Microsoft exec says censorship is not the answer to combating new era of foreign threats

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Microsoft exec Brad Smith says censorship is not the answer to combating new era of foreign threats

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith provides insight into foreign nations' 'cyber influence operations' in the United States on 'Special Report.'

Microsoft's vice chair said it is important for tech companies like his to be vigilant in the new era of cyberattacks, influence operations and other related threats from foreign adversaries.

However, Brad Smith underlined to "Special Report" anchor Bret Baier that censorship is not the proper avenue to keeping the public safe, but instead providing important context and information so that "old-fashioned, American common sense" can be one's guide.

Microsoft has been predicting and sensing ominous signs from Russia, from the aspect of cyberspace, Baier reported, as the invasion of Ukraine continues and foreign actors separately continue to try to undermine Western interests.

"We've really seen two things over the last 60 days in particular," Smith said. "We've seen the Russian Army escalate its use of cyber-weapons both against targets in Ukraine, more civilian targets, those related to electricity and the like, but also outside Ukraine. We've identified Russian attacks on six targets in Poland — in some cases, transportation and logistics firms."

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A man types on a computer keyboard. (REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File)

Smith added one particular operation seems to be that of sowing a narrative to "divide" key Western nations like the United States and Germany.

"I think part of the Russian strategy is to fight a long war, hurt the civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and try to erode public support both in Ukraine and across NATO," he said.

Smith later added: "The Russians have a well documented, long-demonstrated ability to work with, say, Russian ex-pats, sympathizers — they can seek to organize, and then they use internet and cyber-influence operations to really try to fan the flames of popular dissent."

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Microsoft sign; Redmond, Washington (Fox News)

When it comes to cyber-influence, the top international players are China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, Smith later added.

He said Americans and Westerners should view today's cyberthreats and influence operations the way people viewed email "spam" and "send money" scams in the past. After a while, he recounted, people became wise to those threats and "too good to be true" overtures, and were able to rebuff them.

In today's world, Smith concluded, people need to consider whether the information they are seeing online seems legitimate or not.

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The Grand Kremlin palace, left, and the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Moscow, Russia. (Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

"I think it's a good thing for people to just ask, ‘Does this seem credible? Does it seem right?’ I think at the end of the day, there is no substitute for just good old-fashioned, American common sense," he said.

He called it "a new generation and new types of threats."

"I will say, from our perspective at Microsoft, as a company, we don't believe that censorship is the answer," Smith said. "We do believe that providing more information is the answer so that people can be the judge."