Information has long been wielded as an instrument of national power and influence. In today’s digital world, misinformation can also be just as powerful.
On a special episode of Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson, Sandra Joyce, Executive Vice President and Head of Mandiant Intelligence at FireEye joined me to talk about threat attribution and accountability when it comes to the use of technology by bad actors to help spread misinformation.
As a US Air Force Reserve officer and faculty member at the National Intelligence University with four master’s degrees in cyber policy, international affairs, science and technology intelligence, and military operational art and science, Sandra is an expert in understanding how nation-state actors leverage traditional and social media channels to erode confidence in free and fair elections. Sometimes, those bad actors will use these core values, such as freedom of speech, against us, according to Sandra. For instance, she recounts the story of a foreign group that used those values against the US by fabricating letters from concerned citizens to be published in US newspapers.