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2022-10-31 -Short Attention Span Theater-
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Pro-PRC DRAGONBRIDGE Influence Campaign Leverages New TTPs to Aggressively Target U.S. Interests, Including Midterm Elections
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[Mandiant] Mandiant has recently observed DRAGONBRIDGE, an influence campaign we assess with high confidence to be operating in support of the political interests of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), aggressively targeting the United States by seeking to sow division both between the U.S. and its allies and within the U.S. political system itself. Recent narratives include:
- Claims that the China-nexus threat group APT41 is instead a U.S. government-backed actor.
- Aggressive attempts to discredit the U.S. democratic process, including attempts to discourage Americans from voting in the 2022 U.S. midterm elections.
- Allegations that the U.S. was responsible for the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions.
Continued from Page 4
DRAGONBRIDGE’s attempts to adapt or apply tactics in novel ways demonstrate a continued interest in experimentation and creativity in its efforts to achieve desired objectives. Examples of this include:
- Nuanced Impersonation of Cyber Actors: The campaign was found impersonating Intrusion Truth, a group known to target China-nexus cyber threat actors, to leverage the outlet’s reputation to promote DRAGONBRIDGE’s own cyber-related narratives.
- Plagiarism and Alteration of News Articles: DRAGONBRIDGE altering news articles to create fabricated content that falsely attributed APT41 as a U.S. government-backed actor, then subsequently promoting that content across social media, forums, and blogs, demonstrates a more sophisticated adaptation of the campaign’s earlier use of simple plagiarism.
- Personas Posing as Members of Target Audience: The campaign also expanded its use of personas posing as Americans by using first-person pronouns, which we observed previously in its targeting of commercial companies, to promote politically themed content.
DRAGONBRIDGE’s aggressiveness, prolificacy, and persistence demonstrate the intent and resilience of the actors behind the campaign. Despite the limited impact of the campaign’s operations, it continues to spend significant resources to pursue and sustain multiple operations simultaneously.
- While we have previously observed DRAGONBRIDGE themes involving alleged malicious U.S. cyber activity, fabrications regarding APT41 as American in origin appears to be an escalation in the degree of implied U.S. operations.
- Similarly, we have seen DRAGONBRIDGE criticize American society via narratives regarding racial strife and social injustice. However, its targeting of the U.S. political system through attempts to discourage Americans from voting shows a willingness to use increasingly aggressive rhetoric.
- As with DRAGONBRIDGE activity we have previously observed, the campaign continues to fail to garner significant engagement by seemingly real individuals, and its effectiveness remains encumbered by poor execution.
DRAGONBRIDGE NARRATIVES ATTEMPT TO DISCREDIT U.S. POLITICAL SYSTEM, DEMOCRATIC PROCESS
Recently, DRAGONBRIDGE accounts also promoted narratives that appeared intended to discredit and undermine the U.S. political system. Most notably, in September 2022, DRAGONBRIDGE accounts posted an English-language video across multiple platforms containing content attempting to discourage Americans from voting in the upcoming U.S. midterm elections (Figure 4). The video questioned the efficacy of voting and of U.S. government institutions more broadly.
- The video asserted that "the solution to America's ills is not to vote for someone," but rather to "root out this ineffective and incapacitated system" (Figure 5).
- Narratives in the video also cast doubt on the productivity of U.S. lawmakers and of the legislative process in having a tangible impact on Americans’ lives.
- The video cited statistics comparing the number of bills in “proposals” to those that became laws, further questioning the usefulness of enacted laws, and criticizing components of specific laws to support their arguments.
Additionally, DRAGONBRIDGE posted content asserting that political infighting, partisanship, polarization, and division had become fundamental aspects of American democracy. The campaign also pointed to frequent mentions of “civil war” on social media and incidents of politically motivated violence, including confrontations between individuals supporting opposing parties and acts against the FBI, as evidence of the deterioration of the political process and its impending demise. Such messaging is in line with, but seemingly a more aggressive form of, DRAGONBRIDGE’s previous criticisms of the U.S. and attempts to sow discord and dissatisfaction within U.S. society. The campaign has earlier promoted content surrounding U.S. domestic political issues, such as economic and social disparities.
ALLEGATIONS OF U.S. SABOTAGE TO NORD STREAM GAS PIPELINES
In early October 2022, we also observed DRAGONBRIDGE accounts promoting the narrative that the U.S. had “bombed” the offshore Nord Stream gas pipelines for its own economic benefit, at the expense of its European and NATO allies (Figure 6). The Nord Stream pipelines were built to provide Russian natural gas to the European market via Germany; accounts claimed that the alleged U.S. sabotage was driven by its desire to replace Russia as Europe’s energy supplier, and that they precluded the possibility of Russian and European reconciliation over energy issues. DRAGONBRIDGE also assigned some blame to Poland, while also noting that a Polish politician posted a tweet stating: “Thank you, USA” following the explosions.
DRAGONBRIDGE’s messaging mirrored Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statements that the U.S. had sabotaged the pipelines; the campaign has previously echoed narratives promoted by Russian state-owned media and influence campaigns. Other narratives promoted by DRAGONBRIDGE earlier in the year, such as claiming that the U.S. had bullied Europe into enacting sanctions against Russia following the Ukraine invasion, have also used similar themes. We consider these narratives to be earlier attempts to sow division between the U.S. and its allies and portray the U.S. as an aggressor, acting in its own self-interest. 
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Posted by Skidmark 2022-10-31 00:00||
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Posted by Abu Uluque 2022-10-31 12:26||
2022-10-31 12:26||
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