GRU OPSEC Sucks Because They Don’t Care

 

Recently there have been more revelations on GRU active measures campaigns being halted, agents being PNG’d, and a naming and shaming of operatives lack of OPSEC in general. Many people have been debating the reasons why the GRU has been so messy in their operations allowing so much to be dug up on them as well as allow for the compromise of ongoing operations like the attacks on the Porton Down facility. I myself am tired of all the debate but I have had a good running back and forth with Horkos @WylieNewmark on the matter and the gist of it is this;

“The Russians don’t care.”

Basically the Russians now are the honey badger of all things spooks. Tradecraft it seems is not really all that necessary when your targets (the rest of the world) are impotent to do anything about your actions other than name and shame. It’s really that simple! Of course I could go into a long diatribe on how the Russians a la Putin have pushed the envelope so much, succeeding with the Trump win in 2016. Along with Trumps successive fragmentation of the norms that attempted to hold Russia in check, we now have a world where no one can do much of anything against Putin and have a meaningful negative impact on Russia.

But hey, why bother huh?

Look, here’s the deal, When the world comes up with a concerted means to stop Putin and or inflict damage upon him by stopping all his operations as well as put sanctions on him and Russia, nothing will change… Ok ok ok, since Bellingcat and others have been able to throw sunshine on operations and operatives maybe they will change their modus operandi some. In fact I would say the Dutch operations against them recently and their being put on the world stage (name and shame) will be the one thing that will likely make the GRU change tactics. That change will be to mind their OPSEC and do a better job at operations to not get caught out in the middle of them and stop them.

That’s it.

The tempo will be the same if not accelerated because Putin needs to keep the pressure on to fracture the geopolitical world to allow him to do what he wants.

Sow chaos.

So there you have it. That’s all I have to say on it. Don’t expect them to stop, expect them to get better at it and continue to carry on.

K.

 

PS… Another reason they don’t care? Most of the targets are soft targets. DNC? DCCC? Come on…. Fish in a barrel kids.