The internet allows to deliver information but also manipulate it in a new way. Internet is allowing that people can communicate straight with politicians. And let them know bout the difficulties and needs of society. But the same thing allows hostile actors to take contact straight with political leaders and offer them something.
Or the hostile actor can introduce the research. That kind of faked research can tell that most people want something that is against the national interest. That thing can make simply introducing the faked polls. There is the possibility that there is no poll at all. And those kinds of things are affecting the politicians.
The media companies can be good platforms for cyber attacks.
The thing that makes international web and social media and media operators a threat to democracy and national security is that they can act as a platform for the operations of the GRU and other intelligence services. Social media channels can use for collecting information.
The GRU agent might just ask people where they or their family members are working. But the regular media can turn the weapon against democracy if they are in the wrong hands. Well-known and trusted media channels can turn into a propaganda factory in seconds.
The actors like GRU or FSB can just buy media houses by using some covert company. And then they can replace the entire crew with their staff. Then the company starts to send the Russian propaganda. The fact is that the media company can deliver one-sided information on purpose or accidentally. There is a possibility that the sources that reporters use are telling lies.
But also reporters can be the agents who are telling the version of "truth" that serves their government. And that thing makes them very good actors in the indoctrination operations that are also called psychological operations or PSY-OPS.
The new threats to democracy are the governmentally controlled trolls.
We live in the western world. And our world governments are protecting people. If somebody threatens us we might call the police. In the cases of hacking and trolling the police tries to track that actor. And if the actor is in a foreign land. Authorities send international arrest warrants. But then Chinese hackers attacked western facilities. They were tracked and then the Chinese authorities couldn't operate.
The reason for that was that those hackers operated under the control of the Chinese government and worked for PLA (People's Liberation Army). Also, the cyberattacks that targeted Baltic states did not cause juridical actions in Russia. The reason for that was that the attacks happened under the control of the GRU, Russian military intelligence.
Those cases have proven that western authorities couldn't predict and react to the situations that hackers operated under governmental control. The same way the Russian troll factory is operating under governmental control. The operator sits in Russia or China and the assistant is bringing the computer to the western world. The hacker or troller uses that remote computer for operations and that makes it difficult to prove. That attacks are coming from outside of borders. That makes it also difficult to deny that kind of attack. Because just closing the connections from those countries is not enough.
The kill-ware or killing malware is a big threat. Maybe it's just hype, but the threat is still real. In scenarios, the malware is used to cause the disorder. Or give extra time for friendly military operators.
In the worst-case scenario, the malware shuts down the controlling computers of the nuclear power plants. That causes a need to shut down energy production. In some other scenarios, the malware destroys important databases in critical moments.
The malware destroys the medical databases or databases that are controlling the flight of the missiles. If the users of those missiles recognize that the databases are destroyed. Replacing them requires a couple of minutes and in modern warfare, a couple of minutes is a long time.
Media can also use to deliver malware. The normal media can involve links that will cheat the user to download some software. And that kind of software can be malware. In the worst case, the malware kills people.
The killing malware is the computer software that can kill people. That malware might be the computer virus that changes the blood types in the hospital. And that thing is the most dangerous situation if somebody needs blood transfer.
Another version is the computer virus that raises the level of the runways. Or maybe it can shut down the engines of the aircraft and refuse to shut down autopilot. But that kind of malware can also change the programming code of the gas pedal of the automobile. And that means that the system starts to accelerate the car in the wrong place.
There are many places where the killing malware can affect. In the nuclear or uranium enrichment process, the malware can raise the speed of the centrifuges. And that thing can cause a nuclear explosion in those facilities. The threat of that type of malware. Forces to shut down nuclear power plants. And in those cases, even the threat is enough for losing energy.
