Browsing by Author "Scott, Keith"
Now showing 1 - 20 of 20
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Metadata only Blood, bodies, books: Kim Newman and the vampire as cultural text.(Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) Scott, KeithItem Open Access Connected, Continual Conflict: Towards a Cybernetic Model of Warfare(Academic Publishing, 2021-06) Scott, Keith“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” (George W. Bush) The purpose of this paper is to argue that to see ‘cyber warfare’ as a discrete form of combat, or as merely a combination of Electronic and Information Warfare, is a fundamental error. We must see ‘cyber’ as shorthand for ‘cyberNETIC’, and cyber warfare as a form of conflict which operates across all domains, and where action in one domain inevitably influences other zones of conflict. The UK military is seeking to reshape itself according to the concept of Integrated Operating, and this paper contends that such a model is essential. Marshall McLuhan defined World War 3 as ‘a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation’; a cybernetic conflict is infinitely more complex, erasing the boundaries between kinetic and non-kinetic warfare, between civilian and military, and indeed between peace and war themselves. The paper will consider a scenario demonstrating what such a multi-domain conflict might be like, considering the use of non-human combatants operating in cooperation and against human forces, and the impossibility of maintaining a clear division between ‘war’ and ‘operations other than war’. Ultimately, it will contend that the current structures of military forces are too rigid and rooted in earlier eras of warfare to allow us to respond effectively to the conflicts that await us in the all-too-near future. Norbert Wiener sought to avoid applying his knowledge of cybernetics to the military domain; this paper argues that it must be done. It is, in short, the most useful theoretical framework for waging hybrid, non-linear warfare.Item Open Access A Cross-discipline approach to countering 4th generation espionage(18th European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security, 2019) Scott, Keith; Sample, Char; Darraj, EmilyIn 2018 the UK government introduced the term ‘4th generation espionage’ to define the hybrid threats exemplified in fake news. As events occur, even seemingly benign events, the rush to report and take charge of the narrative can result in the facts being diminished, or in some cases obscured. The need to quickly and accurately assess the content suggests a role for AI/ML solutions. Before AI/ML can be applied, proper rules for training data must be considered and those rules require inputs from non-technical as well as technical disciplines. The researchers examined the rules of rhetoric, propaganda, and linguistics, then mapped these rules to the behavioural sciences first, and, the technical counterparts associated with computational linguistics and mathematics providing the framework for news story labelling. The examination of the various disciplines is discussed and how they each feed the fake news process.Item Open Access CyberSyn to SkyNet: Security, Cyber Systems, and Society(Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited, 2020) Scott, KeithI don't know if you've been looking at your phones or looking at your screens, but, um... Careful with your info (Dj Shadow, 'Urgent, Important, Please Read') This paper examines the cultural and political implications of cyber, rather than the technological concerns. The use of AI-driven systems for monitoring human behaviour (political, social, economic...) has profound implications for civil liberties and (inter)national security. The ability to govern a nation through the application of integrated cyber systems can arguably be traced back to Stafford Beer's Project CyberSyn (1971-3), and Beer's ideas have mutated into a spectrum of various models of the cyberpolitical, from the panopticon state of China's SkyNet to the laissez-faire western model of private companies which have quasi-total control of the informational realm and the ability to intervene in and subvert the democratic process (as exemplified by the activities of Cambridge Analytica). The western informational space is dominated by an oligarchy analogous to the geographical control displayed in previous centuries by the East India Company. The paper will argue that both ends of the spectrum are equally flawed, from the standpoint of defending individual liberties and the inherent risks both pose to national security. It must always be remembered that the first use of the word 'cybernetics' was in a treatise on government; cyber security must be seen as a political phenomenon. The paper will conclude with a discussion of the ways in which IT and AI may in future be used to promote, rather than repress, human political agency.Item Open Access Dark Gnostics: Secrets, Mysteries, and OCCINT(2016-05-06) Scott, KeithYou know, when I was a kid, I wanted to grow up and find myself living in a sixties spy series. Funny how things turn out, isn’t it? King Mob, The Invisibles. The astrologer and magician John Dee worked