The Ugly Face of Hybrid Warfare in the Cyber World: Fancy Bear (APT28)

The wife of an American colonel, who had served for years in Afghanistan and Iraq, was shocked by a threatening message sent to her phone by CyberCaliphate.

“We are closer to you than you think. We know you, your children, and your husband.”

Immediately calling her husband and friends, the woman learned that the message had been sent simultaneously to the wives of four other officers. Like the other officer’s wives, the colonel’s wife who received the threat was a woman prominent in social media and social responsibility projects.

The person or group sending the threatening messages to officers’ wives, who managed websites, wrote books, were active on social media, and organized support groups for military families, was sure that this incident would soon make headlines.

Simultaneously, many Twitter accounts seized by the same group shared messages with the American media about ISIS’s power in the country and the hostility of American soldiers towards Islam.

The perpetrator of this incident, APT28 (Fancy Bear), emerged shortly thereafter in France. French television TV5 Monde was hacked and it took hours to recover. After the hack, the logo and religious messages on the channel’s website were similar to those faced by the American officers’ wives. According to French and American experts, APT28 was trying to escalate tension and keep radicalism in the headlines.