Cybersecurity Book Club: “Information Wars” by Richard Stengel
Overview
This quarter’s Cybersecurity Book Club Choice was Information Wars: How We Lost the Global Battle Against Disinformation and What We Can Do about It, written by the journalist-turned-government official Richard Stengel. A former editor of Time, Stengel was appointed as the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs during the last 2 years of the Obama administration. Specifically, Stengel was responsible for leading the effort in combatting disinformation campaigns organized by the Russian government and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). While his main focus was counteracting disinformation created by these two particular foreign actors, Stengel also implemented methods for resisting propaganda on a global scale.
Information Wars is no typical memoir. The true benefit of this book is that it provides an insider account of the disinformation problem and what the US government is trying to do about it. Stengel’s story can be divided into 3 major sections based on theme:
The first third of the book contains a painstakingly detailed account of the internal operations at the State Department, including intricate narratives of meeting agendas, workplace hierarchies, and even a thorough description of the layout of the State Department’s offices.
The second part highlights how Stengel and the government attempted to address foreign disinformation through increased use of social media, joint collaboration with other heads of state, and appointing native language speakers to help manage global communications.
The last third of Information Wars is arguably the most valuable, where Stengel reflects how how and why the US continues to fall short in addressing issues of misinformation and disinformation.
Stengel’s 5 Fixes for Counteracting Disinformation
In the book’s last 24 pages, the author provides actionable advice on what society can do about the disinformation problem – from a domestic and international perspective. In particular, Information Wars outlines 5 distinct solutions developed by Stengel.
Why This Book Matters
In the preface, Stengel summarizes these issues with a single sentence. He writes, “The problem for humanity is that the technology to create and distribute disinformation is evolving a whole lot faster than we are.” This dilemma is at the heart of many cybersecurity-related debates – if perpetrators of wrongdoing are always one step ahead, how can we stop them? Increasing tech regulations has limited success, and data protection policies depend largely on individual platforms and users.
So how can we evolve faster? One answer is education. While Stengel’s proposals to introduce media literacy programs in schools are certainly a step in the right direction, they are not enough. User education needs to also include teaching consumers about the negative effects of digital information, how to report harmful content, and how social media uses microtargeting techniques to tailor content to individual users. The amount of disinformation that exists in the digital world matters less compared to how easily accessible it is. In a pre-virtualized world, it took a concerted effort to find conspiracy theories and fringe groups. Now, thanks to targeted advertising and unregulated social media search algorithms, disinformation finds the user.
Readers should come away from Information Wars with the awareness that the availability of misleading or false content is prevalent because the availability of information has reached unprecedented levels. And while being able to answer a question with the click of a button or the type of a keyword is an undisputed privilege, the search for truth has become a matter of individual preference. Unlimited information access means that the world is quickly approaching a reality where nothing is true and nothing is false. And that reality is less a function of any particular foreign or domestic adversary, and more so one of general humanity.