It was a pleasure to chat with Negar about PRISONBREAK. Read our report here: citizenlab.ca/2025/10/ai-e...

“Europe faces an existential choice: build genuine technological sovereignty now, or accept governance by platforms whose architects view democracy as an obsolete operating system.”

Everyone is talking about AI. It's obviously having a transformative impact across all sectors of society. So how should the Canadian government approach it? My interview with Yvonne Lau for the @financialpost.com financialpost.com/technology/c...

This entire keynote by @micahflee.com should be watched, but this excerpt, my friends - oh yes. micahflee.com/practical-de...

I thought we had agreed a few decades ago that Nazi propaganda was bad?

This great investigation by @jacksapoch.bsky.social is more evidence of the capability and willingness by the Israeli military to widely use sophisticated manipulations to advance communication objectives. What we showed last week with PRISONBREAK is a piece of a much bigger influence puzzle.

Imagine if Napster back then said something like “I just don’t know how you go around, asking everyone first. I just don’t see how that would work.”

1/ NEW REPORT: “We Say You Want a Revolution” - An AI-Enabled Influence Operation Aimed at Overthrowing the Iranian Regime. We call it PRISONBREAK. Keep reading to find out why. THREAD 🧵

This.

Some novel TTPs described here. “Another effective tool is sending “fake government orders”. There was (a fake government order) for public institutions to display rainbow flags and another one for schools to display LGBT informational posters at the beginning of the school year,” he pointed out.”

“Google said in a statement […] “On YouTube, as part of our proactive coverage for the 2025 Moldova elections, we have terminated more than 1,000 channels since June 2024 for being part of coordinated influence operations targeting Moldova.””

I’m sure it’s not news to anyone actually paying attention, but we should probably care more that a lot of “name-surname-5digits” accounts are spreading the hashtag #abandonNATO on X at the moment.

In the NL, two secondary schools were closed for a day for risk of violence after “footage of violent attacks between rival youth groups, including a video showing a boy being kicked in the head, and *AI-generated videos of school explosions*, reportedly circulated on social media”.

Regardless of what your politics are, this is a statement I can stand behind: [Utah Governor Spencer Cox said] "log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member, go out and do good in your community".

What struck the Gaza Aid Flotilla? After we published the story, the Tunisian Ministry of Interior issued a statement describing the incident “that took place yesterday” as a “premeditated attack” stating that an investigation had been launched.”

Allow me a breather after the two most stressful days of a stressful year so far. Total lunar eclipse, 7 September.

Forensic researchers @citizenlab.ca today confirmed FlexiSPY spyware was found on 2 Kenyan filmmakers' phones. Victims helped produce a documentary about youth uprisings in the increasingly autocratic country. Spyware was installed while phones were in police custody. therecord.media/researchers-...

i'm reminded of jimmy savile by all this stuff about epstein's famous friends. it was a very open secret what he was like, but the mainstream media kindly held off any serious investigations until after he died

And to @rondeibert.bsky.social ‘s point: “The Russians have flooded social media with fake posts, videos and entire websites that are created and spread on TikTok, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube using increasingly effective AI tools.”

Great oped by @citizenlab.ca ‘s @rondeibert.bsky.social on AI + disinformation. Two quotes I feel especially close to: 1/ Social media & AI platforms have shut down open interfaces previously used by researchers, while becoming litigious toward critics & researchers, stifling independent watchdogs.

President Sergio Mattarella “speaking of a "new global corporatism" on the part of "new East India Companies" engaged in a project of colonial influence and exploitation, Mattarella spoke of a "neo-imperialist drive for domination, lethal for the future of humanity."

NEW: Mercenary spyware is coming to the US. ICE just quietly unsuspended their contract with spyware maker #Paragon. Remember them? Caught earlier this year being used to hack Italian journalists. This is bad, let's talk about how we got here 1/ jackpoulson.substack.com/p/exclusive-...

But is their intended audience too?

“This isn’t hyperbole. I lived through it in the Philippines. Now I’m watching it unfold in real time in America” - @mariaressa.bsky.social

That’s how confirmation bias works. Everywhere.

