Uncovering the TRUTH; How Disinformation Influences Elections, Scams and Your Life #41

And welcome to the Security Guy and CIA Spy Pod broadcast.

I am Robert Siciliano and this is Peter Wormka from Orlando, enjoying probably cooler weather than what you got up in Boston right now.

Yeah, that's a change, huh? Yeah, it is, uh, it's been 90-plus degrees here for the past couple days and it is, uh Well, hopefully it's, uh, gonna be very temporary.

Hopefully.

Yeah, yeah, we should be good. Uh, Peter, good news. Check this out, right?

Look at this.

Hold on. Uh, where is it? Wait a minute, how'd I lose it? Hold on. Oh, here it is. We are— you and I— Feedspot listed us as one of the 30 best CIA podcasts.

Awesome, that's something to celebrate.

Yeah, uh, we are, uh, right alongside the President's Day Brief and the Langley Files. You know Langley, of course. Mike Force, uh, Intelligence Matters, Brainwashed, Covert Action Bulletin. That's enough out of you two mics. We are actually 29 of 30. Hey, I'm fine with that.

That's great. And especially there's a lot more, you know, podcasts that are out there that touch upon the CIA and intelligence, and a lot of them aren't very— I mean, a lot of them are sort of like this, you know, tell me mysterious stories, kind of like for entertainment, but, you know, they're not really based upon sharing information or facts or something that's really true. And but we, I mean, Apparently that gives us a lot of credibility. I'm very happy.

Yeah, man, we did good, right? Keep the motor running, right?

Yeah, maybe, yeah, get our, get our people that come in to watch us, listen to us, to share that with their friends and bring more people into the fold.

Yeah, so, um, you know, both Peter and I, obviously, you know, uh, as, as most of you should know, we speak professionally. We, we train on cybersecurity awareness training. And scam fraud awareness training and so forth. And, you know, we're just being inundated with requests revolving around artificial intelligence, deepfakes, disinformation. Okay. And so the topic of today's event is going to be disinformation. And Peter, check this out, right? So back in 2019, right prior to the 2020 election, I wrote an entire article about disinformation, i.e., fake news, how the weaponization of social media has you conned.

It does.

Now, this article was written well before deepfakes and AI was integrated into the public consciousness, or really prior to it even being a tool that you and I could readily, you know, utilize. Okay, and so there's a couple of, um, things from my 2019 post that are just so fundamental that I wanted to get across here. So back then, uh, with the 2016 election, the Cambridge Analytica debacle that occurred via Facebook, where Facebook provided Cambridge Analytica essentially backdoor access to their service in such a way where Cambridge Analytica manipulated all of us to sway the election in essentially, um, Trump's favor.

Okay.

And, uh, you know, that is happening right now as we speak in a number of different ways. It's been happening for a long time. And so essentially what disinformation is, it is a confidence trick. Fundamentally, disinformation is a confidence trick, a scam, the motivation of a con man. Or a group is to influence their mark enough to gain the confidence of the victim. The con man wants to be trusted. Once the con man has the trust of their target, it's like taking candy from a baby. So disinformation is about, you know, dividing and conquering. So hear me out, okay? The desired outcome of disinformation by its author is to divide and conquer or rule the persons who are being manipulated. The Oxford definition of divide and conquer is the policy of maintaining control over one's subordinates or subjects by encouraging dissent between them. So right down the middle. In other words, from the perspective and motivation of a con man, don't trust them, trust me. Only I can solve your problems. We hear that over and over and over and over again these days from certain politicians. Okay, so that divide and conquer, don't trust them, trust me, is being played out every single day in our current political climate. I wrote this back in 2019, and it's more true today than it's ever been. And I don't know, Peter, disinformation, i.e., des-in-form-ats-ya, des-in-form-ats-ya, uh, is fundamentally lying. Uh, it is— the word was born in Russia, des-in-form-ats-ya. Joseph Stalin coined the term in 1923, derived from the title of the KGB black propaganda special disinformation office. They had a disinformation office, a department. This information was formally defined in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia in 1952 as false information with the intention to deceive public opinion.

Hmm. Yeah, it was, and it's been running hard. I mean, that was back in the times of the Soviet Union, but when the Soviet Union broke up Russia maintained— has maintained that same program. It's been very, very aggressive, you know, even to this day. Active measure— they call active measures as well, right? I think I mentioned there's a— and actually I have a copy here— there's a really good book for anybody that's interested in the topic. Sorry about that. Here's the book. I wrote it, and I mean, I read it. I didn't write it. I read it. It's by Thomas Reed, and it goes into considerable detail of that program first established by the Soviet Republic, the Soviet Union, and then maintained by the KGB after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Nice job, Peter. When did you put that together?

