Title: The Primer on Russia's "Active Measures," Its Information Warfare Strategy - Big Think
Headings: The Primer on Russia's "Active Measures," Its Information Warfare Strategy
The Primer on Russia's "Active Measures," Its Information Warfare Strategy
KGB-era "active measures" are still being used by Russian intelligence agencies today, according to experts.
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Content: Photo credit: VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP/Getty Images)
What’s more, Watts, who is now a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and has tracked these tactics for over three years, says the Russian efforts did not stop at the election and are still continuing to try to engage with and support the President’s tweets. "If you went online today, you could see these accounts — either bots or actual personas somewhere — that are trying to connect with the administration. They might broadcast stories and then follow up with another tweet that tries to gain the president's attention, or they'll try and answer the tweets that the president puts out,” he told NPR. As far as who specifically is guiding these activities by the Russians, Watts says it’s a “diffuse network” with a number of hackers controlled by “different parts of Russian intelligence and propagandists — all with general guidelines about what to pursue, but doing it at different times and paces and rhythms." Watts also testified that in 2014 Russian bots supported a petition on the White House website calling to give Alaska back to Russia, from whom Alaska was purchased 150 years ago. That set off an investigation showing how Russia used bots and paid trolls to spread its propaganda. According to Watts, there are 5 ways in which Russian active measures are designed to topple democracy: 1. Undermine citizen confidence in democratic governance
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