The British electronic intelligence service GCHQ has launched an offensive cyber operation aimed at combating propaganda against the future coronavirus vaccine, which is being spread by enemy states. The Times reported. According to him, Russia is responsible for a large part of this type of misinformation.
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According to the newspaper, the intelligence service uses software that it originally developed against the propaganda and recruitment of new recruits of the terrorist organization Islamic State. She has now deployed him against the activities of Moscow, which is trying to use the covid-19 pandemic to weaken the West and promote Russian interests.
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The British government is aware of the growing need to face false information about coronavirus vaccination at a time when the possibility of obtaining an effective vaccine is becoming more and more real. “GCHQ has been tasked with eliminating anti-vaccines on the Internet and social media,” an unnamed government source told the daily.
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The tactic is that the intelligence will focus on combating “hostile content” associated with a foreign state and disrupt the operations of cyber actors responsible for its dissemination. For example, it can encrypt their data so that they lose access to the content and block their communication with each other.
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Russia is behind much of the coronavirus misinformation, according to another source close to the British cabinet. According to him, GCHQ was allowed to intervene only against such misinformation, which came from state actors, not from British citizens. “You wouldn’t get permission to take action against the lunatics. People have the right to slap shit on the Internet, “the source added.
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Last month, The Times reported on a Russian disinformation campaign aimed at inciting fear of a coronavirus vaccine being developed by Oxford University. Pictures, internet memes and videos attributed to this vaccine the ability to transform humans into monkeys, as it uses a vector in the form of a chimpanzee adenovirus.
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Britain, along with the United States and Canada, also accuses Moscow of trying to steal information about the development of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine through electronic espionage. The research is therefore guarded by the MI5 secret service.
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