Battle without Boundaries- When Civilians are the Only Causalities

By Dark University

The cyber age has brought a spotlight on information technologies. Information or data in its various forms are strong indicators of a population’s traits and preferences. The value of this data has an untapped potential for geopolitical agendas. This trove of data is being used to push political agendas throughout global spaces. The utility of manipulating this data has become evident in the 2016 U.S. election and in cybercrimes across the globe making the general public of any society vulnerable. In the Russian case, Putin is capitalizing on Trump’s “obsolete” view of NATO and converting Trump’s ego into an asset for his agenda in becoming a Eurasian superpower (Glasser, 2017).

Data and information is an attribute of science and technology fields. Aggregating current troves of data would not be possible without the advent of complex computing systems and analysis of larger datasets. These datasets contain both qualitative and qualitative information. Example of data includes quantifiable metrics such resource usage, investment trends, and consumption habits. Qualitative data includes browser history and public opinion changes. This information can play a pivotal role in shaping public opinion.

Technologies have had an intimate relationship with science that has created new conquerable territories (Mendelsohn, 1989). During the Cold War, the U.S. had a lead in the atomic arms race, but the Soviet Union was able to compete within a decade (Mendelsohn, 1989). The collapse of the Soviet Union dissolved the region’s power structure. Putin’s Russia has a newfound strategy of taking advantage of a “technological environment” which has “created massive new vulnerabilities and new possibilities for mischief and accident” (Glasser, 2017). This strategy allows Russia to consolidate its power over its neighbors and enemies alike as well in different fields. Currently, dominating technologies is not the objective; the objective is not to destroy the U.S. but to weaken it (Glasser, 2017). Unlike the atomic arms race, the use of information technologies can be exploited to affect the masses of any society.

While the original threat of nuclear annihilation still exists, the new threat from controlling public perception can have a new set of negative consequences. The use of information and data is not completely understood. The sheer amount of reliance on technologies that bolster vulnerabilities is a real threat to any society. How information is stored, transmitted, sold, and analyzed needs to be under increasing scrutiny. Revolutionizing security standards for the general public would be a good start to the addressing information technology issues. The potential of personal information and data as a battlefront is yet to be completely understood.

References

Glasser, S. (2017, December 22). Trump, Putin and the New Cold War. Retrieved from Politico: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/22/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-cold-war-216157

Mendelsohn, E. (1989). Science, Scientists, and the Military. Michigan: Kluwer Academics.