Cognitive Defense Against Massive Information Threats—Our Near Futures
Speaker(s): Singer, P. W. (Strategist & Senior Fellow, New America); Wright, N. (Consultant, Intelligent Biology)
Date: 28 October 2021
Speaker Session Summary
SMA hosted a speaker session with Dr. Nicholas Wright (University College London, Georgetown University) and Dr. Peter W. Singer (New America), as part of its SMA General Speaker Series.
Disinformation is becoming a more prevalent security problem for both civilians and military personnel in the United States. Foreign actors target disinformation at individual service members and at their units to undermine leaders’ credibility and overall unit capability. Attackers expose service members to radical ideas and concepts from all ideologies. Another threat to US military personnel is their own misuse of social media, which causes military leaders to constantly deal with minor infractions. Dr. Singer commented that to increase the armed forces’ online security, its personnel must be better educated on the overall dangers of social media use and how adversaries are targeting them. This education should include the concepts of: a) media literacy, b) civics and citizenship, and c) cybersecurity and threat awareness.
For US adversaries, US military personnel present a large and vulnerable target with more than one million active service members and more than four million US citizens holding secret clearance levels. Dr. Wright commented that US personnel are vulnerable both at work and at home because of their social media use. Furthermore, advances in AI and technology make tools—such as deep fakes—more effective and persuasive. China is especially adept at using medical, financial, or meta data from apps to personalize its attacks on specific individuals. For the US, success in protecting its armed forces from online threats might appear as: a) supplying individuals with the proper technology defense and training, b) detecting who is targeted and why, and c) keeping regulations on technology use compatible with its democratic political system.
Speaker Session Recording
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