ZeroFox Physical Security Intelligence Daily Brief - January 31, 2024

ZeroFox Physical Security Intelligence Daily Brief - January 31, 2024

ZeroFox physical security experts collect, curate, and analyze information derived from open and proprietary sources for comprehensive context of the circumstances surrounding global events. Here is today’s daily roundup of major developments.

Brief Highlights

• Kenya to Deploy Police Officers to Haiti Despite Court Ruling
• ZeroFox Intelligence Flash Report - Political Asylum Service To Assist Russians Fleeing to France
• Russia Faces Widespread Internet Outage

Kenya to Deploy Police Officers to Haiti Despite Court Ruling

On January 30, 2024, Kenyan President William Ruto announced plans to deploy police officers to Haiti despite the Kenyan High Court's ruling against it. President Ruto stated that the deployment of 1,000 police officers to Haiti could occur over the next few weeks to curb extensive gang violence. The court ruled against the deployment, claiming that the executive branch does not have the authority to deploy police officers to foreign countries without an agreement with the host country. Kenya originally pledged to assist Haiti after Haitian officials appealed to the United Nations in October 2022 for international aid to contain spreading unrest throughout the country.

ZeroFox Intelligence Flash Report - Political Asylum Service To Assist Russians Fleeing to France

Since its announcement on December 22, 2023, a “political asylum” service claiming to assist Russians with fleeing to France has been gaining traction on the Russian-language deep web community WWH-Club. The post claims to help Russian citizens against whom a criminal case has been opened as, according to the actor, 99.7 percent of these cases end with imprisonment. The actor claims that the only way to avoid this is to receive asylum by moving abroad. The service is most likely targeting those seeking a legal means to avoid forced conscription into the Russian army (also known as mobilization) as the Russia-Ukraine war continues. ZeroFox can neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of the service or the claims made by the actor. At the time of writing, no successful deals have been recorded. While there are positive indicators the service may be credible, it remains plausible the actor is attempting to scam or unmask citizens in Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan that are attempting to dodge mobilization drafts.

Russia Faces Widespread Internet Outage

On January 30, 2024, Russia faced a widespread internet outage affecting the .ru domain that left users both inside and outside of Russia unable to access most .ru sites. Russian officials explained the outage was linked to a technical issue with the .ru domain’s global Domain Name System Security Extensions, which is used to secure data exchanged in internet protocol networks. Some observers believe the outage could be connected to efforts to further isolate the Russian internet from the rest of the world. Russian authorities have long discussed plans to transfer all .ru sites to the national DNS server, which could have contributed to the outage.