Disinformation, Midterms, and the Mind: How Psychology Can Help Journalists Fight Misinformation. That wasnt the case of the aforementionedHewlett-Packard scandal, which resulted in Congress passing the TelephoneRecords and Privacy Protection Act of 2006. Disinformation definition, false information, as about a country's military strength or plans, disseminated by a government or intelligence agency in a hostile act of tactical political subversion: Soviet disinformation drove a wedge between the United States and its Indonesian allies. Here are our five takeaways on how online disinformation campaigns and platform responses changed in 2020, and how they didn't. 1. The bait frequently has an authentic-looking element to it, such as a recognizable company logo. The videos never circulated in Ukraine. disinformation vs pretexting. Youre deliberately misleading someone for a particular reason, she says. Similar to socialengineering attacks, becoming a targeted victim of a pretexting attack can behumiliating and frustrating to recover from. For the general public, its more important not to share harmful information, period, says Nancy Watzman, strategic advisor at First Draft, a nonpartisan, nonprofit coalition that works to protect communities from false information. We want to stop disinformation in its tracks, not spread the disinformation further and help advance the goals of . disinformation comes from someone who is actively engaged in an at-tempt to mislead (Fetzer, 2004; Piper, 2002, pp. In this way, when the hacker asks for sensitive information, the victim is more likely to think the request is legitimate. (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=38cf8a01-c7b4-4a61-a61b-8c0be6528f20&cid=877050e7-52c9-4c33-a20b-d8301a08f96d'; cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: "38cf8a01-c7b4-4a61-a61b-8c0be6528f20" }).render("6ea159e3e44940909b49c98e320201e2"); }); Misinformation contains content that is false, misleading, or taken out of context but without any intent to deceive. Josh Fruhlinger is a writer and editor who lives in Los Angeles. Categorizing Falsehoods By Intent. Copyright 2023 Fortinet, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Prebunking is a decade-old idea that has just been bolstered by a rash of newly published research papers. One of the most common quid pro quo attacks is when fraudsters impersonate the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA). Cyber criminals are investing in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to create synthetic or manipulated digital content . In fact, many phishing attempts are built around pretexting scenarios. In fact, Eliot Peper, another panelist at the CWA conference, noted that in 10th-century Spain, feudal lords commissioned poetrythe Twitter of the timewith verses that both celebrated their reign and threw shade on their neighbors. The lords paid messengers to spread the compositions far and wide, in a shadow war of poems.Some of the poems told blatant lies, such as accusing another lord of being an adultereror worse. We are no longer supporting IE (Internet Explorer) as we strive to provide site experiences for browsers that support new web standards and security practices. Is Love Bombing the Newest Scam to Avoid? The research literature on misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda is vast and sprawling. What's interesting is in the CompTIA app, they have an example of a tech team member getting a call and being fed a fake story that adds more detail to why they are calling. But pretexters have a wealth of other more efficient research techniques available, including so-called open source intelligence information that can be pieced together from publicly available information ranging from government records to LinkedIn profiles. A high-level executive can be misled into thinking they are speaking with someone else within the firm or at a partner company as part of a spear-phishing attack. the Communication on 'tackling online disinformation: a European approach' is a collection of tools to tackle the spread of disinformation and ensure the protection of EU values; the Action plan on disinformation aims to strengthen EU capability and cooperation in the fight against disinformation; the European Democracy Action Plan develops . All Rights Reserved. In Social Engineering Penetration Testing, security engineer Gavin Watson lays out the techniques that underlie every act of pretexting: "The key part [is] the creation of a scenario, which is the pretext used to engage the victim. Analysis of hundreds of thousands of phishing, social media, email, and dark web threats show that social engineering tactics continue to prove effective for criminals. Phishing can be used as part of a pretexting attack as well. Like many social engineering techniques, this one relies on people's innate desire to be helpful or friendly; as long as there's some seemingly good reason to let someone in, people tend to do it rather than confront the tailgater. There's a conspiracy theory circulating online that claims 5G cellular networks cause cancer, or even COVID-19, despite there being no scientific evidence to support . APA experts discussed the psychology behind how mis- and disinformation occurs, and why we should care. We all know about the attacker who leverages their technical expertise to infiltrate protected computer systems and compromise sensitive data. In some cases, the attacker may even initiate an in-person interaction with the target. And why do they share it with others? CompTIA Business Business, Economics, and Finance. If you're on Twitter, resist the temptation to retweet, quote tweet, or share a . By providing valuable insight into how and why we are likely to believe misinformation and disinformation, psychological science can inform how we protect ourselves against its ill effects. In the Ukraine-Russia war, disinformation is particularly widespread. It is the foundation on which many other techniques are performed to achieve the overall objectives.". 8-9). Your brain and misinformation: Why people believe lies and conspiracy theories. One thing the HP scandal revealed, however, was that it wasn't clear if it was illegal to use pretexting to gain non-financial information remember, HP was going after their directors' phone records, not their money. The Android robot is reproduced or modified from work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License. To re-enable, please adjust your cookie preferences. She also recommends employing a healthy dose of skepticism anytime you see an image. 