We're still getting hit..

[JHan]

This post came up in my feed:

"The Russians are still actively pushing out false FB accounts and bots.

Having around 5K FB friends, my feed moves like the Matrix screen. That allows me to see trends. When the Russians are hitting up all the friends of all my friends I get hit a lot due to having so many friends. Being an online marketer by trade, I have created THOUSANDS of fake accounts in my time. So I know what to look for. No one has time to make their fake accounts look real. There just isn't enough time in the day. One or two MAYBE. But even that is a LOT of work

This is what I see trending right now:

I see posts about "Is there REALLY anyone out there that does NOT realize the whole Russia thing is a diversion?" Followed by a long thread of "people" parroting this viewpoint.
I have no way to know how many of the accounts in the thread are bots, real live Russians, or clueless people who are getting sucked up into the fog due to not doing any due diligence to understand what is really going on out there.
I could go through all the accounts in the threads and maybe point out some fake accounts, but who has the time? And what to do about it?

This is more than a little disconcerting.

Just because the election is over they are not letting up.

Most of the American population would rather watch another episode of Jerry Springer than watch the news. That makes them (therefore us) very vulnerable.

I have had many conversation with intelligent people about how do we deal with this new tactic. You cannot force anyone to watch the news or pay attention. No one I have talked to has ANY idea of how to fight this. Including me. But we have to start a dialog of what to do. Russia is just bending us over and having their way with us with no end in sight."

[GeorgeGist]

1. Saw one here today

[jpak]

3. I saw more than one.

yup

[Siwsan]

2. I am in a progressive Facebook group that has been bombarded, today

We're all pretty much in agreement that we will no longer respond, but will immediately block the trolls.

[JHan]

6. I can imagine..I've been seeing the same trend on pages I follow..

it's overwhelming.

[Siwsan]

11. I'm wondering if it's an April Fools Day onslaught on steroids, or a new round of distractions

Just seems like a whole lot of effort for just one day, so I guess tomorrow will tell.

[blogslut]

4. Adult Internet sites used to block all traffic from Russia and China by IP.

It didn't solve all the problems but it cut them down to a manageable level.

[sharedvalues]

7. Yes pretty obvious

Right-wing partisan accounts that just repeat coordinated talking points - where do they get them from?

[JHan]

18. Yes, and while stories can go viral, it's suspect how orchestrated the behavior seems

Especially on Twitter.

[sharedvalues]

31. Especially on Twitter. And same profile

[Hortensis]

8. Never stopped. RT now has a "fake-news debunker,"

"FakeCheck." As RT put it, "In a post-truth world, it’s sometimes hard to distinguish between what is real and what is fake news. RT’s new special project, FakeCheck, helps you to separate fact from fiction and transit into a post-fake reality."

As a Slate writer put it, "irony dies again."

"You will probably not be shocked, then, to learn that RT’s fake-news site so far seems dedicated exclusively to debunking stories that cast either Russia or Trump in a negative light."
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/03/15/russia_today_launches_fake_news_debunker_fakecheck.html

[JHan]

17. Wow...

It doesn't get more Orwellian than that, geez

[Hortensis]

24. Only for somewhat over half of us. The other half...

Well, most of them do know they're using lies for their political power. They're too smart to actually believe them themselves, even if they are true in essence if not fact...

[jimlup]

9. I think they can hit the network feeds too

Sometimes the sound go out in the middle of a particularly interesting political story specifically involving Russians. I don't think it is a coincidence.

[phylny]

12. I believe it happened to a recent

episode of "The Daily Show."

[blogslut]

21. That was a hoax by Comedy Central

http://gizmodo.com/no-the-daily-show-didnt-get-hacked-1793806773

[phylny]

25. Ah, thanks :) n/t

[rzemanfl]

22. I've been noticing that too. I completely lost Rachel's livestream when Clint Watts was on. n/t

[0rganism]

10. it's part of the overall information warfare strategy

they will not let up
they cannot let up
it has to continue non-stop to be successful

[JHan]

16. Yep, information wars are what I fear the most.

"Weaponized AI"

[pangaia]

13. I'm so dumb I can never tell the trolls here. DUH!

ON FB, 90 percent of my 300 or so 'friends,' are in the classical music world, a number right at the top, the rest spread from high school students to those with very successful careers, ..probably 5% involved in other arts, and the rest....Well, one good friend is a taxi driver in Toronto. :&gt ))

So, I basically never see any of the things you mention... I do see political opinions expressed, but, again almost from 'our' point of view...


