Is fake news a security risk?
Website design By BotEap.comFake news and security
So is fake news a security problem? Let’s take a look at some recent news that is quite revealing. Website design By BotEap.comFacebook held a press conference to explain what it is doing to remove fake news from its pages and therefore from our feeds. CNN’s Oliver Darcy was waiting to ask a pointed question about one of the most prolific sources of conspiracy-based fake news, InfoWars.
How does this affect security?
Problems occur when those who really believe in fake news start sharing it. Often times, viral fake news about security issues on social networks, applications or websites can cause serious damage to the reputation of the recipients. Website design By BotEap.comIt’s one thing to allow and encourage free speech, but when it starts to affect legitimate businesses, the people at the heart of the problem need to be taken into account. InfoWars has in the past advertised its site and even some fake news through YouTube advertising. When such ads are shown in the middle of an article from a highly reputable company, it has the effect of subliminally undermining the reputation of these companies.
What can be done?
It seems that unless an affected party takes the offending party to court, the response may not be much. Or is that it? Website design By BotEap.comThe lesson to be learned here is that according to Facebook, they won’t delete fake news even after they’ve found it. Therefore, the public is in the position of power. Website design By BotEap.comDon’t believe everything you read. You can use websites like https://www.snopes.com/, which offer a wealth of resources on scams and news. You can also check the facts at https://fullfact.org/ to verify the validity of a story. Website design By BotEap.comIf you discover that the story is false, be sure to politely point it out to the people promoting it. Website design By BotEap.comWhy is this so important? Well, there is a very successful ploy that bad guys often use, they simply search for popular news trends, create pages that promote those news, or hijack existing pages and embed their own malicious code on the page. Before you know it, malware has spread across the Internet, infecting thousands or millions of computers. Website design By BotEap.comIn short, fake news causes real cybersecurity problems and can be much more dangerous in the real world.
So is fake news a security problem? Let’s take a look at some recent news that is quite revealing. Website design By BotEap.comFacebook held a press conference to explain what it is doing to remove fake news from its pages and therefore from our feeds. CNN’s Oliver Darcy was waiting to ask a pointed question about one of the most prolific sources of conspiracy-based fake news, InfoWars.
Website design By BotEap.comWhen asked by Darcy how the company could claim that it was serious about tackling the problem of online misinformation while allowing InfoWars to maintain a page with nearly a million followers on its website, John Hegeman said the company did not “Eliminate fake news.” Website design By BotEap.com“I guess just being fake doesn’t violate community standards,” Hegeman said, explaining that InfoWars “has not violated anything that would result in its removal.” Website design By BotEap.comHegeman added: “I think part of the bottom line here is that we created Facebook to be a place where different people can have a voice. And different publishers have very different points of view.” Website design By BotEap.com“We work hard to find the right balance between fostering freedom of expression and promoting a safe and authentic community, and we believe that lower-ranking inauthentic content strikes that balance. In other words, we allow people to post it as a way to expression, but we won’t show it at the top of the News Feed. “ Website design By BotEap.com“With that said: while sharing fake news does not violate our Community Standards policy set, we have strategies for dealing with actors who repeatedly share fake news. From our external fact-checkers … we removed their monetization and advertising privileges for remove financial incentives and dramatically reduce the distribution of all your content at the page or domain level on Facebook. “Website design By BotEap.comSo based on that conversation, you have to wonder if the fake news press conference was anything more than, well, fake news! Website design By BotEap.comIf Facebook does not intend to eliminate fake news, then they are encouraging it, claiming that they eliminate or reduce the ability of page owners to generate income on Facebook if they consider the peddlers of fake news.
How does this affect security?
Problems occur when those who really believe in fake news start sharing it. Often times, viral fake news about security issues on social networks, applications or websites can cause serious damage to the reputation of the recipients. Website design By BotEap.comIt’s one thing to allow and encourage free speech, but when it starts to affect legitimate businesses, the people at the heart of the problem need to be taken into account. InfoWars has in the past advertised its site and even some fake news through YouTube advertising. When such ads are shown in the middle of an article from a highly reputable company, it has the effect of subliminally undermining the reputation of these companies.
Website design By BotEap.comWebsite design By BotEap.comAnd on the subject of fake news, let’s look at the person who coined the phrase: Website design By BotEap.comPresident Trump rejected a question from CNN’s Jim Acosta at a joint press conference Friday afternoon with UK Prime Minister Theresa May in Buckinghamshire. Earlier in the press conference, Trump attacked CNN after receiving a question from NBC News reporter Hallie Jackson. Trump said NBC is “possibly worse than CNN.” Website design By BotEap.com“Mr. President, since you attacked CNN, can I ask you a question?” Acosta asked Trump. Website design By BotEap.comFOX News correspondent John Roberts “Go ahead,” said. Website design By BotEap.com“Can I ask you a question?” Jim Acosta insisted. Website design By BotEap.com“No,” Trump told him. Website design By BotEap.com“CNN is fake news,” Trump said. “I don’t take questions from CNN. CNN is fake news. I don’t take questions from CNN.” Website design By BotEap.comSo in this case, those accused of delivering fake news do not have the opportunity to ask a question. If the press publishes a story that is not true, then you have a chance to challenge them in a court of law, but POTUS doesn’t bother to do that, they do their own brand justice. Website design By BotEap.comWhat is the verdict on security? Website design By BotEap.comHonestly this is damaging, the UK press has a duty to report honestly and fairly, failure to do so almost always leads to legal action. Trump has accused the BBC of providing fake news in the past, now I know that the BBC has been accused of bias in the past, in some cases they have been found guilty and had to pay the price, however they are publicly funded from the UK through a license fee and as such are under scrutiny. Website design By BotEap.comWhenever public opinion is manipulated there are security risks, whether cyber or real. The current climate of calling everything that people don’t like false rather than putting the culprits in the book must change in the real world and cyber environment. Website design By BotEap.comAs a result, lies continue to spread and global security and cybersecurity is where the suffering begins. Website design By BotEap.comRecently, Facebook has tried to limit the damage after the Cambridge Analytica scale. UK advertising has been full of how Facebook is ditching its third party data associations, in fact there is probably a second reason for this. GDPR would turn third-party data associations like Cambridge Analytica into a minefield for Facebook. Website design By BotEap.comThe amount of compliance that would be required, the documentation, verification and verification, not to mention the fines if something did go wrong, would be enormous. Website design By BotEap.comSure, Facebook was only fined £ 500,000 for the recent scandal, this is likely because the incident happened before GDPR went into effect, future breaches would be addressed with much larger fines.
Some of the biggest brands in the US had ads on YouTube channels for the far-right website InfoWars and its founder, notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and say they had no idea YouTube allowed your advertising appeared there. – CNN
What can be done?
It seems that unless an affected party takes the offending party to court, the response may not be much. Or is that it? Website design By BotEap.comThe lesson to be learned here is that according to Facebook, they won’t delete fake news even after they’ve found it. Therefore, the public is in the position of power. Website design By BotEap.comDon’t believe everything you read. You can use websites like https://www.snopes.com/, which offer a wealth of resources on scams and news. You can also check the facts at https://fullfact.org/ to verify the validity of a story. Website design By BotEap.comIf you discover that the story is false, be sure to politely point it out to the people promoting it. Website design By BotEap.comWhy is this so important? Well, there is a very successful ploy that bad guys often use, they simply search for popular news trends, create pages that promote those news, or hijack existing pages and embed their own malicious code on the page. Before you know it, malware has spread across the Internet, infecting thousands or millions of computers. Website design By BotEap.comIn short, fake news causes real cybersecurity problems and can be much more dangerous in the real world.