Alberto Trentini, italiano perbene, in cella a Caracas da 9 mesi. E noi che non facciamo abbastanza @mm-corriere-bot.bsky.social

📣AI propaganda factories🏭 are now operational. My study shows how small, open-weight models can run as fully automatic generators in influence campaigns. mechanising personas, engagement, cadence. Possible for State, non-state, and micro-actors, including and bedroom ones.

You know what intelligence agencies were blinded by the terror of disappointing their political leadership to the point of contributing to the collapse of the nation? The Soviet ones.

Please do tell me again that influence operations are no longer a priority security issue. Then explain why you’re asserting that.

Interesting, if typical one. “These throwaway accounts were used to churn out recycled scripts that attacked Vietnam for its “destructive” island-building activities in the South China Sea, with a subset of the network also echoing familiar pro-Duterte and anti-Marcos talking points”

With so much going on it's easy to miss important news. John Durham buried exonerating faked emails in a 29 page classified annex to his report that insinuated the opposite. Being convicted of a crime based on faked evidence is a very Russian thing. Gift link www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/u...

“They are just throwing spaghetti, trying to see what’s going to stick on a wall” …like a good 90% of online influence operations. Which doesn’t make them less dangerous, particularly when the response mechanisms have been decimated.

Strong vibes.

Anyone else frantically checking spam folders on all messaging services?

Check out my #DEFCON33 talk about the Signalgate, full of unbelievable incompetence from the highest levels of the Trump administration www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFYy...

Journalism is not a crime. Killing them is. guide-humanitarian-law.org/content/arti... casebook.icrc.org/case-study/p...

We did ask NYT if they knew about the hacker's X account, or that their bylined freelancer followed the hacker. We did not get a response aside from getting linked to Healy's old thread about the sourcing of the article.

Fascinating to see a bot network crashed by the sudden u-turn in sentiment within the MAGA accounts it’s trained on.

He's right, and it's not just Brazil. Around the world, at least 31 democratic leaders who committed similar crimes have been jailed or banned from office since 2010. The failure to hold Trump accountable in the US was a unique and systemic failure of our institutions and political culture.

The EU acknowledging the role crypto payments (and firms) hold in the financing of influence operations’ infrastructure. Among the sanctioned are individuals and organizations variously linked to cryptocurrencies and exchanges with known Kremlin links.

Can definitely relate to this 👇 Mental health crises & tsunamis of dis/misinformation & general paranoia & angst are flooding the inboxes of journalists and researchers Why Is ChatGPT Telling People to Email Me? @kashhill.bsky.social h/t @jsrailton.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/06/29/i...

“The driving principle here is obvious: In a free society, people should know who is policing them.” apple.news/ATQz-Wb-hQom...

Not that I like the idea, of course, but everyone is “using AI tools to fuel a content explosion”. Just check your LinkedIn feed and you’ll see it. There’s a lot of junk out there on the web - and particularly the social media side. Does that make Russian disinfo more effective? Most likely not.

Couple of weeks ago we @citizenlab.ca published a report on a sophisticated Russia-linked 🇷🇺 phishing campaign targeting a UK-based Russian critic and analyst citizenlab.ca/2025/06/russ... The target @keirgiles.bsky.social has written an excellent overview: foreignpolicy.com/2025/07/02/g...

That @nytimes.com gives a platform to an obvious hack-and-leak influence operation was not what I was expecting to see today.

Ok - the instinct question is just: how do I render them unusable in a radius around me?

UPDATE: Looks to me like Paragon is again feeling the heat, and tossing the Italian government under the bus. The scandal continues.

NEW REPORT: Russia's state-backed hackers have a new trick. In collab w/ Google Threat Intelligence Group, we investigated an attack against prominent Russian expert @keirgiles.bsky.social & uncovered an elaborate attack targeting App-Specific Passwords (ASPs). citizenlab.ca/2025/06/russ...

🚨NEW REPORT: exposing clever new hacking tactic. 🇷🇺Russian state-backed hackers used an App-Specific Password attack against prominent Russia expert @keirgiles.bsky.social It's like they knew what we all expect from 🇷🇺...and then did the opposite 1/ By us @citizenlab.ca & Google's GTIG