| Russia is a nation with a history of using intimidation, manipulation, and subversion to achieve their political and geopolitical goals. Throughout the century the most notorious Russian leaders have used the same tactics to suppress or overthrow their opposition and use propaganda to alter the narrative to fit Russian interests. Today Russia has refined their strategies and merged old school tactics with new age technology in a concept referred to as information warfare. Influence operations once used during the Cold War era have developed from physical assets to an army of trolls policing social media. However, no matter the delivery system the aim is to alter the perception of an individual, group of individuals, or an entire nation. Over the past decade, Russia has progressively developed and deployed their cyber capabilities. Attacks ranging from taking down websites to taking down power plants have been carried out. The latest attack was directed at the U.S. presidential election, and it was intended to destabilize a nation from the inside using their own Democratic system. The attack aimed to alter public perception while creating confusion by making it hard to decipher the truth from fake news. When the threat originates in cyber space it is not always easy to see the true ramifications of the threat. However, when an adversary hijacks the minds of the people it can start to erode the nation from the inside out thereby giving credence to Russia's growing information warfare capabilities. |
