Impact of Technology and the Internet on Modern Warfare

[Foggy]

Google shutting off RT videos from YouTube. Rando citizens using Google Maps to label Russian consulates as bathrooms. Anonymous possibly taking down the Russian stock exchange. Videos showing how to operate abandoned Russian tanks and artillery vehicles. The whole world trying to figure out how to weaponize the Internet against Russia. I bet our government cyber teams are ... a little bizzy this week.

To me, this is one of the most fascinating aspects of the war, and fertile ground for academic study. But I'd like to document how high-tech is being employed, because this is the new weaponry of the 21st century.

[Dave from down under]

Wait and see if the warriors of today can get into the Russian power grids..

Just like the Russian hackers got into the US petrol pipeline system a few years back..

Is it Ransom ware when the price is peace?

[Maybenaut]

Google shutting off RT videos from YouTube. Rando citizens using Google Maps to label Russian consulates as bathrooms. Anonymous possibly taking down the Russian stock exchange. Videos showing how to operate abandoned Russian tanks and artillery vehicles. The whole world trying to figure out how to weaponize the Internet against Russia. I bet our government cyber teams are ... a little bizzy this week.

To me, this is one of the most fascinating aspects of the war, and fertile ground for academic study. But I'd like to document how high-tech is being employed, because this is the new weaponry of the 21st century.

Maybeson 2.0 is a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army. He’s a cyber geek. He obviously can’t talk about his work, but he says he’s pretty busy at the moment.

[Slim Cognito]

I think I'm gonna like this thread.

[Foggy]

Gawd, I miss Addie. She'd be cross-posting the hell out of this war.

Anyway, cross-posting:

Russia state-affiliated media
Google has announced it is blocking RT and Sputnik YouTube channels

[Foggy]

[Notaperson]

Gawd, I miss Addie. She'd be cross-posting the hell out of this war.

Off Topic

I miss her too. Do you know why she hasn't joined us on the new Fogbow?

[Foggy]

Off Topic

She has. Twice. She's Addie and formerlyaddie, check the memberlist.

Why she won't, or can't post, I have no idea.

[Slim Cognito]

Life happens.

[Maybenaut]

If all these Western content providers keep cutting ties with Russia, the people will be stuck watching Worker and Parasite.

[Dave from down under]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-02/ ... /100873490

As Russian artillery bombarded Ukraine's infrastructure on Sunday, one of the country's most senior government ministers issued an unusual call to arms.

Key points:
Almost 250,000 accounts have subscribed to a cyber operations Telegram channel endorsed by the Ukrainian government
Russian state and patriotic hackers have been behind several cyber attacks in recent years
Experts warned Australia could be caught in the crossfire between eastern European hackers
The world was already supplying Ukraine with anti-tank missiles and military intelligence, but Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, tweeting a link to a public channel on Telegram, also called for hackers and tech specialists to join the "cyber front".

While crowdsourcing cyber operations have been linked to conflicts in the past, the size and public nature of this campaign are largely unprecedented.

"In the past, we've had much smaller rudimentary groups doing this, and they tended to be associated with one of the conflict groups," said Australian strategic analyst Alan Dupont.

"This is a clearly different phenomenon. We haven't seen it before at this level.

"It is fascinating how cleverly and adroitly Ukraine has mobilised these cyber groups and weaponised them against the Russians, who are meant to be the world-leaders in this area."

[MN-Skeptic]

Since this technology related, I’ll put this here -

[Foggy]

Last night on the Virtual Meetup, Danraft was telling us that the Russian troll farms on Twitter, and maybe Facebook (?) seem to have largely disappeared, leaving a lot of right-wing nutcases with nobody to tell them what to think or what to say.

Is anyone else noticing that sort of thing?

[SuzieC]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/3 ... y-silenced

Yes, a lot of people are noticing.

[raison de arizona]

Yes, seeing many comments on Twitter that it is suddenly almost usable and pleasant without the endless Russian trollbots.

[Maybenaut]

According to The Sun, Anonymous claims it hacked Russias satellite program.

ANONYMOUS has claimed that it has shut down Russia's space agency, Roscosmos.

The hacking team has said that Russian officials have "no more control over their spy satellites."

However, the Director General of Roscosmos, Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin, denied the claim and called the group "petty swindlers."

In a social media statement, he said: "The information of these scammers and petty swindlers is not true. All our space activity control centers are operating normally."

Rogozin has previously stated that control of the Russian space industry, orbital group and the Russian International Space Station segment is protected from cyber criminals.

It comes just days after Anonymous claimed it had successfully breached over 300 Russian websites and offered troops over $53,000 to give up their tanks.

The offer to buy tanks from Russian soldiers has emerged after reports that Russia refused to open its stock market.

It initially said that they would delay opening it for a few hours, before eventually stating that it would remain closed all day.

The notorious hacker collective claims to have amassed more than RUB 1billion ($10.3million) and is offering tank crews RUB 5million ($51,000) for each surrendered tank, according to Ukrainian media.

Russian troops have been advised by Anonymous to surrender with a white flag and use the password "million" to show that they accept the collective’s terms.

The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine has also reportedly said that it will guarantee amnesty to surrendering forces.

