Cognitive hacking: A battle for the mind

On 25 August 2000, stockholders were stunned by news that server and storage provider Emulex was revising its earnings from a per-share gain to a loss, while lowering its reported net earnings from the previous quarter as well. Within minutes, Emulex shares plummeted. Yet none of this news-fostered by a hacker's bogus press release-was true. The Emulex case illustrates the speed, scale, and subtlety with which networked information can propagate and how quickly severe consequences can occur. This rapid dissemination, which makes such cognitive hacking possible, is forcing security researchers to look at yet another class of countermeasures-a class far different from solutions that seek to secure technology and network infrastructure.