Those of you who follow me on Twitter (@JWVance) may have noticed something strange when people began sharing, commenting on, and liking my “10 Hot Hybrid Cloud Startups to Watch” story for Network World.
A commenter from Russia kicked things off with:
Хорошее фото
Translation: nice photo.
That was followed by:
хорошая история
Translation: good story.
And then a string of one-word, complimentary comments flowed in, such as “good,” “excellent,” “okay,” “nice,” etc.
And then that’s when things started to get weird.
The next comments were things like “grrdddmfm,” “fffff,” “ddddd,” “121212,” “abddba,” “84812a4,” etc.
Next, I attracted a metric ton of empty avi account followers with names like SonjaRvit8140240962 originating in Russia, Ukraine, the Middle East, and other locales where botnets tend to propagate. After digging through the timelines of a few of the fake/hacked accounts, I’m 95% certain that I’ve figured out what they’re doing.
Russia (most likely the IRA or GRU) are, among other things, most likely trying to stand up a new bot/sock puppet network, using my content as part of the foundational content that will make the fake accounts look real and current. (For what it’s worth, it looks like they’re targeting left-wing politics and tech trends with this one.)
I’ve reported the nefarious activity to Twitter Support, but I’ve also create a block list for anyone who shared the story and wants to block this problem before it even gets started on your own account:
If you’re not sure how to import a block list into Twitter, this story provides step-by-step instructions.
Twitter is a great place to amplify content, but it’s also the Wild West of SOCMED. Watch your back out there, and don’t be shy about reaching out if you find any other bad actors trying to hijack my stories.
This isn’t my first rodeo when it comes to cyber-malfeasance, so if you see bad actors trying to leverage me or my networks, rest assured that I regard it as practically a Holy War to shut them down.
Thanks!
Jeff
