• Truth Decay in Europe

    What is the empirical evidence for the trends, drivers and consequences of Truth Decay in Europe, and how does that compare with what was found for the United States? To what extent does this evidence apply across Europe as a whole, or are there differences within Europe in the empirical evidence of trends, drivers and consequences of Truth Decay? What are the implications of applying the conceptual framework developed for the United States framework of Truth Decay in Europe? Which areas need to be further investigated in order to tackle Truth Decay in Europe?

  • Did Twitter Ignore Basic Security Measures? A Cybersecurity Expert Explains a Whistleblower’s Claims

    By Richard Forno

    Twitter’s former security chief, Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, filed a whistleblower complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission in July 2022, accusing the microblogging platform company of serious security failings. Zatko’s most damning accusations center around Twitter’s alleged failure to have a solid cybersecurity plan to protect user data, deploy internal controls to guard against insider threats and ensure the company’s systems were current and properly updated.

  • Quantum Computing Vulnerabilities of National Critical Functions

    How are the national critical functions (NCFs) vulnerable to future quantum computing capabilities? How should the federal government prioritize assistance to critical infrastructure owners and operators?

  • Prioritizing Cybersecurity Risk in Election Infrastructure

    How can jurisdictions at each level prioritize their efforts to combat the risk of cyberattacks on their election systems? How can they assess the likelihood of a successful attack? How can they assess the scale and severity of an attack?

  • Fighting Against Disinformation with Lessons from Cybersecurity

    By Kylie Foy

    Mary Ellen Zurko pioneered user-centered security in the 1990s. Now she is using those insights to help the nation thwart influence operations.

  • What Happened When Twitter and Other Social Media Platforms Cracked Down on Extremists

    By A. C. Thompson

    In a Q&A with ProPublica reporter A.C. Thompson, former intelligence officer and data scientist Welton Chang explains how conspiracy theorists and violent racists fled to smaller platforms. Once there, their remarks festered and spread.

  • Rivalry in the Information Sphere

    How is information confrontation defined in the Russian military-scientific literature and in Russian strategic documents? What are its subtypes, and which Russian organizations contribute to information confrontation efforts? How has information confrontation as an element of Russian military strategy evolved over time, from Imperial Russia to the Putin era? How might the concept and its role in Russian military operations evolve in the future?

  • How Unmoderated Platforms Became the Frontline for Russian Propaganda

    The Russian invasion of Ukraine has highlighted the evolving complexities of platform governance challenges in an increasingly decentralized information environment. Samantha Bradshaw, Renee DiResta, and Christopher Giles write that “A comprehensive strategy to combat disinformation campaigns must consider full spectrum operations that incorporate both overt and covert dynamics across a wide range of analog, digital, and alternative media,” adding that “An overfocus on covert networks on Facebook and Twitter misses the full expanse of the propaganda strategies that often reach more users through different communication media on popular local media and social media channels.”

  • Former U.S. Cyber Command and NSA Chief Makes the Case for a Cyber Competition Strategy

    By Bec Shrimpton

    Former U.S. National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command boss Mike Rogers asks: “What is our vision of the key technologies, the most critical sectors that are really going to drive economic advantage … and [that] if placed at risk would cause us harm, [and] what are the policies we need to create advantage for ourselves?” A new cybersecurity strategy based on what is required to become and remain competitive, secure and resilient should focus on this central question.

  • Thinking Like a Cyber-Attacker to Protect User Data

    By Adam Zewe

    Researchers found that an understudied component of computer processors is susceptible to attacks from malicious agents. Then, they developed mitigation mechanisms.

  • Rise of Precision Agriculture Exposes Food System to New Threats

    By George Grispos and Austin C. Doctor

    Farmers are adopting precision agriculture, using data collected by GPS, satellite imagery, internet-connected sensors and other technologies to farm more efficiently. These practices could help increase crop yields and reduce costs, but the technology behind the practices is creating opportunities for extremists, terrorists and adversarial governments to attack farming machinery, with the aim of disrupting food production.

  • NSF Grants to Protect Data, User privacy

    Researchers are working on two new cybersecurity projects, recently funded by the National Science Foundation, to ensure trustworthy cloud computing and increase computing privacy for marginalized and vulnerable populations.

  • Artificial Intelligence Isn’t That Intelligent

    By Harriet Farlow

    In the world of information security, social engineering is the game of manipulating people into divulging information that can be used in a cyberattack or scam. Cyber experts may therefore be excused for assuming that AI might display some human-like level of intelligence that makes it difficult to hack. Unfortunately, it’s not. It’s actually very easy.

  • How Daycare Apps Can Spy on Parents and Children

    Daycare apps are designed to make everyday life in daycare centers easier. Parents can use them, for example, to access reports on their children’s development and to communicate with teachers. However, some of these applications have serious security flaws.

  • When the Hardware Traps Criminals

    Up to now, protecting hardware against manipulation has been a laborious business: expensive, and only possible on a small scale. And yet, two simple antennas might do the trick.