Introduction to Cyber-Warfare - Proiect SEMPER FIDELIS

SILENCING NOVAYA GAZETA AND OTHER RUSSIAN DISSIDENTS49FIGURE 5.3 Yulia Latynina receivingthe Defenders of Freedom award in2008. An article by Latynina on the corruptionin the Russian government isthought to have led to a massive DDoSon the independent news media outletNovaya Gazeta in 2010. Picture fromU.S. State Department video.Moving to LiveJournalWith the February 2010 attack, and a subsequent DDoS attack in November of the sameyear, 28 the newspaper increasingly relied on LiveJournal for their online presence. Accordingto the report of Harvard’s Berkman Center, moving content to a site such as LiveJournal is agood step to mitigate DDoS. Even though an organization might view posting their informationon LiveJournal as less prestigious than using their own Web site, the loss in prestige iscountered with increased security. Large Web sites such as LiveJournal are typically morerobust and therefore fend off DDoS attacks more easily. This is due to having greater capacity,as well as more dedicated information security personnel.However, about a year later, in April 2011, several Russian LiveJournal sites were hit withDDoS attacks. 29 According to security expert Alexander Gostev of Kaspersky Lab, the Website of Novaya Gazeta was also targeted during this operation. 30 LiveJournal is extensivelyused in Russia, with an estimated 4.7 million users during the time of the assault.A report by Kaspersky Lab indicated that the LiveJournal blog of political activists likeAlexey Navalny d may have been an intended target of the attack. 31,32 Navalny’s Twitter accounthas almost 40,000 subscribers and his blog and Web site, Rospil.info, are a popular outletfor the opposition in Russia. 33 In 2008, the financial lawyer and political activist started ablog on which he posted allegations of corruption within state-controlled corporations. Sincethen, the prolific blogger became Putin’s worst enemy. 34 In 2012—though lacking the supportof the majority of Russians 35 —he was featured as one of Time’s most influential people and isdescribed as part of Russia’s “data dissidents.” 36Ahead of the December 2011 parliamentary elections, Navalny urged the readers of his blogto give their vote to parties other than pro-Kremlin party United Russia. Putin’s party still won,but with a much lesser majority than expected and under allegations of vote-rigging that leadto mass protests (“March of Millions”) in Moscow and other major Russian cities. 37 Similard The address of his English-language blog hosted by LiveJournal: navalny-en.livejournal.com/.