April 16 2025 Early Warning of Foreign Malign Information Operations (Christopher Mouton & Veronica Mitchell)

Come and network with your friends, make new friends, and hear 2 amazing speakers. A buffet dinner and drinks will be available.

Please register and pay here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/early-warning-of-foreign-malign-information-operations-tickets-1229513039599

Thank you to our meeting sponsors:

Topic One: Early Warning of Foreign Malign Information Operations

Malign information operations by foreign state and nonstate actors are a substantial threat to a free and open world. These operations are intended to manipulate the global information environment for geostrategic purposes by disseminating false or misleading information and promoting specific narratives to influence public perceptions abroad, destabilize societies, and achieve geopolitical objectives.

In this presentation, Chris Mouton will explore methods to detect underlying instances of propaganda devices that might be indicative of broader malign information operations by analyzing hundreds of articles from multiple overseas media outlets. Specifically, he will explore using large language models (LLMs), which present an opportunity for the detection of overseas propaganda, disinformation, and misinformation targeting foreign audiences. Unlike traditional methods that rely heavily on specific linguistic indicators or network analysis, LLMs have increasingly large context windows, which offer the ability to incorporate the broader context of the text. The presentation will assess the performance of these detection tools to gain insights into the capabilities of these technologies to identify overseas propaganda.

Speaker One: Christopher Mouton

Christopher Mouton is a senior engineer at RAND and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. His primary research interests include technological innovation, public policy, artificial intelligence (AI), and information operations (IO). He leads a research team dedicated to improving the operational effectiveness of special operations forces (SOF). His cost-effectiveness analyses have informed major defense acquisition decisions and he has developed innovative methodologies for prioritizing technology investments to achieve national security objectives. He has also conducted pioneering research to detect foreign malign information operations and to enhance the U.S. military’s ability to counter them. He holds a Ph.D. in aeronautics and has received several honors, including the Leonard Schaeffer Medal from RAND.

Topic Two: Securing Microsoft 365 & Google Workspace using SCuBA

CISA’s Secure Cloud Business Applications (SCuBA) project provides guidance and capabilities on how best to secure critical infrastructure cloud business application environments and protect information that is created, accessed, shared, and stored in those environments. Learn how SCuBA can serve as a tool to aid in building resilient Microsoft 365 and Google Cloud Workspace environments.

Speaker Two: Veronica Mitchell

Ms. Veronica Mitchell currently serves as the Supervisor Cybersecurity Advisor for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Region 9.

Prior to joining CISA, Ms. Mitchell served as the Director of Cybersecurity for ChedrauiUSA (Smart & Final, El Super, Fiesta Mart). She led the Cybersecurity Program at the City of Santa Monica, where Ms. Mitchell established and maintained a robust security program. She also spent seven years supporting the cybersecurity team within the Department of Defense’s Office of Inspector General (DODIG), where she received an Employee of the Year Award in 2013. Ms. Mitchell also worked at Ally Bank helping it develop an IT Audit Services group.

She has an Information Assurance (Cybersecurity) Master Degree from Walsh College and a Business Administration Degree in Management Information Systems from Wayne State University.