No, I didn't— no, what? I didn't put this together. I didn't write this. This is— I'm sorry.

So So now where can people get that?

Well, they can order it on Amazon, but this is like one of the best books I found that talks specifically about that program that Russia had, and it goes up pretty much until the elections of 2016. That's where the book kind of like tapers off the information, but there's been a lot of things that have happened since 2016 as well, including— there's some things right now that are going on and are coming out. A lot of these programs, you know, are going on without us really being aware that they're going on or who's behind them. But there's some that can be directly linked to state actors, especially Russia is probably the predominant state actor. But there's also China's very involved, Iran's very involved, Israel. I mean, Israel right now with the whole, you know, conflict in Gaza, I mean, they're involved in these sorts of things. So there's— it's going on around us, but we need to understand what it might look like, what it— what is it trying to do to us, and how can we potentially, you know, identify that it's going on, what we can do about it.

You know, the biggest problem here is the fact that, Peter, we've discussed this before. So, you know, my philosophy, my observation, my perspective is that human beings, by default, when we come out of our mama, we trust by our nature. Okay, and if you trust by nature, if you naturally trust, if you want to and need to and by default trust others, that means that you pretty much give pretty much everyone in every situation you're in the benefit of the doubt, that you're pretty much going to trust first. And if things are sour and things don't feel right, then you're like, well, maybe not. But you still give the benefit of the doubt, and that's a huge problem. So whatever— go ahead.

And what, and what, you know, that issue of trust, that's where the whole, you know, a lot of this AI, you know, generative AI comes into play. Because, you know, just, just put a news story in front of you and, you know, and then put that head, you know, that the headline that can grab attention, right? Sometimes a headline is all you need to get someone to read that, but then you add to that image, right? And you add, or you add to that a video, and people are more likely to see that and actually engage with it. Because today, you know, everything's about images and video, and as we know, those can be fake, deepfaked. And so it's very easy, you know, to leverage that trust because people believe automatically, oh, that's, that's got to be true, I see it. You know, seeing is believing, seeing is believing. Unfortunately, that's not the case.

Yeah, you know, we, we have grown accustomed to consuming the printed word, to consuming audio, to consuming video, uh, throughout our entire lives. And we've, we've come to trust all these mediums as they are legit. And the reality of it is, like, despite what your politics are, ladies and gentlemen, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC even to a certain degree, Fox News, they're pretty much telling the truth with the exception of their slant and/or their propaganda.

Yeah. So it's like bias. You know, they're telling you the truth, but they're putting a particular spin or bias. Yeah, that is right.

Some more significant bias than others. Some are skewing the truth just a little bit more than others. But it's not necessarily fake news.

It's basically Yeah, they can be called to task. I mean, typically your traditional professional news outlets, you know, they could be— they got a fact check up the wazoo when they get this news, because if they put something out there that they just— somebody public, you know, somebody posted something on Facebook and, and it's, you know, breaking news, and if they use that, they gotta be very, very careful. And, and they have to even, you know, if you might see them coming out later, you know, that if something is incorrect or misleading, they correct that because it's their reputation. But what percentage of the news, news today does not come from professional, uh, broadcasters?

Way too much. Yeah, everybody with a connection to the internet is a broadcaster now.

That's right. So we produce our own, we produce our own content, right? We produce it and we disseminate it, and then others will take it and they will further disseminate it Even if they might not realize that is fake, but they're spreading misinformation because they're spreading information that's not true, but it's not disinformation because they didn't know that it's false. But it's still adding to the spread of information that should never be out there.

So I don't spend a whole lot of time on Facebook or social media for that matter due to the fact that you just get sucked into this awful vortex. And before you know it, like you went on to find something really quick and then 3 hours later you're like, watching cat videos. I'm just like, I just don't— I just can't. I just don't have time for that. But every single time I pull up anything on Facebook, inevitably, if I spend even 5 minutes on there, I usually see a post or two that— now there's something wrong with that. Like, whoever's sharing that, they're, they're misinformed. Like, they, they probably don't know what it is that they are sharing. They just took these words that appeared, they took this video, they took whatever it is that they are consuming, and they go, oh, everybody else should know about this. In reality what they're sharing is wrong. You know, it's disinformation. It's, it's either an outright lie, it's a scam, or it's just, just some BS. Like, my wife shared something with me just yesterday, as a matter of fact, that, um, like, we have to stop using certain types of dishwasher pods in our dishwasher because plumbers are saying it's clogging up all the pipes and they have to go in with special tools and unclog them. It's like Yeah, I'm not sure about that, so let me just Google it. And I Googled it, I was like, nah, that's not— it's not true at all. Like, it's just like somebody shared it and it's just not true. Whether somebody got screwed over by their plumber 5 years ago and their post went viral or not, I don't know. It's just like this dumb thing that's not true. And but that at a higher level— government, safety, security, privacy, money like, you know, beyond plumbing, that stuff has impact on the quality of people's lives, which includes their safety, security, and privacy.

