Cyber Attacks and Democracy

Russia & Donald Trump

There is no doubt of Russian collusion in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. The evidence is monumental, and frankly overwhelming; enough to frustrate voters and informed readers. The amount of ties to Russia, the infiltration of social media, the emails (No, not Hillary's emails), the real Russian spies in D.C., secret military operations, and the omnipresent threat of Russian influence is a situation that would make James Bond blush.

Here is everyone who has been charged and convicted of collusion as of October 2018:

George Papadopoulos: The former Trump Campaign Adviser was the first to plead guilty in the Mueller investigation. He pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia and a series of meetings he took and planned while he was a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. According to sealed documents, Papadopoulos made at least six attempts to set up meetings between the Trump campaign and Russian representatives.

Paul Manafort: The former Chairman of the Trump campaign pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and agreed to cooperate with the Mueller investigation. Manafort was found guilty of five tax fraud charges, one charge of hiding foreign bank accounts, and two counts of bank fraud. He faces a maximum of 80 years in prison.

Michael Cohen: Trump's personal lawyer pleaded guilty to eight counts of financial crimes including tax fraud, false statements to financial institutions, unlawful corporate contributions, and excessive campaign contributions.

Rick Gates: Gates worked as Manafort's Deputy during the Trump campaign and was indicted on 12 counts, including conspiracy against the U.S., making false statements, and failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.

Michael Flynn: Trump's former National Security Adviser pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about meetings with Russia's Ambassador to the U.S. at the time, Sergey Kislyak.

13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies: 13 Russian citizens and three Russian companies allegedly involved in meddling were charged with information warfare, according to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The main goal was to spread volatile political discourse toward candidates and the political system in general.

The largest company was the Internet Research Agency (IRA), which has become infamous for consistent "trolling" through internet bots on social media with fake news and pro-Trump propaganda.

13 Russian citizens were charged, including Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has connections to Vladimir Putin and helped fund the IRA. The other 12 citizens are all former IRA employees and have connections to Russian meddling, going so far as to steal American citizen identities and hire a Hillary Clinton impersonator.

The 12 are: Mikhail Bystrov, Mikhail Burchik, Aleksandra Krylova, Sergey Polozov, Anna Bogacheva, Maria Bovda, Robert Bovda, Dzheykhun Aslanov, Vadim Podkopaev, Gleb Vasilchenko, Irina Kaverzina, and Vladimir Venkov.

Richard Pinedo: The California resident and businessman pleaded guilty to one count of identity fraud. According to the statement of offense, Pinedo was in charge of a company called "Auction Essistance" which was created to bypass security requirements from online payment companies such has PayPal, Amazon, and eBay. To achieve this, Pinedo created banks accounts using fraudulent indentures and then sold these accounts to Auction Essistance users.

Alex Van der Zwaan: The Dutch lawyer pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to federal investigators. Along with ties to Manafort and Gates, Van der Zwaan also represented numerous Russian oligarchs and is the son-in-law of German Khan, the Russian billionaire and co-creator of Alfa Bank, the largest non-state owned bank in Russia. There are allegations Alfa Bank played a significant role in meddling during the 2016 election.

12 Russian intelligence officers: 12 Russian intelligence officers have been charged with hacking the Democratic National Committee before the 2016 elections. All 12 are members of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence unit, and were accused of conspiring to interfere through hacking computers, and stealing/releasing documents.

For a more comprehensive list, check out this article by Vox.

Russia & the NFL

Aside from elections, Russia also enjoys enflaming discourse about seemingly divisive topics in the U.S., one of which is the NFL.

Colin Kaepernick began his protest of police brutality in 2016. He began by remaining seated during the National Anthem before games, which angered many, especially veterans. However, Kaepernick took the opportunity to discuss with Nate Boyer, a veteran, for an approach to protest police violence without disrespecting veterans who have fought for the country. Kaepernick was told kneeling was a more respectful manner of protest, because people "kneel to pray; we'll kneel in front of a fallen brother's grave."

Kaepernick's peaceful protest has caused arguments around the country. He has been called "unpatriotic" and no longer plays on any NFL team. However, he has since been honoured with numerous awards ranging from Harvard University to Ambassador of Conscious to the Amnesty International Award.

Throughout the past two years, there have been NFL boycotts, refusals for Super Halftime Shows, tirades from the President, and constant rhetoric surrounding the separation of sports and politics.

However, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, Russia seems to be responsible for a lot of the volatile discourse surrounding the NFL. After Trump began his tirade about Kaepernick, tweets about the NFL surged from accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency [IRA], the Russian group who meddled in the U.S. election. The IRA has been attempting to inflame the U.S. on a variety of divisive topics to undermine democracy, especially as midterm elections near.

