Through your work in this module, you should have gained a robust and multifaceted understanding of information warfare concerns, and gained experience using ethical principles to think through information warfare issues in a cybersecurity context.

Before going on to wrap up the course, take a minute and write down:

• Something about information warfare that makes sense to you now that didn’t before, or
• Something about information warfare that you thought made sense before that you realize now does not, or
• Something that you’re still trying to figure out about information warfare.

Something that makes sense to me now that didn’t before is how much social media can play a factor in information warfare due to the potential reach of its algorithms. While I knew that social media could help shape people’s views on political topics due to personalized content, I misjudged the capabilities for its traction being emphasized on that topic specifically. Factors like algorithms that are meant to target people, the amount of data that the platforms hold, their connectivity, and the amount of content that can be produced and spread make the platform a beneficial tool for spreading misinformation if it can either be broken into or pushed to its extreme from the outside. Examples like the Russian disinformation campaign for the 2016 election show that there needs to be more regulation on social media platforms to counteract the possibility of mass propaganda dissemination. Furthermore, there are no current forms of effective transparency with these platforms and no prompts or warnings about the accuracy of misleading content, which will only allow misinformation and disinformation to proliferate.

Overall, this module taught me that social media is a crucial tool in information warfare and that the little restrictions in spreading misinformation must be tackled to prevent the possibility of mass disinformation campaigns and polarization in the future.