{"684748":{"#nid":"684748","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Psychological Fallout: DARPA-Backed Project Addresses Societal Toll of Cyberattacks","body":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe United States has prepared for decades to defend itself from every conceivable military conflict on its shores, but it turns out psychological warfare, not missiles, might pose the greatest threat to national security.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis is a challenge Assistant Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sites.google.com\/view\/ryanshandler\u0022\u003ERyan Shandler\u003C\/a\u003E will spend the next two years exploring as a recipient of the Young Faculty Award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDARPA uses this award to recognize up-and-coming early-career faculty it hopes to continue working with in the future.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECurrently, DARPA is concerned with cyberattacks from foreign countries aimed at provoking social unrest and eroding public trust in democratic institutions. In a study released last year by \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/en-cee\/2024\/11\/29\/microsoft-digital-defense-report-600-million-cyberattacks-per-day-around-the-globe\/\u0022\u003EMicrosoft\u003C\/a\u003E, it was estimated that 600 million cyberattacks were launched everyday by criminals and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cisa.gov\/topics\/cyber-threats-and-advisories\/nation-state-cyber-actors\u0022\u003Enation-state actors\u003C\/a\u003E from July 2023 to July 2024. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETools built by cybersecurity engineers help mitigate the attacks made by criminals and in some cases even help \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/follow-money-2-billion-crypto-scams-found-ethereum\u0022\u003Etrack down\u003C\/a\u003E stolen money. However, nation-state actors don\u2019t launch cyberattacks to score a payday.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EInstead, they attack things like \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.resecurity.com\/blog\/article\/cyber-threats-against-energy-sector-surge-global-tensions-mount\u0022\u003Epower plants\u003C\/a\u003E or \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/11\/05\/us\/georgia-non-credible-bomb-threat-russia\u0022\u003Evoting precincts\u003C\/a\u003E as a show of strength. Exposing these vulnerabilities shows how unsafe life could be, and these actors want nothing more than to cause total panic.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESo now instead looking only to hardware and software for the solution to this problem, DARPA is investing in the human dimension of cybersecurity.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis area has long been a focus of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/knowing-half-battle-new-faculty-explores-human-dimension-cybersecurity\u0022\u003EShandler\u2019s research\u003C\/a\u003E, making him uniquely qualified to confront this previously overlooked vulnerability. His past experiments have already shown how cyberattacks generate severe public anxiety and prompt calls for physical military retaliation.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor this new project, he will track a controlled population of several thousand people by exposing them to simulated cyberattacks. At no point will the participants be made to think the attacks are real. Shandler and his team will then interview the participants to gauge how their experience impacted their perception of security.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe are looking to see which groups are more susceptible to this kind of cumulative threat. \u0026nbsp;Once we model the risk, the next step will be building countermeasures to defend against it,\u201d he said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHowever, creating a defense system that promotes societal resilience will be as challenging as it is revolutionary.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I\u0027m fortunate to be conducting this research in an interdisciplinary unit like the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy. Tackling a challenge of this scale requires computer scientists and social scientists working side by side,\u201d Shandler said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAlone, neither field stands a chance\u2014but together, we stand a real chance of success.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShandler is jointly appointed with the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scp.cc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/a\u003E and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/inta.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESam Nunn School of International Affairs\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech Assistant Professor Ryan Shandler has received a DARPA Young Faculty Award to lead a two-year study on the psychological and societal impacts of cyberattacks. Unlike traditional cybersecurity efforts that focus on technical defenses, this project examines how cyberattacks\u2014especially by nation-state actors\u2014can erode public trust, create anxiety, and destabilize societies. Using controlled simulations with thousands of participants, the research will explore how different groups react to cyber threats and aim to identify ways to build societal resilience against the psychological fallout of such attacks.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech Assistant Professor Ryan Shandler has received a DARPA Young Faculty Award to lead a two-year study on the psychological and societal impacts of cyberattacks."}],"uid":"36253","created_gmt":"2025-09-11 14:11:28","changed_gmt":"2025-09-15 14:53:17","author":"John Popham","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2025-09-10T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2025-09-10T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"677976":{"id":"677976","type":"image","title":"Ryan-Shandler-2025-2.jpg","body":null,"created":"1757599954","gmt_created":"2025-09-11 14:12:34","changed":"1757599954","gmt_changed":"2025-09-11 14:12:34","alt":"A man with salt and pepper hair and beard stands in a hallway wearing a white buton up shirt. There is a modern wooden panel behind him which reflects light and the purple color from the other walls.","file":{"fid":"261943","name":"Ryan-Shandler-2025-2.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/09\/11\/Ryan-Shandler-2025-2.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/09\/11\/Ryan-Shandler-2025-2.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1418844,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2025\/09\/11\/Ryan-Shandler-2025-2.jpg?itok=P7jqND27"}}},"media_ids":["677976"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/scp.cc.gatech.edu\/","title":"School of Cybersecurity and Privacy"}],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"660367","name":"School of Cybersecurity and Privacy"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"151","name":"Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"365","name":"Research"},{"id":"1404","name":"Cybersecurity"},{"id":"167871","name":"social scientists"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"},{"id":"39481","name":"National Security"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJohn Popham\u0026nbsp;Communications Officer II | School of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jpopham3@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}