Anonymous is allegedly telling Russian soldiers: “Russian soldiers, everyone who wants to live with their families, children, and not die, the Anonymous global community has collected RUB 1,225,043 in bitcoin to help you."


The move comes after the international hacking collective declared war on Putin’s war machine in response to a call to arms from the Ukrainian government.

https://www.the-sun.com/tech/4803987/an ... osmos/amp/

[keith]

Last night on the Virtual Meetup, Danraft was telling us that the Russian troll farms on Twitter, and maybe Facebook (?) seem to have largely disappeared, leaving a lot of right-wing nutcases with nobody to tell them what to think or what to say.

Is anyone else noticing that sort of thing?

Well i shut up one propagandist on ATS and havent heard any thing from any others since. But i havent reviewed all forums

[shannon]

Last night on the Virtual Meetup, Danraft was telling us that the Russian troll farms on Twitter, and maybe Facebook (?) seem to have largely disappeared, leaving a lot of right-wing nutcases with nobody to tell them what to think or what to say.

Is anyone else noticing that sort of thing?

Yeah, I noticed that as well, and that the ones remaining are seriously disorganized and fragmented. You're not seeing as many word-for-word identical posts from a batch of "people" either.

I'm kinda wondering how many of the far right and alt-right nutjobs are panicking that their Russian payola is drying up. For that matter, how will the midterms this year be affected if the GQP isn't getting Russian-funded dark money?

[Foggy]

Key U.S. provider of Internet to Russia cuts service there, citing ‘unprovoked invasion of Ukraine'

A leading American Internet service provider, Cogent Communications, said it was severing relations with Russian customers on Friday, a move that gives Ukrainian officials another victory in their campaign to isolate Russia online.

Cogent chief executive Dave Schaeffer said the company did not want to keep ordinary Russians off the Internet but did want to prevent the Russian government from using Cogent’s networks to launch cyberattacks or deliver propaganda targeting Ukraine at a time of war.

“Our goal is not to hurt anyone. It’s just to not empower the Russian government to have another tool in their war chest,” Schaeffer said in an interview with The Washington Post.

Cogent, based in Washington, D.C., is one of the world’s largest providers of what’s known as Internet backbone — roughly comparable to the interstate highway system, providing the primary conduit for data flows that local companies then route to individual domains. Schaeffer said Cogent’s networks carry about one-quarter of the world’s Internet traffic. Cogent has several dozen customers in Russia, with many of them, such as state-owned telecommunications giant Rostelecom, being close to the government.

[Foggy]

Russia’s Internet censor says it will block access to Facebook

Russia’s Internet censor on Friday announced it plans to block access to Facebook, a dramatic step that will cut Russian citizens’ access to information about the war in Ukraine.

Roskomnadzor, the country’s Internet censorship agency, announced the decision in a Telegram post, where it accused Meta-owned Facebook of violating laws by blocking the free flow of information to Russia and Russian media on its platform. It was unclear whether the ban would extend to Meta’s other platforms, such as Instagram and WhatsApp.

The move represents a significant shift for the Russian Internet ecosystem, which is rapidly diverging from the West as Russia’s Internet agency cracks down on Western media and some Western tech companies pull service from Russia. Russia is one of only a handful of governments around the world to block Facebook, joining China and North Korea.

The move is an escalation from last week, when the agency said it would slow traffic to the platforms. Throughout the week, Roskomnadzor has been publicly putting Facebook on notice. It said it sent the company multiple letters demanding it remove restrictions on Russian media, accusing the company of trying to “form a one-sided picture.” In one letter, it called the company to lift its ban in Europe on RT and Sputnik, two Russian state media outlets.

[Foggy]

Ukraine's tech diaspora races to mobilize Silicon Valley in war with Russia

Ukrainians working at Western tech companies are banding together to help their besieged homeland, aiming to knock down disinformation websites, encourage Russians to turn against their government, and speed delivery of medical supplies.

They are seeking, through email campaigns and online petitions, to persuade firms such as internet security company Cloudflare Inc (NET.N), Alphabet Inc's Google (GOOGL.O) and Amazon.com Inc to do more to counter Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

[Volkonski]

[raison de arizona]

[tek]

not uncommon to hear russian on that frequency, that's in a ham radio band.

I don't speak russian so I can't tell if they are tactical communications or hams ragchewing..

[Foggy]

... they're not going to do well because the maintenance manuals are all hosted in the cloud, and we turned off access to them. There are no paper manuals any longer. Maintenance logs are also online. So the lessors and manufacturers will know that a plane has been flown without proper maintenance, which will destroy the resale value for each plane that doesn't have certified maintenance. And the Russian carriers will be liable for that. If they don't pay the lessors, good luck buying any airplanes from the west in the future.

John P. said that in another thread, but it shows the impact of tech on modern warfare, too also. I had no idea that there are no more printed maintenance manuals, but it makes sense. And because we can cut off access to the maintenance manuals, it's possible to (eventually) cripple the entire Russian civilian air industry, using a keyboard many thousands of kilometers away. OK, a few keyboards, actually. You know what I mean.

The break with Western aviation providers, of course, is permanent for the foreseeable future. Nobody will ever lease a plane to Russia again, and Russia didn't seem to be on the verge of a breakthrough in the domestic airplane manufacturing business.

That's OK, they still have a lot of horses. I think.