Luis Assardo | @luisassardo
How to report online manipulation operations
Risks = threats + vulnerabilities
ATTACK VECTORS
Online harassment
Legal harassment
Financial block
Digital security
surveillance
Attack vectors
Attack vector | Examples/Description | Target | Damage/consequence |
Censorship | Flood of comments | John / activist | Interfere with the message |
Discredit | Deflection - conversation | Frida / journalist | The topic is avoided |
Harassment | Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour | Martin / Ind journalist | Self - censorship |
| | | |
| | | |
Surveillance | Post images of the target in Social Media with threats | Maria / activist | Exile |
ATTACK VECTORS
Online harassment
Legal harassment
Financial block
Digital security
surveillance
Evolution from digital agencies (bot networks) to trolls managed by law firms
Establish evidence
Intention (coordinated effort)
Attribution
Behaviour
Type of content
frequency
intensity
Resources ($$)
Collecting data
Establish
Search
Terms
(names, ht´s, places, etc)
Who was mentIONED?
How many times?
At what time was the interaction?
Was it coordinated?
1st round:
Conversations around the term
Who was mentioning?
IN REFERENCE TO WHAT?
ORGANIC? REAL? ANONYMOUS?
WHO IS TAKING ADVANTAGE?
PROFILING
Trolls are threat actors
Proximity
expertise
motivation
behaviour
Level of Knowledge + ¿surveillance?
Knowledge + tools
Financial, vendetta, political, etc
¿Coordinated efforts?
Establish patterns
From the who->
why?
Type of content / ORGANIC?
Frequency /HUNDREDS?
Intensity / TYPE OF LANGUAGE
ARE Resources ($$) INVOLVED?
WHO WINS WITH THIS?
GIVE CONTEXT, NOT OPINIONS
USE EXTERNAL PUBLIC TOOLS
LIST ALL THE ACTORS INVOLVED
Always remember to work your digital security:
Layers of Security
Create a persona
Strong passwords
2FA/MFA
Encrypted platform
Encrypted data
Communications
Any investigation