This talk surveys the landscape of digital security as a national security issue. Herbert Lin will address both offensive operations in cyberspace (essentially, computer hacking as an instrument of national policy) and information/influence operations (i.e., "mind hacking" as instruments of national policy). On the former, what happens when our computers don’t work as well anymore? On the latter, what happens when everyone has their own facts to bring to bear on a situation or a problem?

Speaker

Herbert Lin is a senior research scholar and Hank J. Holland Fellow at Stanford University. His research interests focus on the policy-related dimensions of security in cyberspace, including offensive operations in cyberspace as instruments of national policy, information warfare and influence operations, and emerging technologies. He is also chief scientist, emeritus for the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies and a member of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. In 2016, he served on President Obama’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. In 2019, he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2020, he was a commissioner on the Aspen Commission on Information Disorder. Prior to his NRC service, he was a professional staff member and staff scientist for the House Armed Services Committee (1986-1990). He received his doctorate in physics from MIT.