Looks like Russia hired internet trolls to pose as pro-Trump Americans

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Looks like Russia hired internet trolls to pose as pro-Trump Americans

by Idéfix Tue Aug 23, 2016 12:44 pm

Is Trump a willing collaborator of Putin's, or an unwitting tool being used by Putin to strengthen Russia's position at the expense of the US? Given that Trump's son said a few years ago that "Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets," it is possible that Trump is playing a willing role in all this.

http://nordic.businessinsider.com/russia-internet-trolls-and-donald-trump-2016-7?r=US&IR=T

Russia's troll factories were, at one point, likely being paid by the Kremlin to spread pro-Trump propaganda on social media.

In his research from St. Petersburg, Chen discovered that Russian internet trolls - paid by the Kremlin to spread false information on the internet - have been behind a number of "highly coordinated campaigns" to deceive the American public.

It's a brand of information warfare, known as "dezinformatsiya," that has been used by the Russians since at least the Cold War. The disinformation campaigns are only one "active measure" tool used by Russian intelligence to "sow discord among," and within, allies perceived hostile to Russia.

From threats about pulling out of NATO to altering the GOP's policy on Ukraine - which has long called for arming Ukrainian soldiers against pro-Russia rebels - Trump is "the gift that keeps on giving" for Putin, Russian journalist Julia Ioffe noted in a piece for Politico.

"Life is still not great here," Ioffe reported from the small Russian city of Nizhny Tagil in June. "But it's a loyal place and support for Putin is high. In large part, it is because people-especially older people like [Russian citizen Felix] Kolsky-get their news from Kremlin-controlled TV. And Kremlin-controlled TV has been unequivocal about whom they want to win the U.S. presidential election: Donald Trump."

As such, the year-long hack of the DNC - discovered in mid-June and traced back to Russian military intelligence by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike - would seem to be the archetypal "active measure" described by Weiss, adapted to modern technology to have maximum impact.

"The DNC hack and dump is what cyberwar looks like," Dave Aitel, a cybersecurity specialist, a former NSA employee, and founder of cybersecurity firm Immunity Inc., wrote for Ars Technica last week.

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