WATCH Disinformation – Propaganda and Fake News – Day 10 of Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2021
Shelly Miller
So Craig, if you could tell us a little bit about disinformation
Craig Taylor
Disinformation, okay. There is a lot of disinformation online today. It’s always been with us. I mean, even since the First and Second World War, nation states used propaganda, which is another word for disinformation, to influence the views and perspectives of their people. Online today, though, it is so much easier for anyone to spread false and misleading news to deceive their viewers and readers on a particular topic. This information essentially is propaganda that uses social engineering techniques to establish credibility on the story being told, it’s an old tool, it’s sews, dissent and foment discontent in foreign countries. It’s been used by the US government has been used by other governments around the world. It’s quite common today.
Shelly Miller
Okay. So what are some examples of disinformation.
Craig Taylor
So a really interesting example is a development in technology that is called deep fakes, which allows me an actor, like you see my head right now, to have superimposed on me any other person’s face, and I can control the speech. The words are sounding as though they came from someone else. If you search YouTube for deep fake president, Barack Obama, you’ll see an actor having Barack Obama say completely false things. It’s called Deep fakes. And it’s getting better and better at this moment in time, it still perceptible differences between the actor and the real person. But it is a potential future challenge for all of us to face where we may not even be able to believe the words coming out of someone’s mouth online, because it’s not an authentic, it’s not them authentically saying those things. Other examples are quite common in the COVID era, right? We’ve heard that COVID vaccines cause magnetism or another Tik Tok source of great information was farmers in the US are forced to burn their crops with Agent Orange. None of those are true. Both of them are promoted heavily online by Tik Tok users. The problem is there’s no peer review on Tick tock, you cannot believe anything that happens on Tik Tok or online today.
Shelly Miller
Okay, very good. So how do I protect myself?
Craig Taylor
I went to university I got a degree and every time I wrote a paper, the professor’s 20 to 25 years ago said, you cannot cite online sources you need to use journals and peer reviewed materials. Just know that when you’re reading something online, Don’t believe everything you read. Don’t believe anything you read, check the source material. Check for spelling, grammar, fake news, be wary of attention grabbing headlines, and consider your own biases. We do know now that the social media platforms of the world have a self selecting bias. If I search for certain topics, I will get more and more information fed to me on those topics to confirm my bias. So we are led further and further down the road of a particular viewpoint. And it creates this chasm between people on both sides of a discussion where they can’t have a meaningful conversation because there’s no room for dialogue. So always be aware that this information is out there. You cannot trust anything you read online, check your sources, and just be vigilant.
Shelly Miller
Very good. Just because it’s on the internet doesn’t mean it’s true.
Craig Taylor
Right
