The Pentagon doesn't meme like you or I. Before the DoD's cyber warriors can shitpost, images must be approved, tweets drafted and redrafted, and everything has to go through the chain of command.From conception to deployment, the picture of the Soviet bear dropping malware candy took 22 days. The tweet got 364 likes and was retweeted 190 times. [...]
The bumbling bear is part of an effort by U.S. Cyber Command to make Russian hackers look uncool online. "We don't want something they can put on T-shirts, we want something that's in a PowerPoint their boss sees and he loses his shit on them," an anonymous U.S. official told CyberScoop in November, 2020. [...]
Cyber Command's response to the report contained a detailed explanation of why it's making bad memes. According to Cyber Command, they "impose costs on adversaries by disclosing their malware," and the graphics "are used and included to increase engagement and resonate with the Cybersecurity industry." Though it did admit that "the graphics may not be shaping adversary behavior."
