Blogging is a new kind of information warfare

[Объединенное Детективное Бюро]

The blogosphere today gives anyone the opportunity to communicate with the whole world directly, transmitting and receiving information in less than a second, bypassing any boundaries. The "friends" system allows you to distribute information to thousands of recipients in a short period of time. That is why the world's leading intelligence agencies began to use blogging in information wars. At first there was a word ... Content about the attack of large Russia on small Georgia, backed by photographs of the destroyed city, crying children and dead adults, circled the entire European and American blogosphere. Just an hour after the Georgian aggression, a wave of “righteous” anger struck the representatives of the Russian embassy in almost all countries of the world. It was then that our diplomats tried to prove the opposite, citing real facts, convincing that the photo is not Georgian cities, but Tskhinval after the attack of the Georgian army. But it was too late - the world community took the side of the aggressor. An accident? No! “In the blogosphere, unlike forums, it’s quite difficult to identify real people,” says the reserve captain, former FSB officer Andrei Naumenko, “that is, it creates the ideal space for intelligence and reconnaissance information wars.” Western intelligence agencies began to form blogging units several years ago. In Russia, they are only at the level of formation. According to experts, at the time of the Georgian attack on South Ossetia in the territory of Tskhinvali several photographers of the blogging departments of foreign special services were active. They sent photographs to bloggers, they worked on content and launched material in the blogosphere on all available sites. Despite the fact that FSB officers tracked all the ways of the blog game, the initiative was lost and Russia scored a goal. But, as they say, they learn from mistakes. So what is intelligence blogging? Information sites are incredibly large. The most common in RuNet are LiveInternet and LiveJournal. But besides them, almost every country has blogging sites, and there are even independent sites in many large cities - on city portals. Finding them through search engines is not difficult. Special services choose a site either based on the preferences of the target audience, or on the principle of “the more, the better.” Although in most cases the choice is made in favor of the already mentioned LiveInternet and LiveJournal, since they are well indexed by Russian-speaking search engines and there are many users on them, including those related to the target audience. There is one branch at each site - in industry, in politics, and so on. Two or three columnist-scouts deal with one topic. Each columnist leads three or four fictional characters with different characters, different registration, possibly even multilingual. Moreover, if three characters invented by foreign bloggers, say, scold Russia, one must ridiculously and stupidly praise it. At the end of the discussion, the last character is dissuaded by "facts." One gets the impression of communication in which thousands of people intervene. And bloggers bring them to the right conclusions. Sometimes a blog is created from scratch. An old news topic is selected, which caused a stir, posts are written. Original, nowhere repeating content inspires confidence in the "living" in the blogosphere. The main thing is that the main theme should correspond to the intelligence task. For example, the blog “Imperial Ambitions of Russia” is being created. Among unsuspecting inhabitants, “friends” are sought, who should be active participants in the blogosphere. Scouts select “friends” of central media journalists who enter the blogosphere, activists of social movements, people who have a large number of their own blogs. Further, intelligence bloggers write posts, draw a wide range of people into communication, and monitor how information is transferred from one blog to another. Before the event (in our case, the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia), the blog is "warming up", that is, all "friends" are involved under various pretexts. When the site is filled with visitors to the desired limit, there is a release of information: Russia attacked Georgia. And the information flies to all ends. Stages of operations using blogs: 1. The choice of the blogosphere. Note that reconnaissance is ongoing and throughout the entire Internet space. If necessary, this or that topic is activated. Characters invented by the intelligence department regularly write posts, but during the minutes of the attack they intensify their activities. 2. Creation of characters. When new platforms or even themes appear, new characters come up that attract the same characters from other platforms and lead “friends”. If necessary, the creation dates of the blog or post are falsified. 3. Creating an image. Visitors, blog participants should often see the topics that scouts need, and in the right way: “Russia is pursuing an aggressive policy” (a combination of the words “aggression” and “Russia”) or “Russia's gas pipeline is dangerous for Europe.” The target audience is getting used to seeing someone as a threat. A certain image is emerging. Dissenters are persuaded both by their own forces and by the "friends". 4. Successful blogs and posts are reprinted on sites with similar blogs, topics. Active links are given to the original discussion. The main goal is to increase the citation radius for search engines. 5. When the preparation is completed, an assault blog is created. Primary information is thrown at him, after which the attack begins. We considered only one task of reconnaissance - the distortion of the information field. When solving other problems, different types of blogs are used. So when gathering information, in disinformation, creating a positive image of your country, a certain politician or company, blogs of a completely different nature are used. It all depends on the objectives of the operation and the algorithms for its achievement. Clear criteria are just being developed. But with the improvement of communication in the network, they are also improving. Today, the United States holds the lead in blogging intelligence. They are followed by China. And in third place is Great Britain. But judging by the intensification of Russian special services in this direction, Russia will take its place in the top three in the near future. [DLMURL] https://www.razvedinfo.ru/node/439 [/ DLMURL]

 

[Матушкин Андрей Николаевич]

Thank!