INFORMATION WARFARE ON THE WEB IN THE MIDDLE EAST KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

INFORMATION WARFARE ON THE WEB IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Source: Vice

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

1 BRINGING WEB SCIENCE TO THE MIDDLE EAST

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Interdisciplinary Research Unit In Web Science

Created in 2002 at Beirut’s Saint-Joseph University Faculty of Humanities

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Interdisciplinary Research Unit In Web Science

Digital Transformation of Middle Eastern Societies New paradigms – Arab Spring – Conflicts – ISIS

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

The Call For a Science of the Web

Interdisciplinarity (The 2 magics) Mixed methods (Data + Social) New tools to understand the impact of the Web on Society From power laws to people (Social Machines)

Berners-Lee

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The Manifesto For Web Science

Web Science 2010 – Raleigh, NC. Susan Halford, Cathy Pope, Leslie Carr

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

The Manifesto For Web Science

Understanding the web requires knowledge and expertise from the social and human sciences

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

The Manifesto For Web Science

Computer science is only one vantage point

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

The Manifesto For Web Science

Co-constitution of technology and society

The Web impacts society and society impacts the Web

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

The Manifesto For Web Science

Heterogeneous actors (ANT – Latour) Radical symmetry between humans and non-humans. “the bureaucrat in the standards agency is just as important as the servers at Google or HTTP”.

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

The Manifesto For Web Science

Social and cultural construction of technology (SCOT)

Ignoring particular functionalities, or developing alternative uses, and produce outcomes that may differ significantly from the original intentions for a given innovation.

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Consequences For Web Science

Web Science must be the genuine intersection of discipline It cannot be allowed to be a sociology

• r a computer science of the web

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Consequences For Web Science

Web Science must look both ways to see how the web is made by humans and how humans are made by the web.

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Consequences For Web Science

Web Science must follow all the actors and trace the networks implicated in the web in the broadest sense and understand the effects of these networks.

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Consequences For Web Science

Web Science must be a critical discipline. It must develop theoretical thinking and push towards critical, political social theory, to challenge the web and society.

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Consequences For Web Science

Web Science must move beyond narrow epistemologies and methodologies to enable a science which can examine and explain both micro and macro phenomena.

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Web Science In the Arab Near East Context

Against Prescriptive Language (Lawrence of E-Rabia – Burris 2000) Contextualization against New Orientalism (Anderson 2003) Myopia of Networks (Etling 2009)

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

2 INFORMATION WARFARE ON THE WEB

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Information Warfare

A very large concept as old as war! Propaganda – Disinformation – Demoralization Manipulation – Deception – Denial of information PsyOps

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Information Warfare On the Web

The Internet is a new battlefield Information Warfare is part of Cyberwarfare

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Information Warfare On the Web

The Web is the Internet’s Information System Multiplier effect? Web as a collateral asset?

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Information Warfare On the Web

Difference between attacks that target the Internet infrastructure and Information Warfare tactics and tools

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Is Information Warfare always asymmetric? Where does it take place? What about the BTKP rule? Weapons of mass annoyance?

Researching Information Warfare On the Web

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Researching Information Warfare On the Web

1 – Objectives / Strategies? 2 – Types of attacks / Contents / Targets / Actions? 3 – Actors (Groups, Armies, Businesses, Individuals)

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Researching Information Warfare On the Web

Observation – Identification – Measure Measuring Digital Wars: Learning from the experience of peace research and arms control. Giacomello (2003).

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Researching Information Warfare On the Web

Observation

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• Define Context

– Official Places, reference sources, players, historical background, virtual borders, strategic assets, obvious targets, etc.

• Identifying sources

– Specialized websites and forums – Official declarations and claims – Incidents / Media Reports – Influencers, gatekeepers, communities

1 - Observation

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

• Existence of the action

– Identifying traces

• Qualitative (Reference of action. Ex: Hashtag)

– Permanent tracking

• Quantitative (Distortions in usage)

– Regular data extraction and analysis

– Availability of technology by attacker – Damage done (Observed or reported)

2 - Identification

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• Storage / Coding / Analysis

– Descriptors – Attacker / Target – Type of attack – Type of content – Damage – Strategic objectives – Regrouping

3 - Evaluation

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3 CONTEXTS

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Context 1 2006 War Lebanon

30 days of asymmetric warfare between the State of Israel and the Lebanese Islamic Resistance

(Best Poster – ACM Web Science 2011 - Koblenz)

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Context 1 2006 War Lebanon

Megaphone software (Giyus.org) Web Pages defacement (Al Manar TV) PsyOps / Deceptive contents (Satellite photos) Denunciation Websites (All4Lebanon)

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Context 1 2006 War Lebanon

No official strategy - Innovation Individual initiatives – Hackers Units Limited impact - Symbolism

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Context 2 2011 Civil War in Syria

Information warfare in Syria The Web between Liberation and Repression

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Context 2 2011 Civil War in Syria

Repression strategy follows uprising in Egypt and Tunisia First official Electronic Army (SEA) – 122 defacement attacks Fake accounts on social media (Honey pots) – 1200 arrests

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Context 3 2012 The Gaza War

Information Warfare on the Web as an official military strategy

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Context 3 2012 The Gaza War

Emerging actors (Al-Qassam Cyber Fighters - Anonymous) Official strategy to win the IWW (Legitimization - Hasbara) Citizen Journalism

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Context 3 2014 ISIS

Global Information Operations Strategy by a terrorist organization

(Best Poster – ACM Web Science 2015 - Oxford)

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Context 3 2014 ISIS

Building audience and support (Al Hayat Media Center) Framing politico-military actions (Live tweeting) Marketing the Caliphate (Differentiation)

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

Context 3 2014 ISIS

Building audience and support (Al Hayat Media Center) Framing politico-military actions (Live tweeting) Marketing the Caliphate (Differentiation)

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At last, Some numbers!

4 contexts studied in 6 years Around 2500 attacks (6 groups) 67 different sources

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1 - Volumes

Propaganda 11% Disinformation 18% Demoralization 5% Manipulation 8% Deception 49% Denial of information 9%

Lebanon War

Propaganda 21% Disinformation 8% Demoralization 10% Manipulation 36% Deception 21% Denial of information 4%

Syria

Propaganda 18% Disinformation 26% Demoralization 5% Manipulation 15% Deception 21% Denial of information 15%

Gaza

Propaganda 44% Disinformation 13% Demoralization 8% Manipulation 14% Deception 17% Denial of information 4%

Isis

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1 – Example of sources: Hackmageddon

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1 – Example of sources: Opennet.org (SEA)

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• Very complex research
• Exploratory
• Understanding the context is essential

– Few sources – References are difficult to evaluate – Hard to get first hand information

• On actions and intentions
• On actors
• Need to create new tools for observation

2 – We just scratched the surface!

KEEWARD KNOWLEDGE & EDUCATION

• Webscience.blogs.usj.edu.lb
• Stefan.bazan@gmail.com

Thank you