Fake news has come to be feared and reviled in equal measure - and there are few lives it hasn’t touched.
Fake news is a type of false journalism or propaganda that consists of deliberate disinformation or hoaxes spread through traditional news media - both print and broadcast - or online social media.
Earlier this year, a major international survey of internet security and trust - involving more than 25,000 internet users in more than two dozen countries - found that fake news was an area of major concern.
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Of those polled in the CIGI-Ipsos Global Survey, 86 per cent said they had fallen for fake news at least once, with 44 per cent saying they sometimes or frequently did.
Facebook was the most commonly-cited source of fake news, with 77 per cent of Facebook users saying they had personally seen fake news there, followed by 62 per cent of Twitter users and 74 per cent of social media users in general.
In addition, 10 per cent of Twitter users said they had closed their account in the past year as a direct result of fake news, while nine per cent of Facebook users reported doing the same.
Users in Great Britain (40 per cent) and Poland (35 per cent) were most likely to blame Russia for the disruptive effect of fake news in their own country.
In essence, the survey underscored the fragility of the internet and global 'netizens'' growing discomfort with social media and the power these corporations wield over their daily lives.
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“The survey results tell us that people around the world are increasingly concerned about their privacy and security online,” explained Sally Wentworth, vice president of Global Policy Development for the Internet Society.
“However, we also see that users aren’t utilizing tools like encryption that can help secure their communications.
“From keeping messages private to protecting critical infrastructure, encryption is an essential tool for digital security.
“It’s clear that there is more we can be doing as a community to make it easier for internet users to secure their communications.”
Here in Greater Manchester, the Cyber Resilience Centre has been created specifically to address this problem and create a “visible place for businesses to go” to help them to take steps to protect themselves.
The centre is a not-for-profit joint venture between Greater Manchester Police and Manchester Digital, with backing from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
Katie Gallagher, managing director of Manchester Digital, said: “The financial loss to victims of cyber crime here in 2018 was £40m, with the top three threats being, hacking, viruses and extortion.
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“There are more than 650,000 known IP addresses infected with malware and over 272,000 phishing reports were submitted to Action Fraud last year.
“Europol recently reported 32 per cent of all cyber breaches involved phishing and one in every 3,207 e-mails received are phishing attempts.
“Our work will evolve through our unique connection to local universities and the cyber security sector through our trusted providers and cyber expert groups.
“Together with our links to law enforcement and the intelligence community the centre will be in an ideal position to constantly gather intelligence on the threat landscape and how it is changing and use that knowledge to protect and support the region’s businesses.
“The government has ten recommended steps that businesses can follow to help protect them online.
“In total, 57 per cent of 海角视频 businesses have followed five or more of the steps, we aim to get this number to 100 per cent in Greater Manchester over the next couple of years.
“The centre will provide a targeted programme of work that will include training, ethical hacking and recovery support via a range of trusted suppliers who will provide everything from cyber essentials certification through to recovery from hacking, ransomware attacks – and much more besides.”
海角视频Fast CEO Lawrence Jones MBE on fake news and misinformation
Fake news. We’ve all heard the phrase, perhaps a little too often these days. Catapulted into everyday use by a certain president and proponent of said fake news, we all know about the impact of misinformation online, but are we savvy enough to always spot it?
With established news outlets doing all they can to stay afloat in an online world, and social media flooding the internet with constant messaging, how do you determine what’s fact and what isn’t? It’s clearly harder than it seems when you consider the investigations into alleged Russian interference with the US presidential election, and the impact of fake news and misinformation on the Brexit referendum.
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian is quoted saying that policing fake news is something that can never be done. When a founder of one of the web’s biggest platforms can’t see a way around this, is there any chance? It seems the responsibility lies with users, to be savvy about the information that they trust, and keeping an open mind.
From a business point of view, misinformation can present a real challenge. A prime example is fake reviews. There are bots out there that can spam out false five-star reviews in a matter of moments. Would you be aware enough to scroll through all of the reviews rather than just looking at the rating when making a purchase?
When you consider that 97 per cent of consumers consult product reviews before making a purchase, how do you compete when someone has such an unfair advantage?
For me, it comes down to educating consumers. Showing them that there is more to your product than a star rating, building relationships and creating other avenues to counter bot-reviews, if that’s what you’re up against. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but surely countering the negatives of our changing online world starts with awareness.