Russia Disinformation and Cyberwarfare



In recent days some experts have observed that Russia’s annual budget for cyberwarfare is less than the price of a single American F-35 jet. Which weapon has done more to shape world events? America might have the most well-financed military in the world, but if we’re to maintain our national security we’ll need to shift our way of thinking about how warfare is waged.

While the exact damage done by Russia’s interference is still not fully understood, it is quite clear that their information war was effective in transforming America’s political debate and dividing its population. Knowing what we know now about the detriment of misinformation and the DNC hackings it’s hard to imagine that at one point in recent history many considered the threat from Russia’s “troll army” to be laughable.

Many ignored it outright as a juvenile attempt to assert a fraction of the global influence that the former soviet union once held. However, the more and more we hear about the extent of the damage carried out by the Russian cyber-criminals and the more we learn about how unprepared we are to defend from future attacks the worse the situation appears.

Many analysts have pointed to the cost that totalitarianism had on 20th-century superpowers and to sound the alarm bells about signs that spell disaster for democracies in Eastern Europe such as Ukraine. Click here to learn more. If the U.S. is to avoid a similar fate then it should take a lesson from the past. To understand this current threat we must learn about “Putin’s chef”.

Yevgeny Prigozhin is a Russian businessman with humble origins starting a hotdog stand with his father in St. Petersburg. In a story, fitting of the American dream, Mr. Prigozhin ascended the restaurant business off of his work ethic and determination eventually owning two highly successful fine-dining restaurants. The “Old Customs House”, and a restaurant boat called “New Island,”, which operated on the Vyatka River.

Prigozhin businesses quickly became among the most successful in Saint Petersburg and “New Island” in particular became a favorite dining location of the Russian President Vladimir Putin. “New Island” became so high-profile that it become the number one destination of foreign dignitaries. Then President George W. Bush dined there in 2002.

Shortly after his rise to prominence Prigozhin struck out on his own, independent of his business partners and began a catering service called Concord Catering. This enterprise quickly took in hundreds of millions of dollars from the Russian government for meal services in schools and government buildings.

“Putin’s Chef”, as Prigozhin had become known, started a new company with the nearly $1.2 billion profit his catering company earned. This new company, the Internet Research Agency, was a thinly veiled cover for the Russian government to create an army of cyber-criminals to destabilize opposing democracies.

In 2016 the US Treasury put Mr. Prigozhin and his companies onto a list of sanctioned companies for the obvious connections to the Russian government and the blatant criminal operations being conducted through his operations. Less than a year later US intelligence agencies found a connection between Mr. Prigozhin other company “Concord Management and Consulting” and the Ukrainian war.

While the U.S. has responded to the actions of Putin’s chef with sanctions and criminal charges the most concerning though is how many more just like him are able to step up in his absence. In traditional warfare, the enemy has a uniform and a clear location, but in this new era where cyber-crimes and social media attacks are the most powerful weapons, it’s not as clear where the front lines are.

How many more “Internet Research Companies” and “Concord Managements” are waging a war right now against the voting public of the US?. Evidence has shown these kinds of disinformation campaigns can do a great deal to sway public opinion and divide leadership.

If the US’ military might is to have any chance of defending our democracy, then it’s time we learned that the ultimate weapon is information. Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies has made the case that a comprehensive defense strategy needs to include a plan for defending America’s cyber infrastructure.

More on cyber security and cyber war fare here.

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