How to Defeat the Info-Warfare 'Triad of Disruption'.

• Author: Curtis, James
• Position: Viewpoint

"The very 'rules of war' have changed. The role of nonmilitary means of achieving political and strategic goals has grown, and, in many cases, they have exceeded the power of force of weapons in their effectiveness." --Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Russia's chief of the general staff, Military-Industrial Kurier, February 2013 "Russia is waging the most amazing information warfare blitzkrieg we have ever seen in the history of information warfare." --Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO Wales Summit, September 2014 * Seven years later, America faces a more skillful Russia experienced in modern information warfare leveraging three elements: social media, propaganda/fake news and digital social engineering--the "triad of disruption."

The advanced persistent threat of the triad is a clear and present danger to national security because nation-states and terrorist organizations have learned to apply the ubiquitous power of social media technology, and "message" propaganda and fake news utilizing professional information warriors to manipulate the masses via the art of digital social engineering.

The U.S. government, and the Defense Department specifically, faces unprecedented challenges from this information weapon.

In his book, "Messing with the Enemy," national security expert Clint Watts bluntly states that "America sucks at information warfare, absolutely sucks." While the nation expends tremendous effort to develop kinetic weapon systems, it is clear it has yet to develop a comprehensive defense plan for its adversary's Triad of Disruption strategy.

Figure one reveals how the three elements interact to produce the Triad of Disruption. It is the merged power of the overlapping elements used in the battle of influence, destabilization and intimidation that manifests as a weapon of mass destruction leading to the ultimate goal--the decline of American society into chaos. To appreciate the power of the Triad of Disruption, one needs to understand each element's role in developing the weapon.

The weapon's message delivery element, social media, continues to morph itself across every aspect of society. To date, relying upon social media sites to self-police propaganda and fake news has been ineffective.

Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act has but 26 words. Section 230 reads, "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." It...