Foxtrot Stream Team Summaries

Defenders of the Sample Gates - Indiana University

NATO can maximize cyberspace awareness and readiness to combat disinformation through the utilization of the Observe-Orient-Decision-Act loop as a decision-making heuristic framework. Our solution creates robust observation capabilities through the consolidation of cyber and public relations units into a single Disinformation Command. Partnership with private technology companies is critical to orienting towards emerging and evolving cyber threats. Utilizing the NATO Industry Cyber Partnership, NATO can analyze disinformation using natural language processing and predictive analysis in partnership with private firms to create a responsive decision-making loop. Decision points analytically created by this responsive loop can be used by Disinformation Command to decide on the best courses of action. In final action, Disinformation Command can operationalize effective responses and then provide predictive analysis reports to private technology partners to enhance further response capabilities on emerging disinformation threats.

Seawolves - Stony Brook University 

If NATO countries are to successively combat disinformation, they must regulate social media companies like they are public utilities, just like you would for a telephone or electric company, so that free speech and other enlightenment values can be expanded to cover social media platforms, which should be regarded as the new public squares. If it’s not regulated as a public utility, the only alternative would be for governments to censor speech, which would in turn make the populace angry and make them more inclined to listen to disinformation and distrust their government. NATO would enforce this type of system by rewarding countries who comply with this measure. Specifically, these countries would gain greater representation in NATO decision-making than those who do not. In regards to sustainability, NATO will hold many Open Town Hall Meetings and YouTube Live Streams to educate the populace about the importance of combating disinformation. Additionally, Live Streams on some internal NATO meetings would also provide more needed transparency. This would also be a very cost-efficient method.

St Andrews DMK - University of St Andrews

Aqua Sleuths - William & Mary

Cyber warfare is a constantly evolving battle ground where civilians are the pawns of disinformation schemes led by opponents like Russia. Our plan consists of 2 components. First is a database containing all relevant campaign information submitted by verified candidates organized and maintained by NATO that is accessible to all countries under the threat of being meddled with. Second is a course that trains people how to recognize fake articles and report them to be verified. This course would turn into a game where players can level up by watching more lessons and correctly identifying fake news. This course should be accessible on all platforms, in all languages. Hopefully social media companies would partner with NATO and remove articles that are reported. 

This is a very scalable and sustainable solution that can adapt to the future of cyber-warfare. The educational component is also a valuable long term investment.

Soldiers of Troy - University of Southern California

In order to counter the rise of digital disinformation and propaganda campaigns, we propose NATO develop a working group or task force that builds on the framework of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) and the U.S. State Department’s Global Engagement Center. This working group will build upon this existing civil-government-military relationship to identify, understand, and counter disinformation and propaganda efforts by state and non-state actors. It will create a hash database of disinformation and propaganda content for use by governments and corporations to curb disinformation campaigns and prevent its amplification. This database will also build a profile of state and non-state actor groups to help with identifying and understanding of their methodology and characteristics.

Cyberian Huskies - University of Texas at San Antonio

In order to aid states in assessing disinformation risks as it relates to cyberspace, members will be provided with official NATO Disinformation Alert Standards containing various threat levels. Per state request, NATO will make itself available for appropriate assistance. The NATO Disinformation Collaboration Task Force will assist in evaluating and assigning threat levels as well as developing the Disinformation Threat Intelligence Feed. The Disinformation Threat Intelligence Feed will support states in monitoring various disinformation campaigns as they occur. The Task Force will be comprised of NATO experts, industry partners, and state representatives. Annual reports will promote transparency. Performance metrics will be determined by the time to detect and respond to threats, as well as use of NATO Disinformation Alert Standards and Disinformation Threat Intelligence Feeds by member states. Nation state dues will contribute to funding towards facilities, task force employees, and Threat Intelligence Feed resources.

ELAIM - Nottingham Trent University

A plan to implement a verification system in which a three-tier verification on social media platforms, a circle verification ring will appear around the individual’s picture. This verification is here as a reliability symbol to other users and therefore, individuals posting online are exposed to other users if they are not verified by a social media account and individuals that see the post can be aware that this post may not be true or a reliable source. Furthermore, within the election period of a NATO member state, social media companies will tag any posts that contain key words (e.g., *country* election) being with a link to a NATO run website that includes information on the election such as candidate manifestos, debates, etc. This tag will simply give people the option to research the post and link attached to stop any misinformation being spread like social media companies do with COVID19.

Dokuz Eylül - Dokuz Eylül University

This project will require many specialists and skilled engineers; they will be active on internet and develop a machine learning system to increase effectiveness. This software will develop as a form of mobile application. It will collect data from social media platforms and will provide fact-check mechanism. The social media users may share their intended information with the app and can compare it with data and have certain percentage for correctness. The app system focuses on certain keywords in social media and official news websites. The app will function during the election campaigns to reduce political tension, polarization and spreading of disinformation. Budget of this app come from member states and voters donations. Because disinformation triggers member states security concerns and voters can be encouraged with the security of their votes. So we can fund the developers of the software and cyber-security team that control the rule of the application.