2021 NortonLifeLock Inc. All rights reserved. Tara Kirk Sell, a senior scholar at the Center and lead author . The spread of misinformation and disinformation has affected our ability to improve public health, address climate change, maintain a stable democracy, and more. misinformation - bad information that you thought was true. Infodemic: World Health Organization defines an infodemic as "an overabundance of informationsome accurate and some notthat . Android, Google Chrome, Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google, LLC. Prepending is adding code to the beginning of a presumably safe file. Before the door is fully closed and latched, the threat actor may swiftly insert their hand, foot, or any other object inside the entryway. Scareware overwhelms targets with messages of fake dangers. Social Engineering is the malicious act of tricking a person into doing something by messing up his emotions and decision-making process. For example, a hacker pretending to be a vendor representative needing access to sensitive customer information may set up a face-to-face meeting with someone who can provide access to a confidential database. Use different passwords for all your online accounts, especially the email account on your Intuit Account. Dolores Albarracin, PhD, explains why fake news is so compelling, and what it takes to counteract it. TIP: Dont let a service provider inside your home without anappointment. Here are some of the good news stories from recent times that you may have missed. When family members share bogus health claims or political conspiracy theories on Facebook, theyre not trying to trick youtheyre under the impression that theyre passing along legit information. Explore key features and capabilities, and experience user interfaces. At this workshop, we considered mis/disinformation in a global context by considering the . Hes not really Tom Cruise. Therefore, the easiest way to not fall for a pretexting attack is to double-check the identity of everyone you do business with, including people referred to you by coworkers and other professionals. To help stop the spread, psychologists are increasingly incorporating debunking and digital literacy into their courses. While both pose certain risks to our rights and democracy, one is more dangerous. In the scenario outlined above, the key to making the scam work is the victim believing the attacker is who they say they are. disinformation vs pretexting. The Center for Health Security's new report, National Priorities to Combat Misinformation and Disinformation for COVID-19 and Future Public Health Threats: A Call for a National Strategy, offers a comprehensive plan for a national approach to stamping out mis- and disinformation. In addition, FortiWeb provides your organization with threat detection based on machine learning that guards your company against all Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) Top 10 threats, such as malware that captures a computer for use in a botnet attack. We are no longer supporting IE (Internet Explorer), Looking for Better Sleep? Download the report to learn more. Other areas where false information easily takes root include climate change, politics, and other health news. Fruhlinger outlines the various techniques used in these scams, and explains that attackers try to insert enough real details to make the ruse believable. Pretexting is based on trust. Exciting, right? By tricking a target into thinking they are speaking to an employer or contractor, for instance, pretexting improves the likelihood that the phishing attempt will be successful. Phishing uses fear and urgency to its advantage, but pretexting relies on building a false sense of trust with the victim. That informationmight be a password, credit card information, personally identifiableinformation, confidential data, or anything that can be used for fraudulent actslike identity theft. The attacker might impersonate a delivery driver and wait outside a building to get things started. A combination of thewords voice and phishing, vishing is just that: voice phishing, meaning phishing overthe phone calls. Question whether and why someone reallyneeds the information requested from you. And to avoid situations like Ubiquiti's, there should be strong internal checks and balances when it comes to large money transfers, with multiple executives needing to be consulted to sign off of them. As the war rages on, new and frightening techniques are being developed, such as the rise of fake fact-checkers. Reusing the same password makes it easier for someone to access your accounts if a site you use is hacked. "The spread of disinformation and misinformation is made possible largely through social networks and social messaging," the report notes. (As noted, if your company is an American financial institution, these kinds of trainings are required by law.) Globally, bad actors use disinformation to deepen tensions at home and abroad and to achieve their preferred domestic outcomes. How phishing via text message works, Sponsored item title goes here as designed, 14 real-world phishing examples and how to recognize them, Social engineering: Definition, examples, and techniques, lays out the techniques that underlie every act of pretexting, managed to defeat two-factor authentication to hack into a victim's bank account, obtain or attempt to obtain, to attempt to disclose or cause to disclose, customer information of a financial institution by false pretenses or deception, pick and choose among laws to file charges under, passed the Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act of 2006, The 10 most powerful cybersecurity companies, 7 hot cybersecurity trends (and 2 going cold), The Apache Log4j vulnerabilities: A timeline, Using the NIST Cybersecurity Framework to address organizational risk, 11 penetration testing tools the pros use. January 19, 2018. low income apartments suffolk county, ny; Always request an ID from anyone trying to enter your workplace or speak with you in person. APA collaborated with American Public Health Association, National League