NATO study experimented with using social media to influence soldiers
BY RACHEL FRAZIN - 02/21/19 08:24 PM EST
A research group affiliated with with the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) found it was able to "instill undesirable behavior" in soldiers and gain "very detailed" personal information about them.
A study published in January by NATOs Strategic Communications Center of Excellence and first reported by Wired this week explored "what kind of user data is available in the digital environment and demonstrates how a malicious actor can exploit this data in the context of a military exercise," according to its abstract.
It found that someone looking to target soldiers for a real military exercise would be able to influence them.
"The results...suggest that in the current digital arena an adversary would be able to collect enough personal data on soldiers to create targeted messages with precision, successfully influencing their chosen target audience to carry out desired behaviors," according to the abstract.
Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/431077-nato-experimented-with-using-social-media-to-influence