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Botnet Security

Ukraine Takes Down Massive Bot Farm, Seizes 150,000 SIM Cards (bleepingcomputer.com) 128

Posted by BeauHD from the another-one-bites-the-dust dept.
The Cyber Police Department of the National Police of Ukraine dismantled another massive bot farm, seizing computer equipment, mobile phones, and roughly 150,000 SIM cards of multiple mobile operators. BleepingComputer reports: The bots were used to push Russian propaganda justifying Russia's war in Ukraine, to disseminate illegal content and personal information, and in various other fraudulent activities. In a joint operation, the cyber police and units of the Ukrainian National Police executed 21 search operations in Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, and Lvivand.

"The cyber police established that the attackers used special equipment and software to register thousands of bot accounts in various social networks and subsequently launch advertisements that violated the norms and legislation of Ukraine," a cyber police press release reads [machine translation]. "In addition to spreading hostile propaganda, the accounts were also used for unauthorized distribution of personal data of Ukrainian citizens on the Internet, in Internet fraud schemes, and for sending known false messages about threats to citizens' safety, destruction or damage to property." Cyber police in Ukraine have busted several pro-Russian bot farms in the last year, including one last month called "Botoferma" and another one late last year that was working for the Russian secret services. Ukraine also traced a Russian propaganda operation to a bot farm that was secretly operating in the country's own capital of Kyiv last August. "The farm operated more than 1 million bot accounts, which helped the propaganda operation build an audience of over 400,000 users on social media," reports PCMag.
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Ukraine Takes Down Massive Bot Farm, Seizes 150,000 SIM Cards More

Ukraine Takes Down Massive Bot Farm, Seizes 150,000 SIM Cards

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  • Watch out for the Cyber Police! They're coming to get you!

  • Fairly clever I guess. (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Creating your bot farms inside the country you want to damage. Makes it easy to get inside the borders and then gives some sort of twisted cred about "Those bot farms weren't ours! Look at where they were! Must've been run by the other side!"

    It's probably a shame that the proprietors won't shot on sight. Pity.

    • Yep. But you can do both. I bet there are millions of bot farms in the USA and elsewhere seeding and spreading conspiracy and division on the socials and comments everywhere. And then more of them hosted by other countries too. So many bots causing huge social problems.

    • Or perhaps the Ukrainian government took steps to crush internal opposition and painted this action as somehow good. The fact that this possibility doesn't appear to have even registered in the slashdot mindset is terrifying. The fact is you don't know.

  • One of the first things the Russian army did was to destroy cell towers.

    • One of the first things the Russian army did was to destroy cell towers.

      Yup. And as a result, the Russian military couldn't communicate because their encrypted communication system relied on, wait for it, cell towers [inews.co.uk].

      As a direct result, Ukraine has been able to eavesdrop on the highest levels of communication within the Russian military and use it to take out approximately a dozen generals [businessinsider.com] and multiple dozen other high ranking officers.

  • I'll admit, when I first read this summary, my first thought was "Oh, OK, good for Ukraine". After all, I support Ukraine in this conflict, and I have no doubt whatsoever that Putin is a sociopathic tyrant.

    Then I realized: Wait a minute. A state-run agency just arrested a bunch of guys for "spreading disinformation".

    Disinformation is bad. But a police force that "fights disinformation" by arresting those who spread it is far, far worse... and it doesn't matter one bit who is running that police force, or

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ledow ( 319597 )

      Mostly nothing to do with "disinformation"

      "to disseminate illegal content and personal information, and in various other fraudulent activities."

      Fraud is disinformation. Should that be allowed too? Should we stop fighting fraud, and just let people "defend themselves" against it?

      • Mostly nothing to do with "disinformation"

        "to disseminate illegal content and personal information, and in various other fraudulent activities."

        Fraud is disinformation. Should that be allowed too? Should we stop fighting fraud, and just let people "defend themselves" against it?

