Three Dimensions of the Information Environment The Department of Defense (DOD) defines the information environment as the aggregate of individuals, organizations, and systems that collect, process, disseminate, or act on information- consisting of physical, informational, and cognitive dimensions, as shown in the figure below. The United States' competitors and adversaries are taking advantage of these advances and the subsequent effects in the information environment to offset the U.S.'s conventional warfighting advantages. Advances in information technology, wireless communications, and social media have increased the speed and range of information, diffused power over information, and shifted socio-cultural norms. Today's information environment poses new and complex challenges for national security as the world has shifted from an industrial age to an information age. Threat Actions in the Information Environment For example, DOD elevated the concept of "information" and has been revising its doctrine publications to reflect the fundamental nature of information in joint operations. Achieving and sustaining an advantage requires DOD to undertake and plan actions across multiple areas, including doctrine, organization, and training. Additionally, relevant reports and subject matter experts have identified extended reality, fifth-generation wireless telecommunications, and the Internet of Things as technologies that could have either positive benefits or negative consequences for DOD. DOD components identified a variety of technologies that may present either opportunities for or threats to DOD in the information environment: artificial intelligence and machine learning, quantum computing, social media platforms, and bots. DOD components identified personnel, funding, IT, organization, and training as the most important institutional challenges they face related to the information environment.Įmerging Technologies. The challenges include a lack of leadership emphasis, lack of resources, the implications of new technologies, and dated processes. National and DOD strategies and documents identify a number of institutional challenges that DOD must address. DOD components highlighted a variety of cyberspace threats, information or intelligence collection threats, influence threats, and EMS threats that adversely affect DOD personnel and capabilities (see figure below). Additionally, nonstate actors-such as insider threats, foreign terrorists, transnational criminal organizations, and others-pose a threat to DOD personnel at home and abroad. National and DOD strategies recognize that nation-states-such as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea-have demonstrated that they are threat actors in the information environment, employing malicious cyber, EMS, and influence activities against DOD interests. DOD components consistently identified the conduct of military operations, communications, command and control decision-making, and others, as missions and functions affected by the information environment. Technology, the EMS, and the sharing of data are integral to accomplishing DOD's missions in the information environment. Relationship between Misinformation, Disinformation, and MalinformationĭOD Missions and Functions. The proliferation of ubiquitous information, misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation has prompted defense experts to begin examining the concept of cognitive security. The fusion of ubiquitous information and technology has granted individuals, organizations, and nation-states the ability to target the cognitive foundations of individuals-beliefs, emotions, and experiences-for purposes either benign or malign. Based on a review of DOD strategies, questionnaires, interviews, and guidance documents, GAO found: Additionally, with DOD capabilities dependent on IT and the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS), its ability to conduct operations and activities in any of the physical domains (land, maritime, air, and space) is reliant on protecting the information environment. Given the ubiquitous nature of the information environment, both DOD and adversaries can conduct operations and activities in the information environment from anywhere in the world.
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