The New Attack Surface: Interpretation, Not Infrastructure
For two decades we’ve poured billions into hardening networks, shielding systems, and fortifying pipelines.
Firewalls became fortresses.
Zero-trust became scripture.
Everything got armored.
Except the part that matters most.
The adversary isn’t going after the data anymore -
they’re going after the frame the data lives inside.
Because if you can tilt the interpretive layer, you don’t need to breach anything.
You don’t need to exfiltrate a single byte.
You just need the commander, the analyst, the operator to read the situation wrong.
That’s the new attack vector.
Interpretation is the soft target.
And once the frame fractures, the entire command loop destabilizes.
Collections look noisy.
Indicators look inverted.
Risks look benign.
Threats look misaligned.
And suddenly a perfectly secure system becomes operationally brittle -
not because the network failed, but because the meaning failed.
This is the cognitive battlefield no one wants to name,
but everyone feels forming at the edge of the mission space.
We’ve spent twenty years defending infrastructure.
The next twenty will be spent defending interpretation.
A question for senior readers:
How is your organization protecting its interpretive layer -
and who owns that terrain?
If the answer isn’t clear, the vulnerability already exists.