Cognitive Wild West
Cognitive Security, CogSec, where you are the perimeter and AI enhanced PsyOps is coming for your mind.
CogSec is the defence of the human mind. Classical Information Warfare targets what you see and hear. Cognitive warfare (CW) targets how you interpret, feel and act on it. CW aims to alter our thinking patterns, reasoning, perception, how we make decisions and our values and belief systems via deliberate influence or manipulation. Focus is cognition itself within individuals, groups and populations. Often via long term strategic campaigns aimed at undermining trust, demoralise groups, achieve ideological influence etc. Tools used are troll farms, AI agents, AI bot farms, propaganda outlets. Using techniques from neurotech, behavioural science and more.
AI has pushed this matter for the forefront. Our defences as both organisations and individuals are weak as they are and AI enhanced operations just brute force whatever there is left with an onslaught of information. We are vulnerable to interference in national security, elections, corporate security and other areas. As individuals we are also seeing AI-chatbots and LLMs wreak havoc, decomposing weak and vulnerable minds one reply at a time. This is without intent, just new technology meeting a mind designed to throw rocks in ponds.
To shield us from this we need to educate on media literacy, critical thinking and use AI to monitor for disinformation campaigns and flag manipulative content. We must share threat intelligence like cybersecurity and establish crisis communication plans to prevent disinformation spread.
You are the perimeter, and you must constantly ask yourself hard questions regarding all information you take in.There is always two sides, or more sides, to the coin. Who benefits from you seeing this piece of information? What is the intent? You must take on different perspectives. Disinformation and misinformation is all around, not just from Russia or China, but from western actors too. You just have to take in double the information and try to stay sane in the process.
It always comes back us humans. We are always the weak link. Human mind is the ultimate theatre of war.