According to researchers from Clemson University, from 2014 to the middle of this year, 491 accounts linked to the IRA sent more than 12,000 tweets about the NFL or the anthem.

“You want to reach your average American, which is clearly their goal?” said Darren Linvill, an associate professor of communication at Clemson who led the study. “Then talk about football.”

87% of the partisan tweets about the NFL had a conservative-leaning message, which was frequently critical of the league and the player protests. 13% were in support of Kaepernick and were frequently drowned out by right-wing trolls.

Although these accounts have been shutdown, the Clemson researchers said still-active ones continue to weigh in on divisive sports topics, including the Nike campaign with Kaepernick and the U.S. Open final between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka.

Not sure if you're debating a bot or a person? Check out this article.

The Threat of Upcoming U.S. Midterm Elections

The flurry of 'Updated: Privacy Policy' emails over the past six months is a testament to the consequences of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica in the 2016 U.S. elections. In July, Facebook announced there are already attempts to sabotage the upcoming midterm elections. Facebook attempted to combat outside influence by banning fake accounts and "inauthentic coordinated behaviour" attempting to create tension around specific topics such as ICE and white supremacy.

Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s Head of Cybersecurity Policy, confirmed the social media outlet identified a number of fake accounts, the earliest of which was created in March 2017 and had almost 300,000 followers. More than 9,500 organic posts were created by these accounts, and over $11,000 was spent to run 150 ads between April 2017 and June 2018. The accounts also created 30 events, some of which had thousands of confirmed attendees, regardless of the authenticity of the event.

According to Alex Stamos, the former Chief Security Officer of Facebook, it is too late to protect the 2018 midterm elections from foreign interference online. Stamos left Facebook after leading the response to Russian meddling in the 2016 election and believes meddling in the 2018 midterm elections has already infiltrated the outcome of the elections.

Stamos is the latest ranking official to warn of Russian interference.

In early July, Homeland Security Secretary Kirsten Nielsen said every U.S. state needs to prepare for attempts by Russia. National Intelligence Director Dan Coats said that Russian efforts were “persistent, they’re pervasive and they are meant to undermine America’s democracy on a daily basis.” In August, Microsoft released a report claiming Russian groups are already attacking U.S. political groups ahead of midterm elections through fake websites replicating conservative organisations and U.S. Senators.

Hackers do not seem to be supporting any specific group or party, but are attacking democracy as an entity, according to experts.

Facebook’s Defensive Plan

In March of 2018, Facebook announced a four-part plan, including collaboration with intelligence agencies, to protect the platform from foreign interference in the midterm elections. The plan is specific to the problems that were apparent during the 2016 elections, in which public opinion was manipulated and infiltrated.

The plan is:

1. Fighting Foreign Interference

In the past year, the FBI has created a task force specifically to monitor threats to social media during election periods. Facebook staff has also said to be working with contracted experts to identify and fight against outside threats. However, this could prove difficult as this process and level of security will vary between countries.

2. Removing Fake Accounts

Thousands of fake Facebook accounts have been identified and removed during the past year. In one instance, the University of Oxford discovered 40,000 fake accounts in Poland across various social media accounts under Facebook. Facebook looks for pages of foreign origin which "distribute inauthentic civic content." Many of these accounts are linked to Russian, Iran, and Macedonia attempting to disrupt midterm elections in the U.S.

3. Removing "Dark Posts"

Facebook has banned the use of "dark posts" since the last election and has recently debuted a new tool that allows all users to view all ads, as opposed to specified ads.  Advertisers will also have to disclose which candidate or campaign they are representing in an attempt to alleviate coercion and manipulation. Furthermore, the ad will also show how much money was spent on creation, the number of impressions, and the demographic information about the audience, as described by Rob Leathern, the Director of Product Management for ads.

4. Removing Fake News 

Facebook closed a loop-hole which allowed pervasive spreading of fake news. Facebook relied heavily on third-party fact checkers to assess posted stories, however, fact checkers were only able to assess article links. Posts of images and videos, some of the most viral content, were not and could not be fact-checked. Articles that were labeled false by fact checkers were distributed 80 percent less, according to Tessa Lyons, a product manager for the News Feed.

Facebook has also doubled the annual budget for security and fact checkers to combat meddling and the permeation of fake news and the ever-changing venues of fake news.

The Infiltration of Dark Posts

In my last blog post, I broke down Facebook's plan to combat foreign interference, one of which is to remove dark posts. But what exactly are dark posts and how did Russia wield them?

What is a dark post?

