Hybrid influencing is intended to influence society as well as organizational and citizen level.
Leading special expert of the Digital and Population Information Agency Kimmo Rousku talked about hybrid influence in a video related to Digiturvavikko, which starts next week, which is also constantly applied to Finland. Rousku referred to the descriptions of the Ministry of the Interior and Maanpuolustus tuki ry about hybrid influence.
– It’s about malicious external influence, with which a state actor tries to systematically influence the target country by combining different means, Rousku quoted.
Hybrid influencing includes fueling internal conflicts and influencing information. Key persons and citizens can be tried to be influenced psychologically, and cyber attacks can be carried out on the country. In addition, a malicious party can spread disinformation classified as propaganda, i.e. misleading information.
– We have received a lot of this, Rousku commented.
Rousku points out that hybrid influence does not only happen online.
– Here, it is worth considering military harassment and repeated and intentional border violations. This also involves armed and unarmed warfare, Rousku says and continues:
– On the other hand, it is extremely important to note the difficult predictability. After all, that’s what this whole year has been like since the end of February.
Various influencing companies
In hybrid influencing, Rousku highlights election and opinion influencing as one method, which was aimed at Ukraine before the Russian attack that started on February 24. As an example, Rousku mentions the 2014 presidential election in Ukraine, which the pro-Russian hacktivist group CyberBerkut tried to influence.
Rousku also mentions the 2015-2016 cyber attack on Ukraine’s electricity distribution network, which caused some problems, but which was eventually repelled.
– At the beginning of this year, in January, Microsoft identified, in cooperation with the Ukrainian authorities, that there was an attempt to implement a new kind of campaign in Ukraine, which aimed to destroy Ukrainian information systems. Not to collect ransom money, they didn’t just want to do a denial-of-service attack, but to destroy the services and the information there. This happened well before the attack that started in February, Rousku tells about the events at the beginning of the year.
Regarding Finland, Rousku notes that there are constant efforts to influence.
– We have been targeted and will be targeted by hybrid influences now and in the future – that’s clear. It’s about cyber and information influence, Rousku says and cites airspace violations and denial-of-service attacks at the time of Zelensky’s speech to the parliament as examples.
– These are examples where there are means of influence that meet the hallmarks related to cyber, hybrid and other areas.
Rousku highlights the denial of service attacks against the Finnish authorities in August, which were able to be repelled. Similar attacks have also been observed elsewhere in Europe.
– They are a traditional way of expressing our opinion and letting you know that we can influence you in some way, says Rousku.
Most recently, Rosku brought up the explosions of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
– No one knows for sure yet what has happened, by whom and what the motive is. After all, this fully meets the characteristics related to hybrid influence.
The consequences are clear:
– Everyone can see that in their electricity bill, among other things, Rousku states.