User:Dqdolphin/sandbox

Evaluation of Wikipedia article "Disinformation"

Plan: After looking over the Disinformation wiki page and seeing how barren the Talk page is we have decided to modernize the wiki. The information for the Disinformation wiki is essentially exclusively about russian disinformation and the methods that the KGB have used. We feel that this is not indicative of the current state of disinformation as it has significantly evolved since then. Our project will focus on disinformation within a more modern context, specifically with the focus on disinformation by online means.

I will mainly be focusing on modern applications and specific events which showcase the power of disinformation. These will include the attack on the Ukrainian power grid and how this was accomplished as well as more general attacks on the internet. I plan to explain said attack in its own section such that one can understand just how significant and powerful disinformation can be and give the readers a more tangible example.

Disinformation attack on Ukrainian power grid.
Disinformation was utilized as a central weapon during the 2015 Ukrainian Power grid cyber attack. This attack consisted of compromised super user accounts sending out notifications to many different users informing them that they would have a discount on their electricity used during a certain time frame of the day. This time was actually the peak electricity usage time, and power grids are not built to support more than 10-20% extra energy consumption at peak hours. Due to the strain put on the power grid the grid failed and over 230000 residents were left without power for upwards of 6 hours. This highlights that disinformation attacks not only manipulate information, but can be extended to have significant physical world consequences.