Franklin, Andrews, Kramer & Edelstein

[scion]

The Technology 202: Chinese disinformation "much more subtle, much more insidious" than Moscow's, former cyber chief warns

By Aaron Schaffer
Technology and cybersecurity policy researcher
Today at 9:02 a.m. EDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/07/30/technology-202-chinese-disinformation-much-more-subtle-much-more-insidious-than-moscow-former-cyber-chief-warns/

Countering baseless claims online has become a global challenge, former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) director Chris Krebs told my colleague Ellen Nakashima at a Washington Post Live event on Thursday.

“Every government out there — U.S., European, elsewhere — has to be thinking about disinformation as a strategic threat,” Krebs said, calling disinformation one of two key priorities he would flag for his successor, Jen Easterly.

Krebs is no stranger to rebutting baseless online claims.

Former president Donald Trump fired Krebs in November after he refuted Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen. (In January, Krebs and former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos founded the Krebs Stamos Group.)

In his conversation with Ellen, Krebs doubled down on the importance of combating misinformation, even at a local level. He praised officials in Maricopa County, Ariz., who have denied claims that the election was stolen.

“But ultimately some folks, unfortunately, are too far gone,” Krebs said. “I think there’s an alternate-reality bubble that’s set up around this,” he added, noting that he has seen the “alternate realities that have evolved” firsthand when he dives into Twitter and sees what some people are saying.

Baseless claims about issues like coronavirus vaccines can have real-world consequences, and major social media platforms are key players.

The problem has plagued social media platforms despite a year of fighting it, my colleagues Gerrit De Vynck and Rachel Lerman reported last week.

President Biden has blamed social media companies like Facebook for allowing baseless claims about coronavirus vaccines to fester through a small group of accounts, and he initially called out the company for “killing people” but later clarified his comments.

Facebook said it has made significant progress in fighting coronavirus misinformation by promoting trusted information and removing more than 18 million “instances of covid-19 misinformation.”

Disinformation efforts are getting increased attention after Biden suggested Russia is trying to interfere in the 2022 midterm elections.

“Look what Russia is doing already about the 2022 elections and misinformation,” Biden said in a speech delivered to the U.S. intelligence community this week. “It’s a pure violation of our sovereignty.”

It’s not clear whether Biden was briefed on a specific threat to the election, and a senior administration official declined to clarify the comments.

But Krebs warned that Chinese disinformation efforts can be much more insidious and subtle than those emanating from Moscow.

“They work it at a local level,” Krebs said. “Where Russia tends to be more of the arsonist, they’re much more subtle in terms of laying their groundwork.” Krebs also cited FBI statistics that the bureau opens a new investigation into China every 10 hours and called Chinese efforts a “remarkable campaign.”

Under Krebs’s leadership, CISA pushed back against foreign influence campaigns on social media and used creative tactics to educate Americans on what to trust online.

One of those initiatives came in the form of an infographic warning Americans to be cautious about how foreign adversaries like Russia could exploit Americans’ divisions, in an example scenario: pizza toppings and the “war on pineapple.”

Krebs also touted CISA’s “Rumor Control” initiative, which debunked false claims about the 2020 election and suggested it could be scaled with subject matter expertise.

“I think CISA has an opportunity, just like disinformation-as-a-service is emerging … [through] Rumor Control-as-a-service, pre-bunking, debunking disinformation as it hits us on those infrastructure-related and national security-related topics,” Krebs said. “I think there’s plenty of opportunity there.”


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/07/30/technology-202-chinese-disinformation-much-more-subtle-much-more-insidious-than-moscow-former-cyber-chief-warns/