        "Fraud" is a specific legal term for "intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or deprive a victim of a legal right". Fraud is indeed misinformation, but most misinformation is not fraud. If I publish (for example) an article stating that Putin is a national hero and that Zelensky is a robot being controlled by Nazis from outer space, this is of course misinformation, but it is not "fraud" in the legal sense.

        The United States already has an existing body of law which defines different type

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ledow ( 319597 )

          Because encouraging people to walk into an active, mined warzone by sending them messages telling them it's a safe area they need to evacuate to is less "wrong" than copying a credit card number off the internet?

          Yes, we don't know. But disinformation in a war isn't just propaganda. Especially with someone like Russia.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by skam240 ( 789197 )

      Arresting people for spreading misinformation during wartime is not an unusual step for a Democracy to take. Here in the US we've done that plenty of times during major wars. It's not my favorite thing but just as martial law is sometimes necessary in desperate times so is stopping the spread of misinformation.

      Now if they were to keep doing this after the war is over, that would be a problem. These people are currently fighting for their survival though and they dont need misinformation directly from their

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by guruevi ( 827432 )

        Yes, certain presidents have done this during wartime efforts (eg WW1 and WW2) but they have been unceremoniously been smacked down as this is against the principles of free speech. Hence why the US eventually got protested out of Vietnam and left it to the predations of some of the worst dictators in history.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 )
      There is a line between personal freedom of speech and acting as a foreign agent. Operating a bot farm to run what are essentially psyops for a foreign power you are at war with crosses that line. A operation that most likely was funded and directed by said foreign government.

      • There is a line between personal freedom of speech and acting as a foreign agent. Operating a bot farm to run what are essentially psyops for a foreign power you are at war with crosses that line. A operation that most likely was funded and directed by said foreign government.

        Essentially what you are saying is this: if a hostile foreign power paid you to say it, and/or directed the content of what you are saying, then it's illegal speech and it's OK to use the force of law to shut it down.

        Does this mean that if Putin's foreign minister publishes an editorial defending his views in an American newspaper, the newspaper is guilty of publishing "illegal content" and the police should descend on their editorial offices?

        Or does it only become illegal content if the foreign minister pr

        • Acting as an undeclared foreign agent (aka espionage) is illegal. If the NYT knowingly published articles written by Russian intelligence while hiding the true source yes with the intent of influencing the public and government then yes, that is illegal.

          Quite frankly the fact you either donâ(TM)t understand this or are pretending not to makes me question your sincerity here.

          • Quite frankly the fact you either donâ(TM)t understand this or are pretending not to makes me question your sincerity here.

            Nope, I'm quite sincere. I deliberately asked a series of difficult questions about how a "anti-propaganda" law might function, based on a series of specific scenarios (both real and hypothetical). It turns out that many of the questions I asked have been debated by the legal profession as well-- the answers to these questions are not obvious.

            So instead of asking these questions on slashdot, I decided to look up the answers. The main piece of law that seems to apply here is the Foreign Agents Registratio

    • Disinformation is bad. But a police force that "fights disinformation" by arresting those who spread it is far, far worse... and it doesn't matter one bit who is running that police force, or how noble their intentions may be.

      Literally every government will do this, and they should. Spreading disinformation is illegal even in peacetime and even in countries which value free speech, because it harms people. In wartime, it is always directly actionable.

      Given a choice between these two evils, I'll pick the lesser of the two.

      What we're talking about are people being paid to spread propaganda of an aggressor. They are either foreign operatives, or traitors. Either way, you're here for them. Tell us again about how you oppose Putin. Also tell us how much Russia is paying you.

      • They are either foreign operatives, or traitors. Either way, you're here for them. Tell us again about how you oppose Putin. Also tell us how much Russia is paying you.

        Dude, I've been posting on Slashdot for 20 years now. If you view my posting history you will conclude that I am either 1) exactly who I claim to be, or 2) some kind of next-level sleeper agent who has been in deep cover for two decades.

        And if it's the latter, well, how did Walter White put it? "It might be best to tread... lightly..."

  • Remember when I told you guys this was happening then was modded down to negative 1billion, over and over again?

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