Don’t trust everything you see!
Don’t trust everything you hear!
Don’t trust everything you read!
One of the things that cybersecurity taught me is to have zero trust and to be suspicious of any information I see, read, or hear.
Your common sense, education, feelings and perception of normality it will be greatly impacted by the mass-media and social media avalanche of so called, information.
“Breaking news” (or just “breaking” … because are so urgent that writing another word, “news”, takes way too much time and energy), are coming almost in real time.
Publish it first, check it later. Or never.
News “from (credible or confidential) sources“, but impossible to be verified, will manipulate you in the direction desired by the owner’s news or the distributor.
The news is not anymore neutral but heavily connected to who is paying the monthly check. Or the big bonus.
Journalism, as in the ethical code(s) originally planned, is “rara avis”.
I will not keep you a lecture about journalism, as it is not my field of specialty.
But I would like very briefly, to reiterate few advises for a safer and better online #cyberlife :
https://www.enisa.europa.eu/news/enisa-news/ecsm-2020
- ThinkB4YouClick: Stop, Think, Act (is one of the very first advice you’ll get in a scuba diving class, in stress management).
- Use a search engine and do basic research about the info you are just about to “like” and “share”. There are deeper and more complex tools to identify the original sources and to spot the dark side of that information, I’ll be back on this topic in a separate article.
- Fake news, Misinformation, Disinformation, Deep Fake, with the aim of the advanced & powerful computer & dedicated software, and with the booming of the #ArtificialIntelligence (aka #AI) support (or… leadership), will produce audio & visual content almost impossible to be classified. This plague will affect directly or indirectly, almost everything and everybody. A fine-tunned “news” (written, audio or video) can crash companies or stock markets, can divert politically elections, can turn the World upside down…
- Everybody can be everything, any scammer can be a CEO.
- Any crook can be a “public speaker”, any mobster can show off as a prolific businessman. Be suspicious with “overnight” booming businesses… Search who is behind that “successful story”! Search who is involved (politically, economically, “sentimentally/sexually”) in the background. Don’t trust everything you see posted on their “business” website!
- Don’t get easily impressed by the high numbers of “likes”, “followers” or “comments” on certain websites, pages, groups or profiles. It is SO easy to buy your “celebrity”. I am not posting links to such “services” as I am not intending to promote such scammers!
And remember, a fake news or misinformation remains an information with no value.
No matter that there is partial reality or truth in that information, the diversion of it with the clear intention of manipulation, is canceling any value of it.
And to give you a harsh example: you have a bottle of water. But somebody is peeing in your water bottle. Just a bit. A very little. Is your water still potable? You will still drink from that bottle of contaminated water?†
I guess, no!
Same with the information. Don’t accept contaminated news, do your best and filter it before accepting it.
If you are not sure how to verify a certain information, drop me an email, or get in directly in touch with me, I will be more than happy to give you some tips to help you in your future #cyberinvestigations. Confidentiality is by default!
… and to end up with a smaile…
Stay #cybersafe!
Cyber-Cerber.com is part of OmnisMares.com