for Sir Francis Walsingham; Dennis Wheatley worked for the London Controlling Section during World War II; Aleister Crowley may have worked for British intelligence. This should not surprise us; intelligence and espionage are by their very nature exercises in the occult, the investigation and discovery of hidden knowledge, revealed and analysed by a priestly caste of scholars seeking the truth lying behind the veil of ‘secrets and mysteries’ (specific terms in the lexicon of espionage). Spy stories are always already tales of the occult and, more than that, they are horror stories, whose protagonists are engaged in a struggle against dark powers posing an existential threat to all they believe in. This article examines the idea of secrecy and espionage as a contemporary cultural avatar of the eternal fear of the Other. The spy is an archetype embodying fears of transgression and liminality, whose shifting roles mirror our society's anxiety concerning the concept of a stable self. In an era in which we are ever more defined by our informational footprint, the revelations of Snowden, Manning et al. raise uncomfortable questions about the nature of identity observed, surveilled and interrogated through its online manifestations. As Stross has argued, we are willing participants of a ‘Participatory Panopticon’; inhabitants of the global Village, we are choosing to become Number Two, the character who, in the minatory and prophetic series The Prisoner, acted as the agent of repression of the individual through perpetual surveillance.Item Embargo Dissuasion, Disinformation, Dissonance: Complexity and Autocritique as Tools of Information Warfare(2015-12) Scott, KeithThe paper argues that the cyber terrain offers opportunities for developing strategies and tactics of information warfare which are based on the techniques already deployed by anti-establishment actors: détournement, satire, and the appropriation and subversion of pre-existing media artefacts. It also argues that the inherent complexity, diversity, and apparent anarchy of the online realm aids, rather than threatens, the effective exercise of influence. Finally, it contends that information warfare and influence must be conducted through media, which are integral to the experience of the intended targets, and suggests that recent developments in gaming merit investigation.Item Embargo English Apocalypses and Robot Skateboards: Warren Ellis’ Futures(2016) Scott, KeithThe 'Future' as it appears in any cultural artefact (book, film, comic...) is always polysemous; it can be prediction, speculation, warning, aspiration, and any number of other possible things. This chapter offers an examination of the work of Warren Ellis, who has employed the future throughout his career in comics and prose fiction as a critical lens for the examination, not just of what might be, but of where we are now, and the various forces and influences that shape our reading of the present and our visions of 'Things To Come'. Ellis is first and foremost a British writer, and his work continually displays the influence of such British futures as Thunderbirds (the inspiration of Global Frequency), Dan Dare (transformed into the darker, more acerbic vision of Ministry of Space) and above all 2000AD. However, in more recent work, such as Injection, Supergod, and the series of talks collected in Cunning Plans, he has begun to develop a distinctive vein of futures rooted in the British past, where ancient gods and mythologies return from history to shape (generally apocalyptic) narratives of what lies ahead. It is impossible to speak of the 'future' as presented by Ellis; he runs the gamut of possibilities, from extrapolations of contemporary reality (as in Transmetropolitan) to more complex, elegiac examinations of the future that never came to be (an important theme in Planetary). This study presents an overview of the various futures Ellis develops in his writing and a study of the underlying message he presents, namely that as a species, we need dreams to drive our culture and civilization forward, and speculative/imaginative, non-realist art can act as a spur for innovation and hope.Item Open Access IW™?: 'Building Global Community', Facebook, and Cyber Security in the post-Westphalian Age(Academic Conferences and Publishing International Ltd, 2018-03) Scott, KeithI made a joke about a future featuring 'facebook.gov" in a piece for VICE Magazine years ago and then Zuckerberg writes a 6000-word manifesto pretty much pitching it. - Warren Ellis On February 16, 2017, Mark Zuckerberg posted 'Building Global Community' on his Facebook page, setting out a vision of the ways in which cooperation through social media can build a better world. On one level, this text is simply a manifestation of the utopian belief in technology as a tool of social improvement; from a cyber security perspective, however, it crystallizes a number of vital issues which will shape the domain in the foreseeable future. Any government seeking to implement and manage a successful cyber security strategy is automatically hamstrung by the fact that the Westphalian model of autonomous nation states cannot successfully control an information