"Bringing Lessons From Cybersecurity to the Fight Against Disinformation"

Mary Ellen Zurko, a cybersecurity researcher at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, is involved in exploring the human-computer relationship. Her focus has shifted to technology to counter influence operations, which are attempts by foreign adversaries to intentionally spread false information (disinformation) on social media with the intent of undermining US ideals. Zurko argues in a recent editorial published in IEEE Security & Privacy that many of the "human problems" within the usable security field are similar to the problems of dealing with disinformation. To some extent, she is faced with a similar task as she did in her early career, which is convincing peers that such human issues are also cybersecurity issues. Humans are used by attackers in cybersecurity to subvert a technical system. Disinformation campaigns are designed to influence human decision-making. She describes them as "the ultimate use of cyber technology to subvert humans." To achieve a goal, both use computer technology and humans, with the only difference being the goal. Influence operations, like cyberattacks, frequently follow a multistep path known as a kill chain to exploit predictable weaknesses. Studying and reinforcing those flaws can help in the fight against influence operations, just as it can in cyber defense. Lincoln Laboratory is working on technology to support "source tending," or reinforcing early stages in the kill chain when adversaries begin to look for opportunities for a divisive or misleading narrative and build accounts to amplify it. Source trending alerts US information-operations personnel to an impending disinformation campaign. This article continues to discuss Zurko's work on the application of usable security to design a test bed for countering influence operations.

MIT News reports "Bringing Lessons From Cybersecurity to the Fight Against Disinformation"