Subversion, for example, influence operations
We daily encounter numerous suspected and identified influence campaigns, notably following the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine, during the US presidential election, in the British Brexit referendum, through forged letters from the Swedish Minister of Defence concerning arms exports to Ukraine, and the events surrounding the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England. Swedish opinion-shaping efforts regarding the demilitarization of Gotland and many other critical societal and business issues are on the agenda, where, for instance, China is highly active against Sweden.
Subversive or disruptive activities, including influence operations, have existed for a long time; intelligence services in both East and West, such as SVR, GRU, CIA, MOIS, MSS, DGSE, SIS, BND, among others, all employ such operations. These have now become easier, cheaper, and more effective through social media, troll farms, and botnets (compromised networks). Furthermore, the deniability of such distributed operations is high. The question then arises: how do I detect influence operations, and what actions should I take if my organization is affected?
GovSec possesses experience in managing such influence operations and can support your organization by preventing, identifying, and mitigating influence operations or other so-called “grey zone activities.”
Update: Russian cyber warfare is not solely about preparing for attacks against military targets during wartime. Russian cyber warfare capabilities, such as “Fancy Bear,” also support information operations during peacetime. This was evident in the cyberattacks targeting the Swedish Sports Confederation and Swedish sports, revealed on April 13, 2021. The objective for these Russian military hackers is to steal information and data, which they then distort and release to the public to support the Russian narrative regarding doping in this specific instance. This represents a real and ongoing threat to our country, potentially affecting all sectors of interest to foreign powers.
