IHS AEROSPACE, DEFENCE & SECURITY IHS Jane’s International Defence Review ao Cee ue) Ses Readying ae the road ahead Hybrid warfare training in foousoe a) 00 Rey Rune Era 10011 41 of oe ron 0 Cn 10, 10 On Ra) y ne Ug ue ol (ug 10 10 Gn) i San Ch Ca oe 10111 Teme on) Pa Px os Sree ee) meek) 001 ma Te at i) 119 a} 00 Cc Hunting for a signal in the noise social media is leveraged for intelligence gathering, communications, Tolgblisia) rnational v earl) iin al ‘opaganda, the importance and role of the: ‘e is increasing as militaries race to harness emet Pr eeauetia technologies and solve ‘big data’ information sets. Anika Torruella r lity, and flexibilicy ‘havebecome more critical omission success, Inaddition, miltariesand governments are ‘even more dependent on theavalability of Tnyfommaciouatcess puintsaunt Uwe ability ‘operate ina contested or deprived electromag netic (EM) spectrum, whether EM interfer- cence iscaused by remote locations, weather, jamming, or otherchallenges. Information warfare has alwaysbeen integral tostrategicandtactical combatadvances. How ‘eve dug te pas ve years Ure lmportance ‘ofsocial media intelligence SOCMINT) has increased rapidly, andimpactedother domains. ‘Accordingto Pew Research’ 2015 report “social Media Usage: 20052015,"6S%of [American] adults now use social networking sites~aneatly tenfold ump inthe past decade” ‘Thisincludes growthamongsome groupsthat ‘werenotamong the earliest adopters ofsocial ‘meaia, suenasoler age groups, anaretiects the increase in the number of social media plat- forms globally available. “The growing number on the: ‘ofthousands of serial networks ketistens iPeshin, director of eyber programs for Israel Aerospace Industries IAD told Sane’. “Some' ate desicatedforexampleforgaming Some ‘ofthemare microblognetworks like Twit ee like Facebook. Some ofthemare used to share documents. Someof themareused to share messages but there aretens of thousandsof social network.” Conventionally thesediverse social media platforms provide opportunities for collabora tion. Groupsshare workandknowledge (Key note, Prez Slideshare) or documents (DropBx, ‘Guvgle Dues shatePiid, wane cannulae friends, family and colleagues (Facebook, Linkedin, VKontakt,RenRen) communicate andinstanemessage Skype, Snapeha, Wha ‘spp, tackthe locatiorsfohersocal groups (Find My Friends, Foursquare, Google, Local rind createinstantconverstions with tran ‘et Wisp, Shap) abl vil hase roomsand eaningenv ronments (Blackboard, Hangouts, Moodle), micoblog Jaiku, Numb, ‘Twiter, Sina Weibo,andransmit realtime newsthrough imagesand videos nstatam, Beriscope Vine, YouTuteInaddtion, these activities disseminatestitudesandieologies toawide, nteractiveautionce, whetherthe intended outcomeisforconsumerism, ntellec tualoracademic ascussion, orto spree potticat ‘orideologicalbeliersystms. ‘The2015 Global Wel Index insight Report ‘Social Networking Motivations’ states that “social mediaisasignifean driver towards more open anddirectdnlogue amongdifferent {60 | 14S Jane's ternational Defence Review September 2016 others with imiar interests oragendas,t0 share thei experiences andopinions,to follow their friends'activities, and receive informa- tion (sports, culcure, news, etc} express them selves report on their daily life activities, share hotos/videos), and mach more.” However, NATOSSuateyit CommuiRations Genter of Excellence (STATCOMCOE) Whit Paper’ Social Mediaasa Tool of Hybrid Warfare’ \warsthat“the opportunitiesprovided by information technology allow anyone tofilm, ‘edit, and shareinformation, images, and videos inrealtime, whether ornot traditional media ‘oats report ou cere, gives every individual the opportunity tobecomean information actorand distribute rmessagestoaudiences of unlimited number andsize around the word." Such platforms also empower individuals torecrut followers and potentially achieve strategic politicaland military effects, ‘Asa pattofcyberspace social media intto- ‘aucesaaaitionaiayersor cognitive, psycnotoge ‘al and perception challengestocach domain ‘ofwarfare.Accordingto the STRATCOMCOE ar, “when discussing the role ofsocial