February 5, 2001 in Moscow in Mosbiznesbank in the framework of 6-th International forum "security Technologies" was held all-Russian conference "Information security of Russia in conditions of global information society". In a resolution adopted at the end of this conference, said that the rapid development and widespread application of information technologies, turning information into a valuable resource of life causes the movement of humanity towards the information society.
Modern Russia and the world
This is reflected in adopted countries "Big eight" the Okinawa Charter on global information society (22 July 2000), according to which Russia becomes a full member of the global information society. However, her position in this community will depend on what she will bring it and how can protect their own interests, including in the field of information security.
Today, many political scientists and sociologists have noted that currently there is a significant change in the role of communications caused by the increase in the cost of intangible assets, as well as the entry of new high-tech companies. Along with this comes the creation of increasingly sophisticated technologies impact on the audience that are becoming more available. So under the influence of processes of globalization, Internet becomes an important channel to influence behaviour and perception of people. Today information never became the instrument of power.
New aspects of the information war Already quite a lot written about that transition in the middle of 80-ies the information in the category of most important resources of the state brought to life and the problem of the possession of this resource. In national military doctrines of many countries the concept of "information warfare" and "information weapons". For a large number of publications in this field can judge about a specific public interest in this issue.
In most publications, the topic of information warfare is reduced to its description as modern electronic warfare associated with achieving superiority over the enemy by paralyzing the actions of its management systems. However, it should be noted that in recent years the emphasis in the definition of the objectives of information warfare has significantly shifted from the control systems armament and military equipment per person – the decision maker, unfortunately, this aspect of information warfare for several reasons, is quite poorly represented in the press. In the meantime, information weapons can be used long before the outbreak of hostilities, and the Russian Federation, with significant military and economic potential and for representing Western countries is a serious obstacle to world domination, is the object of close attention of special services of foreign countries involved in information warfare.
As noted by some practitioners, among the most serious consequences of problems solved with the help of the information weapon, are the following:
- the creation of an atmosphere of spirituality and immorality, negative attitudes to the cultural heritage of the enemy;
- manipulation of public consciousness and political orientation of social groups of the population to create political tension and chaos;
- destabilization of political relations among parties, associations and movements to provoke conflict, fuelling mistrust, suspicion, aggravation of political struggle, provoking repressions against the opposition, provocation of mutual destruction;
- the decrease in the level of information support of authorities and management, are inspired by wrong management decisions;
- disinformation of the population about the work of public authorities, undermine their authority, discredit the government;
- provoking social, political, national and religious clashes;
- the initiation of strikes, riots and other actions of economic protest; the difficulty of adoption by the management bodies of important decisions;
- the undermining of the international authority of the state, its cooperation with other countries; damage to the vital interests of the state in the political, economic, defense and other fields.
PR-campaign – information operations peacetime
However, it should be noted that today in Russia, as in any other country in the world received wide and uncontrolled by the government the spread of all kinds of Agency public relations (PR Agency), imidzhmeykera firms, etc., which in practice are often well-trained "units of information front". So in one of the reports at the conference of representatives of these agencies held in Moscow in mid-February of the current year, emphasized that when planning, conducting and evaluating the effectiveness of any PR campaign (read – "information operations") is the main information field formed by mass media, which the report referred to as "media information box".
As the main purpose of the analysis of the media and information field have been determined the identification and description of the most favourable thematic, temporal, territorial and other segments to build the most successful strategy focused communicative impact on the audience. Especially it was emphasized that in the preparation of PR campaigns the main goal of the primary information analysis is the elucidation of the basic characteristics of the information field. When implementing PR campaigns for the purpose of analysis of the information field is continually monitoring the situation to adjust and enhance the effectiveness of PR campaigns, as well as for a more qualitative assessment of these efforts. When working in crisis (someone else's PR campaign) analysis is performed to identify the first signs of a counter-campaign, for her warning, placing protection and searching for possible points of attack.
One of the most interesting methods of analysis is a metaphorical analysis of the information field. In this case, the purpose of the study is to outline the overall metaphorical map of the information field on this topic, possible to create preconditions for simulation and generation of new metaphors needed to change the worldview of the target audience. It is emphasized that the implementation of the most original, memorable and strategically correct metaphors in the minds of the target audience is one of the major tasks of any information operation. It is believed that one of the most effective types of analysis is media monitoring.
Typically, the media monitoring includes:
- daily providing clients with clippings of print media for the day, and also television and radio announcements with reference to the client over the past day;
- analysis of print media, TV and radio materials (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly);
- formation of digest media on a given topic;
- counting the frequency and volume (amount of air time, newspaper strips, etc.) of mentions in the media, people, products and companies given the nature of presenting information;
- ranking mentions of persons, companies, or themes;
- tracking of advertising and PR-campaigns and analyzing their effectiveness;
- identifying the beginning, the intensity and aggressiveness of information campaigns, the identification of the involvement of various channels, publications, presenters, authors and focus of their positive or negative impact on the population;
- identification of hidden relationships between objects or subjects of monitoring in information flow;
- psycho-linguistic examination of texts articles, stories, speeches in mass media, commercials, etc. to identify the subconscious impact of texts on audiences.
