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Tom
Ascott

Tom Ascott was previously the Digital Communications Manager at the Royal United Services Institute before leaving in February 2021. In this role he was in charge of coordinating all of RUSI's digital offering, including the website, production of RUSI Podcasts including In Context, The Suspicious Transaction Report, On the Cusp and The Western Way of War, as well all the social media channels. He joined RUSI in November 2017.

Tom did his undergraduate in Law at King's College London as well as his masters in Global Ethics and Human Values. He wrote his undergraduate thesis on Human Rights and his graduate thesis on the risks posed by Automated Weapons Systems.

His professional background is in research, technology and analysis. His interests are technology, law and ethics, and autonomous military systems. 

Tom
Ascott

Tom Ascott

Research Focus

Autonomous Weapons Systems

By This Author

"Advances in deepfake technology have led to the emergence of a new picture of how doctored material will be used in disinformation campaigns. While safeguards ensure that manipulated videos may not be such a problem at the highest levels of security and defence, lower levels ‐ such as local elections ‐ remain vulnerable to malign actors. At such levels, deepfakes can be distributed using social media channels to target unsuspecting victims. Current solutions only protect individuals who are prominent enough to be covered by the mainstream media, and not enough is being done by governments or social media companies to protect ordinary users from coordinated inauthentic activity online. However, with more images and videos of ourselves online than ever before, anyone can be a victim of a disinformation campaign. As deepfakes become easier to make, no one is safe ‐ hyper-localized manipulation will create problems for democratic institutions that have not yet been fully understood. "

Microfake: How small-scale deepfakes can undermine society

7 July 2020

Tags: Cyber, United States, Americas, UK, Intelligence, Resilience, Technology, Europe

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Man with mask.

Infectious Lies

11 March 2020

Coronavirus conspiracy theories are multiplying, but following common patterns.

Tags: Coronavirus
Illustration of megaphone with various social media icons

New Technology and ‘Old’ Think Tanks

12 July 2019

Technology poses some familiar and new problems for think tanks.

Tags: Information, Technology
A cube with social media icons. Courtesy of Pixabay

Russian Internet Efforts Go Further Than Just Helping President Trump Being Elected

10 May 2019

The findings of Robert Mueller’s report demonstrate the sophistication of Russia’s information operations. Yet the 2016 US election may...

Tags: Cyber, United States, Americas, Russia, Information, Technology, Europe
Motherboard

A Hard Hardware Breach

29 January 2019

Western governments are shedding their inhibitions about naming and shaming states suspected of infiltrating their critical national...

Tags: Cyber, UK, Intelligence, Technology, Europe
A keyboard

Social Media and Social Problems: A Complex Link

14 November 2018

Social media is often seen as having a negative impact on politics and society. However, the evidence shows that many individuals are...

Tags: Cyber, Information, Technology

Book Review: This is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality

16 March 2020

Tom Ascott

Tom Ascott reviews This is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality, by Peter Pomerantsev.

Tags: RUSI Journal, Information

Should Robots Kill? Towards a Moral Framework for Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems

22 August 2019

Tom Ascott

If lethal autonomous weapons systems are to be used in war, a moral framework to guide their ethical use is warranted. Despite the...

Tags: RUSI Newsbrief, Law and Ethics, Technology
Embedded thumbnail for Someone Had To Do It - Reflections from D-Day

Someone Had To Do It - Reflections from D-Day

31 May 2019
Tom Ascott ,
Michael Kamara, Database and Membership Manager

Tags: Germany, France, UK, History, Military Personnel, Europe

"Advances in deepfake technology have led to the emergence of a new picture of how doctored material will be used in disinformation campaigns. While safeguards ensure that manipulated videos may not be such a problem at the highest levels of security and defence, lower levels ‐ such as local elections ‐ remain vulnerable to malign actors. At such levels, deepfakes can be distributed using social media channels to target unsuspecting victims. Current solutions only protect individuals who are prominent enough to be covered by the mainstream media, and not enough is being done by governments or social media companies to protect ordinary users from coordinated inauthentic activity online. However, with more images and videos of ourselves online than ever before, anyone can be a victim of a disinformation campaign. As deepfakes become easier to make, no one is safe ‐ hyper-localized manipulation will create problems for democratic institutions that have not yet been fully understood. "

Microfake: How small-scale deepfakes can undermine society

7 July 2020 Tags: Cyber, United States, Americas, UK, Intelligence, Resilience, Technology, Europe

Pages