Military Leaders Are Starting To Freak Out Over Russia =?utf-8?Q?=E2=80=99s_Information_Warfare_Dominance_=

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: October 15, 2018 at 7:24:22 PM GMT+9
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Military Leaders Are Starting To Freak Out Over Russia 
> =?utf-8?Q?=E2=80=99s_Information_Warfare_Dominance_=
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> Military Leaders Are Starting To Freak Out Over Russia’s Information Warfare Dominance
> By PAUL SZOLDRA
> Oct 9 2018
> <https://taskandpurpose.com/russia-information-war/>
>
> Russia has become so good at information warfare that American and allied military leaders are (rightfully) starting 
> to freak out about it.
>
> “The Russians are really good at this. Better than us,” UK Army Maj. Gen. Felix Gedney said at the AUSA Conference, 
> according to Defense One. “We saw a very clever, assiduous information campaign aimed at discrediting the campaign of 
> the coalition [in Iraq and Syria]. And I would argue [that] in many of our nation’s capitals, we didn’t realize we 
> were being played.”
>
> As was the case during the 2016 election, Russia is sometimes better at stoking division among ordinary Americans 
> than your uncle at Thanksgiving dinner — through the coordinated use of bot networks, fake social media profiles, and 
> production of misleading or partisan content that gets widely shared.
>
> Moscow has also carried out similar campaigns in Ukraine, Georgia, and elsewhere. Its efforts at influence can shape 
> perceptions, while also having surprising effects on the battlefield.
>
> As Tom Ricks wrote about in his column earlier this year, Russia’s military has carried out some eye-opening 
> operations that combine information ops, cyber, and good old-fashioned targeting.
>
> “The Russians are adept at identifying Ukrainian positions by their electrometric signatures,” Army Col. Liam Collins 
> wrote in the August issue of Army Magazine.
>
> “In one tactic, soldiers receive texts telling them they are ‘surrounded and abandoned.’ Minutes later, their 
> families receive a text stating, ‘Your son is killed in action,’ which often prompts a call or text to the soldiers. 
> Minutes later, soldiers receive another message telling them to ‘retreat and live,’ followed by an artillery strike 
> to the location where a large group of cellphones was detected.”
>
> Meanwhile in Syria, Russian military operations are sometimes being conducted for the sole reason of getting photos 
> or videos that can later be used against their enemies, according to Gedney.
>
> “This is not a battle that can be fought by public affairs writing lines to tape,” Gedney said. “It’s got to be be 
> operationalized down into a genuine multi-domain battle.”
>
> To be fair, the U.S. does carry out its own information and cyber operations. But as Army Cyber Command’s Lt. Gen. 
> Paul Nakasone testified earlier this year, most are being done at the tactical level.
>
> Russia spends between $400 million and $500 million per year on foreign information efforts, while the U.S. spends 
> about $20 million, according to a paper published by the Army War College, leaving Washington “far behind.”
>
> It’s a fact that most top leaders realize and can’t really ignore. Marine Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint 
> Chiefs of Staff, listed information warfare among just two other capabilities where NATO “urgently” needs to 
> modernize during an interview in January (the others were cyber and missile defense).
>
> Put simply, Russia seems to be playing chess, while the U.S. is trying to figure out how to set up the board to play 
> checkers.
>
> The War College paper recommended a national counter information strategy and center, technological solutions to 
> fight back against fake news, and the pursuit of international partnerships to go after things like Russia’s “troll 
> factories.”
>
> Similarly, retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden told the Senate Armed Services Committee that, while Russia uses its 
> skills to attack the foundations of democracy, the U.S. could respond with its own “tools to attack their foundations 
> of autocracy.”
>
> [snip]
>
> Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/wa8dzp



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