The use of social networks in political protests continues to be a source of consternation for authorities trying to keep their control. Unsure how to properly respond some overreact. Last January when the government of Egypt was faced with street protests matched with online support, they took the extreme measure of shutting down internet service country-wide. Now evidence is surfacing this week that authorities in Russia may have adopted spam tactics and Botnet systems to disrupt Twitter messages supporting protests in Moscow’s Triumphal Square.

 

When the initial rise of Twitter exchanges criticising the local parliamentary elections appeared, they were met with a barrage of Pro-Kremlin tweets in such numbers as to try to overwhelm the conversation.

Drawn to the unusual traffic, analysts at security software manufacturer Trend Micro studied the exchanges and have issued a report identifying the Pro-Kremlin tweets as matching the nature of computer-created spam distributed by botnet systems.

Although there is no evidence to link the spam to Russian authorities, it certainly benefited their side of the conflict and presents a disturbing development in cyber conflicts.

Spam on its own is a scourge of the Information Age, a harassment that continues to consume more than 70% of the world’s email traffic and untold million of dollars in trying to filter and control it.

In this case Trend Micro’s report suggests the spam was sent by botnet systems, a network of computers previously infected by a virus designed to take control and redirect them to perform organized tasks.

Empowered by a network of zombie computers Trend Micro says the attack was able to create thousands of fake Twitter accounts that could send ten messages per second with content targeting exchanges using the Twitter hashtag #триумфальная.

Online viruses, infected computers, malicious spam, these are the practices of criminals and should never be adopted by those aiming to keep the peace.

If there’s been a constant theme amongst authorities who do speak out about their response to online protests, it’s been a need to filter out individuals or groups looking to incite or organize violence, to recruit the assistance of social networks in that task, not to close down the protests themselves.

Online or offline, an attack is an attack no matter which side of the discussion it comes from.