Russians boasted of undetected bots, leaked documents show
A Russian cyber operation says less than 1 percent of its bots are noticed
Leaked U.S. intelligence documents are shedding new light on the extent of American surveillance and Russia’s capabilities in cyberspace.
The latest revelation: A top Russian government cyber organization claimed that it has a system for pushing out influence operations where less than 1 percent of its hundreds of thousands of social media bots are being detected, our colleague Joseph Menn reports.
The bots are used on social media sites like TikTok, Twitter and YouTube, according to the document. They can manipulate search algorithms, the document said.
- “Bots view, ‘like,’ subscribe, and repost content and manipulate view counts to move content up in search results and recommendation lists,” the document said.
- The document focuses on Russia’s Main Scientific Research Computing Center, or GlavNIVTs, which — according to the document — works directly for the Russian presidential administration. The Russian network running the disinformation campaign is called Fabrika, according to the document.
The document was prepared by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Cyber Command and European Command, it indicates.
The Defense Department declined to comment. TikTok, Twitter and Telegram, which was also named in the document, did not respond to requests for comment. YouTube owner Google said in a statement, “We have a strong track record detecting and taking action against botnets. We are constantly monitoring and updating our safeguards.”
The document is still cause for concern.
“Google and Meta and others are trying to stop this, and Russia is trying to get better,” said Thomas Rid, a disinformation scholar and professor at Johns Hopkins…