The Fort Worth Press - Fake social media accounts aimed at Ukraine, says Meta

USD -
AED 3.672975
AFN 67.999629
ALL 91.111523
AMD 387.173992
ANG 1.80321
AOA 909.050989
ARS 993.981532
AUD 1.513432
AWG 1.8025
AZN 1.732815
BAM 1.814622
BBD 2.020134
BDT 119.55725
BGN 1.819905
BHD 0.376937
BIF 2953.98033
BMD 1
BND 1.322416
BOB 6.928865
BRL 5.766401
BSD 1.000557
BTN 84.411909
BWP 13.269623
BYN 3.274262
BYR 19600
BZD 2.016663
CAD 1.39033
CDF 2864.999765
CHF 0.87382
CLF 0.035002
CLP 965.829892
CNY 7.176978
CNH 7.119295
COP 4342.43
CRC 511.783262
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 102.303724
CZK 23.461987
DJF 178.168491
DKK 6.937201
DOP 60.252366
DZD 133.649073
EGP 49.295302
ERN 15
ETB 123.874987
EUR 0.930435
FJD 2.263027
FKP 0.765169
GBP 0.77273
GEL 2.724986
GGP 0.765169
GHS 16.408425
GIP 0.765169
GMD 71.503286
GNF 8624.896781
GTQ 7.734274
GYD 209.32455
HKD 7.775425
HNL 25.244016
HRK 6.88903
HTG 131.657079
HUF 378.151017
IDR 15642.6
ILS 3.75092
IMP 0.765169
INR 84.36755
IQD 1310.63277
IRR 42105.000051
ISK 138.179728
JEP 0.765169
JMD 158.73708
JOD 0.709101
JPY 152.535028
KES 129.059769
KGS 86.200846
KHR 4062.905919
KMF 455.949608
KPW 899.999774
KRW 1390.696575
KWD 0.30666
KYD 0.833735
KZT 492.526512
LAK 21958.415676
LBP 89595.29045
LKR 292.713929
LRD 189.597424
LSL 17.508745
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.855171
MAD 9.880406
MDL 17.94396
MGA 4628.787738
MKD 57.309615
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3398.000028
MOP 8.011227
MRU 39.85953
MUR 46.401052
MVR 15.41001
MWK 1734.922991
MXN 20.05304
MYR 4.382502
MZN 63.904987
NAD 17.508907
NGN 1676.009833
NIO 36.815394
NOK 10.982745
NPR 135.060308
NZD 1.670805
OMR 0.385001
PAB 1.000547
PEN 3.752888
PGK 4.016478
PHP 58.332017
PKR 277.829488
PLN 4.025694
PYG 7823.343849
QAR 3.64829
RON 4.629098
RSD 108.858451
RUB 97.448212
RWF 1371.497495
SAR 3.756028
SBD 8.347827
SCR 13.561861
SDG 601.466847
SEK 10.798655
SGD 1.324715
SHP 0.765169
SLE 22.789528
SLL 20969.496802
SOS 571.812952
SRD 34.969835
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.75479
SYP 2512.530268
SZL 17.504175
THB 34.175006
TJS 10.635461
TMT 3.5
TND 3.10642
TOP 2.342096
TRY 34.371903
TTD 6.799035
TWD 32.164981
TZS 2669.999712
UAH 41.303836
UGX 3662.089441
UYU 41.797332
UZS 12793.41634
VEF 3622552.534434
VES 44.138463
VND 25275
VUV 118.722039
WST 2.801184
XAF 608.607348
XAG 0.029645
XAU 0.000367
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.750139
XOF 608.596055
XPF 110.6503
YER 249.849762
ZAR 17.53885
ZMK 9001.209472
ZMW 27.238567
ZWL 321.999592
  • RBGPF

    0.0100

    61.4

    +0.02%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0600

    7.15

    -0.84%

  • CMSC

    0.0400

    24.72

    +0.16%

  • VOD

    -0.0700

    9.25

    -0.76%

  • AZN

    -0.0450

    64.645

    -0.07%

  • NGG

    -0.6050

    63.695

    -0.95%

  • BP

    -0.9400

    28.87

    -3.26%

  • RIO

    -3.3650

    64.105

    -5.25%

  • BTI

    0.0100

    35.41

    +0.03%

  • GSK

    -0.4050

    36.255

    -1.12%

  • SCS

    0.0000

    13.08

    0%

  • RELX

    0.3080

    47.968

    +0.64%

  • BCC

    1.0100

    141.86

    +0.71%

  • CMSD

    0.0100

    24.9

    +0.04%

  • BCE

    0.3500

    28.42

    +1.23%

  • JRI

    0.0420

    13.412

    +0.31%

Fake social media accounts aimed at Ukraine, says Meta
Fake social media accounts aimed at Ukraine, says Meta

Fake social media accounts aimed at Ukraine, says Meta

Pro-Russia groups are orchestrating misinformation campaigns on social media, using fake profiles or hacked accounts to paint Ukraine as a feeble pawn of Western duplicity, Meta said Sunday.

Text size:

The cyber security team at the tech giant -- parent of Facebook and Instagram -- said it blocked a set of Russia-linked fake accounts that were part of a social media scheme to undermine Ukraine.

"They ran websites posing as independent news entities and created fake personas across social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Telegram and also Russian Odnoklassniki and VK," Meta said in a blog post.

In some cases, "they used profile pictures that we believe were likely generated using artificial intelligence techniques."

The small network of Facebook and Instagram accounts targeted people in Ukraine, using posts to try to get people to visit websites featuring bogus news about the country's effort to defend itself from the invasion by Russia.

Meta said it connected the network to people in Russia and Ukraine, as well as media organizations NewsFront and SouthFront in Crimea.

The US has identified NewsFront and SouthFront as disinformation outlets that get marching orders from Russian intelligence services.

The organizations were among more than a dozen entities sanctioned by Washington for trying to influence the 2020 US presidential election "at the direction of the leadership of the Russian Government."

Meta shut down the bogus accounts and blocked sharing of internet addresses involved in the deception, director of threat disruption David Agranovich said in a briefing.

Bogus claims published by the sites include that the West had betrayed Ukraine and that Ukraine is a failed state, according to Agranovich.

- 'Ghostwriter' -

Meanwhile, a hacking group called Ghostwriter believed to operate out of Russia has ramped up action against military figures and journalists in Ukraine in recent days, according to Meta's security team.

Ghostwriter's typical tactic is to target victims with "phishing" emails that trick them into clicking on deceptive links in an effort to steal log-in credentials.

The goal of compromising Facebook accounts appeared to be to spread links to misinformation, such as a YouTube video falsely contending to be of Ukrainian soldiers surrendering to Russian troops, according to Meta.

"We've taken steps to secure accounts that we believe were targeted by this threat actor," said Meta head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher.

"We also blocked phishing domains these hackers used to try to trick people in Ukraine into compromising their online accounts."

Facebook on Friday restricted Russian state media's ability to earn money on the social media platform as Moscow's invasion of neighboring Ukraine reached the streets of Kyiv.

Gleicher said that Meta had yet to see any throttling of Facebook in Russia, despite the country threatening to hit it with restrictions after it refused to stop using fact-checkers and content warning labels on state media posts.

Social media networks have become one of the fronts in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, home to sometimes misleading information but also real-time monitoring of a quickly developing conflict that marks Europe's biggest geopolitical crisis in decades.

A.Maldonado--TFWP