The article “Social Cybersecurity: An emerging National Security Requirement” Lt. Col. Beskow describes how cybersecurity is no longer a technology centric field and that the social/human aspect must be included. This subdomain of national security is called social cybersecurity, sometimes referred to as cognitive hacking, and is the influence of humans and society via manipulation of information or networks of a society which includes micro and macro environments. In short, people are using technology to hack humans. This is a form of Information Warfare (IW), a tactic traditionally used by nations and powerful organizations to affect the minds and perceptions of a population. While IW is not a new tactic, it has exponentially increased in strength and scale due to decentralized information flows, advancements in technology, and high speed/availability of the internet.
This is particularly concerning as information traditionally came from major news networks where journalism and reporting focused on fact finding and truth which generally takes time. However, because of the news cycle, money, and people’s attention span there has been a paradigm shift towards speed and pandering as the return on investment and engagement is greater. In recent years, truth has taken a back seat to low accuracy and expedited coverage with live or eventual revisions as the story unfolds. An issue I have seen is that the revisions are buried or neglected in favor for the latest news and appeasement of their audience. Additionally, thanks to the decentralization of information social media has become a major player in information flows due to its proliferation.
Overall, this article highlights the need for organizations for broaden their views on cybersecurity as it is no longer about humans using technology but rather humans using technology on humans. The social aspect of cybersecurity must be addressed in order to minimize the influence of Information Warfare.