A dark post, or "unpublished post," was a concept developed by Facebook to allow brands and publishers to reach a broader audience. Ads in the traditional sense had to be created separately to reach various audiences, even if it was the same ad. The biggest problem with this system was advertisers were unable to see the amount of users total who interacted with the ad. Similarly the Facebook algorithm no longer runs on a timeline but places precedence on the more popular posts. Therefore, ads would lose viewers as they couldn't garner enough interactions. In order to make the process easier, Facebook developed dark posts which allowed advertisers to connect multiple audiences to one ad.

Along with connecting audiences, dark posts also created a post that wasn't permanent on advertisers page. The post would only be visible to select members or a specific demographic.

How did Russia use these?

As these specific posts were developed to target specific demographics, it makes sense how Russian hackers were able to use that same idea to support Trump. Specific posts were created to increase divisiveness surrounding topics such as Colin Kaepernick or photos of "violent liberals" in an attempt to add fuel to the fire, so to speak. Facebook has since removed the use of "dark posts" in an attempt to combat this practice. Users are now able to see all ads; along with detail surrounding demographics and cost.

Whatsapp & Brazil

Jair Bolsonaro's win in the Brazilian elections was demoralising and unsurprising, although the round two numbers were very close. He once told a fellow Senator she was too ugly to rape, more people should have been killed during the dictatorship, threatened the LGBTQ+ community, said he would rather have a dead son than a gay son, and directly threatened affirmative action for the 50% black population; I have to ask, how did he win? Many looked to his stabbing as a boost of sympathy and popularity against the "violent left." However, the social media pattern continued; manipulated outlets were contributory to his victory and eventual election win. Rather than Facebook and Twitter bots, Bolsonaro is accused of creating a "criminal web" through an under-utilised tool: Whatsapp.

The Weaponization of Whatsapp

Although still a part of the Facebook conglomerate, Whatsapp now encrypts and protects all messages, even from the company itself. Significant strides toward free speech and privacy were hijacked by those with more nefarious ideas. As seen in countless elections worldwide, the use of media to manipulate and spread fake news is now considered to be mainstream news. However in the case of Brazilian elections, Whatsapp was infiltrated and manipulated for the first time, with no regulation. What was once a step toward a small form of cyber security and privacy was once again manipulated to push a larger agenda.

Many look to Bannon's influence from the shadows as once again responsible for aiding a nationalistic, scary man to office. Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of Jair Bolsonaro, claimed to have met with Steve Bannon, the orchestrator for several other manipulations around the world including the U.S. 2016 elections and Brexit. The claim was confirmed from an Instagram and Twitter post of Eduardo and Bannon with the caption that Bannon was an “enthusiast” of his father’s candidacy and they would "join forces."

Whatsapp is exceedingly popular in Brazil, with millions of users forming large groups. Eduardo and other Bolsonaro enthusiasts are accused of creating thousands of groups to spread fake news; there are an estimated 40,000-50,000 groups dedicated solely to Bolsonaro, paid for by wealthy businessmen. Many of these groups are overrun with pro-gun, anti-abortion, pro-torture, homophobic and sexist memes. As Whatsapp is unregulated and unrestricted with no algorithms, fake news is received directly from friends and families through group messages, creating even more trust in fake news.

"In one post, Haddad (the left candidate) was 'revealed' to have written a book defending incest. In another, his running mate, Manuela D’Avila, appeared with photoshopped tattoos of Che Guevara and Lenin. In a bid to dissuade Catholics from voting for Bolsonaro—who counts on an evangelical base of voters—a mocked-up newspaper article claimed that he would change the country’s patron saint" (Source).

Whatsapp and India

In an attempt to prevent the same situation in India, Whatsapp has now instilled a 5-person limit on forwarding messages in hopes of deterring fake news. The Indian government is trying other methods to prepare itself for the 2019 elections, however, the threat of strengthening conservatism is worrisome, to say the least.

Even the Clothing You Wear

Christopher Wylie, the whistleblower who exposed the Cambridge Analytica scandal, recently revealed how the company not only misused Facebook data to sway votes, but also “weaponised” the fashion industry in the run up to the 2016 US election.

Yes, apparently even the fashion industry can be manipulated.

"Fashion data was used to build AI models to help Steve Bannon build his insurgency and build the alt-right," Wiley told the The Business of Fashion Voices conference in November 2018. "We used weaponized algorithms. We used weaponized cultural narratives to undermine people and undermine the perception of reality. And fashion played a big part in that."

Wylie revealed the specific matrix based on data collected by the firm which he claims can show how users’ preferences for particular brands on social media platforms were then used to created targeted ads with pro-Trump messaging.

“They [Cambridge Analytica] looked at actual people. How they engaged with certain brands was put into a funnel and helped build the algorithms,” Wylie said. “When you look at personality traits, music and fashion are the most informative [tools] for predicting someone’s personality.”

User's choices and biases toward particular labels gave a clear indication of what became known as "populist political signalling." The goal was to create a system, based off fashion and music choices, to single out specific voters more susceptible to specific political advertising.

