Definition in regards to cyber warfare
Psychological operations are primarily concerned with capturing or manipulating the psychology of a population
History
Impact
Terroeist try to create negative view of US
Past attacks
Current attacks on US
How to prevent these kinds of attacks, how to respond
anticipating and countering propaganda and
disinformation themes to allow for maximum control of the
environment
Part of the challenge of counterpropaganda is deciding whether or not to
execute a counterpropaganda program in an active sense. Due to constraints,
silence may be an option. It may be far more damaging to initiate a weak
counterpropaganda plan and have it fail than to employ the silent option.
In addition to both DDOS and malicious code, there is another procedure being increasingly used in cyber warfare against the United States. It is known as a psychological operation. This type of attack does not target hardware and computers, instead it targets the people. More specifically, it targets the people’s perceptions and views.
Psychological operations may broadly be defined as the planned use of communications to influence human attitudes and behavior, to create in target groups, behavior, emotions, and attitudes that support the achievement of one’s political, military, or ideological objectives. ( cite) . This form of communication can be as simple as spreading information covertly by word of mouth or through any means of mass media.
In the doctrine titled, “Psychological Operations”, prepared under the direction of the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, Lloyd J. Austin, a target audience is defined as “an individual or group selected for influence or attack by means of psychological operations.” The document highlights the possibility of supporting national objectives with psychological operations following these three basic objectives.
-Weaken the will of the adversary or potential adversary target audiences....