Expert: Recruitment could start with a photo of a gate

A request to photograph a gate may seem harmless, but it can mark the first step into a Russian operation, cybersecurity expert Gazmend Huskaj says.

His warning follows a report that Denmark’s security service cautioned about Russia’s efforts to destabilize the country. The newspaper Berlingske reported that ordinary Danes had been contacted through social media and offered paid assignments.

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One cannot rule out the risk that Swedes could encounter this.

At first, such tasks may appear innocent. But Huskaj describes a recruitment ladder that operates both in the physical world and online. A person may agree to take a picture, receive a small payment, and then face increasingly serious requests. Eventually, the images could involve military equipment or bases and become evidence of a crime.

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It is a recruitment ladder that exists both in the real world and in the cyber world.

Russian operators can use that record against the recruited person, Huskaj says. The people carrying out the assignments may not know who ordered them. He calls them “expendables,” or disposable agents, who are used once to carry out an act. If they are caught, he says, Russia faces little real cost.

Recruitment often takes place in open Telegram channels, where anonymous Russian contacts advertise paid jobs before moving conversations into private chats. Huskaj says people who urgently need money, including criminals, people with substance-abuse problems, or others in dependent situations, may face greater risk. He advises people to question anonymous contacts, avoid suspicious links and ask why they were chosen for a task at that moment.

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They are so-called expendables, what Säpo calls disposable agents.