Advancing the Science of Social Cyber-Security Around Information Diffusion and Authenticity

社会网络安全是一个新兴的科学领域，旨在了解和预测人类行为、社会和经济结果的变化，这些变化可能来自在线通信平台带来的威胁。这些威胁包括越来越现实的欺骗性信息，如鱼叉式网络钓鱼或模拟但真实的视频，以及操纵在社交网络中创建和分发内容的系统。该项目将举办一个为期两天的研讨会，将对信息传播感兴趣的社会科学家和计算机科学家聚集在一起，目标是超越目前侧重于标记特定信息或行为者的真实性的工作，或鼓励信息消费者考虑真实性。相反，研讨会将采用更广泛的理论视角，(A)分析当前的信息传播、谣言、社会影响、传播等模式如何需要适应新的和快速变化的社会技术环境，以及(B)专注于这些系统的影响，确定需要什么来表征、衡量和影响信息的影响，对这些信息的不同消费者进行不同的、不一定是一致的可信度评估，这是一个在从新闻到健康到危机应对等领域非常重要的问题。研讨会组织者将邀请来自各种机构的参与者，这些机构代表着广泛的知识背景和参与者人口统计。以增加对这一问题的观点的多样性。在开幕全体会议之后，与会者可以提出关键的挑战、问题和差距，研讨会的主要部分将专门讨论围绕这些挑战组织的分组；闭幕全体会议将制定向前推进的计划。这些会议的安排将产生三个主要成果。首先是一套挑战描述，定义了信息传播和操纵领域的前瞻性问题，描述了不同的科学学科可以为它们提供什么，并确定了应对这些挑战所需的下一步步骤。第二项是计划在社会网络安全领域举办一次更大规模的信息传播会议，让来自不同背景和社区的研究人员围绕所确定的挑战汇聚一堂。第三个是长期路线图，描述了应对这些挑战的科学途径，目的是阐明利益相关者社区如何协调一致，以取得进展。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Social cybersecurity is an emerging scientific area aimed at understanding and forecasting changes in human behavior, social, and economic outcomes that might arise from threats enabled by online communication platforms. These threats range from increasingly realistic deceptive messages, such as spear-phishing or simulated but realistic videos, to manipulation of systems for creating and distributing content in social networks. This project will conduct a two-day workshop that brings together social and computer scientists interested in information dissemination with the goal of going beyond current work that focuses on labeling the veracity of particular information or actors, or encouraging information consumers to consider veracity. Instead, the workshop will take a broader theoretical lens that (a) analyzes how current models of information diffusion, rumor, social influence, communication, and so on need to adapt to novel and rapidly changing socio-technical environments and (b) focuses on the impact of these systems, identifying what is needed to characterize, measure, and affect the impact of information with different, and not necessarily consensus, credibility evaluations on the diverse consumers of that information, a problem of great import in domains ranging from news to health to crisis response.The workshop organizers will invite participants from a large variety of institutions, representing a broad range of both intellectual backgrounds and participant demographics, to increase the diversity of perspectives on the problem. After an opening plenary session where participants can pose key challenges, questions, and gaps, the main part of the workshop will be devoted to breakout groups organized around those challenges; a closing plenary session will develop plans for moving forward. These sessions will be structured to produce three main outcomes. The first is a set of challenge descriptions that define forward-looking problems in the space of information diffusion and manipulation, characterize what different scientific disciplines can provide toward them, and identify the next steps needed to address these challenges. The second is a plan for developing a larger conference in the area of social cybersecurity for information diffusion that brings together researchers from different backgrounds and communities around the challenges identified. The third is a longer term road map describing a scientific path toward addressing these challenges, with the goal of illuminating how stakeholder communities can coordinate to make progress toward them.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.