, every player tries to do one's sort of work; |
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*Answering Albats' question "How control over Internet is technically organized?", Gelman noted that there are two major concepts: either the information is filtered before an user may access it ("premoderation"), either "postmoderation". While the first is the case in China, where access to certain types of resources is physically blocked, Gelman considers it a bad practice and it is absolutely unacceptable for Russia. Gelman thinks there must be control over the Internet in Russia, but only in the form of an agency searching for criminals in the Internet, tracking their IPs to get personal information, as well as there must be a mechanism to impose a penalty on such people. <ref name=Albats_talk/> |
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==In popular culture== |
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The alleged [[FSB (Russia)|FSB]] activities on the Internet have been described in the short story "Anastasya" by Russian writer [[Grigory Svirsky]], who was interested in the moral aspects of their work.<ref name="Svirsky>" [[Grigory Svirsky]] [http://ca.geocities.com/grig1@rogers.com/anastasia.html ''Anastasya. A story on-line'' (Full text in Russian)]</ref> He wrote: "It seems that offending, betraying, or even "murdering" people in the virtual space is easy. This is like killing an enemy in a video game: one does not see a disfigured body or the eyes of the person who is dying right in front of you. However, the human soul lives by its own basic laws that force it to pay the price for the virtual crime in his real life".<ref name="Bagryansky"> {{ru icon}} [http://www.library.cjes.ru/online/?a=con&b_id=318 ''Eye for an eye'']</ref> |
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==See also== |
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*[[Internet police]] |
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==References== |
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{{reflist}} |
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[[Category:Cyberspace]] |
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[[Category:Public relations techniques]] |
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[[Category:Psychological warfare techniques]] |
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[[Category:Internet in Russia]] |
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[[Category:Conspiracy theories]] |
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Revision as of 18:36, 21 March 2009
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