For at least four years, hacking and disinformation a popular group has Ghostwriter has troubled Eastern Europe and the Baltic states. Given its tactics – as well as its anti-NATO and anti-US messages – the main idea has been that Ghostwriter is another Kremlin-led campaign. European Union though he announced at the end of September that other member states “merged” Ghostwriter “with Russia.” As it turns out, it’s not quite good. According to Mandiant’s clever threat, Ghostwriter attackers operate in Belarus.
Mandiant stared on Ghostwriter in July 2020. The group was notorious for creating and distributing fake news and stealing real websites to post fake news. By April 2021, Mandiant claimed that a number of incidents had taken place with Ghostwriter, including the use of official media accounts to spread false information and crack down on politicians. tearing and losing work. The group has been actively seeking to undermine NATO’s role in Eastern Europe, and it has begun to stir up controversy or political instability in Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and Germany.
At a Cyberwarcon conference in Washington, DC Tuesday, experts from Mandiant Ben Read and Gabby Roncone testify about Ghostwriter relationships in Belarus.
“Eastern European intelligence activities and anti-NATO activities are in line with what we have seen Russia do in the past,” Read told WIRED ahead of the conference. Despite well-known tactics, methods, and techniques, Mandiant did not mention Moscow at the time, as he had not yet seen the actual digital links.
After Belarus’s controversial elections in August 2020, former President Alexander Lukashenko remained in power amid allegations that opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya had won. The US has opposed the election and many of Belarus ‘neighbors, including Poland, have openly stated their support for Belarus’ opposition. Meanwhile, Mandiant saw a dramatic change in Ghostwriter camps.
“We have seen a dramatic change in the Belarusian agenda – which is targeting Belarusian dissidents, Belarusians in the media, things that seem to be being done to support the Belarussian government,” Read said. “Then we stumbled upon the latest technology that makes us think that the crew is in Minsk with some Belarusian military personnel.”
Shane Huntley, leader of Google’s Threat Analysis Group, says Mandiant’s research is consistent with TAG’s findings. “Their report is in line with what we have seen,” he told WIRED.
As the group showed more and more Belarusian protests over the summer, Mandiant tried to eliminate those behind the campaign. Since last year’s election, 16 of the 19 Ghostwriter disinformation campaigns have targeted issues insulting the Lithuanian and Polish governments, Belarus’ neighbors. Two looked negatively at NATO and one criticized the EU.
Ghostwriter’s campaign in August over Poland and Lithuania pushed back false allegations accusing immigrants of committing crimes. The long-running tensions between Poland and Belarus have intensified in recent weeks with borders as a beacon. Some recent activities have been reported to have crashed into a nuclear power plant in Lithuania, possibly because Lithuania has long opposed the approach of the Belarus nuclear plant Astravyets to its borders. Belarus government video has taken Ghostwriter fake news and repeated it, although it is not known if this was due to a special connection or part of Belarus’ state of affairs. Read on and it shows that Ghostwriter did not look at Estonia – the only Baltic country that does not border with Belarus.
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