Security News

The Ministry of Defence has published a data strategy that calls on the British armed forces to make better use of its "Enduring strategic asset" - by spying on social media and dobbing in dissenters to local councils. In a move bound to fuel tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy theorists, the MoD's Data Strategy for Defence document [PDF] published this week says the military ought to be carrying out "Automated scanning of social media platforms" to detect "Change in population sentiment."

The questions have gotten more sophisticated and less suspicious. I've noticed a significant uptick in Facebook questions that ask users to answer seemingly innocent questions one wouldn't think could put anyone in danger.

Los Angeles police are instructed to collect social media details from people they stop and talk to, even if those civilians aren't suspected of breaking the law, according to documents finally revealed after a lengthy legal battle. The Brennan Center for Justice, a non-profit law and public policy institute at New York University, early last year submitted a request [PDF] under the California Public Records Act for information on LAPD's use of social media to monitor people and groups.

An Iranian state-sponsored threat actor tracked as TA456 maintained a social media account for several years before engaging with their intended victim, cybersecurity firm Proofpoint reports. The newly detailed activity attributed to the group involved the use of the social media persona "Marcella Flores," which was used to engage with an employee of a subsidiary of an aerospace defense contractor over multiple communication platforms, to gain their trust in an attempt to infect them with malware.

Pro-Trump social media platform GETTR was targeted by hackers shortly after launch - accounts were apparently compromised and tens of thousands of users had their data scraped and leaked online. A Twitter-like platform, GETTR was launched on July 4 by Jason Miller, who served as a spokesperson for former U.S. President Donald Trump.

We have seen a surge in WhatsApp accounts being hacked, if you are sent a text from WhatsApp with a code on it, don't share the code with ANYONE no matter who's asking, or the reason why. We've discussed this scam before on the Naked Security podcast, because it's a good reminder of how cybercriminals use one hijacked social media account to target others.

Malicious COVID-19 online content - including racist content, disinformation and misinformation - thrives and spreads online by bypassing the moderation efforts of individual social media platforms. By mapping online hate clusters across six major social media platforms, researchers at the George Washington University show how malicious content exploits pathways between platforms, highlighting the need for social media companies to rethink and adjust their content moderation policies.

To improve news literacy and reduce the spread of misinformation, NYUAD Center for Cybersecurity researcher and lead author Nicholas Micallef is part of a team that designed Fakey, a game that emulates a social media news feed and prompts players to use available signals to recognize and scrutinize suspicious content and focus on credible information. The researchers found that the more players interacted with articles in the game, the better their skills at spotting credible content became.

As India battles a surging second wave of COVID-19 cases and severe shortages of medical supplies, the nation's government has told Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to remove social media posts it says may panic its populace with misinformation. The takedown requests were lodged on Friday, a day before India recorded more than 300,000 new COVID-19 cases for the first time ever in 24 hours.

How to stop security-conscious apps from allowing unencrypted data to escape, and how scammers put social network users under pressure in order to steal their passwords. WHERE TO FIND THE PODCAST ONLINE. You can listen to us on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast and anywhere that good podcasts are found.