Australian news outlets, including the ABC, have been targeted by a sophisticated new pro-Russian influence campaign, designed to sway public opinion about the war in Ukraine, according to researchers.
Australian Associated Press (AAP), The Daily Aus, The Conversation and the ABC are among 800 organisations in more than 75 countries that have been approached over email or social media to debunk purpose-made false content, such as anti-Ukrainian graffiti or fake news clips.
While only a small number of Australian targets were identified in the report, Mr Kuster said their research was focused on Europe, and most likely provides only a glimpse of the true scale of activity in other countries, including Australia.
“This is the first time we’re documenting these potential state-sponsored entities specifically targeting the news and fact checkers themselves,” said Shane Ripley, a senior cyber threat analyst at private intelligence company, Recorded Future.
Analysis by digital forensics investigators who contributed to the research found that the supposed graffiti had in fact been superimposed onto recognisable locations, for maximum impact.
There are clues, such as stray lines of Cyrillic left in emails, and URLs that link back to Telegram channels with names such as “The Hand of the Kremlin”, but nothing that constitutes proof.
The original article contains 1,155 words, the summary contains 205 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Australian news outlets, including the ABC, have been targeted by a sophisticated new pro-Russian influence campaign, designed to sway public opinion about the war in Ukraine, according to researchers.
Australian Associated Press (AAP), The Daily Aus, The Conversation and the ABC are among 800 organisations in more than 75 countries that have been approached over email or social media to debunk purpose-made false content, such as anti-Ukrainian graffiti or fake news clips.
While only a small number of Australian targets were identified in the report, Mr Kuster said their research was focused on Europe, and most likely provides only a glimpse of the true scale of activity in other countries, including Australia.
“This is the first time we’re documenting these potential state-sponsored entities specifically targeting the news and fact checkers themselves,” said Shane Ripley, a senior cyber threat analyst at private intelligence company, Recorded Future.
Analysis by digital forensics investigators who contributed to the research found that the supposed graffiti had in fact been superimposed onto recognisable locations, for maximum impact.
There are clues, such as stray lines of Cyrillic left in emails, and URLs that link back to Telegram channels with names such as “The Hand of the Kremlin”, but nothing that constitutes proof.
The original article contains 1,155 words, the summary contains 205 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!