China's Disinformation is not as important as Economic Blackmail as an Influence Weapon

It is often said that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” China has been in the forefront of the Covad-19 pandemic. The press has widely covered allegations of Chinese efforts to disinform the American public by providing false information about the virus and by trying to foment panic.

Two articles chronicling the disinformation campaigns are: Chinese Agents Helped Spread Messages That Sowed Virus Panic in U.S., Officials Say, NY Times, April 22, 2020 (see: https://nyti.ms/2Y555gb, which is a photo source and China’s Disinformation Addiction: Spreading Disinformation on COVID-19, April 25, 2020 ClearanceJobs (see: https://bit.ly/3bFwCJd, also a photo source).

According to the NY Times, “American officials were alarmed by fake text messages and social media posts that said President Trump was locking down the country. Experts see a convergence with Russian tactics.” The Times added “The messages became so widespread over 48 hours that the White House’s National Security Council issued an announcement via Twitter that they were “FAKE.”.

The Clearance Job article concluded by saying “None of this is really a surprise as China struggles to save face as the world looks to the country for answers to very hard questions. China would much rather have the world think the United States was about to impose martial law than to have their own actions dissected.” That article also quotes a March 2019 report from the Department of State “Weapons of Mass Distraction Foreign State Sponsored Disinformation in the Digital Age (pdf)” the portion on China minces no words. They assert that China’s efforts are designed to influence economic, political and foster personal relationships.”

While these offensive efforts are certainly concerning, perhaps we should pay more attention to the way China burnishes their brand in other ways. China, more than any other country seems to have grasped the concept of offensive and defensive influence operations. This is demonstrated by way that they pressure economic partners to give their image a break and on the other, they strive to disorient their adversaries.

The movie character Jerry McGuire said it best “Show me the money!” (see: https://bit.ly/2yRWrqA (You Tube clip and photo source)

The NY Times, April 24, 2020: ran an article “Pressured by China, E.U. Softens Report on Covid-19 Disinformation” (see: https://nyti.ms/2KzFvrI and a photo source.) In what is clearly a measure of effectiveness, according to the Times, “Bowing to heavy pressure from Beijing, European Union officials softened their criticism of China this week in a report documenting how governments push disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, according to documents, emails and interviews.”

The Chinese recognize the importance of brand management and economic leverage. They employ a whole of government approach to move their country’s agenda forward.

Can we say the same?

Zoombombing As PSYOP

We’re all confined to quarters thanks to Covid-19. As a result, we have turned to video collaboration platforms such as Cisco WebEx, Adobe Connect, Citrix Go To Meeting MicroSoft Team, GoogleHangout and of course, Zoom.

On March 20, 2020 the New York Times ran an article ‘Zoombombing’:when Video Conferences Go Wrong (see: https://nyti.ms/2XoqJM3, which is also a photo source).

They reported among other things that “On Friday , the journalists Kara Swisher (a contributing writer for the Opinion section of The New York Times) and Jessica Lessin hosted a Zoom event focused on the challenges women tech founders face. They were forced to abruptly end the event after just 15 minutes of conversation because a participant began broadcasting the shock video “2 Girls 1 Cup.”

“Our video call was just attacked by someone who kept sharing pornography + switching between different user accounts so we could not block them,” Ms. Lessin tweeted, adding that she and Ms. Swisher would reschedule an audio-only version of the event.”

Unscrupulous influencers are also moving to online platforms as a way to attack their targets. One such Zoom bombing was against Portland State University. The Portland State (Oregon)

Student run newspaper, the Vanguard was hacked by neo-nazis. (see: https://bit.ly/2K5Kq3z, which is also a photo source). According to the Vanguard, “The hackers interrupted speakers with racist invective and ties to Nazism.”

According to the UT based DesertNews (a subsidiary of the Deseret Management Corporation, which is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), “It’s happened for virtual Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in New York. It’s happened in Boston. It’s happened in workplaces and schools in California and Texas. It’s happening everywhere.” (see: https://bit.ly/3c9Xlxl, which is a photo source and responsible for the hotlinks in the quotes. The article continued that “Trolls have entered into Zoom meetings to drop “disturbing imagery,” like pornographic material and “horrifying sexual videos,” TechCrunch reported”

From the variety of targets, it should be obvious to PSYOPers that these PSYACTs are having an effect. People are stuck in their homes due to shelter in place orders and are somewhat of a captive audience.

Meanwhile Zoom is scrambling to keep up with the burgeoning demand for their product and to upgrade their product’s security.

At the moment, Zoombombing is easy to do. In some respects its like phishing in the ‘old days’, meaning designed to troll for unspecified victims. Many organizations, especially non-profits, schools and others new to video conferencing employ unprotected links which can be unearthed in a variety of simple ways.

As these links are secured, it is reasonable to assume that Zoombombers will start to employ spear phishing like techniques meaning that they will attack specific, high value targets.

OPSEC folks and Counterintelligence specialists need to be vigilant as to Zoombombing efforts and coordinate with their respective PSYOP support elements to help facilitate the counter propaganda analysis and perhaps even offensive cyber influence campaigns employing this new influence vehicle.

If you are interested in how to protect yourself, here’s an article from techrepublic.com that offers 5 simple tips on preventing Zoombombing.