Latest Articles about Cyber

Kazakhstan Experiments With Surveillance Technology to Battle Coronavirus Pandemic
Kazakhstan’s government has been fighting the novel coronavirus since mid-March, having declared a one-month state of emergency as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country began to approach 20 (Informburo.kz, March 15). Two weeks after that, the authorities imposed stricter measures in two... MORE

Russian ‘Bot Farms’—The New-Old Challenge to Ukraine’s National Security
On February 17, the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) disrupted the activity of a network of “bot farms”—an extensive, organized effort to create “fake” (automated) social media accounts, which was found to be active across multiple regions of Ukraine. According to the SSU, the technical... MORE

The Yandex Affair: Insider Trading and Institutionalized State Control
One of the most commented developments in Russian business news this past November was the reported attempt to “nationalize” one of the country’s largest high-technology companies, Yandex. Russia’s leading search engine, Yandex holds 51 percent of the domestic market share in its category and is... MORE

Georgia Targeted by Most Powerful Cyberattack in Its History
The Georgian authorities, with the help of their colleagues from the United States and Europe, are investigating a powerful cyberattack that struck the South Caucasus country on October 28. Experts say that the latest cyberattack was much more powerful than the one Georgia experienced in... MORE

The Limitations of Military-Civil Mobilization: Problems with Funding and Clashing Interests in Industry-Based PLA Reserve Units
Introduction One of the foundational concepts in Mao Zedong’s thought is that mobilization and “People’s War” (人民战争, renmin zhanzheng) depend on the masses and militia. [1] This concept is the basis for the way that the leaders of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) continue... MORE

Chinese Covert Social Media Propaganda and Disinformation Related to Hong Kong
Introduction: “Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior” Related to the Protest Movement in Hong Kong On August 19, the microblogging platform Twitter announced the suspension of 936 accounts originating in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which the company identified as part of an “information operation focused on... MORE

Cognitive Domain Operations: The PLA’s New Holistic Concept for Influence Operations
Introduction As information becomes ever more central for Chinese warfighting, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is developing a new concept for psychological warfare in the information era called “cognitive domain operations” (认知域作战, renzhiyuzuozhan). [1] This next-generation evolution of psychological warfare seeks to use information to... MORE

The Chinese Military Reforms and Transforms in the “New Era”
Introduction The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been undergoing a far-reaching transformation with strategic implications for the military balance in the region and beyond. Starting in 2015, the PLA has been undertaking historic reforms that have involved extensive restructuring of the force. [1] The... MORE

Role of Cryptocurrencies in Financing Russia’s ‘Hybrid’ Wars
Myrotvorets, a controversial independent Ukrainian website that claims to track persons threatening Ukraine’s security, has called on the authorities in Kyiv to investigate Russia’s alleged use of cryptocurrencies (via the WEX digital currency exchange platform) to fund subversive activities potentially in support of one of... MORE

Another Step Forward Toward ‘Sovereign’ Russian Internet
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov talked with Russian journalists on Wednesday, February 27, following news reports in the United States claiming that US Cyber Command had actively hacked and briefly taken offline the St. Petersburg–based Internet Research Agency. The US cyber strike on this entity, often... MORE