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A2 UP FRONT
Wednesday 18 september 2024

Russia goes all-out with covert disinformation aimed at Harris,

Microsoft report says

sands of shares on the so- ing in the recent presiden-
Continued from Front cial platform X and elicited tial debate, “ I want the
comments like, “This is the war to stop.”
A website for the channel kind of stuff to start civil At a forum in early Sep-
set up just a week earlier wars.” tember, Russian President
contained plagiarized arti- Microsoft’s report also Vladimir Putin appeared
cles from real news outlets. pointed to another Rus- to suggest jokingly that he
The woman’s X-ray images sian influence actor it calls would support Vice Presi-
shown in the video were Storm-1679 that has re- dent Kamala Harris in the
taken from online medical cently pivoted from posting upcoming U.S. election.
journals. And the video and about the French election Intelligence officials have
the text story on the web- and the Paris Olympics to said Moscow prefers Trump.
site spelled the alleged vic- posting about Harris. Earlier The Harris campaign de-
tim’s name differently. Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris this month, the group post- clined to comment. The
The caution was warrant- speaks during a campaign event, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, Wilkes- ed a manipulated video Russian embassy in Wash-
ed, according to a new Mi- Barre, Pa. depicting a Times Square ington did not immediately
crosoft threat intelligence Associated Press billboard that linked Harris respond to emailed re-
report, which confirms the tive means. They also pro- es, people get more heat- to gender-affirming surger- quests for comment.
fabricated tale was disin- vide further insight into how ed,” Clint Watts, general ies. Earlier this summer, Mi-
formation from a Russia- Russia’s efforts to fight pro- manager of the Microsoft The content highlighted in crosoft found that Iranian
linked troll farm. Ukrainian policy in the U.S. Threat Analysis Center said the report doesn’t appear groups have also been
The tech giant’s report re- are translating into escalat- in an interview. “People to use generative artificial laying the groundwork to
leased Tuesday details how ing attacks on the Demo- tend to take in information intelligence tools. It instead stoke division in the elec-
Kremlin-aligned actors that cratic presidential ticket. from sources they don’t re- uses actors and more old- tion by creating fake news
at first struggled to adapt The report builds on previ- ally know or wouldn’t even school editing techniques. sites, impersonating activ-
to President Joe Biden ous concerns the U.S. has know to evaluate.” Watts said Microsoft has ists and targeting a presi-
dropping out of the race had about Russian inter- Microsoft explained that been tracking the use of AI dential campaign with an
have now gone full throt- ference in the upcoming the video blaming Harris by nation states for more email phishing attack.
tle in their covert influence election. Earlier this month, for a fake hit-and-run inci- than a year and while for- U.S. intelligence officials are
efforts against Harris and the Biden administration dent came from a Russian- eign actors tried AI initially, preparing criminal charges
Democrats. seized Kremlin-run websites aligned influence network many have gone back to in connection with that at-
It also explains how Russian and charged two Russian it calls Storm-1516, which basics as they’ve realized tack, which targeted the
intelligence actors are col- state media employees in other researchers refer to AI was “probably more Trump campaign, two peo-
laborating with pro-Russian an alleged scheme to se- as CopyCop. The video, time-consuming and not ple familiar with the matter
cyber “hacktivists” to boost cretly fund and influence a whose main character is more effective.” told The Associated Press.
allegedly hacked-and- network of right-wing influ- played by an actor, is typi- Asked about Russia’s mo- Microsoft’s new report also
leaked materials, a strat- encers. cal of the group’s efforts tivation, Watts said the touches on how a Chinese-
egy the company notes Russia-linked actors have to react to current events Russia-aligned groups Mi- linked influence actor has
could be weaponized to spent several months seek- with authentic-seeming crosoft tracks may not nec- used short-form video to
undermine U.S. confidence ing to manipulate Ameri- “whistleblower” accounts essarily support particular criticize Biden and Harris
in November’s election can perspectives with cov- that may seem like juicy candidates, but they are and to create anti-Trump
outcome. ert postings, but until this unreported news to U.S. motivated to undermine content, suggesting it
The findings reveal how point, their efforts saw little voters, the company said. anyone who “is supporting doesn’t appear interested
even through dramatic traction. Notably, some of The report revealed a sec- Ukraine in their policy.” in supporting a particular
changes in the political the recent examples cited ond video disseminated Harris has vowed to con- candidate.
landscape, groups linked in the Microsoft report re- by the group, which pur- tinue supporting Ameri- Instead, the company
to America’s foreign ad- ceived significant social ported to show two Black ca’s ally Ukraine in its fight said, the China-aligned
versaries have redoubled media engagement from men beating up a blood- against Russia’s invasion if group’s apparent goal is to
their commitment to sway unwitting Americans who ied white woman at a rally elected president. Trump “seed doubt and confusion
U.S. political opinion as the shared the fake stories with for Republican presidential has demurred when asked among American voters
election nears, sometimes outrage. nominee Donald Trump. about whether he wants ahead of the 2024 presi-
through deeply manipula- “As the election approach- The video racked up thou- Ukraine to win the war, say- dential election.”q