Since the last elections in the United States, France, and other nations, fake news has become a tool to manipulate voters. This creation of fake news creates a problem that ripples through an entire society creating division. However, the media has not scrutinized enough on data misuse. Daily it appears that there are breaches causing millions of users to have their personal information taken, exposed, and sold on the Dark Web in exchange of encrypted currencies. Recently, news has surfaced of major social media sites allowing emails to be read without user consent.
Beyond Boundaries: Leveraging No-Code Solutions for Industry Innovation
Unprotected Data: Your Risk of Internet-Enabled Psychological and Information Warfare
1. Unprotected Data:
Your Risk of Internet-
Enabled Psychological
and Information
Warfare
Maurice E Dawson, Ph.D., D.CS., SMIEEE
Director, Center for Cyber Security and Forensics
Education & Assistant Professor
Illinois Tech is a Center of Academic Excellence in
Cyber Defense
2. Think Tank - 3:55 pm - 4:20 pm
Since the last elections in the United States, France, and other nations, fake news has become
a tool to manipulate voters. This creation of fake news creates a problem that ripples through
an entire society creating division. However, the media has not scrutinized enough on data
misuse. Daily it appears that there are breaches causing millions of users to have their personal
information taken, exposed, and sold on the Dark Web in exchange of encrypted currencies.
Recently, news has surfaced of major social media sites allowing emails to be read without
user consent.
Takeaways:
• It is essential that organizations continuously review current data policies
• Ensure that enterprises do not become victims of information warfare.
• How can the misuse of data be used for information warfare and the exploitation of
targeted groups?
3.
4. Pyschological Operations
In the battlefield, there is a type of warfare known as psychological
operations. This aspect of warfare is used to create a favorable
image, gaining adherents, and undermining opponents had
already become a significant weapon of 20th-century warfare.
However, “they are neither a substitute for power nor a panacea”
(Headquarters Department of the Army, 1979, pp. 1-5) but
employed correctly they can be instrumental, making the difference
between success or failure in military operations. And not
exclusively military operations, but also in numerous other fields,
such as technology or marketing.
5. Active Measures
Cyberattacks targeted more than 500 people or institutions, including the
Democratic National Committee, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, top
military commanders and the chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential
campaign, John Podesta. Much of that information was later released publicly to
embarrass the victims via WikiLeaks or another website, DCLeaks, which was
set up by Russian intelligence services. The U.S. has charged 12 Russian
military intelligence officers in those cyberattacks.
Cyberattacks probed state election systems and their vendors. A number of
states were targeted for covert exploration. Officials say that no votes were
changed, but those details remain unclear; information was stolen about
roughly 500,000 voters.
6. InformationWarfare
Information warfare is, in general terms, a way of
protecting one’s information infrastructure while
attacking someone else’s by using computers. In
the past century, it
was commonly considered how future wars would
take place and, more importantly, the mean by they
would be won (Aldrich, 1996). Consequently,
information warfare has become a significant issue
in recent decades
for both governments and private companies, who
have often joined forces to strengthen their
economies over their adversaries.
9. Targeting
Individuals
The primary purpose is to
retrieve as much information
as possible. Attacks directed
to this level include but are
not limited to blackmailing,
harassment, extortion, or
personal data theft.
12. Targeting
Corporations
1. Trespassing onto a competitor's property or
accessing their files without permission
2. Posing as a competitor's employee in order
to learn company trade secrets or other
confidential information
3. Wiretapping a competitor
4. Hacking into a competitor's computers
5. Attacking a competitor's website with
malware
When the conducted
information warfare attacks are
elevated to companies or
organizations, they are often
referred to as industrial
espionage.
13. Researchers have discovered that Internet sites such as YouTube Kids
and YouTube have detected unsafe content through nefarious promoters
that target kids through psychological means (Kaushal, Saha, Bajaj &
Kumaraguru, 2016). This means that the threat landscape is altering to
include all active users regardless of age or other constraints previously
considered off limits.
Targeting Kids