Steven Lee Myers on the NYT had the news on this typical Russian affect operation which actually is social engineering at scale: “The person on Gab who identifies as Nora Berka resurfaced in August after a yearlong silence on the social media platform, reposting a handful of messages with sharply conservative political themes earlier than writing a stream of authentic vitriol.
The posts largely denigrated President Biden and different distinguished Democrats, typically obscenely. Additionally they lamented using taxpayer {dollars} to assist Ukraine in its warfare towards invading Russian forces, depicting Ukraine’s president as a caricature straight out of Russian propaganda.
The fusion of political considerations was no coincidence. The account was beforehand linked to the identical secretive Russian company that interfered within the 2016 presidential election and once more in 2020, the Web Analysis Company in St. Petersburg, in accordance with the cybersecurity group Recorded Future.
It’s a part of what the group and different researchers have recognized as a brand new, although extra narrowly focused, Russian effort forward of Tuesday’s midterm elections. The objective, as earlier than, is to stoke anger amongst conservative voters and to undermine belief within the American electoral system. This time, it additionally seems supposed to undermine the Biden administration’s intensive army help to Ukraine.
“It’s clear they’re attempting to get them to chop off assist and cash to Ukraine,” stated Alex Plitsas, a former Military soldier and Pentagon data operations official now with Windfall Consulting Group, a enterprise know-how firm.”
