Title:
Fighting Disinformation Warfare with Artificial Intelligence - Using machine learning to identify and combat disinformation attacks
Agreement Number:
2918491
Agreement Value:
$28,750.00
Agreement Date:
Jan 19, 2019 - Mar 31, 2019
Description:
In order to understand how to accurately and rapidly identify disinformation attacks, the applicant proposes to analyze content in existing databases, which contain extensive materials already gathered from previously identified disinformation attacks. They will then employ artificial intelligence, combining their Dark Crawler, SentiStrength, Posit and TensorFlow, to compare known disinformation attacks to "normal" information harvested from social media, in order to calculate the differences in language used during disinformation attacks. This will allow them to develop typologies of past and present hostile activities against Canada and other Allied nations, identify indicators of change in public opinion (esp. as they relate to hostile disinformation activities), identify the social media techniques of hostile actors (and how best to respond to them), as well as to undertake cross-cultural analyses, to determine how hostile actors seek to fuel tensions and undermine social cohesion by exploiting cultural sensitivities.
Organization:
Public Safety Canada
Expected Results:
One of the key challenges currently facing law enforcement agencies, intelligence agencies and the owners-operators of social media is how to monitor and efficiently respond to dynamic and emerging cybersecurity threats, such as hostile disinformation activities. Our proposal addresses this problem by developing a method of identifying this type of activity. The end result of this project will be a prototype, built through advanced machine learning algorithms. This prototype will be ready for preliminary implementation and testing, thus permitting us to understand and explain how these disinformation attacks unfold. This knowledge will establish the foundation for more advanced work, eventually culminating in automatic tools that can rapidly and accurately pinpoint disinformation attacks in their very early stages. We believe that this new technology will be of immeasurable assistance to law enforcement agencies, intelligence agencies, the owners-operators of social media, and cybersecurity professionals.
Location:
Burnaby, British Columbia, CA V5A 1S6
Reference Number:
214-2018-2019-Q4-0047
Agreement Type:
Contribution
Report Type:
Grants and Contributions
Recipient Business Number:
118520725
Recipient's Legal Name:
Simon Fraser University
Program:
Cyber Security Cooperation Program
Program Purpose:
To improve the security of Canada’s vital cyber systems through grants and contributions by offering grants and contributions to owners and operators, industrial and trade associations, academics and research organizations in support eligible projects.