No idea how effective this will be but it’s kinda crazy how much Russia’s traditional military might, and their aptitude for psyops, subterfuge and information warfare seem to differ
They seem to simultaneously be somewhat militarily inept, but run massive, seemingly fairly powerful influence campaigns all the time.
Not especially knowledgable on the subject but to a layman it’s an interesting mismatch
I guess both can be true. They’ve proven themselves right times and times again that running massive disinformation campaigns work in this day and age. They successfully meddled in many elections and have a massive influence on social networks. But their military is a victim of corruption and mismanagement, they have the numbers but they seem under equipped and under trained. A strategy which also worked many times for them as well.
There is also probably a fair bit of propaganda against Russia that might skew our opinions, but I don’t think these two cases are mutually exclusive.
While I’m not an expert in this area, it is also possible their cyber campaigns specifically target improperly defended industries. Attacking a target is much easier than defending one, that is true in every field and most industries don’t take their cyber security very seriously. A cyber attack that is funded and sponsored by a large state like Russia is sure to find many victims. Most industries are easy targets because they have thousands of people who are not trained in to defend against even the most basic of cyber attacks.
And of course only the successful attacks make the news, the unsuccessful one are never reported.
That’s not so much about Russia as it is about the west. The neoliberal consensus that dominates western democracy is really big on military spending and not so great at caring for and educating people. In a sane world they would recognize that a discontent populace is as much of a vulnerability as a weak military.
That’s a really interesting point/idea- that it’s less prowess on the part of Russia and more of a defense failure and vulnerability among other nations
No idea how effective this will be but it’s kinda crazy how much Russia’s traditional military might, and their aptitude for psyops, subterfuge and information warfare seem to differ
They seem to simultaneously be somewhat militarily inept, but run massive, seemingly fairly powerful influence campaigns all the time.
Not especially knowledgable on the subject but to a layman it’s an interesting mismatch
I guess both can be true. They’ve proven themselves right times and times again that running massive disinformation campaigns work in this day and age. They successfully meddled in many elections and have a massive influence on social networks. But their military is a victim of corruption and mismanagement, they have the numbers but they seem under equipped and under trained. A strategy which also worked many times for them as well.
There is also probably a fair bit of propaganda against Russia that might skew our opinions, but I don’t think these two cases are mutually exclusive.
While I’m not an expert in this area, it is also possible their cyber campaigns specifically target improperly defended industries. Attacking a target is much easier than defending one, that is true in every field and most industries don’t take their cyber security very seriously. A cyber attack that is funded and sponsored by a large state like Russia is sure to find many victims. Most industries are easy targets because they have thousands of people who are not trained in to defend against even the most basic of cyber attacks.
And of course only the successful attacks make the news, the unsuccessful one are never reported.
Well articulated, thank you for your thoughts :)
That’s not so much about Russia as it is about the west. The neoliberal consensus that dominates western democracy is really big on military spending and not so great at caring for and educating people. In a sane world they would recognize that a discontent populace is as much of a vulnerability as a weak military.
That’s a really interesting point/idea- that it’s less prowess on the part of Russia and more of a defense failure and vulnerability among other nations
Thanks for your thoughts!
Thanks! I just wish it wasn’t insight from watching America get conquered from within over the last few decades.