iWar: The Evolution of Information Warfare in the Digital Age

The talk opens with how conflict has moved into digital space, citing the 2007 denial-of-service attacks against Estonia, the NotPetya wiper that spread through a Ukrainian tax software supply chain, and ransomware groups whose affiliates may include state-linked operators. The speakers argue that Western security circles blur cyber operations with information operations, which aim to change how people think and act. They describe cognitive targeting through feeds, ads and screen design, and suggest personal habits such as blocking ads, disabling news comments and reading longer-form material to slow consumption.

The middle section turns to infrastructure. The presenters note that telecom protocols such as SS7 and 3GPP are decades old, that cheap software-defined radio now gives hobbyists capabilities once costing a fortune, and that centralized services create single points of failure. They weigh decentralized alternatives such as mesh networks, which they say degrade beyond about a hundred nodes, against their own reliability problems. They also cover the Ethereum Name Service and the regulatory fight over crypto, including SEC enforcement actions and the end of Chevron deference in US courts.

The closing message is that these problems have no complete fix yet. The audience is encouraged to understand how these systems depend on one another, to weigh the trade-offs of decentralization, and to be deliberate about the information they consume.