Can continuous collection, structuring, and sharing of threat intelligence help prevent public unrest? - the case of the Southport public disorder
Speaker: Stephen H. Campbell - Chief Technology Officer for the DISARM Foundation, founder of Non-State Threat Intelligence, and advisor to eosedge Legal.
Date: Friday 27 February 2026, 3pm to 4pm (GMT)
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Abstract: The public information environment is no longer mediated by editors and anchors. Instead, algorithms and influencers now set the agenda, in many cases driven by perverse incentives. Self-interested actors can now easily exploit these incentives for their own agendas, sometimes resulting in real-world harm. These actors are both manipulators and opportunists, exploiting modern technology to build up negative public sentiment, while at the same time waiting for the right crisis to capitalize upon this sentiment for their own objectives. This seminar will explore current initiatives within the field of information integrity to create standard harm taxonomies and metrics for monitoring threats to the public information environment.
Firstly, we will ask what data we need to collect to enable us to classify and quantify negative public sentiment being directed against specific targets. Secondly, we will ask whether structuring this intelligence and fusing it with intelligence on threat actors with known capability and intent can help us to measure and predict the potential for orchestrated violence or public unrest. Lastly, we will ask whether sharing such intelligence can help improve government readiness by guiding the prioritization and timely deployment of scarce communication and law enforcement resources. We will use the 2024 Southport public disorder as a case study to explore the questions raised.
Speaker Biography: Stephen H. Campbell is an information technologist and security analyst specializing in digital influence, cyber threat intelligence, asymmetric warfare, and risk mitigation. As Chief Technology Officer for the DISARM Foundation, founder of Non-State Threat Intelligence, and advisor to eosedge Legal, he encourages his clients to take an intelligence-led and standards-based approach toward assessing and mitigating the risk of digital manipulation, cyberattacks, and violent extremism.
Recent initiatives have included spearheading a project with OASIS to extend the STIX standard to model information manipulation threats, developing tools for analysts to annotate and create structured data and knowledge graphs from threat reports, helping the European Commission to set up an Information Sharing and Analysis Centre for Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference, and redesigning the DISARM Frameworks to help analysts make the case for diplomatic, economic and judicial interventions. Stephen was born in Scotland but now lives near Boston, USA, with his wife. They have two boys. For details see full profile at Stephen H. Campbell | LinkedIn.