Journal: Journal of Information Technology & Politics

Abbreviation

Publisher

Routledge

Journal Volumes

ISSN

1933-169X
1933-1681

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2017 - 201912020 - 20253
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Publications 1 - 4 of 4
  • Donetsk don’t tell – ‘hybrid war’ in Ukraine and the limits of social media influence operations
    Item type: Journal Article
    Maschmeyer, Lennart; Abrahams, Alexei; Pomerantsev, Peter; et al. (2025)
    Journal of Information Technology & Politics
    The limits of social media influence operations are investigated in this Journal of Information Technology & Politics Article written by CSS’ Lennart Maschmeyer. In collaboration with Alexei Abrahams, Peter Pomerantsev, and Volodymyr Yermolenko, he challenges the widely shared belief of social media enabling more potent influence operations than traditional mass media. By focusing on influence operations targeted at Ukraine, a theoretical framework is developed, showing how and why decentralized and centralized media both offer respective opportunities and challenges for conducting influence operations. Tested against the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, the paper does not dismiss the potential effectiveness of social media in spreading disinformation, but rather reminds to not overestimate the threat. In fact, it is an ample reminder of the overall limitations of influence operations.
  • A Tale of Two Cybers - How Threat Reporting by Cybersecurity Firms Systematically Underrepresents Threats to Civil Society
    Item type: Journal Article
    Maschmeyer, Lennart; Deibert, Ronald; Lindsay, Jon (2021)
    Journal of Information Technology & Politics
    Public and academic knowledge of cyber conflict relies heavily on data from commercial threat reporting. According to Lennart Maschmeyer, there are reasons to be concerned that these data provide a distorted view of cyber threat activity. This article analyzes an original dataset of available public reporting by the private sector together with independent research centers. It also presents three case studies tracing reporting patterns on a cyber operation targeting civil society. The findings confirm the neglect of civil society threats, supporting the hypothesis that commercial interests of firms will produce a systematic bias in reporting, which functions as much as advertising as intelligence. The result is a truncated sample of cyber conflict that underrepresents civil society targeting and distorts academic debate as well as public policy.
  • Communication power struggles on social media: A case study of the 2011–12 Russian protests
    Item type: Journal Article
    Spaiser, Viktoria; Chadefaux, Thomas; Donnay, Karsten; et al. (2017)
    Journal of Information Technology & Politics
  • The hidden threat of cyber-attacks - undermining public confidence in government
    Item type: Journal Article
    Shandler, Ryan; Gomez, Miguel Alberto (2023)
    Journal of Information Technology & Politics
    This paper argues that the primary threat posed by cyber-attacks is not cataclysmic physical destruction - but rather more insidious societal risks such as reduced trust in government. To test this claim, we collect and analyze survey data in the immediate aftermath of a ransomware attack against a Dusseldorf hospital (n = 707). We find that exposure to cyber-attacks significantly diminishes public confidence among segments of the population who are exposed to the attack. Cyber-attacks exploit particular qualities of cyberspace that are directly tied to matters of public confidence, causing a precipitous drop in public trust. Second, we identify the psychological mechanism underpinning this effect, with anger and dread intervening in countervailing directions. Feelings of anger triggered by exposure to cyber-attacks amplify public confidence, while the more potent feeling of dread reduces confidence. Our findings verify that governments cannot rely on a unifying social-cohesion effect following cyber-attacks since the public is liable to perceive the authorities as incapable of defending against future threats. We conclude by discussing why escalating cyber-threats can cause severe social upheaval and reduce trust in democratic institutions, and discuss what constitutes exposure to the new generation of attacks in cyberspace.
Publications 1 - 4 of 4