Cybersecurity

The weaponization of words and conversations

There are approximately 3.7 billion internet users in the world, and the average time spent viewing online content continues to increase year after year. The weaponization of internet components including content continues to evolve, and the ability to influence a specifically targeted audience has been fine-tuned. 

The influence is not limited to major media sources. The engagement of individual users and their generated content was truly enabled by social media platforms. About 70 percent of U.S. adults are active on at least one social media platform and 62 percent get their news off of social media. This has spurred a fair amount of research into user-generated content on the internet and its implications surrounding gratifications, civic engagement, psychological empowerment and influence. Preliminary insights indicate that user-generated content influences the views, opinions and attitudes of online content consumers, or users.