network which is by its very nature transnational; more than that, the tendency in recent decades to outsource elements of national security to firms in the private sector (G4S and Serco in the UK, Blackwater/Academi in the USA) means that effective control of the organs of defence is already partially out of the hands of government, however robust the oversight regime may appear to be. This paper will examine Zuckerberg's text, and argue that it can and perhaps should be read as an opening shot in a new terrain of information warfare, in which a multinational corporation effectively sets itself up as a major power in cyber space. In effect, it is a call to recognize Facebook as seeking to become a post-national information state, and its role as a platform for the active manipulation of global opinion (through which nation states themselves are required to operate) must be examined, questioned, and challenged at an individual, state, and global level.Item Open Access Like 9/11 on steroids: AI in the age of Coronavirus(Academic Conferences and Publishing International Ltd, 2020-10-22) Scott, KeithAbstract: The Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 is not the first such public health crisis we have faced, nor indeed the most lethal; however, it has occurred at the perfect time to foreground a number of key issues central to the role of AI in society at individual, national, and global levels. This paper will examine the use of AI-driven systems to respond to the current situation, arguing that it marks a limit case for the employment of new technologies (most notably pervasive telecommunication). It will focus on three main concerns: UTILITY: what might AI systems offer as tools for risk/harm mitigation in situations such as these? A pandemic is the perfect domain for Big Data analysis, but there is also huge potential for transnational coordination of research, logistics, and necessary manufacture. MORALITY: AI-supported contact tracking apps (as used in Singapore and Australia) enable rapid mapping of infection spread, and the possibility of identifying key vectors, but there is a vital debate to be had about surveillance, consent, and government control of citizens through the bulk collection of data. Any discussion of AI is always an ethical conversation. AUTHORITY: we have already seen a proliferation of misinformation concerning Covid-19 distributed online; much of this, it seems, comes from utterly unreliable sources, as deliberate acts of of Information Warfare by State actors. AI offers the potential to generate highly specific messages designed to influence their targets, and distribute them further and faster than at any time in history. ‘Fake News’ has become literally lethal; how can nations and individuals employ AI systems to inoculate themselves against highly infectious, harmful ideas? The paper discusses key components of a Code of Conduct for the use of AI balancing the need for effective and rapid threat mitigation with essential human rights. The British Prime Minister has quoted Cicero’s ‘Salus populi suprema lex esto’ [the health of the people is the supreme law’]; the severity of the current crisis must not blind us to the fact that the health of the body politic is a matter of morality as much as medicine.Item Open Access No Guru, No Method, No Teacher: “Grant Morrison” and GrantMorrison™(University of Florida, 2014) Scott, Keith‘The intellect of man is forced to choose perfection of the life, or of the work’ (Yeats, ‘The Choice’) The Author, like Varese and Zappa’s modern-day composer, stubbornly refuses to accept Barthes’ declaration of death. The role of author as celebrity has never been stronger than in the era of 24/7, global web fandoms, and comics are not immune to this phenomenon, as we see in the deliberate and careful cultivation of public personae by writers such as Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, and the subject of this article, Grant Morrison. It comes as no surprise that a writer whose work plays so often with shifting identities and roles should display consummate skill in presenting and controlling his own image, and what I shall do here is examine Morrison’s self-presentation as character, both within and beyond his works, an act of auto-fictionalization which is playful, inspirational, and, as his recent position in Alan Moore’s critical cross-hairs shows, often contentious.Item Embargo 'Nothing Up My Sleeve': Information Warfare and the Magical Mindset(Elsevier, 2019) Scott, KeithThis chapter outlines how human factors have been, are being, and could be leveraged as key strategic tools in information warfare and online influence in general. The cyber domain is an informational space, and those who inhabit it (i.e. the majority of the inhabitants of the modern world) can all too easily fall prey to mis/disinformation, 'fake news', rumour, and propaganda. The chapter will examine the following questions: a. What are the key challenges facing those confronting the shifting contours of the informational environment? b. How can cyber security learn from the history of deception as a tool of influence; in particular, what can be gained from examining the