Cyber untruths 'biggest threat' to democracy warns defence forces expert

'The issue of disinformation is unlikely to improve in the short term,' the cyber expert said. 

The spread of disinformation online is arguably the most significant threat to democracy in a generation, a cyber expert in the Defence Forces has said.

Commandant Ken Sheehan said cyber attacks threaten the “integrity and verifiability” of data and the “very nature of truth”.

Speaking at a webinar organised by Cyber Ireland, Comdt Sheehan said there were several recent attacks against critical national infrastructure, most notably, in the US, the February 2021 attacks on a water treatment plant in Florida, and the attack on the Colonial Pipeline in May, and the HSE cyber attack in the same month.

He said the Defence Forces had seconded personnel to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), in the Department of Communications, which is the lead agency against cyber attacks.

The Officer Commanding of 1 Brigade Communications & Information Services (CIS) Company said the focus of the NCSC was “getting the job done” and said that was really evident in the response to the HSE cyber attack.

He said every CIS unit in the Defence Forces was brought in to assist hospitals to get their systems back up.

Every CIS unit in the Defence Forces was brought in to assist hospitals to get their systems back up after the attack.

“We see ourselves as the national insurance policy,” he said and pointed out that his unit carried out a joint operation in Cork University Hospital.

“Our ability to go there at short notice where children were being born and help get through a significant amount of devices side by side with the HSE and IT consultants was a career highlight,” he said.

He warned that the trends internationally did not look good: “The spread of disinformation over cyberspace is arguably the most significant threat to democracy in a generation.” 

He said that in 2020 evidence was found that 81 countries used social media to “spread propaganda and political disinformation”, an increase of 11 on 2019.

“The issue of disinformation is unlikely to improve in the short term,” he said. 

These attacks, he said, sought to “undermine integrity and verifiability of data information and the very nature of truth”.

He said a number of studies show “a marked increase” in malicious cyber activity, with one study finding a 660% surge in attacks between 2019 and 2020.

He said one study said that over 120 cyber attacks were attributed to nation states.

He said the G7 (Group of Seven) put out a statement last June urging Russia to hold those who were inside its border to account over ransomware attacks.

Commandant Rónán O’Flaherty, seconded to the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, in Tallinn, Estonia, said international law does apply to the cyber domain, but said applying it was the problem, particularly in attributing attacks to nation states.

A number of studies show “a marked increase” in malicious cyber activity.

He is the first Irish person assigned to the centre, which, while accredited by Nato, is not under its command structure, allowing non-militarily aligned states to join.

He said the centre was focused on technology, operations, strategy and the law and that the primary collaboration was “information sharing”.