mea often referred oasa partafeyherspare, however itisdifficuleto distinguish when oneis\ d {A screenshot from these Echosec search engines showing soclal medla posts in the Bakirkoy neighbourhood of istanbul, Turkey, surtounding the July 216 coup attempt. talkingaboutsocial medi ava communication platform [technical tools/information systems] andwhen oneisteferringtothe interactions among information actors whoarecreatingcon- tent the information tse? “Weaponised' social media hasbecome especially prevalent in so-called hybrid warfare, ‘where non traditional force multipliers such ascyberattacksare employed. When social una iveapoivadiathiscy peor wat ae, network infiltration, denialofinformation and. ‘the EMenvironment, spoofing and electron cally tagged misinformationbecome powerful tactics." Warisno longer about statesagainst states fin the conventional sense)”, Thomas Nis: senof the Royal Danish Defence Collegesaid unis 2015 STRATGOMGOE Mouogiaply The ‘Weaponisation of Social Medi“butabout identity andidentity claims... where social net ‘work mediaisnow used for military activities. ‘These activtiesare,but notlimicedto, intel ligence collection, targeting, psychological war- fare, offensiveand defensive cyber operations andcommandane-control activities.” “Let’sunderstand the nature ofthemodern tnreat ot cyber secunty, agrees Hesnin. in ‘the past, warfireconsisted ofanarmy fighting another army. Today warfare as changed. ‘Today we are seeing within cyberspace, whch isessentiallyahattlefont, anasymmetric ‘warfare where individual insurgents, in some inscomjanes Jmminas trrorbtaendnetion states ane fightingagainst onc another an this ‘warfare happens within cyberspacebecause cyberspace provides amazingacces. ft pro- Viesaceessto networks, itprovidesaccessto command-and-ontrolnetworks,to people, and ocrtcalinfrastreture” Globally defence an governmentorganisa- tionsacknowledge that social media networks areusedsutategialy by arangeur gion. “pothstateand nonstate actorsuse hybrid approaches to pursue their political and mili- taryaims..combining military operations Witheyberattacks,dipbmaticandioreco- ‘nomicpressur, andinformation propaganda) campaigns” theNATOSTRATCOMCOE report, Staten Contemporary auf inayat, time, Ia, Libya Sy and eastern Ukraine reflect social media use forintelligence gather ing, increasing message visibly, distributing misinformation co-onating supporters, identityingscatered mbiletargets, orth exwiseinfencing the emperament ofthe ieractiveaudienceassocsImediaemainsan important global fours fr uncensored debate torinstance paroaytwikteraccountsot ‘Russian eadeship @DerthPutinkGB, Pest dent Vlado Putin, @Soviersergey reign minister Sergei Lavrov) @AmbYakovenkoNot {01K AmhaseadorAlexader Yakavenk} and ‘ORusEmbassyNoe,(Rusian Embassy) were ‘bctlyseapendedin ly 2016 after she distor ofthe informationand press epartmentof the Ministry of Foreign Affaisofthe Russian Fed ‘ration, MaiaZakharova,complainedon her Facebook pagein May that Euronews had used tweet from thespoof account aSoviesergey inoneofitsartiles. “risnoclike peer topeer communications. Andhereisa very crucial poin within social ecw, wih so atin, Fa opeate anonymous. Or eanbecome someone ese. ‘Alotof modern warfareis warfare fr publi ‘pinion. So {potential threats] need pablicsup- pot,"saidPeshin. ‘AccondingtoPeshin,thethree important rolesof social median warfarearefistly, ‘organising te mexenensorasyaunee ‘threatsby recuitingancoondiating; second, influencing lobal public opinion ~ ‘througha high numberof acces points with ‘wide distribution -by manipulating the narra tiveofsocial groups orglobaleventsasasort of psychological warfare;and thirdly, providing anonymity. According tothe NATOSTRAT: ‘COMCOE report, the unregulatednature ofthe virtualenvironmentprovaestneanonym- ity essential to“disseminateexteeme views, deliberatemisinformation,andcreatehoaxes ‘without revealing the person ororgaisation behind he ceationof the content” Inaddition, asymmetric and hybrid actors September 2016 IHS Janes Intemational Defence Reviw | 61 SOCMINT and Big Data - TECHNOLOGY REPORT [ii