winn schwartau
The “Civilian Architect of Information Warfare”
- Commodore Pat Tyrrell OBE Royal Navy, 1996
“Electronic Pearl Harbor Prophet”
- BankInfo Security, 2023
“National Security Imperative for Cognitive Defense:s We are defenseless.”
- The Art & Science of Metawar, 2024
Winn has lived Cybersecurity since 1983, and now says, “I think, maybe, I’m just starting to understand it.” His predictions about the internet & security have been scarily spot on. He coined “Electronic Pearl Harbor” while testifying before Congress in 1991. His seminal book, “Information Warfare,” showed the world how privacy would die and cyber-terrorism would be an integral part of the future (today’s present).
His new book, "The Art & Science of Metawar,” describes how to defend against AI-driven reality distortion, TMI/disinformation, manipulation, and algorithmic addictions by strengthening the mental immune system.
Increasingly impressive immersive technologies, active metacontent orchestration, and powerful feedback systems (OODA loops) exploit information overload and disseminate disinformation through believable online experiences. We are approaching the metapoint, where persistent immersive simulations will be indistinguishable from our default ‘reality.’ The security, privacy, ethics, and global policy implications are staggering.
His last book, “Analogue Network Security” is a time-based approach to justifiable security. “It will twist your mind.” “The Best Cybersecurity Book of All Time,” Cyber Defense Magazine.
• Fellow, Royal Society of the Arts
• Distinguished Fellow: Ponemon Institute
• International Security Hall of Fame: ISSA
• Lifetime Achievement Award, DefCon XXXI
• Top-20 industry pioneers: SC Magazine.
• Top 25 Most Influential: Security Magazine
• Top 5 Security Thinkers: SC Magazine.
• Power Thinker and one of the 50 most powerful people: Network World.
• 30 Year DefCon Goon (Ret.)
• Top Rated (4.85/5) RSA Speaker
• Top Rated Webinar: 4.56 (ISC2)
• .001% Top Influencer RSAC
• Global Power Speaker
• US Patent: 11,438,369 (Time-Based Security)
Author: “Time-Based Security,” “Pearl Harbor Dot Com” (Die Hard IV), the world's first novel-on-the-net 1993, Project Gutenberg), 3 volumes of “Information Warfare”, “CyberShock”, “Internet and Computer Ethics for Kids” (The Best Security Book Ever Written, Dr. Fred Cohen) and a few more.
Publisher: Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism, James K. Campbell ISBN: 0-962-8700-3-X, 1977
The Mind of the Hacker, Dr. Nick Chandler (Maj. Australian military intelligence) 1999
Executive Producer: “Hackers Are People Too”, “VR Babies in the Metaverse” premiers at the Getty in Oct. 2024.
Founder: The Security Awareness Company, Hacker Jeopardy, Security Experts, InfowarCon, et al. Former recording engineer and producer.
www.WinnSchwartau.com
@WinnSchwartau
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winn_Schwartau
https://www.linkedin.com/in/winnschwartau/
Session
This Talk is Important—very important—for the cybersecurity industry, hackers, and policymakers from the Boardroom to the Halls of Government.
A long time ago, on June 27, 1991, Winn testified before the US Congress and was asked, “Mr. Schwartau: Why would the bad guys ever want to use the internet?”
Today, our cognitive infrastructure is under attack, and humanity needs cybersecurity professionals more than ever. Reality is only a keystroke away.
Metawar is the art and science of manipulating your reality. It is the battle for control over one’s belief systems, identity, and sense of reality outside one’s conscious awareness. Reason and emotion are incompatible operating systems.
Big Tech is digitally terraforming the planet’s future cognitive infrastructure, Web 3.0, with little concern for the downsides. The metaverse is an evolving, immersive storytelling environment designed to be the most powerful and addictive reality distortion machine ever conceived. It will also predict and anticipate your every desire and every move!
On the global stage, metawar represents the sixth domain of warfare. They who control the technology control the narrative. We have no choice but to learn how to coexist with the reality-distorting technologies we have created by implementing technical, policy, and cognitive defenses to protect our sense of truth, reality, and self-identity.
Winn’s keynote is a call to action.
The cybersecurity community is among the best problem solvers the planet has ever seen. It acts as a team, a collective of like-minded individuals with an amazing array of skills who stop at nothing to achieve their aims—against all odds. Winn challenges us with a new goal: Strengthen and defend the human mental immune system. Our brains, sensory nervous systems, and minds are the new attack surfaces. Will the cybersecurity community rise to the challenge of solving the most existential threat it has ever faced? Or not.
To survive, humanity must adapt to and Coexist with technology.