New British Army psyops unit fires rebrandogun, smoke clears to reveal... I'm sorry, Dave... The British Army has launched yet another social media 'n' psyops unit and its logo will look remarkably familiar to anyone who's watched 2001: A Space Odyssey – or Captain Scarlet. 6 (UK) Division is the new organisational home for the Army's "asymmetric edge", comprising all things "Intelligence, Counter-Intelligence, …
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when it was just us techies who went there.
Then the email spammers arrived, irritating but we could cope with that and invented things like SpamAssassin.
Then the morons arrived, but that was not a problem: we did not bother to look a pictures of cats or of what they had for breakfast; it did hurt some people when they promoted stupidity, but we looked at the evidence and vaccinated our own kids.
Then the crooks arrived. It did not affect most of us as we knew to not open dodgy emails, but we had to clear up messes when the air heads in marketing and finance did so.
Then the politicians arrived and decided to make war with each other using the nice space that we had created. Not content with buggering up the real world they are now intent on spreading their deceptions, hate and vendettas all over what should have been something to the benefit of mankind.
How do we get these people to fuck off and play their stupid, harmful games where it does not matter ?
I agree there were people trying to trash the BBS but they were easily spotted and ignored for the trolls they were. I would even go so far as say they were ridiculed, laughed at and then kicked off never to return. The problem with the internet is you can't throw them under a bridge. Changing IP address is easy, getting a new phone number was not.
Ah, the mid 90s when the Web was basically Universities and big companies. And we mocked the stupid with "AOL".
I suppose we should probably blame Berners-Lee. It was the web that made the general public want the internet. Or maybe Andreessen for adding the img tag...
Christ I feel old.
I like how the Daily Mail referred to British Army 6th Division 77th Brigade disinformation unit
Is that the 77th official title, or do they give a different moniker to each person who asks?
It’s certainly not Tim’s fault that humanity is flawed, and that they are co-incidentally using his excellent systems, protocols etc for not just trillions of dollars of web focussed business, but some are abusing the phase space for warfare aimed at the general population, or autocratic regimes, or both.
So other than on a screen, how does the logo look? I mean printed on a T-shirt, or as a badge on a uniform?
Probably a lot like a target. See also 'PERSEC' and 'OPSEC'. I guess running a souvenir shop for visiting troops could be justified under 'disinformation', rather than 'beer money'.
Lieutenant General Ivan Jones proudly declared: "6th Division focuses on Cyber, Electronic Warfare, Intelligence, Information Operations and unconventional warfare through niche capabilities such as the Specialised Infantry Battalions."
Most of the army might say that the General is aiming to become Commander of Unconventional New Tactics.
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I just checked and they are just using the traditional 6 Div, badge.
These date from 1916 when the decision was taken to try and conceal the order of battle by doing away with the plain designations and substituting these badges. Many have not changed, though some have. 1 Div.'s being an example.
As for calling an ad-hoc collection of psy-ops, propaganda and other odds and sods a division is not going to fool anyone. Instead of pissing around like this how about actually recruiting a few more infantry and other teeth arms then the threat that we will come and sort you out might have a bit more clout behind it
I guess they chose the frozen annularity because they already had the copyright.
"As for calling an ad-hoc collection of psy-ops, propaganda and other odds and sods a division is not going to fool anyone."
Couple of points.
It's not a combat division for deployment. That's the first and third, which do all the PBI jobs, plus all the modern bells and whistles.
It's a support division, but considering much of an advanced nations combat power is the force multiplier afforded by accurate intelligence, it's pretty important. It's also a force multiplier we can supply to allies with minimum fuss and casualties.
The main task you missed that they do is surveillance. They do psy-ops in the same way that a large corporate body does HR, mainly it's about keeping the troops happy :D
It seems a convenient place to stick signals and recon brigades that are effectively deployed fighting a war, for the benefit of national security. But physically located in the home country. So for various legal reasons, and with the growth of signals and recon, it makes sense.
Totally agree they aren't a combat division. Not invading anyone with the 6th. Helping someone else do the invading for you? 6th is the ticket.
I don’t agree or disagree on your assessment, but I will remark that occasionally restructuring combat units to work together, under a unified command, _does_ make a difference, even if the underlying capabilities don’t change.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Tenth_Fleet
I’m more thinking of the WW2 ASW* coordination here, but there’s also a cyber angle to 10th now.
Again, no idea if that’s the case here and I’ll even join in a bit o’ cynicism.
* Oh, and no, doubt, early Ww2 USA transport shipping protection practices were risible.
The new division is purely a rebranding exercise and will not result in an increase in manpower, equipment or "capabilities".
Crikey a pastel unicorn and paper mâché tiger of an operation and just whenever an increase in capabilities is most definitely needed to be anywhere up ahead in the NEUKlearer HyperRadioProACTive IT and AI Theatres with Leading Greater IntelAIgent Games Players ..... whose progress is shared here on El Reg
And the answer to the posted question .... What's dumb and dumber and more stupid than dumb and stupid?
More of the same with no real difference.
Surely you can do considerably better than all of that, Lt Gen Ivan Jones. If you can't, you have a real practical problem, as does the Ministry of Defence and HMGovernment.
Am I to understand your claim that the symbol for Division 6 resembles the examples you cite purely because it is circular? There seems little else about them to convey confusion as to which is which.
Why not throw in car wheels, Rolos, dartboards, portholes & hula-hoops while you are at it?
"Lieutenant General Ivan Jones proudly declared: "6th Division focuses on Cyber, Electronic Warfare, ::mercy snip::""
One wonders if Lieutenant General Ivan Jones would kindly let us all know what, exactly, this stand-alone "Cyber" thing is? He must have an adequate explanation, seeing as it's the first thing his division is focusing on, right?
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"6 (UK) Division is the new organisational home for the Army's "asymmetric edge", comprising all things "Intelligence, Counter-Intelligence, Information Operations, Electronic Warfare, Cyber and Unconventional Warfare"."
So, it's full of marketing droids & snakeoil salesmen then
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