The New Normal – Negative Social Media Sentiment

In recent months, Wapack Labs has been closely tracking social media sentiment.  Our research has supported both law enforcement and our client base.  We have discovered that negative social media sentiment has been instrumental in both public crowd manipulation and used as pointers to promote cyber-attacks on corporations.  Our research has revealed that malicious use of social media has been escalating in both surface and underground forums.  The current manifestation of urban rioting after police shootings is a stark reminder of the use of social media to exact a predicted outcome.   In the Charlotte NC incident, it appears from open source, that social media was the impetus in creating the suggestion to protest, which resulted in subsequent rioting.  In short order, the police attempted to clarify that the suspect possessed a hand gun and thus conveyed the police shooting was legally justified.  But once the original negative sentiment was posted, it held more significance and thus promoted a second day of rioting.  This information is being supplied for your situational awareness.

 

Publication date:                           22 September 2016

Handling requirements:                Traffic light protocol (TLP) GREEN

Attribution/Threat Actors:            Protest Organizers

Actor Type:                                   Tier I  

Potential Targets:                          USA

Past Reporting:                              Red Sky Alliance: DOC-4022, 4120 and 4250

The full attribution report has been published in its entirety in the Red Sky Alliance portal.  For more information please contact the lab directly at 844-4-WAPACK, 603-606-1246, or feedback@wapacklabs.com.

About Wapack Labs

Wapack Labs, located in New Boston, NH is a Cyber Threat Analysis and Intelligence organization supporting the Red Sky Alliance, the FS-ISAC and individual organizations by offering expert level targeted intelligence analysis answering some of the hardest questions in Cyber.  Wapack Labs’ engineers, researchers and analysts use deep analysis techniques and visualization to design and deliver transformational cyber-security analysis tools that fuse open source and proprietary information.  The intelligence derived from these tools and techniques serve as the foundation of Wapack Labs’ information reporting to the cyber-security teams of its customers and industry partners located around the world.