Hundreds of new sites tapped for Russian disinformation campaign

Russia-based threat operation CopyCop, also known as Storm-1516, has leveraged at least 200 new websites masquerading as U.S., French, Canadian and Norwegian media outlets, French, Canadian, and Armenian political parties, and Ukrainian, Turkish, and Swahili fact-checking entities, to conduct disinformation campaigns since March, according to The Register.

All of the fraudulent sites, which are believed to be run by former Florida Deputy Sheriff John Mark Duggan, have been filled with fictional pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian content crafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence, a report from Recorded Future's Insikt Group showed.

Insikt Group researchers previously reported that CopyCop had used 94 websites to target Germany's February federal elections.

"We assess that CopyCop's substantial expansion of infrastructure demonstrates intent to persist and evolve in the global information environment," said Insikt Group Director of Global Issues Matt Mooney.

Such a development comes just after U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was called on by Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Alex Padilla, D-Calif., to clarify purported orders to the intelligence community to halt foreign election interference disclosures.