Yeah. I mean, I think we need to take a higher, you know, view of this as far as who are— and there's a variety of them— who are the different threat actors that are out there and that can intentionally produce and disseminate disinformation and what might be their objectives. I mean, you know, The first number one is going to be the state actors, right? And they've been doing this for ages. And as you mentioned earlier, it's pretty much not to create a division, but to enter into a division and to go in there and to further, further create that divide within that division. I think a good example of that probably in very, very recent times were all these protests that were going on regarding Black Lives Matter. And so there were at least two sides to this, right? Maybe more, but I mean, so the purpose of those articles is to say, well, should we have a program where we are going to take one side or the other? They do not necessarily have to take one side or the other. They could produce disinformation that would appear to support the Black Lives Matter movement, and then at the same time create some other type of information that would appear to attack it or to look, you know, to be from the other side. And at the end of the day, they are just further and further creating a divide within the American public, which is, you know, if you're trying to weaken a democracy, and that's what they're trying to do, that's a, you know, very effective way of doing it. And so they've been doing that across the board for a long time. And I think—

don't trust them, trust me— divide and conquer.

Yeah, I mean, but you have the same thing though. You have this, you have this being conducted also by businesses, competitors, that will try to damage the brand of other competitors, right? Whether it's trying to, you know, damage the brand so that their company will also, you know, try to raise up or try to sabotage the reputation of competitors. I mean, this is happening in the business world as well. People that are involved in, in brand marketing, brand and management are finding this happening all the time. There are activist groups that will also take, you know, advantage of disinformation campaigns to promote their their causes. That's, you know, that's— that happens. And there's also these people, you know, just fraudsters. I think you alluded to that in the beginning, fraudsters that will go out there and they will try to show, you know, especially using AI today, try to show that these gummies are the greatest thing. You know, we have these celebrities that are even using it, but none of that is true. But they're creating that so they can make a quick buck, right? That's all, you know, it's all part of disinformation, just different objectives.

Here, Russia targets Americans traveling to Paris Olympics with fake CIA video. Russia has ramped up its disinformation operations targeting the Paris Olympics, this time with a new video that appears— makes it appear it's as if the CIA is warning Americans about traveling in the city's metro, their trains. CBS News found a fabricated video which contains a fake warning about a high risk of an attack originated in Russian channels, making its way on X and Facebook, where it has racked up at least 100,000 views across the platforms. 'the video is a fabrication and has no connection to the CIA and does not represent the CIA's views,' a CIA spokesperson told CBS News. US officials have not warned Americans about traveling in the metro during the games, which are— begin to set on July 26th. Okay, the fabricated video comes from the same Russian disinformation network that Microsoft uncovered in early June. So states, like you said, state-sponsored— Russia, China, And Russia is pulling it all out right now.

Yeah, I think the— I mean, I don't know if the article states specifically, but I think the objective here is really to tarnish the image of France in delivering, you know, hosting the Olympics. Because Russia is not allowed— because of this doping scandal, Russians— Russia is not allowed to send athletes. The Russians that are going there are going under another banner. They're not representing the country of Russia. So I think because of, because of this, Russia just wants to sort of, you know, they want to really hurt as much as possible the success, you know, the image of France in delivering these Olympic Games.

It's more than doping. Russian athletes have been banned from participating in the Games under their own flag because the country's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

That's all.

The Russian government has a long history of operations related to the Olympic Games and said the ban is likely part of the motivation behind these operations. So, you know, it's kind of like Kim Jong-un, or whatever his name is, sending bags of poop to South Korea. And, you know, like a child. And Vladimir Putin, like a child, with the disinformation campaigns. Like, they just— they're literally acting like 5-year-olds and exhibiting 5-year-old whiny kick-and-scream behavior.

But apparently, this is the scary thing. Some of the stuff to us might seem like this is crazy, right? This is— who's going to believe this? This is crazy. And this is obvious that what they're trying to do and why they're doing it. But they wouldn't be— think about it, this has been going on since the 1930s. If it wasn't successful, they wouldn't have invested so much money and time and resources into orchestrating and running these campaigns.

It works. It absolutely works. So here, 10 ways to spot disinformation on social media. Okay, so fake news, as we know, is not news. What is fake news? We know what it is. Uh, so categories of fake news include clickbait, you know, like basic clickbait.