interaction between the history of warfare and its connections with magic as an art form which relies on the manipulation of human cognition? c. How might the adoption of a 'magical mindset' enable us to both mitigate hostile influence operations and enable our own offensive capability?Item Open Access ‘Out Beyond Jointery’: Developing a Model for Gaming Multi-Domain Warfare’(Academic Publishing Inc, 2022) Scott, KeithPlay is battle and battle is play. [Huizinga, Homo Ludens] What Huizinga is saying here is not that conflict is playful, but rather, it is a game, following set rules of conduct and occurs within a defined zone of action. Elsewhere in Homo ludens, he argues that modern warfare operates without the ritualised, rule-based structure of, for example, the mediaeval tourney. The purpose of this paper is to consider the ways in which a model based on the structure of games may help us better engage with the challenges of Multi-Domain Conflict. We are all familiar with the concept of Cyber as the 5th Domain of warfare, but we need to consider it not as a discrete zone, but as running through and interpenetrating the other 4 (Earth, Sea, Air, Space), the informational spine that enables all other forms of conflict. This paper will: 1. Discuss the developing concept of Multi-Domain Conflict as a move ‘beyond jointery’ (as General Sir Nick Carter put it) into a truly integrated form of warfare, blurring and collapsing boundaries between kinetic and non-kinetic, between the services, and between military and civilian authority; 2. Outline a theoretical model for conceptualising Multi-Domain Conflict as gamelike in form, with environments of operation (‘boards’), protagonists (‘players’), and possible forms of action (‘moves’). As befits a conference on Cyber and Information Warfare, it will argue that the D5 model of IW (Deny, Disrupt, Degrade, Deceive and Destroy) is portable and scalable across the other 4 domains (Land, Sea, Air, Space); 3. Show how this theoretical model can be employed both to model and simulate Multi-Domain Conflict; wargames have been a key element of military planning and training for at least a century – this paper argues that we need to develop a new Kriegspiel to better understand coming conflicts. […] theories are only made to die in the war of time. Like military units, they must be sent into battle at the right moment; and whatever their merits or insufficiencies, they can only be used if they are on hand when they’re needed. [Debord 1978, p.10]Item Embargo The Persuasion Game: Developing a Serious Game Based Model for Information Warfare and Influence Studies(Academic Conferences and Publishing International Ltd., 2019-07) Ormrod, D.; Scott, Keith; Scheinman, L.; Kodalle, T.; Sample, C.; Turnbull, B.In an age of hybrid, asymmetric, and non-linear conflict, the role of Information Operations has become ever more important; this paper presents a study of a recent research project. The project examined ways of better enabling stakeholders to respond to the increasing use of influence in warfare, hybrid conflict, competition, and the realms of hard and soft politics. An international and cross-sector research group drawing on military, government, and academic expertise from seven different countries met in October 2018 to understand the best way to wargame influence. In the space of four weeks, the group worked towards the successful achievement of their initial goal; the creation of an influence wargaming community supported by a modular wargaming package and development roadmap. This paper introduces the context which has led to the establishment of the multi-national, multi-disciplinary team; discusses the reasons for employing serious gaming as a research tool for studying influence; outlines the development of the project of its initial four-week span; and summarises the initial key findings and directions for further research. The use of wargaming as a training and research tool is familiar in both the military and civil contexts; the project discussed here presents a truly innovative approach to influence studies, and shows the benefits of an interdisciplinary, cross-domain research team. The final section introduces a new influence wargaming framework that has emerged from the study.Item Open Access Phobic Cartography: a Human-Centred, Communicative Analysis of the Cyber Threat Landscape(2016-11-07) Scott, KeithThis paper outlines the first stages of a research project mapping the cyber threat landscape. The proliferation and interconnection of networked devices and the ever-growing numbers of users able to damage (accidentally or deliberately) the integrity of this system of systems leads to cyber security adopting a reactive and defensive stance, in which we devise policy on the basis of what has happened, rather than what may happen, or what we pray will never happen. Simultaneously, the growth of the domain leads to silo thinking, and a lack of communication between public and private, civilian and military sectors; there is a need for a synoptic examination of the field, pooling the knowledge of practitioners from across the discipline. This paper will present the development of the initial