• Algorithm Could Quash Abuse of Women on Twitter

    Online abuse targeting women, including threats of harm or sexual violence, has proliferated across all social media platforms, but researchers have developed a statistical model to help drum it out of the Twittersphere.

  • Would You Fall for a Fake Video? Research Suggests You Might

    Deepfakes are videos that have been manipulated in some way using algorithms. As concerns about election interference around the globe continue to rise, the phenomenon of deepfakes and their possible impact on democratic processes remains surprisingly understudied.

  • COVID-19 Revealing the Impact of Disinformation on Society

    The COVID-19 pandemic has provided new evidence of the impact of disinformation on people’s behavior, according to a new report, which examines the causes and consequences of disinformation. The researchers also argue there has been too much focus on blaming social media for spreading false content, whist neglecting the spread of misleading content in traditional media by political actors.

  • Justice Dept. Never Fully Examined Trump’s Ties to Russia, Ex-Officials Say

    As Donald Trump seeks re-election, major questions about his approach to Russia remain unanswered. He has repeatedly shown an unexplained solicitousness toward Russia and deference toward Vladimir Putin, even as Russia, on Putin’s orders, has been systematically trying to subvert American democracy – and the democratic systems of allies of the United States. He has refused to criticize or challenge the Kremlin’s increasing aggressions toward the West, or even raise with Putin the issue of Russia paying bounties to Afghans who kill American soldiers. Michael S. Schmidt writes that one reason we still do not have answers to questions about the scope of Trump’s ties to Russia, and how these ties have influenced his perplexing attitude toward Russia and Putin, is because Rod J. Rosenstein, the former deputy attorney general, maneuvered to keep investigators from completing an inquiry into whether the president’s personal and financial links to Russia posed a national security threat.

  • Optimal Social Networks of No More Than 150 People

    “It takes a network to defeat a network,” wrote retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, in his book Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World. U.S. Army researchers agree, and in a new research they argue that new rules of engagement on the battlefield will require a deep understanding of networks and how they operate according to new Army research. Researchers confirmed a theory that find that networks of no more than 150 are optimal for efficient information exchange.

  • QAnon’s Growing Threat to the November Election and to Democratic Processes Worldwide

    Russian government-affiliated organizations are playing an increasing role amplifying and disseminating conspiracy theories promoted by QAnon, raising concerns not only of interference in the coming November U.S. election. There were no signs Russia had a hand in the early days of the QAnon movement, but the growth of the movement’s following have persuaded Russia’s disinformation and propaganda specialists that spreading QAnon’s conspiracies further would help Russia achieve its goal of weakening America by sowing division and acrimony; deepening polarization; discrediting democracy; and undermining trust in the government; judiciary; courts; and the media.

  • New Technique to Prevent Medical Imaging Cyberthreats

    Complex medical devices such as CT (computed tomography), MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and ultrasound machines are controlled by instructions sent from a host PC. Abnormal or anomalous instructions introduce many potentially harmful threats to patients, such as radiation overexposure, manipulation of device components or functional manipulation of medical images. Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have developed a new artificial intelligence technique that will protect medical devices from malicious operating instructions in a cyberattack as well as other human and system errors.

  • Thwarting Illicit Cryptocurrency Mining with Artificial Intelligence

    Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, are forms of digital money. Instead of minting it like coins or paper bills, cryptocurrency miners digitally dig for the currency by performing computationally intense calculations. A new artificial intelligence algorithm is designed to detect cryptocurrency miners in the act of stealing computing power from research supercomputers.

  • “A Small Group of Manipulators, Operating in the Shadows, Pull the Planet’s Strings”

    “You know that a clash between good and evil cannot be avoided, and you yearn for the Great Awakening that is coming. And so you must be on guard at all times. You must shield your ears from the scorn of the ignorant. You must find those who are like you. And you must be prepared to fight. You know all this because you believe in Q”: Adrienne LaFrance,“The Prophecies of Q.”

  • QAnon Conspiracies on Facebook Could Prompt Real-World Violence

    As Facebook continues to grapple with hate speech and violent extremism across the platform, QAnon conspiracy theorists are using public and private Facebook pages and groups to spread disinformation, racism, and thinly veiled incitement to violence. This conspiracy is estimated to have a Facebook audience of millions of users.

  • QAnon Believers Will Likely Outlast and Outsmart Twitter’s Ban

    Twitter has announced it’s taking sweeping action to limit the reach of content associated with QAnon. Believers of this fringe far-right conspiracy theory claim there is a “deep state” plot against U.S. president Donald Trump led by Satan-worshipping, child-sex trafficking elites from within government, business, and media. The platform also said it would stop circulating QAnon-related content, including material appearing in trending topics, recommendation lists and the search feature. It will also reportedly block web links associated with QAnon activity. History suggests the threat of online conspiracists is a difficult one to tackle.

  • New Detection Method to Protect Army Networks

    U.S. Army researchers developed a novel algorithm to protect networks by allowing for the detection of adversarial actions that can be missed by current analytical methods. The main idea of this research is to build a higher-order network to look for subtle changes in a stream of data that could point to suspicious activity.

  • Vulnerability of Solar Inverters

    Cyber-physical systems security researchers can disrupt the functioning of a power grid using about $50 worth of equipment tucked inside a disposable coffee cup. In a presentation delivered at the recent Usenix Security 2020 conference, the researchers revealed that the spoofing mechanism can generate a 32 percent change in output voltage, a 200 percent increase in low-frequency harmonics power and a 250 percent boost in real power from a solar inverter.

  • “We Must Do Better in 2020”: Bipartisan Senate Panel Releases Final Report on Russian 2016 Election Interference

    “The Russian government engaged in an aggressive, multi-faceted effort to influence” the “outcome of the 2016 presidential election.” This is the key, bipartisan finding of the fifth and final report of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The committee’s investigation into the massive intervention campaign waged by Russian government agencies and operatives on behalf of then-candidate Donald Trump was thorough, totaling more than three years of investigative activity, more than 200 witness interviews, and more than a million pages of reviewed documents. All five volumes total more than 1300 pages. “We must do better in 2020,” said Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) the committee’s chairman. “This cannot happen again,” said Senator Marc Warner (D-Virginia), the committee’s ranking member.

  • Insider Threat at Twitter Is a Risk to Everyone

    Elected officials currently announce policies and spar with one another on Twitter. An unauthorized individual appearing to tweet from a world leader’s account could crash markets, spark conflicts, or create other catastrophic global consequences. Hacking the accounts of media companies could create similarly far-reaching effects. A well-respected news outlet tweeting out “breaking news” of impending war, or a local journalist warning of an active shooter on the loose could generate chaos.