According to Meta, formerly known as Facebook, they have detected and blocked two simulated disinformation attacks about the current geopolitical crisis between Russia and Ukraine. Meta confirmed that cybercriminal groups in Russia and Ukraine are behind the fake news campaigns that target Ukrainians.
Based on a post of Meta’s head of security, they have already taken down the disinformation campaign and blocked its domains to stop it from being shared on their platforms.
Furthermore, the team stated that the disinformation party utilised fake accounts and ran sketchy personas across the internet and social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. The security team claimed that the threat actors spread these fake accounts on multiple websites to avoid raising suspicions from researchers and analysts.
Fake news campaigns have been a widespread issue long before the current war; however, experts have seen an upsurge in it now that the war has commenced.
Meta claimed that a generative adversarial network (GAN) developed the fake profiles used in the misinformation campaigns. It is a technology used by the threat actors to disseminate misinformation campaigns by distributing fake videos and fraudulent scams.
The fictitious personas claimed that they resided inside Ukraine and worked stable jobs before the geopolitical conflict between the two countries began.
According to Meta, they have blocked sites portraying themselves as independent news outlets that spread fake news regarding the failure of western countries to protect Ukraine, which is now a failed state.
Meta also added that it had seen the Ghostwriter group collaborate with the Belarus government to target Ukrainian Instagram and Facebook users last month. The threat group showed and posted videos about the Ukrainian soldier fleeing and surrendering to Russia.
In a recent post, Meta explained that misinformation is one of the risks that internet users face each day, the misinformation is crucial in the current Russian invasion. The firm has deployed additional security and privacy protocols to protect users from Ukraine and Russia.