proof of concept study, outlining: a. use of a blended methodology, combining automated quantitative analysis (via Corpus Linguistics tools) with qualitative study (via Critical Discourse Analysis); b. ethical issues involved in obtaining, storing, and handling of the data; c. a discussion of initial hypotheses; d. the intended plan of campaign for moving the project from pilot stage to its full scope; e. proposals as to how this project may act as a driver for innovation and greater resilience in devising effective cyber security policy. Mediaeval maps often contained blank space, labelled 'Terra Incognita' and 'Here Be Monsters'; this project will develop a more detailed cartography of the threat landscape of the cyber domain, filling in the blanks and identifying the 'monsters' we fear. This is an innovative project, examining empirical data drawn from respondents across the discipline, and offers a new way of examining the challenges we face. It allows us to develop a more accurate picture of the threat landscape, and to evaluate what risks we may be ignoring.Item Embargo Phobic Cartography: A Human-Centred, Communicative Analysis of the Cyber-Threat Landscape(Journal of Information Warfare, 2017-12-23) Scott, KeithAs with all domains, cyber security runs the risk of adopting a reactive and defensive stance, which can lead to policy based on what has happened, rather than on what could happen. Expert knowledge can lead to silo thinking and ‘groupthink’, and a lack of communication between public and private, civilian and military sectors. This study offers a synoptic examination of the field by pooling the knowledge of practitioners from across the discipline. Drawing on a blended methodology, combining automated quantitative analysis with qualitative study, this project examines the challenges faced by considering the nature of perceived (rather than actual) risks.Item Open Access Racist Soapdishes and Rebellious (?) Children: Towards Human/AI Cooperation(Academic Conferences and Publishing International, 2019-11) Scott, KeithFiction is replete with tales of machine minds overthrowing their human creators. These archetypes are powerful, and durable, but they must be confronted and challenged if we are to truly address the real issues that the wholesale introduction of AI presents. This paper will argue that the problem lies not with AI in itself, but in its ability to act as a force multiplier for our own innately human biases and prejudices; as Safiya Noble and Caroline Criado Perez among others have shown, the underlying algorithms driving much of today's AI are based on entirely prejudiced assumptions, and build racism and sexism into the automated systems on which the modern world relies. As with so much within the cyber domain, the problem is not technological, but human, and it requires a human solution. What will be argued here is that greater use of AI is both inevitable and potentially hugely beneficial, but that it requires close examination of the underlying assumptions on which the fundamental programming of machine intelligences is/will be based. More than that, the paper will suggest that a truly successful future will lie in humans working with non-human intelligences, rather than in their exploitation.Item Open Access Reith, Russell, and the Robots: AI, Warfare, and Shaping the Debate(Academic Publishing Inc, 2022-07) Scott, KeithOn December 8th, 2021, Professor Stuart Russell delivered the second of that year’s Reith Lectures, presented under the banner title ‘Living With Artificial Intelligence’. This specific talk dealt with ‘The Future Role of AI in Warfare’, and in this paper I propose a reading of Russell’s address which both summarises and critiques his argument and stance, to determine what, if anything, can be taken from his position as effectively a public philosopher and applied in the realm of modern warfare, where ethical questions are taken from the seminar room and enacted in battlespace. The Reith lectures occupy a unique place in public discourse; given each year by a leading figure in the field under discussion, they help to shape opinion and debate. In considering the role of AI, and in particular its deployment in combat, there is undoubtedly a need for multi- and transdisciplinary thought, but the choice of Russell as the lecturer is not unproblematic. He is undoubtedly an expert in the field of AI, but he has no direct experience of working with the military, and is clearly not a neutral witness. He has been a leading figure in the campaign to ban research into autonomous weapon systems, and was closely involved in the production of Slaughterbots, a short film which presents a nightmare vision of swarming drones as agents of political repression. There are deep and serious questions to be asked about the role of AI in warfare, but Russell’s position that we must stop all research in the field is arguably naïve. Our adversaries will surely not be as punctilious. At the heart of the debate lie complex issues concerning human agency and control (and ‘control’ lies at the etymological root of ‘cyber’); this paper will use Russell’s lecture as a starting point for the consideration of how we