Russian Troll Farm Hijacked American Teen Girls' Computers for Likes
Google says the extension has been removed ‘from every user’s computer,’ but a Daily Beast examination found otherwise.
KEVIN POULSEN
05.15.18 4:28 AM ET
Online propaganda was phase one. Then came hijacking computers.
The Kremlin-linked Russian troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency took an ominous detour into malware distribution in the middle of the 2016 presidential campaign, targeting teenage girls in the U.S. with a Chrome plug-in that pulled their browsers into a crude botnet, according to an analysis by The Daily Beast and outside security experts.
The app, called FaceMusic, was billed as an embedded music player that would allow users to listen to free tunes while browsing Facebook. The Internet Research Agency purchased Facebook ads promoting the app in May 2016 through one of its fraudulent profiles, “Stop All Invaders,” which normally pushed xenophobic anti-immigration memes in support of the Donald Trump campaign.
Facebook data released by Congress last week shows the FaceMusic ads garnered 24,623 impressions from 107 ads, but only 85 clicks in all. The most successful single ad run, with 28 clicks, used Facebook’s targeting system to go after female users in the United States between 14 and 17 years old. (In total, more than 13,000 machines were likely infected by the FaceMusic malware, according to a Daily Beast analysis.)
more
https://www.thedailybeast.com/russia-troll-farm-hijacked-american-teen-girls-computers-for-likes?ref=home
= new reply since forum marked as read
