Technological innovation drives change. This is the central thesis of the Annual Report to Parliament from the DIS, the Italian Department for National Security.
“In the current context, the ongoing transformation process has redefined the very concept of threat, which no longer manifests itself solely in visible events, but in continuous, pervasive, and often elusive dynamics. Today, the threat operates in a multidimensional and multidomain context, since in addition to the traditional ones, it also extends to the cognitive, underwater, and intellectual property domains,” write the Department’s analysts.
Risk, therefore, is no longer expressed through individual, openly hostile actions, but through cumulative processes that, when incorporated into coherent, long-term strategies, can impact institutional stability, citizen trust, and the decision-making capacity of institutions. These processes operate consistently below the threshold of armed conflict, for example by compromising a network, manipulating information flows, or transforming technological dependence into a lever for leverage.”
New technological dynamics cross geographical borders, economic sectors, and institutional environments, blurring the distinction between internal and external security and requiring an integrated approach to phenomena. Technologies already fully operational, such as pervasive digitalization and artificial intelligence, coexist with new scientific frontiers, including quantum technologies, which are poised to introduce significant disruptions in the security of communications and the protection of sensitive information.
The rapidity of these changes often renders the usual tools for categorizing reality obsolete, complicating the work of states in adopting suitable norms and measures to contain constantly evolving phenomena. A transformation of legal systems is thus looming, with all that this entails in terms of the emergence of new rights and the protection of individuals in the face of frontier applications that still lack an adequate regulatory basis.
During the press conference presenting the report, it was emphasized how central the role of open OSINT sources has become.
“Open sources now represent approximately 30% of the sensitive information that intelligence services bring to the attention of decision-makers. Not an appendix, not a supplement: almost a third of the information flow that fuels national security decisions.”
Every day, the world produces billions of posts, videos, satellite images, AIS tracks from ships, ADS-B transponders from aircraft, social media threads, statements from officials, and communiqués from armed groups.
Millions of electronic swarms. Big data that requires knowing how to analyze and interpret.
Tiziana Benini
(traduzione assistita da intelligenza artificiale (IA) gratuita, con licenza aperta open source)
