Léa Ronzaud from Graphika: Internet Mapping & State Operations Recognition

Léa is an investigator at Graphika, specializing in online investigations, state influence operations, and European extremist groups. She was a known part of the team that exposed Secondary Infection as well as the recent competing Russian and French influence operations in the Central African Republic. Léa holds a dual Master's degree in Geopolitics of the post-Soviet space from the French Institute of Geopolitics and the Russian State University for the Humanities. In this episode, Léa elaborates on the projects she has done with Graphika, including how she conducts internet mapping and recognizes state operations. She also shares with us the ethics in OSINT investigations with her own redline as an example and digs into the ongoing war in Ukraine and the upcoming French presidential election. 0:00 Welcome! 0:28 Tell us a bit about yourself! 3:58 Does decivilizing or attacking a country have multiple layers? 4:41 Tell us about the internet mapping at Graphika! 15:49 How do you analyse the slide between bots and real people? 17:14 How do you recognize state operation? 28:18 The ethics in OSINT 38:03 How has your job influenced your vision of and relationship with Russia? 40:28 What's your take on the war in Ukraine, disinformation-wise? 45:41 Why did the people focusing on COVID earlier shift quickly to pivot the war? 50:11 Anything to share about the approaching French presidential election? 56:39 Any fears that foreign agents or vicious people will dominate online communities? 1:01:00 Any shoutout you wanted to give? ■ About The Pivot Brought to you by Maltego, The Pivot deep dives into topics pivoting from information security to the criminal underground. Each episode features interviews with experts from the industry and research fields and explores how they connect the dots. ■ About Maltego Used by investigators worldwide, Maltego is a graphical link analysis tool that allows users to mine, merge, and map data from OSINT and third-party data integrations for all sorts of investigations—cybersecurity, person of interest, fraud, and more. The podcast streams free on Spotify. You can also watch it all go down on YouTube. Don't forget to subscribe to our Twitter and LinkedIn to stay on top of our latest updates, tutorials, webinars, and deep dives. For more information about Maltego, visit our website.