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Well, this is pretty big.

@reddit confirms that the dissemination of the UK/US trade leaks was "tied to" the earlier Russian operation "Secondary Infektion":

reddit.com/r/redditsecuri…
The @Graphika_NYC report is here, pointing out how the initial dissemination of the leaks resembled the earlier operation.

(Note that there's no suggestion the UK leaks were faked, whereas the earlier operation used fakes all the time.)

graphika.com/reports/UK-tra…
And here's the reporting the @DFRLab team, including myself, did back in June, after @Facebook exposed this operation and confirmed it originated from Russia.
medium.com/dfrlab/top-tak…
In a nutshell, Secondary Infektion posted fake docs on a distinctive collection of websites, including meinbezirk (Austrian local news) and homment (small German forum), then posted the links directly to influencers.
The trade leaks first dropped on Reddit, then on meinbezirk and homment, then Before It's News, and then Twitter, where they were tweeted directly to opposition figures (not just Labour), with an anti-government tone.
Reddit's comment underscores the resemblance, after they compared Secondary Infektion and the accounts in the trade leaks.
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Ben Nimmo
@benimmo
Yep. This was the train of discovery:

May 6, 2019, Facebook announces takedown of operations originating in Russia, including this one.

about.fb.com/news/2019/05/m…
June 22, 2019: @DFRLab analyses the scope of the operation beyond Facebook.

We call it "Secondary Infektion" for its resemblance to the Soviet AIDS libel, dubbed "Operation Infektion".

medium.com/dfrlab/top-tak…
October 21, 2019: the trade leaks drop on Reddit.

December 2, 2019: @Graphika_NYC analyses the resemblance of the amplification of the trade leaks to Secondary Infektion.

graphika.com/reports/UK-tra…
Read 4 tweets
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Ben Nimmo
@benimmo
THREAD: Here's the report from @Graphika_NYC on how last week's trade leaks resembled Russian info op "Secondary Infektion".

It's either the same operation back, or someone trying to mimic it.

graphika.com/tradeleaks
The initial sequence of events online was:

21 October: Reddit in English

23 October: Reddit in German
meinbezirk.at in German
homment.com in German
BeforeIt'sNews in English

23 October - 6 November: tweets to politicians and media
The first Reddit account, u/gregoratior, is a curious specimen. Created in 2017, but its first known post was September 2019.

Its use of English was odd. "Standing on her knees"?
Read 20 tweets
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Ben Nimmo
@benimmo
THREAD: the White Helmets were subjected to the most sustained state-backed smear campaign I’ve ever seen. By all appearances, it’s because they were witnesses to probable war crimes.

independent.co.uk/news/world/eur…

H/t @Independent
The White Helmets were set up to rescue people in conflict zones. That’s what they did for years. As such, they became witnesses to atrocities, like the Khan Sheikhoun sarin attack in April 2017.

opcw.org/sites/default/…
They were accused of being “propaganda”, of working for al-Qaida, the CIA and NATO. The @Graphika_NYC archive of attributed info operations, io-archive.org, shows the spike in attacks on them in April 2017.
Read 12 tweets

Related threads

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Henry Jones
@hthjones
BREAKING: @reddit says the post sharing leaked US-UK trade documents used by Jeremy Corbyn was part of a co-ordinated campaign from Russia.

"We believe this was part of a campaign that has been reported as originating from Russia"

reddit.com/r/redditsecuri…
@reddit Reddit says it is banning 61 different accounts under its vote manipulation policies.

Without stating the blindingly obvious, this is quite a big deal....
@reddit Worth adding that there is absolutely no suggestion that the document isn't authentic.

The issue however is how the document came to be in the public domain.
Read 7 tweets
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Mark Di Stefano 🤙🏻
@MarkDiStef
🚨 Huge. Reddit security team believes the Reddit post of leaked US-UK trade documents used by Jeremy Corbyn and Labour was part of a co-ordinated campaign coming from Russia reddit.com/r/redditsecuri…
"We were recently made aware of a post on Reddit that included leaked documents from the UK. We investigated this account and the accounts connected to it, and today we believe this was part of a campaign that has been reported as originating from Russia."
Going to delete this tweet because as people rightly pointing out, and I clarified, the documents are real. It’s the activity on the accounts which is inauthentic.
Read 3 tweets
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Hugo Sáez
@Hugo_saez
Ya ha pasado el tiempo suficiente para analizar, sin temor a spoilers, un fenómeno que me ha despertado mucha curiosidad desde que sucedió:

¿Por qué mucha gente siente que el final de Juego de Tronos le ha arruinado toda la serie?

1)
Prácticamente desde el principio de la última temporada, pero sobre todo en los últimos capítulos, las críticas al final de Juego de Tronos han sido constantes. Tanto en las redes sociales como en los medios la temporada 8 no ha salido muy bien parada.

2)
Estas críticas se condensaron en esta petición de Change . Org que buscaba rehacer la última temporada con “escritores competentes”. Más de 1 millón 700 mil personas la han firmado ya.

3)
Read 41 tweets
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Richard James
@RichJamesBits
I have reached a whole new level of #PISSEDOFF.

I didnt think such a #dark and #scary state, or level, could be reached. It may top 12-14-17's causation. It's. That. Bad. So, I've prepared a statement...

docs.google.com/document/d/1_J…

#PascoSheriff #HaveYouAllNoShame @CigarCityBeer
Dear @FBI,
I must implore you ask your colleauges in @FBITampa to help research this new level of #PISSEDOFFNESS. As locals, they may offer a special indepth knowledge of this new level I have reached. This is not fair & law enforcement must #investigate. No one deserves this.
This is my #apogee of #Pissedoffness.
If #motherfuckers & #tears werent a noticable level.
If #HUSH or #INTIMIDATION tactics being deployed didnt strike a chord.
If #EVIDENCE, PROOF, or 30k Bonds didnt #WOW YOU.
If posting mom with no shred of investigatable value wasnt enough...
Read 463 tweets
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Josh Russell
@josh_emerson
Either #reddit is intentionally hiding the full extent of what the Internet research agency was doing OR they just have no clue how to identify the accounts. The 940 accounts they list were mostly trash.

#TrollFactory #IRA #Putin #Russia

reddit.com/r/announcement… via @reddit
while digging around in the list they posted i noticed a website some of the accounts posted links to
butthis.com
The site is gone now. But there is an archive of it here:

web.archive.org/web/2016010919…
This is kind of an obscure website, a lot like blackmattersus.com, blacktolive.org, and hilltendo.com.
All known IRA ran websites. All posted to reddit by known IRA ran accounts.
Read 23 tweets
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Josh Russell
@josh_emerson
Poking around in the "official"; list of #reddit #trollfactory or internet research agency accounts.

I'm using the Reddit @googleanalytics BigQuery dataset. so the submissions only go back to decembreddit.com/r/announcement…QcirpplDzB
highest scoring submission:
u/shomyo
48k karma to /r/news

reddit.com/r/news/comment…
user was active until yesterday. what's up @PrisonPlanet.
Read 31 tweets

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