New research from Mandiant reveals a Chinese disinformation campaign. Mandiant has christened this "HaiEnergy". The campaign distributes content on fake news sites.
In addition to the websites in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, the campaign also uses many social media strategically aligned with the political interests of the People's Republic of China. The HaiEnergy campaign uses 72 websites posing as independent news channels and publishing content in 11 languages. Mandiant analysts believe these websites are linked to Chinese PR firm Shanghai Haixun Technology Co.
HaiEnergy: Fake accounts and disinformation
"At least three fake letters" were also distributed via several suspected fake accounts on social media. In these, the perpetrators claim that the well-known German anthropologist Adrian Zenz "received financial support from US Senator Marco Rubio and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon".
Unlike the DRAGONBRIDGE disinformation campaign, this new campaign uses different tactics and methods. What is distinctive is that it uses the infrastructure of a third party (the PR firm) to host and disseminate the disinformation. This confirms the recent trend that “IO (Information Operations) for hire” disinformation campaigns are increasingly being outsourced to third parties. This makes disinformation campaigns more accessible and makes it easier to disguise the identity of the actor.
More information about the campaign, examples and screens can be found in Mandiant's blog post.
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