August 10, 2022
Hacked and leaked data provides some fascinating insights into the state of the war. I've argued in the past that television camera crews in Vietnam provided a sort of independent intelligence service for the public. The result was that the public could assess government and army statements for verisimilitude against an independent information source. This intelligence feed informed, and thus empowered, the American people.
The history of war is also the history of mass communication. Reporting the army's status and the war's progress to the public at home has always been an essential part of the conflict. Since the Crimean War in the mid-19th century, the role of media and communication has grown dramatically in capability, capacity and importance.
The Internet and smartphones have certainly changed the way that war is consumed. I suspect that one of those ways it has been transformed is by providing more and better data to domain experts, *and* then connecting their analysis with the global public.
Hacked and leaked data is one of those "more and better" data sets that can make public OSINT essentially as rich as private intelligence.
In a sense, the history of war communications has been the history of the public getting access to more informed and timely news. The public reporting gets closer to the information previously reserved for leaders and other elites.
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Lazerpig is fantastic, and I recommend his videos. The A-10 series is excellent, but if you're new to his content, this may be a better place to start.
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