Vulnerability on Social Networking Sites to Adversary Influence Operations

[Ron Humphrey]

somebody.....

This comes back to a conversation recently in which the question was what to do about the fact that so many soldiers, and civilians are vulnerable due to their involvement in these various areas. What do you do? Tell them not to be involved or make darn sure they are aware of the inherent risks and how serious those risks are.

In the vein of to whom this information would be valuable I think most of us would agree that most of those who would do evil are and have been more than capable of determining how to do so. It is not teaching them through this exchange that concerns me but would be not making sure that our men and women young and old are highly aware of it.

This also comes back to the point of the realistic expectation of not being vulnerable, There just is no such thing. Any battle is fought on a battlefield at some point and thus there is danger. The answer will never be to cease being on the the battlefield. It comes back to Opsec but in a way of understanding what is there rather than avoiding it.

Education, Empowerment, Training...

Is it more important to tell me I'm a target or should I be taught to understand that everyone is?

[marct]

Hi Ron,

This comes back to a conversation recently in which the question was what to do about the fact that so many soldiers, and civilians are vulnerable due to their involvement in these various areas. What do you do? Tell them not to be involved or make darn sure they are aware of the inherent risks and how serious those risks are....

Is it more important to tell me I'm a target or should I be taught to understand that everyone is?

One of the most pernicious trends I have seen over the past couple of decades has been the idea that the state can, will and should, "protect" us not only from external enemies but, also, from ourselves and the consequences of our action (and inaction). A couple of my colleagues have referred to this as this the "infantalization" of society, while others have called it the "domestication" of society. Regardless of what we call it, it leads to a curious decoupling of actions from their consequences - a situation that strikes at the very soul of a democracy, regardless of its form.

Years ago, I was taking a course in Labour Process and we had to provide readings for the other people in the seminar that dealt with the issues we were looking at. Being an Anthropologist locked up with Sociologists, amongst the "academic readings" I gave there were two short stories by H. Beam Piper (here and here) that encapsulated my thinking and, in some ways, go to answer your question.

Marc

[marct]

RTG,

It's a good checklist; thanks for posting it. BTW, the same checklist can be used to check for probability of identity theft.

Marc

[RedTEamGuru]

The checklist wasa result of our vulnerabilit study as we identified the need for more awareness training that can be incorporated into OPSEC and CI annual training.

You're right the same rules also apply to identity theft as well.