Media monitoring has the following distinctive features:
- continuous monitoring of selected media, including without exception, all television and radio broadcasts (the broadcasting network), which allows exactly to determine the total airtime, the number and frequency of references on persons and groups of influence, to identify announcements of items of event rows and users to ensure completeness of the information on the selected fields and items lists;
- full recording of TV broadcast of the electronic mass media;
- a complete theme video and audio tapes video and audio tapes on persons and groups of influence; maintaining a database of media monitoring with a large set of search fields and drop-down lists, which allows users low skills “instantly” to find the required information to build custom information feeds and digests, eliminating irrelevant fragments, and the manufacturer is not to increase staff in proportion to the increase of orders and other thematic selections of documents;
- the ability to determine the burden on consumers of the media (number, frequency of references, airtime, mass audience of items in the list are topics, events, persons, groups, etc.), including the nature of the load to persons and groups of influence (positive, negative, neutral);
- the ability to determine the “priorities” of the media in covering the activities of persons, groups of influence, “attachments” of certain leading authors, commentators to persons, groups, topics, establishing coordinated working groups of staff of various media.
Many domestic experts in the field of PR-technologies note that techniques developed today, expert assessments of the political situation very effectively, with the modern level of theoretical and practical training of technologists is quite high for campaigns of any scale and orientation, as is shown by the Russian reality. The presence of such a powerful and well-paid contingent of spin doctors while the lack of clear information policy in the state creates a serious threat to both internal and external security of Russia.
The fate of Russia in XXI century
The fire at the Ostankino tower in the summer of 2000 clearly showed that for 90 % of the population of Russia TV remains the main source of information.
Television is still the absolute leader among the national media impact on public consciousness. Not by chance the first rebuilt after a fire in the transmission has become one of many "soap operas". And in this sphere the most prominent threats to our information security, most significantly our failure. Russia continues to be replaced with international satellite TV market and in the medium term control over the use of the space segment broadcast may be completely lost.
In 1991, after distribution through MCRC (international Committee on the allocation of broadcast frequencies - IFRB) 720 "setups" of satellites in geostationary orbit Russia got only 57. USA took 245 "points", international organization, 267. And we - Russia - over the years, we have been able to occupy only 27 of our allotted places. Due to the large number of applications MCCR decided in late 2000 to revise the principles for the use of the geostationary orbit, in particular, to reduce the terms "secure" 9-to-5 years.
Taking into account the difficulties with the financing of Russian projects, it can be assumed that as a result of the new distribution Russia will lose its unoccupied point. In addition, after the conversion of the Intersputnik on American machines, "LMI-1" we will lose 15 more orbital positions, which in principle could serve the interests of our country. 1991-1998, the share grouping of television broadcasting satellites Russia has decreased from 30% to 16% of the global total. The U.S. share is 43%, Western Europe 39%. Russia's participation in the global satellite communications market over the same period dropped to 2.4%. Another factor which has a decisive influence on the development of television broadcasting in our country, are the processes of commercialization and the related growing influence of foreign capital. Obviously, the stronger the influence of foreign capital, the harder it is to expect from Russian television of the existence of informational independence. In November 1998, the geostationary orbit (36 ° e) was launched the first private Russian satellite immediate television "Bonum-1" by the famous American company "Hughes" on the order of holding "Media-the Bridge" and its affiliated company "Bonum-the Bridge". The project cost $ 150 million. USA. The project was implemented with the financial support of the American "Eximbank" and "chase Manhattan Bank". The equipment of the satellite has transponders 8, each of which provides 6 channels broadcast in digital standard. In Moscow, St. Petersburg, Arkhangelsk and almost all the capitals of the CIS with the financial support of the us holding "Metromedia international group" services of satellite television offered by the company "Space-TV". Keeping the focus on broadcasting to foreign audiences in Russia and people who speak foreign languages, the company is gradually increasing and the number of channels with Russian simultaneous translation or dual audio.
Today Russia can receive more than 50 foreign TV channels broadcast via satellite. Capital Soros, Murdock, Turner and other directly or via a joint venture - "jfp-Telecom", "BelCel", the advertising Agency on TV channels ORT, TV-6, NTV) participate in the activities of the Russian media.
Foreign capital begins to define and information policy in the Russian media. Information and psychological impact on the population of our country into the propaganda interests of the US and NATO countries is virtually unchecked and unmonitored. For anybody not a secret that radio "Liberty" is a division of the U.S. intelligence community to conduct special operations abroad, funded by the U.S. Congress and rigidly holds the line of the American State Department, contrary to the interests of Russia. The President's Directive PDD-68, dated 30.01.99 the White house has created a new structure called "INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC INFORMATION GROUP" (IPI). The objectives of this organization included professional use of intelligence information in order to influence "emotions, motives, behavior of foreign governments, organizations, and individual citizens." A significant role in creating the Agency was played by the intelligence community, primarily the CIA. Many countries are now creating systems of protection against information aggression, American cultural expansion. In France, for example, on television is permitted to show not more than 50% of foreign films, the vast majority of which, as you know, American. Our government still has not taken any substantial measures for ideological protection of its citizens. Given the complexity and specificity of information influence, to ensure the security of the Russian Federation the country is vital for the formation of the Federal scientific and coordinating centre of research on the subject of information security. You can also consider the question of creating a Federal it security.
Can not do in solving this problem and without proper legal base in the sphere of information security, without clear allocation of authority between Federal agencies in the sphere of information security and the agreed programme of action of Federal agencies in the field of information security. Unfortunately, you have to admit, Russia remains almost the only country that consistently achieves at the international level of similar statement of a question. Substantial work has been done, prepared and presented materials on information security at 53 and 55 sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations. However, this is clearly not enough. You must make every effort to ensure that in the twenty-first century advances in information technology have served exclusively for the benefit of mankind. Having missed the time today, tomorrow we are taking a risk to stand on the brink of a new arms race. In this case, the danger of the outbreak of the global information war, the action of which will be the thinnest achievement of evolution – the human mind, will become a reality.
Tags: Russia , security , information war , threat