Hackers Reveal UK Gov't Project Against Alleged Russian Disinformation With $13Mln Budget

Hackers Reveal UK Gov't Project Against Alleged Russian Disinformation With $13Mln Budget

Hacker group Anonymous on Monday posted documents, allegedly from the UK Foreign Office, on a new initiative focused on purported Russian disinformation and requiring a budget of 9.8 million pounds, or about $13 million

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th March, 2019) Hacker group Anonymous on Monday posted documents, allegedly from the UK Foreign Office, on a new initiative focused on purported Russian disinformation and requiring a budget of 9.8 million pounds, or about $13 million.

"The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is looking for a consortium of contractors to build a network of actors who expose disinformation across Europe, provide core funding to NGOs with the most potential for impact and build the legal/ethical, tradecraft, communications and security capacity of these organizations," one of the leaked files said.

The project's proposed budget was 9.8 million Pounds for 2018-2021. The suggested timeline was between the summer of 2018 and March 2021, according to the leaked document.

According to the Anonymous, the program is called EXPOSE Network. A leaked report on the initiative scoping focuses on alleged Russian disinformation that needs to be countered across Europe.

According to the hackers, the head of the Foreign Office's Counter Disinformation and Media Development Programme met in August 2018 with two consortiums that wanted to receive a grant from EXPOSE Network.

"The first consortium includes: Sibylline, Albany Associates, Stratagem Consulting, The Stabilisation Network, Torchlight Group, M&C Saatchi, Institute for War and Peace Reporting. The second consortium consists of: ZINC Network, The Institute for Statecraft, Bellingcat, Aktis Strategy Ltd., Toro Group, Media Diversity Institute, DFR Lab, ECORYS," Anonymous said.

The hackers published what they said was ZINC's technical proposal.

Another document, a proposal to develop "active measures" against "Russian threat" sets out a budget of 20,000 pounds for a period between November 2018 and March 2019. This sum is intended for "two specialists at a rate of 250 pounds a day and all their travel and administration costs."

This project includes work "with trusted partners to gather evidence," the work to "design the countermeasures framework and apply it to defence and deterrence," and the final stage would be "to present the output to agreed audiences."

In November 2018, Anonymous first published the documents on Integrity Initiative project. Hacktivists suggested that the United Kingdom may have used the project to interfere in internal affairs of European countries and to wage an information campaign against Russia.

The UK authorities confirmed authenticity of some of the previously revealed documents.