It’s been a little over a week since the Capitol insurrection, and I woke up this am thinking about how our country got to this place. By place I mean our nation’s democracy teetering on a precipice…
Besides the shock of the insurrection itself, the news that stuns me is that so many Republicans are convinced that the election was stolen (for example, as reported here: https://www.inquirer.com/politics/pennsylvania/pennsylvania-republicans-false-election-fraud-claims-20210113.html). This is apparently the result of a successful disinformation campaign, but rather than being a single isolated event, I am beginning to recognize it as an outcome of an ongoing cyber war.
The first cyber battle that I can remember breaking into the public sphere was the Stuxnet virus, commonly attributed to Israel and the US to damage centrifuges that were part of the Iranian nuclear program. The event revealed the vulnerability of modern societies to malicious coders when machines are networked via the web. The next two battles I can think of involve Russia. In 2016, Russia used FaceBook as a platform for spreading disinformation about Hillary Clinton, successfully defeating Hillary and electing Donald Trump. Trump of course went on to undermine societal norms as well as the post-WWII international order, diminishing US influence and increasing the risk of war. In 2020, Donald Trump used Twitter and also Facebook to create and spread the Big Lie, leading to substantial distrust in the US electoral system by a large segment of our society and culminating in a nearly-successful coup just over a week ago. Both of these Trump-involved events can be seen as benefitting the Russian kleptocracy by diminishing the US and undermining international stability.
The 2016 defeat of Hillary/election of Trump and the widespread acceptance of the Big Lie among Republicans since the 2020 election can be seen as Russian battle victories in a cyberwar against US democracy. Although these cyber battles aren’t as sudden or visible as, say, the attack on Pearl Harbor or 9/11, they should be similarly framed as attacks against our democratic society. In the recent battles, the principal tools were FaceBook and Twitter. My questions are: 1) what strategies can mitigate the threats that they pose and 2) what new tools are being co-opted for the next battle? Also: I focused on Russia as the source of the recent disinformation, but is that accurate; other autocratic (e.g. N. Korea) or theocratic states (e.g. Iran) would also perceive a benefit from a diminished US. And at risk of sounding CT-ish, how do multi-national corporations perceive the cyber war/how do they define “victory”?
One of the pleasures of participating in the Daily Kos community is how much knowledge there is among the group members. I hardly know anything about cyberwar but I feel I should be better informed. Those of you who know about this subject, what articles and books do you recommend for novices? Thank you! Oh – sarcastic thanks to Trump for causing me to think about this topic instead of the work subject that I’m supposed to be doing…