S25 Ep4: Brian Lord - AI, Mis-and Disinformation in Election Fraud and Education

ISF Podcast

This is the second of a two-part conversation between Steve and Brian Lord, who is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Protection Group International. Prior to joining PGI, Brian served as the Deputy Director of a UK Government Agency governing the organization's Cyber and Intelligence Operations. Today, Steve and Brian discuss the proliferation of mis- and disinformation online, the potential security threats posed by AI, and the need for educating children in cyber awareness from a young age.
Key Takeaways:
1. The private sector serves as a skilled and necessary support to the public sector, working to counter mis- and disinformation campaigns, including those involving AI.
2. AI’s increasing ability to create fabricated images poses a particular threat to youth and other vulnerable users.
Tune in to hear more about:
1. Brian gives his assessment of cybersecurity threats during election years. (16:04)
2. Exploitation of vulnerable users remains a major concern in the digital space, requiring awareness, innovative countermeasures, and regulation. (31:0)
Standout Quotes:
1. “I think when we look at AI, we need to recognize it is a potentially long term larger threat to our institutions, our critical mass and infrastructure, and we need to put in countermeasures to be able to do that. But we also need to recognize that the most immediate impact on that is around what we call high harms, if you like. And I think that was one of the reasons the UK — over a torturously long period of time — introduced the The Online Harms Bill to be able to counter some of those issues. So we need to get AI in perspective. It is a threat. Of course it is a threat. But I see then when one looks at AI applied in the cybersecurity test, you know, automatic intelligence developing hacking techniques, bear in mind, AI is available to both sides. It's not just available to the attackers, it's available to the defenders. So what we are simply going to do is see that same kind of thing that we have in the more human-based countering the cybersecurity threat in an AI space.” -Brian Lord
2. “The problem we have now — now, one can counter that by the education of children, keeping them aware, and so on and so forth— the problem you have now is the ability, because of the availability of imagery online and AI's ability to create imagery, one can create an entirely fabricated image of a vulnerable target and say, this is you. Even though it isn’t … when you're looking at the most vulnerable in our society, that's a very, very difficult thing to counter, because it doesn't matter whether it's real to whoever sees it, or the fear from the most vulnerable people, people who see it, they will believe that it is real. And we've seen that.” -Brian Lord
Mentioned in this episode:
• ISF Analyst Insight Podcast
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