Resources > Disinformation – Part of a Bundle. How Can Malign Actors Target Any One of Us?
Disinformation – Part of a Bundle. How Can Malign Actors Target Any One of Us?
Kamil Mikulski & Christopher A. Corpora
This case involves two civil servants, who live rather regular lives as a married couple. Jane works for the Ministry of Health, while John works for the Ministry of Energy; his job leads him to contribute to the preparation of the negotiation of a new Free Trade Agreement with a neighboring State. Jane has suffered from drug addiction and has discussed it with strangers online. She becomes the target of a malign actor, who befriends her, before starting to feed her with information relevant for her husband’s work. The flow of information quickly becomes bilateral, with Jane providing her “friend” Mark with information relating to that work. It later becomes apparent that Jane and John have been microtargeted by malign actors from a third nation, interested in stalling current FTA negotiations and willing to use different cybercriminal methods (hacking, spread of misinformation, fake social media accounts) for influence purposes.
Disinformation – Part of a Bundle (PDF)
Additional teaching notes and materials available on Mitchell Hamline Open Access.