Securing Sovereign Intuition

Intuitively sovereign, but secure?

Everyone wants to know what the next big trend or revelation will be. In the Information Age, the speed required to be ‘on it’ consistently is more fast paced than ever before. Technical and human networks are like spiderwebs that must be monitored for hints and tips across all media types: soundbites, images, video, articles, gossip, opinion pieces, blogs, social media posts.

In modern politics relationships can be shaped and influenced by the immediacy and simplicity of a poorly timed, aimed or misinterpreted social media comment. Multi-national digitally oriented corporations have a role to play in whether a democratically elected official is censored or not.

Should they ‘hit send’?

For some, the censors have come too late in the public conversation about fake news, for others the notion of free speech that is enshrined in the First Amendment of the American Bill of Rights, but not all democratic countries, has been indefensibly under attack by commercially motivated institutions.

Event such as Covid-19 and a global discourse about vaccinations led Google to remove all anti-vaccination material from its popular YouTube platform. Facebook (now Meta) temporarily silenced Australian media on its platforms in protest to the Federal Government’s position, global digital corporations have found themselves in a precarious no-man’s land of online information governance.

Democratic governments are still trying to figure out how to enact laws that facilitate free-flowing information in new domains that are safe and equitable for all participants within and outside of traditional jurisdictions. In Guardians of the new galaxies, we explored why this is important to everyone who communicates, transacts and moves through and in the information environment(s).

While the guardians discover new ways to keep pace with a multitude of technological trends in digital media, the established cooperative and competitive human traits prevail in innovation, business and geopolitics. Information influences the pressure gauge by engendering and destabilising trust between powerbases.

Technological themes: convenience & intuition

Convenience has emerged as a dominant trend in the way technology and information has intersected modern lives to change the world.

As emerging technologies such as natural language processing, machine learning, quantum computing and augmented/virtual realities cement themselves into our daily routines, convenience will make way for intuition. The speed required to be ahead of the trend curve and ‘on it’ will demand that the humans in the loop act as referees, end-users and facilitators rather than core participants or integral system components. It will fall to all likeminded citizens to cooperate towards the protection of information at its core: this means protecting binary characteristics to authenticate messages.

Information flowing between humans and intuitive machines will occur with such symbiosis that it will be increasingly difficult to tell the difference between organic and artificial brain activity. If we ignore this probability and the need to address the sovereign protection of information, what then for trust in information? What then for governments and their stewardship of sovereignty, of core values and beliefs? What will the future role of corporations be and how will humanity retain its ethical and moral influence over the function of machines?

Digital sovereignty

In their recent podcast, Philip Tarrant, Marcus Thompson and Matthew Wilson discussed digital sovereignty. The time for Australia to leap into the innovation marketplace of digital sovereignty is now. This means that to combat crises such as global pandemics, natural disasters; and, to address cyber threats and assure elections are democratic, the role of technology must be shepherded as a means towards upholding digital sovereignty.

The technological advances that will change the world in the next twenty years will dictate how we use information in our daily lives, and the confidence we place in what our own five senses tell us. The authenticity of a message communicated within its context, from one to another, machine and human alike, will rely on our capacity to protect the core digital characteristics of that message.

This means anticipating how machines will intuitively understand the competitive and cooperative tension between humans, the emergence of quantum and post-quantum cryptography as accelerators of the pace and scale of trusted message traffic, and the response of humans to the value placed in confidentiality, integrity and availability of information in the future metaverses.

By recognising the role of governments as referees and facilitators within an ecosystem of corporations, citizens, institutions and social collectives, the emergence of new technologies will introduce advantageous robotic-intuition as a means for improving productivity, national defence and quality of life. However, the reverse is also possible: where intuitive machines, far more capable of cognitive understanding than ever witnessed, will exploit a digital landscape weak in anticipatory control measures.

Sovereign cryptography, in concert with a relevant and agile governance framework hold the key for Australia to prosper amidst the dynamics of modern information exchange across emergent physical and digital infrastructure. Our thoughts, our beliefs, our core values will only persevere if they can retain their authenticity; and, in the Information Age, this is only possible through digital sovereignty.

Author: Mycaila Delbridge, Strategic Partnerships, Penten

Mycaila is part of Penten's Business Strategy team working on a range of contemporary security technology challenges through commercial and public sector partnerships. A veteran with almost 20 years experience in the Australian Army, she holds a Masters in Cybersecurity Operations and a Masters in Security & Strategy. Mycaila lives in Canberra with her family.

Penten is an Australian, cyber company focused on innovation in secure mobility, applied artificial intelligence (AI) and tactical communications security.

In 2019 and 2020 Penten was awarded Cyber Business of the Year at the Australian Defence Industry Awards. In 2021 Penten won Emerging Exporter of the Year and Exporter of Government Solutions in the ACT Chief Minister’s Export Awards.

For more information visit www.penten.com