This content was created by Robert Siciliano. This content was uploaded by Robert Siciliano. This is a YouTube video titled "Some Blame RUSSIAN Twitter Bots Thwarting Roy Moore Election @HotspotShield" (created 2018-12-22T02:38:45+00:00). The excerpt is an interview/news segment featuring a host (SPEAKER A) and cybersecurity analyst Robert Siciliano discussing a New York Times report alleging that fake Twitter accounts made to look Russian were used to tie the Kremlin to Roy Moore during the Alabama Senate special election. The conversation covers creation of Twitter bots, disinformation campaigns, election interference, and the need to monitor online reputation ahead of 2020.
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Developing tonight, a disturbing new twist in the Russian hacking attempts, and all the fingers point at the Dems. A new New York Times report accusing a Democrat billionaire and his cronies of using fake Russian bots designed to create a fictitious link between the Kremlin and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. This all during his hotly contested Alabama Senate special election. Joining me right now, cybersecurity analyst Robert Siciliano. And Robert, um, they're calling it a false flag operation. Walk us through what the Dems actually did here.
So what it seems like is that a number of Twitter profiles were created looking like they were Russian descent and that they were following Roy Moore and someone in the media picked it up, I believe someone in USA Today or the Alabamian, and pointed it out, and it made news, and designed to make Roy Moore look bad. Creating a Twitter bot is not too difficult to do. Anyone with a computer can make it happen.
Okay, so why did they want these bots to appear as though they were Russian?
Well, it seems, as you know, the political climate that we're in right now, that any relationship with Russia is a bad one. And that if you are being supported by the Russians, then you must be bad as well.
Okay, so now it's being used as political ammunition, I guess. You know, the New York Times is pointing out that it really didn't have a big effect on the actual election results. And, you know, I would agree with that, because you think about any fake Twitter accounts— and by the way, there shouldn't have been one, and I blame the Obama administration, I blame Robert Mueller's FBI, I blame James Comey's FBI for the fake accounts that existed— but I don't think it was the fake accounts— that actually prevented Hillary Clinton from winning in 2016. Unfortunately, she did that all on her own.
Yeah, you know, right now you can do a quick Google search for how to create a Twitter bot, and anybody can engage in that procedure, in that process. And so this methodology of thwarting a potential election can and will be used again in the future simply as a disinformation campaign.
And we have no idea, like, where the bots are from. I mean, I guess if you do some kind of forensic analysis, you could probably trace it back to its origin, its country of origin. But in this case, I mean, they could have been created right there in Alabama. They just looked like they were Russian.
Yeah, not too difficult to do. And the, the disinformation that social media allows makes it very easy for this type of misinformation to soil someone's reputation.
Yeah, you know, unfortunately this is the brave new world though that we live in, right? So what do we need to do to be prepared for 2020? Because it may not just be the Democrats, it may be the Russians, it may be the Chinese, it may be any host of actors that want us to be further divided that we have to watch out for, Robert, right?
Yeah, there is an all-out assault online today, and anybody connected to the web, anybody with a presence needs to monitor their online reputation and how it's being manipulated in a number of different ways.
Yeah, indeed. All right, well, thank you very much. I appreciate the perspective, Robert. Good to see you. Coming up next, everyone, new reports
