FireEye has identified a suspected influence performance that appears to originate from Islamic Republic of Iran aimed at audiences inwards the U.S., U.K., Latin America, in addition to the Middle East. This performance is leveraging a network of inauthentic intelligence sites in addition to clusters of associated accounts across multiple social media platforms to promote political narratives inwards business with Iranian interests. These narratives include anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli, in addition to pro-Palestinian themes, equally good equally back upward for specific U.S. policies favorable to Iran, such equally the U.S.-Iran nuclear bargain (JCPOA). The activeness nosotros possess got uncovered is significant, in addition to demonstrates that actors beyond Russian Federation maintain to engage inwards in addition to experiment with online, social media-driven influence operations to shape political discourse.
What Is This Activity?
Figure 1 maps the registration in addition to content promotion connections betwixt the diverse inauthentic intelligence sites in addition to social media concern human relationship clusters nosotros possess got identified thence far. This activeness dates dorsum to at to the lowest degree 2017. At the fourth dimension of publication of this weblog post, nosotros maintain to investigate in addition to position additional social media accounts in addition to websites linked to this activity. For example, nosotros possess got identified multiple Arabic-language, Middle East-focused sites that look to endure business office of this broader performance that nosotros produce non address here.
Figure 1: Connections alongside components of suspected Iranian influence operation
We occupation the term “inauthentic” to depict sites that are non transparent inwards their origins in addition to affiliations, undertake concerted efforts to mask these origins, in addition to ofttimes occupation imitation social media personas to promote their content. The content published on the diverse websites consists of a mix of both master content in addition to intelligence articles appropriated, in addition to sometimes altered, from other sources.
Who Is Conducting this Activity in addition to Why?
Based on an investigation yesteryear FireEye Intelligence’s Information Operations analysis team, nosotros assess with moderate confidence that this activeness originates from Iranian actors. This assessment is based on a combination of indicators, including site registration information in addition to the linking of social media accounts to Iranian telephone numbers, equally good equally the promotion of content consistent with Iranian political interests. For example:
Registrant emails for the sites ‘Liberty Front Press’ in addition to ‘Instituto Manquehue’ are associated with advertisements for website designers inwards Tehran in addition to with the Iran-based site gahvare[.]com, respectively.
We possess got identified multiple Twitter accounts straight affiliated with the sites, equally good equally other associated Twitter accounts, that are linked to telephone numbers with the +98 Iranian province code.
We possess got observed inauthentic social media personas, masquerading equally American liberals supportive of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, heavily promoting Quds Day, a vacation established yesteryear Islamic Republic of Iran inwards 1979 to limited back upward for Palestinians in addition to opposition to Israel.
We bound our assessment regarding Iranian origins to moderate confidence because influence operations, yesteryear their rattling nature, are intended to deceive yesteryear mimicking legitimate online activeness equally closely equally possible. While highly unlikely given the bear witness nosotros possess got identified, merely about possibility yet remains that the activeness could originate from elsewhere, was designed for option purposes, or includes merely about small-scale pct of authentic online behavior. We produce non currently possess additional visibility into the specific actors, organizations, or entities behind this activity. Although the Iran-linked APT35 (Newscaster) has previously used inauthentic intelligence sites in addition to social media accounts to facilitate espionage, nosotros possess got non observed whatever links to APT35.
Broadly speaking, the intent behind this activeness appears to endure to promote Iranian political interests, including anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli, in addition to pro-Palestinian themes, equally good equally to promote back upward for specific U.S. policies favorable to Iran, such equally the U.S.-Iran nuclear bargain (JCPOA). In the context of the U.S.-focused activity, this besides includes meaning anti-Trump messaging in addition to the alignment of social media personas with an American liberal identity. However, it is of import to banker's complaint that the activeness does non look to possess got been specifically designed to influence the 2018 U.S. midterm elections, equally it extends good beyond U.S. audiences in addition to U.S. politics.
Conclusion
The activeness nosotros possess got uncovered highlights that multiple actors maintain to engage inwards in addition to experiment with online, social media-driven influence operations equally a agency of shaping political discourse. These operations extend good beyond those conducted yesteryear Russia, which has ofttimes been the focus of interrogation into information operations over recent years. Our investigation besides illustrates how the threat posed yesteryear such influence operations continues to evolve, in addition to how similar influence tactics tin endure deployed irrespective of the especial political or ideological goals beingness pursued.
Additional Details
FireEye volition endure releasing additional details on this performance that volition lay out the clusters of influence activeness identified so far, the links betwixt these, in addition to how our observations back upward our attribution assessment. Submit your yell in addition to e-mail address inwards the box at the hand correct of the page to have the study when it is available.
This entry was posted on Tue Aug 21 19:30 EDT 2018 in addition to filed nether FireEye Intelligence in addition to Iran.
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