Rupinder Mangat is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Waterloo. Her research looks at how the Canadian Forces use social media as a means of communication, especially communication with the public on matters of security. In the past few years, social media have become a medium of promotion and recruitment for terrorist organizations such as ISIS and al Qaeda. Rupinder aims to look at how national security organizations use social media, especially whether the military uses social media for engaging the public in matters of national security and whether this engagement has an impact on the national security debate. She would like to explore whether social media can be a space for public-military dialogue, dialogue that might help prevent radicalization and/or help shape the national security discourse in Canada. Cybersecurity research currently is based on a traditional offensive-defensive model of war. With her research, she aims to bring the discussion of the social dimension of cyberspace to bear on the discussions around cybersecurity.
