socialmedia
Using Disinformation to Cause a Blackout
Interesting paper: "How weaponizing disinformation can bring down a city's power grid": Abstract: Social media has made it possible to manipulate the masses via disinformation and fake news at an unprecedented scale ...
On the Twitter Hack
Twitter was hacked this week. Not a few people's Twitter accounts, but all of Twitter. Someone compromised the entire Twitter network, probably by stealing the log-in credentials of one of Twitter's system ...
Artificial Personas and Public Discourse
Presidential campaign season is officially, officially, upon us now, which means it's time to confront the weird and insidious ways in which technology is warping politics. One of the biggest threats on ...
Social Engineering Attacks: Common Methods Involved and How to Avoid Being Caught Out
As part of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we take a closer look at what a social engineering attack entails and how to spot them ...
Fake News and Pandemics
When the next pandemic strikes, we'll be fighting it on two fronts. The first is the one you immediately think about: understanding the disease, researching a cure and inoculating the population. The ...
Hacking Instagram to Get Free Meals in Exchange for Positive Reviews
This is a fascinating hack: In today's digital age, a large Instagram audience is considered a valuable currency. I had also heard through the grapevine that I could monetize a large following ...
Attacking Soldiers on Social Media
A research group at NATO's Strategic Communications Center of Excellence catfished soldiers involved in an European military exercise -- we don't know what country they were from -- to demonstrate the power ...
How Surveillance Inhibits Freedom of Expression
In my book Data and Goliath, I write about the value of privacy. I talk about how it is essential for political liberty and justice, and for commercial fairness and equality. I ...
Identifying People by Metadata
Interesting research: "You are your Metadata: Identification and Obfuscation of Social Media Users using Metadata Information," by Beatrice Perez, Mirco Musolesi, and Gianluca Stringhini. Abstract: Metadata are associated to most of the ...
Manipulative Social Media Practices
The Norwegian Consumer Council just published an excellent report on the deceptive practices tech companies use to trick people into giving up their privacy. From the executive summary: Facebook and Google have ...