of Cities, and Research!America to host a virtual national conversation about the psychology and impact of misinformation on public health. Strengthen your email security now with the Fortinet email risk assessment. For many Americans, their first introduction to pretexting came in 2006, when internal strife at Hewlett-Packard boiled over into open scandal. So, the difference between misinformation and disinformation comes down to . Disinformation is false information deliberately created and disseminated with malicious intent. Misinformation can be your Uncle Bob [saying], Im passing this along because I saw this,' Watzman notes. This content is disabled due to your privacy settings. To do this, the private investigators impersonated board members and obtained call logs from phone carriers. salisbury university apparel store. The pretext sets the scene for the attack along with the characters and the plot. As part of the University of Colorados 2022 Conference on World Affairs (CWA), he gave a seminar on the topic, noting that if we hope to combat misinformation and disinformation, we have to treat those as two different beasts.. Staff members should be comfortable double-checking credentials, especially if they have a reason to doubt them. The primary difference between pretexting and phishing is that pretexting sets up a future attack, while phishing can be the attack itself. If you see disinformation on Facebook, don't share, comment on, or react to it. Misinformation tends to be more isolated. When one knows something to be untrue but shares it anyway. To that end, heresan overview of just what is pretexting, what is a pretexting attack, and alsotechniques scammers deploy to pull them off. You can BS pretty well when you have a fancy graphic or a statistic or something that seems convincing, West said at the CWA conference, noting that false data has been used by research institutions and governments to build policies, all because we havent taught people how to question quantitative information. "In their character as intermediary platforms, rather than content creators, these businesses have, to date . Firefox is a trademark of Mozilla Foundation. But what really has governments worried is the risk deepfakes pose to democracy. In reality, theyre spreading misinformation. Teach them about security best practices, including how to prevent pretexting attacks. Its typically motivated by three factors: political power or influence, profit, or the desire to sow chaos and confusion. disinformation vs pretexting. In the wake of the scandal, Congress quickly passed the Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act of 2006, which extended protection to records held by telecom companies. Cyber Readiness Center and Breaking Threat Intelligence:Click here to get the latest recommendations and Threat Research, Expand and grow by providing the right mix of adaptive and cost-effective security services. Budgar is also a certified speech-language pathologist (MS, CCC/SLP) who spent over a decade helping people with brain trauma, stroke, MS, Alzheimer's and other neurological conditions regain language, speech, swallowing and cognitive skills. Misinformation on COVID-19 is so pervasive that even some patients dying from the disease still say it's a hoax.In March 2020, nearly 30% of U.S. adults believed the Chinese government created the coronavirus as a bioweapon (Social Science & Medicine, Vol. Pretexting is form of social engineering in which an attacker tries to convince a victim to give up valuable information or access to a service or system. Of course, the video originated on a Russian TV set. A recent phishing campaign used LinkedIn branding to trick job hunters into thinking that people at well-known companies like American Express and CVS Carepoint had sent them a message or looked them up using the social network, wrote ThreatPost. It prevents people from making truly informed decisions, and it may even steer people toward decisions that conflict with their own best interests. In a pretexting attack, the attacker convincingly presents a story using legitimate-looking message formats and images (such as government logos), tone, and wording. Norton 360 with LifeLock, all-in-one, comprehensive protection against viruses, malware, identity theft, online tracking and much, much more. The authors question the extent of regulation and self-regulation of social media companies. Our penultimate social engineering attack type is known as tailgating. In these attacks, someone without the proper authentication follows an authenticated employee into a restricted area. Disinformation is false information which is deliberately intended to misleadintentionally making the misstating facts. 263, 2020) and in June, a quarter believed the outbreak was intentionally planned by people in power (Pew Research Center, 2020). He could even set up shop in a third-floor meeting room and work there for several days. "Fake news" exists within a larger ecosystem of mis- and disinformation. Thecybercriminal casts themselves as a character and they come up with a plot, orploy, that convinces victims to trust their character. In this attack, cybercriminals first spend time gathering information about an organizational structure and key members of the executive team. And it also often contains highly emotional content. The information can then be used to exploit the victim in further cyber attacks. If youve been having a hard time separating factual information from fake news, youre not alone. Examples of misinformation. In modern times, disinformation is as much a weapon of war as bombs are. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. What is an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)? According to Digital Guardian, "Social engineering attacks typically involve some form of psychological manipulation, fooling otherwise unsuspecting users or employees into handing over confidential or sensitive data. Gartner is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates, and is used herein with permission. Pretexting is a certain type of social engineering technique that manipulates victims into divulging information. That is by communicating under afalse pretext, potentially posing as a trusted source. The pretexters sent messages to Ubiquiti employees pretending to be corporate executives and requested millions of dollars be sent to various bank accounts; one of the techniques used was "lookalike URLs" the scammers had registered a URL that was only one letter different from Ubiquiti's and sent their emails from that domain. Why? If the victim complies, the attackers commit identity theft or use the data to conduct other malicious activities. However, private investigators can in some instances useit legally in investigations. This may involve giving them flash drives with malware on them. Here are some of the ways to protect your company from pretexting: Pretexting's major flaw is that users frequently use a well-known brand name. See more. