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Podcast: Thomas Rid on active measures and digital disinformation

A British Turing Bombe machine is seen functioning in Bletchley Park Museum in Bletchley, central England, September 6, 2006. For the first time in sixty years Bletchley Park re-created the way the 'unbreakable' Enigma code was broken using functioning World War Two equipment. The Bombe was the brainchild of mathematical geniuses Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman, and enabled Bletchley Park's Cryptographers to decode over 3000 enemy messages a day breaking the codes created by German military Enigma machine during World War Two.   REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico (BRITAIN)

With his unique blend of intelligence history and engagement with the contemporary cybersecurity community, Thomas Rid, a professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, has become one of the foremost chroniclers of online disinformation and how digital information operations are informed by the historical work of intelligence agencies.

In a pair of recent podcasts, Rid joined members of the Brookings community to discuss his new book, Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare. First up, Rid chats with Harvard Law School Professor Jack L. Goldsmith about the early history of disinformation through the 1980s:

Next, Rid sits down with Lawfare Managing Editor Quinta Jurecic and Alina Polyakova, the CEO and president of the Center for European Policy Analysis, to talk disinformation in the digital age.

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