To win the internet, the Pentagon's info ops need more humanity and a dash of absurdity - CyberScoop

Written by Gavin Wilde

Nov 14, 2022 | CYBERSCOOP

Earlier this year, researchers astatine net analytics steadfast Graphika and the Stanford Internet Observatory revealed the existence of a five-year power cognition that encapsulates the difficulties the U.S. authorities faces successful covertly winning hearts and minds online. This run — that U.S. Cyber Command reportedly orchestrated — attempted to dispersed pro-U.S. messages and targeted audiences successful the Middle East and Central Asia via the instauration of mendacious personas, the usage of memes and phony autarkic media outlets.

In its evident effort to tally a Russia-style info op, CENTCOM failed. In summation to exhibiting comparatively unsophisticated tradecraft mimicking Russian operations — and perchance skirting the military’s ain lasting protocols — the cognition was possibly astir notable for what it wasn’t: effective. Researchers assessed that the Pentagon’s ain overt societal media messaging had much engagement than the cognition did by orders of magnitude.

Six years aft Russian messaging targeted the 2016 U.S. predetermination and reawakened the U.S. authorities to covert power operations and governmental warfare, it inactive hasn’t figured retired however champion to attack this domain. Its caller failures — and other, much palmy activities messaging campaigns — supply an accidental for American info warriors to reassess doctrines and to spot truth, transparency and dedication to antiauthoritarian values astatine their heart. But to beryllium palmy online, American info ops request not lone improved oversight — they request to marque country for a small absurdity, too.

What Graphika and SIO revealed astir CENTCOM’s evident five-year run represented thing of an “I told you so” infinitesimal for students of U.S. counterinfluence and counter-disinformation efforts. As Ambassador Dan Fried and Dr. Alina Polyakova warned successful their sweeping report connected disinformation from 2020, “We indispensable not go them to combat them.” By embracing tactics of obfuscation and inorganic amplification, countries specified arsenic the United States risk undermining “the values that democracies question to defend, creating a motivation equivalence (one that would bolster the cynical arguments of Russian propagandists astir ideology being specified fraud),” Fried and Polyakova argued. 

In their view, there’s another, much applicable crushed for Western states to debar covert accusation operations: “If the past of the Cold War is immoderate guide, democracies are nary bully astatine disinformation.”

U.S. defence officials are moving to marque American accusation operations much sophisticated, but they person a agelong mode to go. Last month, the Joint Staff updated its doctrine connected accusation operations, oregon what the subject dubs “operations successful the accusation environment.” But beyond intending to interruption down parochial notions among the subject services and get astatine a unified conception of accusation operations, not overmuch is publically known astir the update. After the U.S. cognition targeting the Middle East and Central Asia became public, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl reportedly ordered a review of each online intelligence operations, which was expected to beryllium owed past month.

Whether the Joint Staff’s doctrinal update volition lick the basal definitional problems that person agelong bedeviled U.S. accusation operations remains to beryllium seen. “We haven’t decided yet what is oregon isn’t accusation operations, accusation warfare, cyberspace operations, operations successful cyberspace that alteration accusation operations … is it astir cognitive operations, beliefs and knowing and motivations for operations?” Retired Vice Admiral TJ White wondered earlier this year. “We conscionable haven’t yet decided.”

Even the Department of Defense’s overt, “by the book” operations person a mixed grounds of success. For example, an evident Cyber Command foray into the meme wars successful October 2020 proved bureaucratically inept and stylistically cringeworthy, arsenic an attempted publication to online civilization collided with the realities of subject culture. A cartoon carnivore designed to travel an nationalist advisory regarding Russian malware reportedly required 4 weeks of reappraisal and eventual sign-off by a brigadier wide — somewhat ironic for a bid that has rigorously sought to chopped the reddish tape astir operations successful cyberspace. 

So, successful reasoning astir what U.S. accusation operations should look like, would-be accusation warriors successful authorities would beryllium well-served studying what works successful online messaging.

At their core, palmy accusation operations seizure attention, play connected existing biases, consolidate factions, and catalyze them to action. Consider the online improvement that is the North Atlantic Fella Organization. In short, NAFO involves a clump of dogs successful fatigues connected Twitter, relentlessly punking a stuffy Russian diplomat for his shameless lying. Opportunistic portion altruistic, spontaneous and uncoordinated, NAFO rode the momentum of a taste touchstone. It was high-minded, yet low-brow, an unaffiliated, pro-Ukrainian enactment question drafting inspiration from a long-running net meme featuring Shiba Inu pups and their trademark facial expressions. Western heads-of-state, legislators, and adjacent the Ukrainian defence curate each hopped connected the bandwagon.

To those who came of property connected the self-seriousness of Tom Clancy novels, NAFO mightiness look patently ridiculous. But, arsenic CyberScoop’s Suzanne Smalley outlined earlier this month, therein lies the root of its power. Former Marine Matt Moores, the co-founder of the group, leveraged the absurdity of a elder Russian authoritative “replying to a cartoon canine online,” to show a profound and galvanizing truth: When you, Mr. Ambassador, scope that constituent successful the debate, “you’ve lost.”

These episodes rise questions arsenic to whether the bureaucratization and outsourcing of online operations — by whichever doctrinal moniker 1 prefers — by the DOD mightiness beryllium precisely what dooms galore of them to inefficacy. Both subject officers and authorities contractors are people going to effort amplification, automation oregon manipulation of online phenomena similar NAFO. However, they hazard trading invaluable taxation dollars and irreplaceable credibility for a fraction of the interaction that comes for escaped to those consenting to thrust the zeitgeist and pat into thing with inherent societal resonance — alternatively than trying to make that resonance from scratch.

By dropping the pretense of large authorities and attempting to beryllium genuine — and perish the thought, quality — America’s would-be accusation warriors mightiness seizure “hearts and minds” successful a mode adjacent the astir programmatic efforts apt cannot. The researchers astatine Graphika and SIO who outed the U.S. government’s latest effort to sway nationalist sentiment echoed this recommendation, urging that arsenic DOD pursues a much proactive posture successful cyberspace, its efforts “focus connected exposing those adversarial networks with extremist transparency and winning hearts and minds with an underutilized weapon: the truth.”

Some wrong the U.S. authorities look to beryllium increasing much adept astatine harnessing the idioms of the net successful trying to scope audiences. The Department of Homeland Security, for example, seems to person acold much occurrence raising consciousness of disinformation utilizing “Pineapple connected Pizza” than with a formally constituted governance board. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly seems to summation much traction among the hacking assemblage with Rubik’s cubes and knit beanies than she apt would with a brochure and a binder. Even Rob Joyce, the National Security Agency’s manager of cybersecurity, is utilizing memes to communicate, wading into the esoteric meme excavation and uncovering the h2o conscionable fine.

On the 1 hand, the attack is unorthodox. On the other, the existent orthodoxy seems to person veered from the principles of truth, transparency and antiauthoritarian values the U.S. authorities ought to beryllium defending — undermining the connection by overthinking the delivery.    

Gavin Wilde is simply a Senior Fellow successful the Technology and International Affairs programme astatine the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He antecedently worked arsenic a managing advisor for the Krebs Stamos Group, a cybersecurity advisory, and served arsenic a manager connected the National Security Council staff. The views expressed present are his own.