2016 ELECTION/CYBERWAR/RUSSIA: “All the Facebook account Black4Black asked for was some personal information about Ajah Hales and other Cleveland-area small-business owners. In exchange, she was told her cosmetics company, and her fellow African-American entrepreneurs, would receive free promotion on social media and in a new and influential directory of black-owned businesses…
The fake directory is one example of the elaborate schemes that Russian ‘trolls’ have pursued to try to collect personal and business information from Americans, the Journal has found. Leveraging social media, Russians have collected data by peddling niche business directories, convincing activists to sign petitions and bankrolling self-defense training classes in return for student information.
It isn’t clear for what purpose the data were collected, but intelligence and cybersecurity experts say it could be used for identity theft or leveraged as part of a wider political-influence effort that didn’t end with the 2016 election. That operation is a focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s wide-ranging probe, which has returned more than a dozen indictments of Russians as well as several American associates of now-President Donald Trump.”
-Shelby Holliday and Rob Barry, “Russian Influence Campaign Extracted Americans’ Personal Data,” The Wall Street Journal online, Mar. 7, 2018 06:04am