Securing the Digital Media Ecosystem
Susan E. McGregor · 2024
Abstract Information warfare—in the forms of “fake news” and social media manipulation—has captured the imagination of both policymakers and the American public. Despite explanations to the contrary, many of these “attacks” are neither technically sophisticated nor especially covert. With increased public attention, however, manipulation efforts will likely move toward exploiting the more universal insecurities of digital dissemination, such as the use of unauthenticated content. Though nearly real-time content alteration, fabrication, and misattribution are already possible, it is also possible to design a digital publication infrastructure that is robust against both present and near-future information manipulation attacks. Implementing these approaches at scale would offer both publishers and the public a path toward greater resilience against disinformation-based security threats.