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. Alexa and all related logos are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Andnever share sensitive information via email. When an employee gains securitys approval and opens the door, the attacker asks the employee to hold the door, thereby gaining access to the building. Although pretexting is designed to make future attacks more successful, phishing involves impersonating someone using email messages or texts. NortonLifeLock, the NortonLifeLock Logo, the Checkmark Logo, Norton, LifeLock, and the LockMan Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of NortonLifeLock Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and other countries. Pretexting is a type of social engineering attack whereby a cybercriminal stages a scenario, or pretext, that baits victims into providing valuable information that they wouldn't otherwise. Disinformation, also called propaganda or fake news, refers to any form of communication that is intended to mislead. As reported by KrebsOnSecurity, others spoof banks and use SMS-based text messages about suspicious transfers to call up and scam anyone who responds. The outcome of a case in federal court could help decide whether the First Amendment is a barrier to virtually any government efforts to stifle . Platforms are increasingly specific in their attributions. Pretexting attacksarent a new cyberthreat. The following are a few avenuesthat cybercriminals leverage to create their narrative. A pretext is a made-up scenario developed by threat actors for the purpose of stealing a victim's personal data. They may also create a fake identity using a fraudulent email address, website, or social media account. Can understanding bias in news sources help clarify why people fall prey to misinformation and disinformation? PSA: How To Recognize Disinformation. It was taken down, but that was a coordinated action.. For example, a team of researchers in the UK recently published the results of an . The stuff that really gets us emotional is much more likely to contain misinformation.. But to redeem it, you must answer a fewpersonal questions to confirm your eligibility. hazel park high school teacher dies. Employees are the first line of defense against attacks. Romance scams in 2022: What you need to know + online dating scam statistics, 7 types of gift card scams: How to spot them and avoid them, 14 ways to avoid vendor fraud and other precautions for a cyber-safe wedding, What is pretexting? Contributing writer, disinformation vs pretexting. Cybersecurity Terms and Definitions of Jargon (DOJ). Psychological science is playing a key role in the global cooperative effort to combat misinformation and change the course on how were tackling critical societal issues. Misinformation is false, misleading, or out-of-context content shared without an intent to deceive. Copyright 2020 IDG Communications, Inc. Images can be doctored, she says. Before sharing content, make sure the source is reliable, and check to see if multiple sources are reporting the same info. However, in organizations that lack these features, attackers can strike up conversations with employees and use this show of familiarity to get past the front desk. If you're suspicious about a conversation with an institution, hang up and call their publicly available phone number or write to an email address from their website. Leaked emails and personal data revealed through doxxing are examples of malinformation. If something is making you feel anger, sadness, excitement, or any big emotion, stop and wait before you share, she advises. Both types can affect vaccine confidence and vaccination rates. Fox Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch acknowledged under oath that some Fox hosts "endorsed" the notion that the 2020 U.S. presidential election was stolen, according to a court filing unsealed Monday. In 2017, MacEwan University sent almost $9 million to a scammer posing as a contractor. If you tell someone to cancel their party because it's going to rain even though you know it won't . Those who shared inaccurate information and misleading statistics werent doing it to harm people. Misinformation ran rampant at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. It can be considered a kind of pretexting because the tailgater will often put on a persona that encourages the person with the key to let them into the building for instance, they could be dressed in a jumpsuit and claim they're there to fix the plumbing or HVAC, or have a pizza box and say they're delivering lunch to another floor. Prosecutors had to pick and choose among laws to file charges under, some of which weren't tailored with this kind of scenario in mind. The pretexting attack isconsidered successful when the victim falls for the story and takes actionbecause of it. Still, the type of pretexting attack that's most likely to affect your life will be in one which these techniques are turned on you personally. In this pretexting example,an urgent or mysterious subject line is meant to get you to open a message andfulfill an information request from a cybercriminal posing as a trusted source,be it a boss, acquaintance, or colleague. But the latest nation-state attacks appear to be aiming for the intangibleswith economic, political, and . In these attacks, the scammer usually impersonates a trusted entity/individual and says they need specific details from a user to confirm their identity. Theyre thought to have begun offline with Britishtabloids in the mid-2000s when they allegedly snooped on celebritiesvoicemails posing as tech support.
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