ExpertsConnect EP. 19: Survivability in an Unprecedented Era with Khaled Fattal

January 20, 2021 watch
ExpertsConnect
Covid-19
Policy Management
Politics
Technology
Cybersecurity
Data Privacy
Business
Diversity and Inclusion
Internet
Summary

We are living in unprecedented times. According to the MLi group, global cyber attacks on Governments and organizations have reached unprecedented scales. Although Artificial Intelligence is making our lives easier, it can be weaponized to create “economic displacement and disruption in security and defense."

So, how do we mitigate today's cyber and non-cyber threats and exposures? 

On this episode of ExpertsConnect, Founder and Chairman of the MLi Group, Mr. Khaled Fattal,  explains the notion of Geo-Poli-Cyber Warfare. Khaled also provides deeper insights into why we need survivability in these unprecedented times. He dives deeper into the threats we face in the Covid-19 era and further describes his motivations for launching survivability news. Later, Khaled reflects on how Covid has affected the economy, with a focus on the hospitality sector. Finally, he makes reference to the MLi group's Hospitality Sector Survivability Model to help decision-makers to reopen the hospitality sector in a safe way, for all stakeholders, amid the corona virus pandemic.

SHOW NOTES:

What is Geo-Poli-Cyber Warfare? | Khaled explains that Geo-Poli-Cyber leverages cyber vulnerabilities to achieve political, ideological, extremist, Geo-political, and false “religious” objectives [2:27]. 

Why do we need Survivability? [5:56] | Khaled emphasizes that cybersecurity is a critical component of survivability, but alone, cannot mitigate the threats to the nation-state or to the organization or people's lives and livelihoods. So it is the decision maker's responsibility to protect their citizens and nation by thoroughly identifying and understanding the motivation for these threats and devising solutions to mitigate against these threats.

Unprecedented threats in the Covid-19 era | Khaled talks about the Armenia-Azerbaijan war, the war, most Europeans don't know exists on their backdoor [16:23]. He also suggests that citizens, especially in democratic nations, are only fed the information that seems to be the trend of the day [17:31]. He also mentioned his rationale for launching survivability news so that the citizen is better informed [18:02].

What are the implications of fake news? | Khaled reflected on his key involvement in the development of the multilingual Internet it is today [19:58]. He further reminisced on the original vision for the Internet (i.e., to create a more holistic, cohesive, and tolerant society) [20:16]. However, the original dream was hijacked and in this era, the Internet and cyber have been utilized to perpetrate not only fake news, and disinformation, or what we also call purposed disinformation, which is actually a cyber warfare vector [21:15]. He also stressed that unless we find a means to make the citizen better informed, then democracy will die [23:14].

How has Covid made Survivability real for Citizens? [30:01] | Khaled emphasized that prior to COVID, the concept of survivability was predominantly aimed at the top decision-makers, governments, and corporate since COVID, it became even more relevant to the citizen because the citizen is now facing and making decisions to secure their own survivability without realizing it is survivability [30:36].

Survivability in the hospitality sector [34:25] | Khaled highlights that Covid has done its damage to the hospitality sector. Khaled referenced the MLi group's, sector survivability series, which started with hospitality. It is a templated model, describing how nations and governments could start exploring how this particular model can allow its stakeholders within hospitality to actually open up safely instead of being a drain on the nation's resources.

 

Notable QUOTES from Khaled Fattal (MBA)

“[…] unless you identify the threat, you have no chance of mitigating it. And that's why we talk about the resilience, such cybersecurity strategy, solutions, resiliency continuity, have no means of mitigating these threats because they're using the format of defending a fortress.” [5:16]

“[…] an extremist has no opportunity cost to their time." [7:29]

“[…]  if you don't know how to name the threat, you have no chance of mitigating.  The threat starts with understanding that as long as you keep calling the threat, a cybersecurity breach, guess what? You're still saying that the solution is technology. Technology is key. The closure is critical. Cybersecurity is also critical as a component of survivability, but alone, it cannot mitigate the threats to the nation-state or to the organization or people's lives and livelihoods.” [12:02]

“Today, […]  people have the attention span of a fly. […] And how do you get their attention if all they're watching is TikTok videos that are six seconds long because they want to move to the next six seconds, and there's no depth in the knowledge? Well, guess what, if you can't fix that problem, democracy is going to be under unprecedented threats. In fact, we label the democracies in stage four cancer. Yeah, these problems because the citizen is poorly informed or misinformed or purposely disinformed." [18:32]

“[…]  I've gotten to the point where I have no clue anymore, I cannot be definite on whether the COVID pandemic was created by China created by the US created by the pharmaceuticals, whether it was nature-made or manmade, whether the vaccines are the solution, or I mean, it's absolutely confusing if I can be this confused. And I don't know what's going on. What do you think the about average citizen? It is no wonder that now we've become so segregated based on opinions. ” [22:01]

“COVID became the ultimate exposure of the frailty of an injustice of our current world order, our political, economic, and democratic system.” [24:14]

“[…] I truly believe we have an opportunity to bring a better world than the one we left behind. This cannot happen unless the citizen is better informed. The citizen is more articulately capable to demand from its leadership, better things, and hold those politicians more accountable. And if they cannot be accountable, Booth them out and bring somebody else.” [24:55]

"[…] prior to COVID, the concept of survivability was predominantly aimed at the top decision-makers, governments, and corporate. Since COVID, it became even more relevant to the citizen because the citizen is now facing and making decisions to secure their own survivability without realizing it is survivability." [30:37]

CONTACT Khaled:

Website: http://mligrp.biz/

FOLLOW Kadian:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kadiandavisowusu/

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/kadiandavisowusu

 

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Created by

Kadian Davis-Owusu

Kadian has a background in Computer Science and pursued her PhD and post-doctoral studies in the fields of Design for Social Interaction and Design for Health. She has taught a number of interaction design courses at the university level including the University of the West Indies, the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC) in Jamaica, and the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands. Kadian also serves as the Founder and Lead UX Designer for TeachSomebody and is the host of the ExpertsConnect video podcast. In this function, Kadian serves to bridge the learning gap by delivering high-quality content tailored to meet your learning needs. Moreover, through expert collaboration, top-quality experts are equipped with a unique channel to create public awareness and establish thought leadership in their related domains. Additionally, she lectures on ICT-related courses at Fontys University of Applied Sciences.


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