<
https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2025/10/inside-americas-next-information-war/408796/>
"Earlier this year, as North Korea began sending more soldiers to Russia to
assist in its war against Ukraine, Maggie Feldman-Piltch turned to a group of
adult content creators for their help.
The creators had noticed an uptick in subscribers from the DPRK who suddenly
had access to a less restrictive internet environment than they were used to
back home, including adult content recommended by their Russian counterparts.
Feldman-Piltch requested that the creators do things such as open a
refrigerator on camera or casually mention needing to go to a doctor’s
appointment while filming.
A short time later, a North Korean soldier was interviewed by Ukrainian media,
where he talked about wanting to experience ordinary activities like going to a
grocery store and pushing a shopping cart. Several of the creators recognized
the soldier’s voice as one of their clients. It was mission success.
The DPRK is deemed one of the most restrictive and oppressive nations on the
planet.
“This is a group of people who probably haven’t seen a full-size refrigerator,
let alone one filled with food,” Feldman-Piltch said. Black Iceberg Holdings,
her company that helped steer this narrative effort, has been operating in
stealth for more than a year.
Nextgov/FCW is the first to report its
existence.
Such an effort is known as an influence operation — a coordinated attempt to
sway public opinion and decision-making. It’s a tactic that has existed for
quite a while.
During World War II, William Joyce, known widely as Lord Haw-Haw, was a Nazi
propagandist, delivering English-language broadcasts to the United Kingdom and
other allied nations to sow fear and dismay. In the United States, the Treasury
Department’s Writers' War Board sought to counter those efforts with their own
pro-American content.
Years later, consumer electronics and social media have made influence
campaigns more covert and scalable. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that
Russia exploited those tools in an attempt to sway the 2016 election in Donald
Trump’s favor. Trump and his allies have rejected that finding, branding it the
“Russia hoax.” His administration, and now Director of National Intelligence
Tulsi Gabbard, have advanced the claim that spy agencies and law enforcement
were weaponized against him to discredit his campaign and undermine his
presidency.
Upon Trump’s return to the White House, the government has scaled back many of
the nation’s offices used to track and counter influence operations targeting
Americans at home, on grounds that they were ultimately used as political tools
to censor Americans’ free speech.
Those offices include the Foreign Malign Influence Center in the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence, as well as the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task
Force. They were built to identify and disrupt covert campaigns by foreign
governments that spread disinformation, amplify divisions and undermine
confidence in U.S. elections and institutions.
Scaling back those offices comes amid a time when advanced AI tools have fueled
enormous capabilities to produce and disseminate content faster than ever
before. Black Iceberg is just one part of a growing digital ecosystem of
private-sector firms working to tip the balance of views about the United
States and democracy around the world. But foreign adversaries are doing the
same."
Via Violet Blue’s
Threat Model - Cybersecurity: October 21, 2025
https://www.patreon.com/posts/cybersecurity-21-141698530
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
