The Cognitive Crucible

During this episode, Pete Villano discusses US Congressional oversight and authorities. During his time as Professional Staff with the House Armed Services Committee from 2010 through 2020, Pete helped politicians and other governmental leaders grapple with new national security threats and the new era of great power competition. The conversation concludes with Pete describing the pace of technological change and making the case that the United States government must innovate faster. Click here for full show notes & resources

Bio: Mr. Peter Villano works for Microsoft and is a director at the Microsoft Innovation and Policy Center in Washington, D.C. where he focuses on national security and emerging technology policy challenges. Prior to joining Microsoft, Pete served for more than a decade as a Professional Staff Member on the House Armed Services Committee, and advised Members of Congress on issues related to cyber operations and policy, information technologies, counterterrorism, special operations, Intelligence programs, and related interagency activities. He was the principal staff author of ground-breaking Artificial Intelligence legislation, including the creation of the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, and was a recent recipient of the "Fed 100" Award for 2020 from Federal Computer Weekly for contributions in Information Technology and cyberwarfare. He has also served in senior staff positions at the U.S. State Department and is a former Naval Officer with service in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen, leading specialized Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) or "Bomb Squad" teams.

IPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

For more information, please contact us at [email protected].

Or, you can connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell on LinkedIn.

During this episode, Dr. Chris Paul discusses his co-authored article, the Firehose of Falsehood. The discussion covers distinctive features of contemporary Russian Propaganda including, how it works, why it works, and psychological underpinnings. Dr. Paul provides numerous examples, discusses blind-spot bias, and talks about ways that we might mitigate disinformation. Click here for full show notes & resources

Bio: Christopher Paul is a senior social scientist at the RAND Corporation and professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Prior to joining RAND full-time in July 2002, Paul worked as an adjunct at RAND for six years and was on the statistics faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Paul has written over a dozen monographs related to operations in the information environment.

IPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

For more information, please contact us at [email protected].

Or, you can connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell on LinkedIn.

During this episode, MAJ Ash Holzmann discusses psychological operations, the nature of propaganda, the philosophical underpinnings of propaganda, along with numerous historical examples. Click here for full show notes & resources

MAJ Ash Holzmann is a horror writer, satirist, poet, artist, and Psychological Operations Officer in the U.S. Army Special Operations community. The opinions expressed by Ashley are his own and not representative of the Department of Defense or the United States Army.

IPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

For more information, please contact us at [email protected].

Or, you can connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell on LinkedIn.

During this episode, John Bicknell has a wide-ranging discussion with Tom Sear about his stunning piece on Xenowar--a fictionalized possible future rooted in philosophy, second order cybernetics, and state of the art digital weaponry. Xenowar provokes conversation about data stacks, sovereignty in the Digital Age, and new PTSD management techniques. (Note: During the episode, John Bicknell inaccurately referenced Joseph Campbell's most famous work; the correct reference (linked below) is The Hero with a Thousand Faces.)

Click here for full show notes & resources

Tom Sear is one of Australia's leading commentators, researchers and advisers on democratic resilience in an era of cyber conflict and social media manipulation. Tom has advised the Australian and New Zealand Governments along with the US Department of Defense on cyber security and social media manipulation, counter influence initiatives and digital literacy policy. His PhD concerns how to build tolerant national cultures in social media to defend pluralistic societies. Tom led grant-funded data analysis projects to analyze cross platform nation-state social media propaganda influence operations during the recent Australian Federal election. Tom is an advisor and cyber security practitioner to government and Industry. He is an experienced and DST grant funded researcher in global multi platform social media analysis including cross lingual work with WeChat.

IPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

For more information, please contact us at [email protected].

Or, you can connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell on LinkedIn.

During this episode, Steven Bradley discusses threat intelligence, Department of Homeland Security Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs), and the newly formed Cognitive Security Intelligence Center. Click here for full show notes & resources

Steven Bradley works at the intersection of technology, security operations, and policy to advance U.S. national cyber defense. He has over 20 years of experience managing the development and application of advanced data analytics solutions to support a variety of national security missions, including cybersecurity, through his work at the Department of Energy National Laboratories. He has also led cyber threat intelligence teams engaged in threat analysis, attack simulation and threat hunting. In July 2020 he became the director of the newly-formed Cognitive Security Intelligence Center, and in August, he published a paper through the Carnegie Endowment Partnership for Countering Influence Operations entitled: "Securing the United States from Online Disinformation—A Whole-of-Society Approach."

IPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

For more information, please contact us at [email protected].

Or, you can connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell on LinkedIn.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

During this episode, Dr. Boyd Brown discusses the history of military deception with examples. Then, the conversation shifts to current day deception technology in cyberspace. Dr. Brown describes new cyber defenses which place intruders into a hall of mirrors which wastes the enemy's time while simultaneously collecting valuable intelligence about enemy intent. Click here for full show notes & resources

Dr. Barton Boyd Brown is a retired US Army Information Operations officer and President of Lexington Solutions Group. As a member of the first cohort of Army IO officers, Dr. Brown has planned and executed IO for conventional and special operations forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Balkans, and around the globe. His military IO assignments include service at the Land Information Warfare Activity as a Field Support Team Chief and later as the J3 Information Operations Division Chief for Joint Special Operations Command. Upon retiring from the Army in 2006, Dr. Brown joined Booz Allen Hamilton, where he supported clients across the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community. In 2014, he founded Lexington Solutions Group to provide national security, strategic communication, and management consulting services to both government and commercial clients.

IPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

For more information, please contact us at [email protected].

Or, you can connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell on LinkedIn.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

This is a special 90-minute bonus episode of the Cognitive Crucible.

On October 29th 2020, IPA and AFCEA's ALAMO Chapter co-hosted a Virtual Panel on Combatting Disinformation in a Competitive Information Environment. The star-studded panel of senior government personnel and thought leaders spotlights the current pivot toward a convergence approach to improve our competitive advantage across the strategic and operational environments, most specifically in the cyber-enabled information space.

The event slide deck is available here.

Across the National and Defense enterprise, agencies and organizations are reprioritizing and reorganizing to more effectively compete in a competitive and complex global information environment. The Nation is being increasingly impacted by cutting-edge technology and sophisticated influence activities to shape perceptions, decisions and behavior.

The discussion is framed by the recently released Defense Science Board study regarding global competition in the information environment, includes ongoing efforts, and as well as new initiatives to support USG and DOD priorities in cognitive security such establishing a Cognitive Security Proving Ground, re-establishing the Phoenix Challenge information operations conference series, and discussion of the newly-established Principal Information Operations Advisor to the Secretary of Defense.

Moderated by Mr. Austin Branch; the star-studded panelists are:

• Ms. Lynne Patrick, Technical Director at Sixteenth Air Force Joint Base San Antonio
• Dr. Brian Pierce, Visiting Research Scientist at the Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS)
• LTG (RET.) Ed Cardon, Former Commander of US Army Cyber Command, and Commander JTF ARES
• Mr. Rob "Bus" Bussian, Director for Cyber and Strategic Enabling in the Concepts, Development and Management Office under the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force
• Mr. Bob Pearson, Social media expert, author, professor, digital consultant
• Mr. Joe Kelly, Applied Research Lab for Intelligence and Security and President of Pointweaver, LLC

For more information, please contact us at [email protected].

Or, you can connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell on LinkedIn.

During this episode, we have a wide ranging conversation with futurist, Brian David Johnson (or BDJ). Threastcasting is an innovative, interdisciplinary technique being used by a wide range of organizations and institutions to create actionable models to comprehend possible futures and identify, track, disrupt, mitigate and recover from them as well. Threatcasting bridges gaps and prompts information exchange and learning across military, academics, industrial and governmental communities. Click here for full show notes & resources

Brian David Johnson is a Professor of Practice & Director of the Threatcasting Lab at Arizona State University's School for the Future of Innovation in Society, and a Futurist and Fellow at Frost & Sullivan, a innovation company that's focused on growth. Brian works with governments, militaries, trade organizations, and startups to help them envision their future. He has over 40 patents and is the author of a number of books of fiction and nonfiction. He's also directed two feature films, and is an illustrator and commissioned painter.

IPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

For more information, please contact us at [email protected].

Or, you can connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell on LinkedIn.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Marine Corps Colonel Brian Russell discusses his experiences with Joint Task Force ARES, allied and joint force partnerships, and lessons learned which are relevant for synchronizing operations in the Information Environment going forward. He also provides an overview of the Marine Corps' information operations capability: the Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group (II MEF Information Group) -- collect, protect, and project. Click here for full show notes & resources Colonel Brian Russell is the commanding officer of II Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group (II MIG) in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He commissioned as a Marine Corps Officer in December 1995 from North Carolina State University. Upon completion of basic officer training he went on to become a field artillery officer. His combat deployments include serving as the Military Transition Team Leader in Habbaniyah, Iraq, the executive officer of Brigade Headquarters Group in Helmand Province, Afghanistan and Plans Director in Bagram, Afghanistan. Some of his notable staff assignments include: Operations Directorate at Marine Corps Special Operations Command, Operations Directorate at United States Cyber Command, and U.S. Plans Directorate at Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command.

IPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

For more information, please contact us at [email protected].

Or, you can connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell on LinkedIn.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

During this episode, Johannes Tammekänd discusses the evolution of deepfake technology and ways of countering the threat. He describes the dynamic as an arms race which requires increasingly sophisticated techniques to identify imagery, audio, and video which has been altered. Additionally, we discuss the upcoming United States Presidential election and the potential for a deepfake video to cause a major upheaval in the transfer of power. Johannes also describes the biggest systemic risk of deepfakes as fundamentally altering our perception of reality. Click here for full show notes & resources Bio: Johannes Tammekänd is the CEO & Co-Founder of Sentinel, an Estonian based startup which helps democratic governments, defense agencies and internal media counter the threat of deepfakes through an AI-based detection and exercise platform. Previously he worked in NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense (CCD) Center of Excellence (COE) as a cybersecurity expert and architected deep learning systems for Payload-Security which he exited to CrowdStrike.

Find out more about and register for the 29 Oct 2020 Virtual Panel on Convergence and Information Advantage, which is co-sponsored by IPA and AFCEA Alamo Chapter.

IPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

For more information, please contact us at [email protected].

Or, you can connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell on LinkedIn.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.