Location: Ukraine
The situation in Ukraine is quite specific. The state is at hybrid war
Hybrid war – a war strategy combining conventional, irregular, cybernetic, terrorism and crime, at the same time and on the same battlefield, to achieve political goals. This war is often waged without official notice. Its character is to allow the aggressor to completely or partially avoid responsibility for it. Hybrid threat is defined as any adversary using the above combinations of actions.
Activities under the hybrid war are carried out on various levels: military, political, economic, socio-cultural, historical, psychological and information (disinformation and propaganda).
According to the article provided by the interia.pl portal, the Security Service of Ukraine announced the “incident” whose topic was the closure of the bot farm. This farm was intended to spread fake news on social networks and drug trafficking.
Impressive is that fake news was spread using 8,000 fake social media accounts. These accounts were also created by the same group of bots. Taste is added by the fact that:
As stated, accounts were set up on the Internet, using Russian network services to register virtual telephone numbers.
Paraphrasing – someone who had control over a group of bots, through the use of social media accounts, false information about the situation in the country was disseminated, protest moods were stirred up, people were anxious, information attacks were carried out on the profiles of representatives of Ukrainian authorities, and information was sent about it, that there are explosives in critical infrastructure facilities.
As I mentioned, the whole situation took place in Ukraine. The raid was carried out in Kiev, Kharkiv, Dnieper and in the city of Dubno in the Rivne Oblast and in the city of Irpin in the Kiev Oblast. During the action, computer equipment, GSM modems and … 22,000 SIM cards were confiscated 😱 I don’t know who was able to comprehend it, but I give my technical respect.
An investigation is currently being carried out by the Ukrainian services to show whether there is any connection between the Russian special services and the liquidated bot farm.
Personally, I have a strong belief that in the near future there will be more and more such “revelations” from the IT world. This is just the tip of the iceberg. If someone has a fleet of bots in the east, what must the NSA have? Hmmm the view must be unearthly 😄
BBBP - Bot, Bot, Bot, oh PLEASE
Referring to this article, a thought comes to my mind. There are more and more automated things in our lives. I wrote about automation in IT not so long ago. More and more phones come from advertising bots. I have had a situation several times that someone is calling from an unknown number. When I answer, IVONKA beautifully recites the text entered by me. And when I reject a call from a foreign number, I IMMEDIATELY receive an SMS that I have won something.
There are a lot of such situations. All you have to do is go to dating sites or the social media itself. There are several things that are immediately striking and distinguish fake accounts:
A textbook example of a fake account / bot account is a beautiful girl who announces that she is lonely and is willing to date someone. Just DM.
Will it ever end?
When I was little, it was fashionable to say:
Do you believe in humped angels?
And more seriously – I don’t think so. On the contrary – it will be more and more and the bots will be more and more developed. It’s a bit like a weapon – you can use it to defend or attack. Each sword has two blades. Be careful and use your head.
And what bots have you encountered? Because I can’t believe you haven’t found one yet 😊