They use—

this uses, uh, exaggerated, questionable, misleading headlines. Propaganda, which is like the main purpose for governments, uh, that spreads, spreads information, rumors, or ideas to harm an institution, country, group of people, or individual. All right, you mentioned that a couple times already. Typically for political gain. Imposter content— this impersonates general news sites, uh, to contain made-up stories to deceive readers, right? Just like what Russia is doing in regards to posing as the CIA. Uh, biased, slanted news— this attracts readers to confirm their own biases and beliefs. We see that all the time. Satire— this creates fake news stories for parody entertainment. That's, you know, satire is fun, but sometimes that can spread as being real. State-sponsored news. This operates under government control to create the spread of disinformation to residents or foreigners. And of course, misleading headlines. These stories may not be completely false, but are distorted with misleading headlines and small snippets displayed in news feeds. Fake news is harmful because it can create misunderstanding and confusion on important issues. Spreading false information can intensify social conflict divide and conquer, and stir up controversy. These stories can also cause mistrust. It's exhausting.

Well, one of those that you kind of— you mentioned, but you kind of went past it quickly, and maybe a lot of the listeners might not quite understand how this has to do with this information, but the clickbait, right? The purpose of the clickbait is to get people to click on the link, because every time they click, someone's getting money for that click that was done, right? So you gotta do to get to encourage somebody to click on is because you got to show some picture that draws the attention or some, you know, some headline, headliner that's going to want that person to go to the next page and see what is this all about. And, and, and, and most of it is just pure BS. Although one thing that's interesting is that there's almost, regardless of the sophistication, level of sophistication or unsophistication of fake news, is that there's usually some kernels of truth to the information. You know, let's say you have 80%— 20% that's true and 80% that's totally bogus. But, you know, we tend to believe if we see some kernels of truth in an article, we say, yeah, yeah, I heard that, I know that. So the people assume everything else is true because they see those kernels of truth that are in that particular storyline.

Yeah, yeah. Uh, so Peter, uh, wrapping up, uh, where you got— what do you got going on? Where are you going to be? What do you want to promote?

Well, I just came back from Casper, Wyoming. Have you ever been to Wyoming?

A bunch of times, actually.

Yeah, really? And I had a great pleasure that I was out there at Casper College. Uh, actually, I gave 3 different presentations out there, uh, and I went to a rodeo and they had axe throwing, and it was a great time. Great time. And now I'm going— I'm going to go into a, I guess, maybe more serious place. Well, that's a— that Casper's not Going to Vegas, and I'm going to attend a very, very big conference. I think you know that I am a certified fraud examiner, and so I'm very involved with the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. Every year they have a global conference, and I usually speak at each of those global conferences as well as to numerous chapters. So I'm doing that over the next few days. Uh, what about you, Robert?

Hold on, wait a minute. And, uh, books.

Oh, okay. Can't forget about those, right? Confessions of a CIA Spy. Actually, it was very nice. The college out there, they bought a whole bunch of both of these books and to provide to everybody that attended at the conference. So that was great. Confessions of a CIA Spy, The Art of Human Hacking, and Why Are You Messing with Me? Senior Survival Guide for Privacy, Fraud, and Security. And, uh, they're available on Amazon.

And your web address, URL?

Counterintelligence Institute counterintelligence-institute.com. And yeah, for more information, please go there directly or to my LinkedIn page. Happy— and, uh, a few more, um, sorry, a few more, uh, openings here if anybody's interested in— for Robert as well. Hey, looking for speakers, especially as we get closer to October, to talk about cybersecurity. Uh, you know, mention our names to people in your organizations as potential speakers. So Robert and I love to do this, whether it's in person or, or if— or virtual.

Yeah. And, um, y'all can see me at protectnowllc.com. Again, that's protectnowllc.com. Further, a couple things, um, I've got 11,500 or so people who follow my newsletter on LinkedIn, Peter.

Fantastic.

Which I'm pretty proud about. Uh, and, uh, like, the last article I wrote was AI sextortion. The Crime Affecting Every Business and Everyone in So Many Ways. AI Sextortion is a big deal. How and Why Fun AI Generated Spam on Social Media Will Manipulate the 2024 Election. And a fun title, Artificial Intelligence and Organized Crime: Sitting in a Tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. So I'm writing a lot about AI and fraud and scams these days. Check out CSI, Cyber Social Identity, newsletter on my LinkedIn. Just connect with me and it's easy to find. And, um, yeah, like my mom used to say to me as a kid, believe nothing of what you hear and half of what you see. These days, man, believe nothing of what you hear and nothing of what you see. Y'all gotta be careful out there. Peter, last words.

Last words: be careful what you trust.

Yeah, that's it, buddy. Awesome, man. Uh, y'all, thank you so much. You be cool out there. Be, be, stay cool, be good, behave, be careful. Talk to you soon.