might develop an ethical doctrine for the use of AI, resting on the idea of human-machine teaming. It will, in short, argue for a cybernetic solution to the problems of cyber warfare.Item Open Access Thoughts about a General Theory of Influence in a DIME/PMESII/ASCOP/IRC2 Model(Academic Conferences and Publishing International, 2019) Scott, Keith; Kodalle, Thorsten; Ormrod, Dave; Sample, CharThe leading question of this paper is: “How would influence warfare (“iWar”) work and how can we simulate it?” The paper discusses foundational aspects of a theory and model of influence warfare by discussing a framework built along the DIME/PMESII/ASCOP dimension forming a prism with three axes. The DIME concept groups the many instruments of power a nation state can muster into four categories: Diplomacy, Information, Military and Economy. PMESII describes the operational environment in six domains: Political, Military, Economic, Social, Information and Infrastructure. ASCOPE is used in counter insurgency (COIN) environments to analyze the cultural and human environment (aka the “human terrain”) and encompasses Areas, Structures, Capabilities, Organization, People and Events. In addition, the model reflects about aspects of information collection requirements (ICR) and information capabilities requirements (ICR) - hence DIME/PMESII/ASCOP/ICR2. This model was developed from an influence wargame that was conducted in October 2018. This paper introduces basic methodical questions around model building in general and puts a special focus on building a framework for the problem space of influence/information/hybrid warfare takes its shape in. The article tries to describe mechanisms and principles in the information/influence space using cross discipline terminology (e.g. physics, chemistry and literature). On a more advanced level this article contributes to the Human, Social, Culture, Behavior (HSCB) models and community. One goal is to establish an academic, multinational and whole of government influence wargamer community. This paper introduces the idea of the perception field understood as a molecule of a story or narrative that influences an observer. This molecule can be drawn as a selection of vectors that can be built inside the DIME/PMESII/ASCOP prism. Each vector can be influenced by a shielding or shaping action. These ideas were explored in this influence wargame.Item Embargo We’re Doomed! – And Your Problem Is? How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Cyber Insecurity..(2016-12-01) Scott, KeithThis discussion rests on the underlying principle that total cyber security is, was, and always will be unachievable. From its very inception, the idea of an information architecture relying on universal connectivity has been fundamentally insecure, and the proliferation of connected devices on a global scale raises the possibility of inevitable future catastrophe; the 'Internet of Things That Go Bump In The Night'. We cannot turn the clock back technologically, and legislation enacted by politicians who are overwhelmingly ignorant of what they are legislating about seems to over little chance of a positive outcome. The argument outlined here seeks to do three things: 1. Present the current nature of the cyber domain as an inevitably expanding threat landscape; 2. Discuss ways in which the anarchic nature of the domain may in fact have defensive and offensive benefits; 3. Suggest possible strategies for threat mitigation, which do not work by attempting to curb the flexible and interconnected nature of the cyber domain.Item Open Access Words For A Wired World: Cybersecurity As Communicative Art(1st International Conference on Cyber Security for Sustainable Society, 2015) Scott, KeithIn this paper I propose to examine the Snowden affair as a cultural and communicative phenomenon, looking at the ways in which the discussions around it have been framed and presented by his supporters, his detractors, and by Snowden himself. Drawing on a range of texts, but focusing primarily on the 2014 graphic novel "Beyond Edward Snowden", Snowden’s 2014 TED talk and the response to this by NSA deputy director Richard Ledgett, I will seek to present a study which, drawing on Critical Discourse Analysis, corpus linguistics and Lakoff’s theories of “frames”, allows us to better understand the ways in which this event has been “read” by the various sides. The Snowden case exemplifies the challenge faced by those working within cybersecurity to present their activities (above all those which involve the monitoring of the general public and the capture of data concerning them) in a way which appears reasonable and truthful, and which is expressed in a way which matches the vision of the world held by the intended audience. In a climate of ever-growing distrust of officialdom and government in general, there is a desperate need to find a more effective manner of stating the case against the actions of individuals such as Snowden, Manning, and Assange (to say nothing of the activities of groups such as Anonymous). The metaphor of cybersecurity as a war is both powerful and valid, but it is a conflict where the weapons must be both technical and verbal.