{"id":11141,"date":"2019-09-19T13:16:59","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T17:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/?p=604676"},"modified":"2019-09-19T13:16:59","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T17:16:59","slug":"the-disinformation-dilemma-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2019\/09\/19\/the-disinformation-dilemma-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"The Disinformation Dilemma (Part I)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Ed. note<\/u><\/em>: Disinformation attacks and influence campaigns, once confined to advancing political objectives and outcomes, have entered the commercial arena. \u00a0<\/em>This two-part series will discuss how threat <\/em>actors increasingly target the corporate sector with cyber-centric disinformation campaigns and the accompanying need for lawyers to lean into cyber.<\/em> Part one of this article discusses this new wave of cyber-attacks. In part two, we will delve into what lawyers can do to be part of the solution when it comes to getting out in front of disinformation campaigns against companies.<\/em><\/p>\n

The old axiom \u201cseeing is believing\u201d began its slide toward antiquity rapidly with the advent of technology. Within decades of cameras coming to market, photos were capable of being enhanced or composited to portray something other than what they actually captured. Two centuries later, virtually undetectable photo and video manipulation (\u201cdeepfakes<\/a>\u201d) can trick the public into adopting new viewpoints on an almost instantaneous basis.<\/p>\n

The geopolitical arena was the first proving ground for the use of deepfakes and disinformation<\/a> to influence public opinion in a meaningful and disruptive manner.\u00a0 Today, countries like China and Russia manage countless social media accounts designed to rapidly swell public commentary toward nation state-favored viewpoints on issues like the Hong Kong riots<\/a> or the U.S. elections.<\/p>\n

As with most industries, disinformation as a strategy to control conversations and viewpoints within public forums is tied to the ability to scale and profit. Tactics have grown in scale and complexity and the dark web provides cheap solutions for threat actors who don\u2019t want to invest much time or money in developing online personas from scratch.<\/p>\n

The Case for Corporate Vigilance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Malicious actors intent on spreading disinformation about companies have one or more of various motivations: to damage a company for competitive reasons, to satisfy a disgruntled employee\u2019s grudges, or to further a socio-political agenda. \u00a0Cyber criminals grow increasingly adept at using tools like deepfakes to extort money. \u00a0The website Threatpost<\/a> recently reported that the CEO of an energy company transferred $243,000 to a malicious actor who used manipulated audio that convinced the CEO he was his boss at the parent company.<\/p>\n

Disinformation attacks are also becoming more common on social media, where it\u2019s relatively easy to hack into someone\u2019s account and create PR havoc.\u00a0 In one recent case<\/a>, a Twitter user\u2019s account was hacked to spread the rumor that Olive Garden was helping fund President Trump\u2019s reelection campaign — a claim that was quickly refuted by campaign finance data.\u00a0 Olive Garden does not donate to presidential candidates. Nevertheless, the actors\u2019 aims were at least achieved in part: the hashtag #BoycottOliveGarden<\/a> was mentioned in more than 52,500 tweets and retweets.<\/p>\n

If a threat actor wants to use these avenues to disrupt an organization by causing financial harm, there are many ways to do it.\u00a0 Whether from a competitor or an M&A perspective, the damage that results from a sophisticated disinformation program outweighs traditional cyberattacks in both speed and effectiveness due to virality.<\/p>\n

Tactics for Online Disinformation <\/strong><\/p>\n

Social media hacks: <\/strong>As in the Olive Garden exploit, hackers have plenty of opportunity to hijack a VIP\u2019s account or any employee\u2019s account and spread false information like wildfire.\u00a0 In 2013, the Syrian Electronic Army, a cyber-crime group, hacked the Twitter account of the Associated Press<\/a> and tweeted that a bomb had exploded in the White House. The group gained access to the account through a successful email phishing operation to AP employees. Within three minutes after the tweet, the stock market dropped briefly by an estimated $130 billion. \u00a0Employee education around common hacker tactics is one way to circumvent these attacks, according to expert Cindy Otis, Director of Analysis at Nisos and author of True or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Identifying and Fighting Fake News <\/em>(full disclosure: we are colleagues).\u00a0 <\/em>Yet there\u2019s increasing pressure, she says, on the social media companies to do a better job of so-called self-policing, or taking down fake content as soon it\u2019s discovered.\u00a0 A recent report<\/a> by NYU\u2019s Stern School details concerns and sets forth detailed recommendations around social media companies and their responsibility to counter disinformation campaigns.<\/p>\n

Many of these hacks propagate through use of bot farms, troll networks (non-automated fake accounts), fake websites, memes, misleading content, manipulated photos, encrypted messaging apps, and a crowded menu of tools such as virtual private networks used to obscure a person or group\u2019s digital identity.<\/p>\n

Deepfakes<\/strong>:\u00a0 Using a machine learning technique known as generative adversarial network, deepfakes replace existing images, audio, and video with altered ones to represent something that is not true.\u00a0 In the past, deepfakes\u00a0have been used to create fake celebrity pornographic videos and to alter news media videos. \u00a0One such altered video that was widely distributed targeted Barack Obama<\/a> and another Nancy Pelosi, who appeared to stumble over her words as if drunk. \u00a0Notably, the Facebook video of Pelosi was not fake but had been slowed down to alter her voice.\u00a0 Technology to produce deepfakes is available using widely available applications such as FakeApp<\/a> and DeepFaceLab<\/a>.\u00a0 \u201cIn reality, pulling this off requires a level of sophistication and effort most people don\u2019t have, but new tools and apps allow individuals of any technical skill levels to easily manipulate and edit videos and recordings that can look quite convincing\u201d explains Otis.\u00a0 \u201cThose kinds of manipulated videos are the real threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disinformation attacks create the perfect storm on a global level by traversing hemispheres and social classes in a matter of moments.\u00a0 The unifying themes are disruption and conversion of funds, influence, and power. Yet by leaning into this swelling trend of cyber threats and understanding their impact on security tactics, organizations can take back some power in what is otherwise becoming a zero-sum game.\u00a0\u00a0 In the next part of this two-part series, we will address how companies can begin to deter or strategically mitigate the fallout from disinformation and influence campaigns.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Jennifer DeTrani is General Counsel and EVP of\u00a0<\/em>Nisos<\/em><\/a>, a technology-enabled cybersecurity firm.\u00a0 She co-founded a secure messaging platform,\u00a0<\/em>Wickr<\/em><\/a>, where she served as General Counsel for five years.\u00a0 You can connect with Jennifer on Wickr (dtrain),\u00a0<\/em>LinkedIn<\/em><\/a>\u00a0or by email at\u00a0<\/em>dtrain@nisos.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disinformation attacks create the perfect storm on a global level by traversing hemispheres and social classes in a matter of moments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89785,"featured_media":468170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[6491,258,3709,6494,5013,7],"class_list":["post-11141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-cybercrime","tag-cybersecurity","tag-deepfakes","tag-disinformation","tag-jennifer-detrani","tag-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Disinformation Dilemma (Part I) - Above The Law's Legal Tech Non-Event<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2019\/09\/19\/the-disinformation-dilemma-part-i\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Disinformation Dilemma (Part I) - 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