According to data, shoppers of specific brands such as Abercrombie, Hollister and Lee Jeans could be more closely linked to low levels of openness, therefore more likely to engage with pro-Trump messaging. But brands such as Kenzo and Alexandre McQueen were worn by more left-leaning voters.

Wylie demonstrated how specific brands and music could show a person's personality and political leanings. However, this idea seems slightly obvious. People who shop at more conservative stores will most likely have more conservative political belief and vice versa.

Consider the uniform of the white supremacist: polo and boat shoes.

Wylie mentioned the relationship between fashion choices and the 5 key personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism (OCEAN). What is most chilling, however, is he also mentioned other personality traits: depression, anger, and vulnerability, or a person's mental stability. Those who were deemed less stable or more vulnerable to persuasion were then targeted with specific political messaging.

Wylie did not place on the blame on Cambridge Analytica, but said the fashion industry played a part in creating a “pre-existing cultural foundation which allowed the alt-right to grow over that time period." Although Cambridge Analytica “exploited the cultural narratives that the fashion and culture industry put out,” the fashion industry was responsible for creating those cultural narratives in the first place.

"The shame, the colonialism, the racial biases, the toxic masculinity, the fat-shaming that industry puts out -- and has been putting out for decades -- is exactly what Cambridge Analytica sought to exploit when they were seeking to undermine people and manipulate them."

The Future is Bleak

Based on my research and monitoring of cyberwarfare and manipulation, my prediction is the situation will get a lot worse before it can get better. We have only begun to understand just how deep cyber manipulation has permeated our culture within the past few years, down to the very music we enjoy and the clothing we wear. Each revelation is another realisation that this turn toward fascism and control has been so deeply ingrained into our culture and the fabric of our society (at least Western) that escape seems unrealistic, and we are still learning.

At this point, the manipulation of voters (or at least the knowledge of manipulation) is still fairly new; it was only within the past year we collectively learned about Cambridge Analytica and Steve Bannon's nefarious plan. But what I have gathered is tech companies cannot keep up with the weaponisation of social media. Usually the damage is done before companies and citizens realise they have been duped, and by the time tech companies identify the problem, trolls have already moved on to exploit a different hole in the system. Now that companies are aware of the larger problems ingrained in their algorithms, they can attempt to revitalise and make their system safe for all users.

Facebook, which has undoubtedly received the most backlash, has devoted a large chunk of funds and resources toward cyber security and protection of data. However, trolls have simply infiltrated other forms of social media, as seen with Whatsapp and Brazil.

A large part of the response from tech companies has been to monitor and suspend accounts, however they rely on automised systems as there are simply too many accounts to sift through. But this system brings it’s own legion of problems; mostly that any system can be manipulated and bamboozled.

Furthermore, Twitter has felt the need to comply with specific hate speech rules, however majority of these target people who say “men are trash” or Black Lives Matter activists, as opposed to objectively worse profiles from known Nazis and white supremacists. It wasn’t until recently that Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube finally removed Alex Jones’ profiles due to “hateful rhetoric.”

However, I am also feeling slightly optimistic (but only slightly). The manipulation of humans has long been used for capital gain through advertising. But as seen in the past decade or so, the act of counter trolling could be the antidote. Just as there are people actively working to weaponise the internet, there are others who render their actions irrelevant with the simple act of making a stupid meme.

As discussed in “Digital War” by William Merrin, the trolling of terrorist groups such as ISIS were extremely successful. Terrorists want to be taken seriously, spread their message, and instigate fear. What is the best way to defeat that? Make fun of them. Make them seem like a joke. Don’t take them seriously. What could be more patriotic than trolling ISIS?

Aside from ISIS, the trolling of “hate instigators” has long been a internet tradition. My favourite is probably this video of Vladimir Putin, which apparently has been banned in Russia. Or this video of Alex Jones remade into a Bon Iver song. Or this one, which will help send your ashes to an American GOP Senator if they repeal the Affordable Care Act. Heads up, Paul Ryan, I'm coming to you.

Perhaps the antidote to fear is not more security, but laughter.

Undoubtedly, cyberwar is a trend and will only grow. We are only beginning to notice and pay attention to the ways in which social media and the internet can be used, and honestly, I am not sure how we did not see this coming. There will always be people who want to spread hateful rhetoric, fear, and abuse power; but how we respond and prepare for that eventual outcome needs to change. We are off to a good start with memes and funny videos, however responses from the tech companies themselves need to be streamlined. We cannot rely on trollers and funny memers forever. While we wait for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. to figure out how to deter hate speech and mean people, keep putting this video to good use. Or maybe let's bring back this one? Happy trolling.

*Posts from blog Ms. Robot, 2018