In the wake of recent presidential elections in the US and France, "hacking" has taken on new political and social dimensions around the globe. We are now faced with a world of complex influence operations and dubious integrity of information. What does that imply for democratic institutions, legitimacy, and public confidence?
This session will explore how liberal democracy can be hacked — ranging from direct manipulation of electronic voting tallies or voter registration lists to indirect influence over mass media and voter preferences — and question the future role of "truth" in open societies. Both domestic partisan activities and foreign interventions will be considered on technical, legal, and philosophical grounds. The speaker will build on his experience as an intelligence professional to analyze foreign capabilities and intentions in the cyber sphere in order to forecast the future of information warfare. Audience members will be engaged in a Socratic dialogue to think through how modern technologies can be used to propagate memes and influence the electorate. The feasibility of, and public policy challenges associated with, various approaches to hacking democracy will also be considered. This conceptual discussion of strategic influence campaigns will not require any specific technical or legal knowledge