Like a dear family relative who won’t stop talking at Thanksgiving dinner, a backdoor exploit also talks to anyone who’ll listen. Come listen to the Cyberlous Mrs. Maisel! She’ll offer a satirical reflection on how we engage with technology in the Information Age and explain the basic historical principles that animate Russia’s approach to information warfare. Topics covered include maskirovka (i.e., camouflage, concealment, and deception), disinformation, and reflexive control, among others. Although a strategic objective of information warfare is to induce complacency with falsehoods, this presentation’s unique style can help jolt the public’s consciousness awake through its originality and bite.
Jessica ‘Zhanna’ Malekos Smith, a Duke University researcher, served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps and is a delegate in Stanford University’s U.S.-Russia Forum. She received a B.A. from Wellesley College, an M.A. and A.K.C. from King’s College London, Department of War Studies, and J.D. from the University of California, Davis School of Law. Malekos Smith has held fellowships with the Madeleine K. Albright Institute for Global Affairs, the Belfer Center’s Cyber Security Project at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Duke University Law School as the Everett Cyber Scholar. She has presented at DEF CON, RSA, and ShmooCon, and been published in The Hill, Defense One, and The National Interest, among others.