BTW, I'm impressed with your knowledge and experience in this kinda thing....
I had no idea...

[JHan]

15. Oh this is just a post that peeped up in my feed

That I thought should share - it's a public post. I've seen what the person describes in some groups I'm in....these bots can hit a post at a rapid pace, responding is often futile.

[iluvtennis]

14. Agree. Thanks for this info

[ancianita]

19. As you say, how would we know. Is the site below reputable, either? Should we just quit?

Meet in person only? Revert to the analog world and leave all digital battles to those who would market some pump-and-dump kinds of 'security' products?

Here's news texted to me from a trusted friend about Wikileaks' Vault 7, Pt. 2 dump yesterday:

According to WikiLeaks, Marble is able to hide or cloak their virus signature by “by hiding (“obfuscating”) text fragments used in CIA malware from visual inspection. This is the digital equivalent of a specialized CIA tool to place covers over the English language text on U.S. produced weapons systems before giving them to insurgents secretly backed by the CIA.”

Marble is “[D]esigned to allow for flexible and easy-to-use obfuscation” as “string obfuscation algorithms (especially those that are unique) are often used to link malware to a specific developer or development shop.”

Over the course of the last 4 months, the deep state has claimed — without evidence — that Russia has interfered in US elections. With this technology, the CIA could theoretically present the evidence it needs to “prove” Russian meddling.

According to WikiLeaks, this blame game is possible due to the fact that the source code shows that Marble has test examples not just in English but also in Chinese, Russian, Korean, Arabic and Farsi. This would permit a forensic attribution double game, for example by pretending that the spoken language of the malware creator was not American English, but Chinese, but then showing attempts to conceal the use of Chinese, drawing forensic investigators even more strongly to the wrong conclusion, — but there are other possibilities, such as hiding fake error messages.

According to Marble, the CIA could create a virus that would potentially devastate entire systems — and then blame it on anyone they want.
As Leak of Nations reports, in the second batch of ‘Vault 7’ documents, WikiLeaks released a user guide for Sonic Screwdriver – an implant on the Apple Thunderbolt-to-USB converter that allows code to be booted onto an attached device, even if the device is password-protected.

What this means is that the CIA can infect the firmware of Macs at the core of the system with a trojan horse. Having a proverbial ocean of computers to choose from, the CIA could then pick one of those infected computers, launch an attack, use Marble to cover it up and blame it on whomever they wish.

http://www.activistpost.com/2017/03/wikileaks-vault-7-reveals-cia-can-disguise-hacks-malware-russian-chinese.html

Wikipedia gives little comfort about the signal-to-noise in our politics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vault_7

[stevenleser]

28. One of the easiest ways is if someone uses the term "deep state"

There is no deep state. The President commands the entire national security apparatus and can fire people and reorganize departments at will. The Buck stops with the President on all DOD/CIA/NSA actions.

[hrmjustin]

20. I have seen them on Twitter, Facebook, and on DU.

[Egnever]

23. Couple things

Not sure why you would think it would stop.

And this is not a new thing psyops is old old old

[JHan]

30. oh I didn't think it would stop, this post I shared is just an affirmation of what's already known.

whenever we spot the trend we should call it out.

[pkdu]

26. I dont have a FB account - but it sounds like it needs either a MIRT Dept at HQ or

better authentication at creation/sign-up

[voteearlyvoteoften]

27. Knr

[mchill]

29. I joined a FB group - Trump Supporters United a couple of months ago

It's full of polls about Trump, unflattering pictures of Nancy Pelosi, Hillary etc., with a lot of people responding to the posts in one word answers - yes, or no. It seemed legit in the past (it still appears that a woman from NJ started the group), but I wasn't actually thinking "bot" when I looked at it. I took a gander just now and nearly every post is from someone in Macedonia. Legit Americans seem to be responding, still in their robotic way.

[FreepFryer]

32. Lots of low-post-count accounts lately, admonishing and discouraging...

... I consider it a comforting validation.

We are winning every day we fight. We lose when we allow ourselves to despair.