Information Environment Security

The US Department of Defense Dictionary of Military terms defines the Information Environment as "the aggregate of individuals, organizations, and systems that collect, process, disseminate, or act on information." The decisions and actions we take both as individuals and collectively simultaneously shape and are shaped by the information environment in which we live. The nature of our interaction with the information environment is rapidly evolving and old models are becoming irrelevant faster than we can develop new ones. This results in uncertainties that leave us exposed to dangerous influences without proper defenses. The purpose of this talk is to help frame a new science of Information Environment Security (IES) whose goal is to create and apply the tools needed to discover and maintain fundamental models of our ever-changing information environment and to defend us in that environment, both as individuals and collectively, against intentional as well as unintentional attempts to deceive, misinform and otherwise manipulate us. IES is an interdisciplinary science that will require bringing together experts working in areas such as cognitive science, computer science, social science, security, marketing, political campaigning, public policy, and psychology to develop a theoretical as well as an applied engineering methodology for managing the full spectrum of information environment security issues.