Editor’s Note:
We generally do not include media reports in this Week in Review section, but the implications of the front-page Financial Times story below for NGOs and humanitarian actors involved in Syria and the larger region suggested inclusion.

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Russia steps up Syria cyber assault
Financial Times, February 19, 2016 8:40 pm
Sam Jones, Defence and Security Editor

Russia is mounting a far-reaching cyber espionage campaign against Syrian opposition groups and NGOs, as Moscow seeks to influence the flow of information on the country’s humanitarian crisis and obscure the full extent of its military operations there.

Targets include some of the most important human rights organisations and aid groups operating in the country, such as the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, which reports on military incidents and is frequently cited in western media outlets, the Financial Times has learnt. The operation shares many of the hallmarks of Moscow’s sustained hacking campaign against the Ukrainian government in 2013 and 2014.

Details of the Syrian campaign were discussed with two senior intelligence officials, one from Europe and one from a country neighbouring Syria. The operation was large in scale and systematic in nature, one of them said, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding that the campaign was directed by the FSB, Russia’s state security agency.

Governmental and private sector groups have also been heavily targeted in Turkey, reflecting Ankara’s role as a protagonist in the battle for Syria. “There’s a major Russian cyber response right now because of a worsening relationship [with Ankara],” the regional intelligence official said, citing Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian jet in November as a turning point.

It is unclear just how many organisations have been compromised, but the malware used by the Russian agents could be used to erase data, propagate disinformation from official accounts or gather intelligence on highly sensitive targets gleaned from NGOs’ contact book…