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SHANNON MUIR’S THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF!

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About the Book

ISBN-10: 0578524600

ISBN-13: 978-0578524603

Bowker

Paperback: 211 pages

July 1, 2019, $12.99

Genre: Political suspense

The 2016 Presidential election revealed the truth about the cyber-war waged by the adversaries of the United States. How did it happen? How did we let it happen? What did we miss?The Margin of Error War is a tale of factual events with an analysis of how we lost the first epic battle in the cyberwar of the 21st century. China has had a decades-long strategy to be the dominant political and economic power in the world. But 2016 was too good an opportunity for Russia, and they preempted the behind the scenes cyberwar. Russia found the perfect convergence of technology, existing US internal conflicts, unfettered social media and a willing political partyThe US has been the leading economic and military power in the world, but the internet leveled the playing field. All combatants now have the same capabilities to wage cyberwar using unregulated digital media to influence political opinions and policy decisions. Our adversaries infiltrated and manipulated American news and media to shift voter opinions, in critical states, just enough, within the margin of error, to achieve the election result they wanted. Richard applied his years of professional experience in communications research, trends analyses and Big Data to investigate what happened in 2016. He reverse-engineered the known election results and foreign actions, to identify the methods that enabled our adversaries to control American institutions through the simple and clever use of digital news. There is more to the political cyberwar than you read in the headlines. If we don’t understand how our adversaries succeeded, then countermeasures and remedies will not be effective. Our adversaries learned how to manage the American psyche and behavior, all within the margin of error. We have one more chance, before the 2020 election, to take the necessary actions and get the cyber war right.

Guest Post by the Author

The 2016 Presidential election exposed the cyber-war waged by the adversaries of the United States.

How did it happen?   How did we let it happen?  What did we miss?

Cyber-defenses must be developed now to prevent the 2016 cyber-attack from repeating in the 2020 election. But if we don’t understand how our adversaries succeeded, countermeasures will not be effective.

We thought we knew a lot about cyber-war, but our adversaries knew more. We did not recognize the subtle aspects of the new “information-terrorism” war. What exactly did Russia and China do? How did we miss it? What can we do to fight the new cyber-information war?

How could I analyze all the information? We know what happened in the 2016 cyber-attack, but what were the conditions that led to that event ? My practical approach was to reverse engineer the known events and work backwards over the long history of US vs. Russia and China conflicts.

My research process was similar to the crime mysteries from TV, movies and books. The story opens with the discovery of a crime. The detectives investigate the scene, look for clues, motives and possible suspects, backtracks every possible step that led up to the crime

The Margin of Error diagnosis is similar to the criminal investigation, but we are starting with far more information than a typical crime story. We know:

• The crime: the infiltration of digital news and social media with fake information and hacking  of the 2016 presidential election.
• The perpetrators: the adversaries of the United States, primarily Russia, China and to a lesser extent, Iran and North Korea.
• The likely motives: the malicious intentions of our adversaries for economic, political and global influence, and to harm the United States and  the 2016 presidential election.
• The obvious weapons used in the crime: mass media, social media, hacking of digital files.

All the basics of the crime have been confirmed by the first investigation teams and the  U.S.

About the Author

Richard had a professional career of 50 years in marketing and communications research, investigating how information influences ideas, expectations and behavior and future trends. Working for consultancies and global marketers, using Big Data and predictive analytics, Richard learned to identify the methods and patterns of information influences.

Rich has applied his research expertise to investigate how the new digital communications technologies will interact with and influence modern societies.  The 2016 US election was the first epic battle of the new cyber-information war.