Airman Jack Teixeira is responsible for the worst leaks of national security material in years.

Spies and leakers all have their own reasons for doing what they do. Some do it for money. Some do it because they are being blackmailed. Some do it because they are narcissists and seek fame. Some have done it for ideological reasons. This one seems to have done it to impress other intellectually and psychologically immature online acquaintances. He damaged national security for the lulz.

Teixeira was active on Discord, even ran his own server there. Discord is a great tool, I use it every day. Discord was not the problem here, but it may have been a contributor in a not so obvious way.

I believe, based on the little known to date about Teixeira and his online activities, that he was addicted to the thrill of impressing other mental juveniles. The dopamine addiction is a great one. Time will tell of course, but it could be he spent more time gaming and in discord than he did interacting with people offline and it could be that this twisted his views of reality.

Famed national security executive and defense intelligence expert Lewis Shepherd offered these thoughts on the bizarre case of Airman Teixeira:

This is very worrisome.

Societies have suffered from the human weakness for gullibility and a longing to believe, to belong, as long as there have been conmen, faith-healers, unscrupulous cads of all stripes… Marshall Applewhite convinced regular people he was from the stars and that they should commit suicide to get a spaceship ride wearing Nikes… He did that face-to-face, and yet none of it was “real”

So I suppose that digital technologies make some aspects of malevolent duping easier, or faster, or scale better, but I don’t know it’s any different from a kid getting thought-manipulated and molested by a bad-apple priest – and that has happened in the hundreds of thousands or millions, over centuries, globally.

The OODA Network has been examining the rise of threats in and from the Metaverse for several years, and have been working with the community to propose frameworks for solutions to the threats. So this type of attack was not totally surprising even though the timing and impact took us all by surprise. The attack does underscore that the community needs to work more to understand threats in the age of the metaverse. For an examination see: Defending The Metaverse From Threats Old And New and the video version here:

We consider the five major metaverse threats as:

New Privacy Threats: Surveillance by corporations, criminal groups, hostile nations, fraudsters. You have a digital life online already whether you realize it or not. Now imagine being watched 24/7/365 and what that will reveal.

Mass Languor: Dangers of today’s social media apparent. Imagine enticing pull of super-realistic simulations with maximum dopamine, endorphin and oxycontin triggers. Contributes to mental weakness.

Oneirophrenia: The state when one loses the ability to determine what is real and what is not. Makes misinformation/disinformation more impactful

New Fraud Vectors: Companies and communities want to build and maintain trust. Good people will too, even when anonymous. Bad people will want to take advantage of that. Digital value must be protected.

Unleashing Demons: Imagine the worst of human nature and cyber bullying coming at us all with persistence.

There are no simple solutions to these threats. But we humans created the metaverse so we can absolutely muster the brainpower to mitigate these. Our recommendation is to leverage a framework of entities responsible for action. This framework starts with you, the individual. All of us can and should play a role in mitigating threats in the Metaverse. But action is required by a full spectrum of entities, individuals, communities, companies, governments and academia.

What To Know And Do About The Coming Metaverse

This post captures insights into this new world in ways meant to help leaders understand what is most relevant to your strategic planning. We provide an operational definition of the Metaverse, a description of the current market of metaverse players, and a list of recommendations for how this information should inform your business strategy.

Defending The Metaverse From Threats Old and New

There is some good news and some bad news with the coming Metaverse. The good news is the incredible use cases this third wave of Internet capabilities will bring. It will have its own thriving economy for business. Estimates are that the Metaverse economy will be a $Trillion dollars within 3 years and a Twenty $Trillion dollars within a decade. It will be a primary means of educating our youth and delivering knowledge through life, and will be a leading form of social interaction, advice and assistance on a range of issues. And of course there will be incredible new forms of entertainment.

Jahon Jamali On Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the Coming Metaverse

Jahon Jamali is a leading expert on emerging technologies, global risk management and international relations. He began his career as a U.S. Intelligence Officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency. He also has extensive experience in the high tech community creating and growing startups through to successful exits. All this makes him an even more credible authority when it comes to seeking the trends that are moving technology, business and government operations forward.

The Future of the Metaverse: Where is this all going?

This post reviews some of our research into the future of technology, specifically the technology enabled shared reality known as the Metaverse.