In late 2017, the multi-faceted terrorist, guerrilla warfare, cyber-warfare, and information operation threats against Western nations and their allies by their smaller asymmetric warfare adversaries continue to evolve and proliferate. Change is so rapid, in fact, that new and unanticipated asymmetric actors and types of threats keep popping up, such as information operations. One recent example are the cyber-attacks, breaches, and information operations by alleged Russian government-directed sub-state cyber hacktivists against the Democratic candidate and the Democratic Party in the 2016 American presidential election that may have played some influence in its outcome. In a parallel sub-state attack, Russian sub-state actors reportedly placed fake avatars in American social media sites in order to sway public opinion in the presidential election, as well. Although the Democratic presidential candidate's own flaws likely played a major role in her electoral defeat, the fact remains that her candidacy was damaged to some extent by Russian hacktivist interference in which sensitive documents were allegedly leaked to WikiLeaks, which was asymmetric in how it was conducted because the perpetrators could not be directly traced to any sub-state actor.
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