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Cities, Social Media, and Preparedness for Major Threats

Cities, Social Media, and Preparedness for Major Threats

Sunil Dubey lays out six principles for safer cities to become better prepared for threats propagated by social media.

cities, communication, population, social media, urbanization

November 15, 2018

Comfortably Numb

Comfortably Numb

Reality apathy is characterized by the perception that making a positive impact in the world is simply too hard. It is enabled and driven by the overload of negative content and false information present on digital platforms, which invokes feelings of numbness, disorientation, and indifference, eventually leading to a complete discounting of the world and the willingness to engage with it.

institutions, misinformation, reality apathy, viral

May 27, 2020

A Double-Edged Sentence

A Double-Edged Sentence

Digital communication speeds the spread of all information, true or otherwise. Increasingly, digital campaigns can have physical impacts by manipulating public opinion, eroding the distinction between truth and lie, and poisoning the forums for debating important ideas. Actors ranging from powerful countries to “lone wolves” can weaponize digital communications with novel technologies to change the course of an election or radicalize individuals to their cause.

AI, bots, censorship, deepfakes, disinformation

May 20, 2020

Breaking News

Breaking News

Free and fair media is the backbone of a working democracy. Democracies with strong media institutions have media based on the principles of freedom of speech and expression, access equity, fair ownership, and individual privacy. However, in today’s highly polarized environment, media institutions are weakening significantly in democracies across the globe. Weakened state institutions, coupled with the opportunities and challenges social media poses, have significantly undermined the media organizations that contribute to a thriving and functional democracy.

advertising, algorithms, bias, Europe, media, misinformation, polarization

May 6, 2020

The Online Brain

The Online Brain

The gradual impairment of human cognition erodes three pillars of democracy: a well-informed population, resilience to foreign influence, and the capacity for effective public debates.

attention, cognition, cognitive, democracy, memory, resilience

May 6, 2020

Ruling with a Silicon Fist

Ruling with a Silicon Fist

While the rise of digital authoritarianism cuts across different regime types and implicates companies developing cutting-edge technologies, a common element across these efforts is surveillance and control. The international sale and government contracting of these new and powerful tools drive us toward an uncertain, potentially less democratic future.

cyber soverignty, deep fake, facial recognition, firewall, information, surveillance

June 24, 2020

Testimony: Stopping Digital Thieves: The Growing Threat of Ransomware

Testimony: Stopping Digital Thieves: The Growing Threat of Ransomware

On July 20, 2021, Institute for Security and Technology CEO Philip Reiner testified in front of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Energy and Commerce for a hearing entitled, "Stopping Digital Thieves: The Growing Threat of Ransomware."

Ransomware, congress, Ransomware Task Force, testimony

5 Urgent Actions in the Fightback Against Ransomware

In the News, Op-ed

5 Urgent Actions in the Fightback Against Ransomware

In an article for the World Economic Forum, Philip Reiner calls for global leaders to step up in the fight against ransomware, arguing that, taken together, they "would result in immediate and longer-term benefits, and show cybercriminals that ransomware is no longer an easy and safe strategy for financial gain."

cybersecurity, Ransomware, cybercrime, law enforcement, World Economic Forum, collaboration

Future Digital Threats to Democracy – Trends and Drivers

Future Digital Threats to Democracy – Trends and Drivers

Based on a comprehensive literature review and conversations with subject matter experts, Alexa Wehsener, Vera Zakem, and M. Nina Miller identified nine trends that are likely to pose digital threats to democracy in the future.

democracy, cognition, attention, surveillance, privacy, digital authoritarianism, information environment, technology, ideology, apathy, geopolitics

Combating Ransomware: A Comprehensive Framework for Action

Combating Ransomware: A Comprehensive Framework for Action

The Ransomware Task Force convened over 60 experts from industry, government, law enforcement, civil society, and international organizations to produce a comprehensive framework for action, with 48 actionable recommendations.

cybersecurity, Ransomware, cyber, respond, deter, defend, protect