The Week in Internet News: Covert Social Media Campaign Champions Military Rulers
The Internet as warfighting tool: Military rulers in Sudan and other countries are paying “Internet warfare” firms to develop social media campaigns to praise their leadership, the New York Times reports. The story highlights a social media company called New Waves, run by a former member of the Egyptian military and a self-described “researcher on Internet wars.”
Internet warfare, part 2: Meanwhile, a “virtual army” from mainland China has focused on recent protests in Hong Kong, with social media posts boosting government interests, the South China Morning Post writes. New recruits to the nationalist Diba group are taught how to use VPNs and circumvent the government firewall to reach the “battlefield” – social media pages and websites normally banned.
Protestors strike back: The Hong Kong protestors had their own Internet-related tactics, QZ.com reports. In response to threats of Internet shutdown, protestors began to use Bluetooth-based mesh networking technologies, allowing them to communicate through a network of devices that are linked locally, rather than over an Internet connection.
Encryption loves blockchain: The Tide Foundation, a nonprofit building an open-source framework for protecting data, has developed a blockchain-based encryption approach, Silicon Angle says. This type of encryption is much more difficult Continue reading
