Using Cyber Capabilities to Inform and Influence

Abstract

As the world evolves and becomes more technical, the need for traditional messaging techniques diminishes. The need of the military to be able to dynamically target an individual or group with specific messages in order to inform or influence grows exponentially every year. This need also increases as the United States shifts its military focus from uneducated Third World countries to countries with established infrastructure and large cyber footprints. The military must be able to use the cyber domain to inform or influence a target audience to achieve a desired effect by disseminating a message, attributable or non-attributable, through use of the Web, e-mail or social media. The ability to understand the topology of the Internet is key to targeting a specific audience and to do this an understanding of geolocation is key. To target a specific audience with a message we must understand where they are located to understand culture, customs, and language. With cyberspace quickly becoming a dominant factor in the information environment, how can the military use the cyber domain to inform or influence a target audience to achieve a desired effect by disseminating a message, either attributable or non-attributable through the web, e-mail or social media?

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2012
Accession Number
ADA574023

Entities

People

  • Grant W. Stoebner
  • Jeremy M. Wedlake

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Communication Systems
  • Computer Networks
  • Cyberspace Operations
  • Electronic Mail
  • Information Operations
  • Internet
  • Military Science
  • Mobile Phones
  • Network Protocols
  • Network Science
  • Online Communications
  • Psychological Operations
  • Social Media
  • Social Networking Services
  • Social Networks
  • United States

Readers

  • Computer Networking
  • Economics
  • Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Cyberspace Operations against Adversarial Threats.

Technology Areas

  • Cyber
  • Cyber - Legality in Cyberspace