Table of Contents Introduction Pacing Threats Russia China The Canadian Battleground Reaction Effective Countermeasures Conclusion End Notes About the Author Canadian Global Affairs Institute Introduction Foreign influence, interference, disinformation, deception and disruption are entwined tools of modern statecraft – referred to collectively as cognitive warfare. While Canada likes to keep cognitive and cyber-operations in clean doctrinal boxes, these days disinformation is accelerated, amplified and propagated by the internet. Similarly, most cyber-attacks are facilitated through social engineering, phishing and other means of hacking the wetware of the user’s brain. Cyber- and cognitive warfare domains are both converged and fluid. The scope of potential foreign interference activities can be broad, encompassing a range of techniques familiar to intelligence agencies. These include human intelligence operations, the use of state-sponsored or foreign-influenced media and the use of sophisticated cyber-tools.1 The framework in which Canada defines, understands and operates across the information domain is mismatched with our competition. This paper will examine how our adversaries perceive and weaponize the information domain in ways that may differ from our own and each other. We are playing this game with different rules and objectives. First, some definitions. Disinformation is misinformation deliberately spread to deceive people. Malinformation is information that is true, often private or confidential, that is intentionally leaked to inflict actual harm
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