Cyber crime and Fake News Threaten Our Reality
By Prempal Singh
On the web, readers have a difficult decision to make when they read anything – online or in printing. The vast body of material now available online makes it difficult to weed out the “real” from the “fake” or, as journalists would call it, lies or agreement.
Making Decisions When Absolutely nothing is ‘Set in Stone’:
Just before internet publications, printing allowed time to verify details prior to the information hit the page. When a problem in print was performed, it was usually accompanied by a retraction or correction- with an overt apology or implication of feeling disappointed for the error. Whenever things get iffy is when a fact can be considered true – until it is quietly changed when some evidence arises that the simple fact is not solid.
The situation recalls George Orwell’s “1984, ” where some unseen government decision-maker fake which country was your ally and which the enemy. The enemy last night could be today’s number one ally. And, everyone was brainwashed to believe the idea of that moment, which could change multiple times on a given day.
Manipulation of information to influence community judgment with falsehoods is a crime. Today, cybercrimes abound, which leaves most of the information in question. Can easily we trust the information? What can we consider so that we can call and make an informed decision?
Verifying the fact – Or Can We all?
Anyone that studied central school science might have learned about the technological method. Test things and follow the details until you arrive at a conclusion. With all the advent of the internet and the massive volume of materials available, that becomes harder to do. People have a tendency to find sources they trust and believe them.
What happens when cybercrimes subtly change reality with just enough of a hint of facts so that the fiction being spread appears to be believable? When media con artists describe how they do their best work, the master always says to stay with the truth whenever possible so it’s harder to be caught in a lie. Cunning cybercriminals coax us with just enough of the fact to make us swallow the fictions.
Separating the Fake Information From the Genuine:
Issues move quickly in the cyber world. Leaked documents show us the real information, but people who distributed the fact have broken the law. Government claims become suspect.
Using anti-malware and antivirus protection might bud out some of the grossest falsehoods, but when they are perpetrated all over the place, how do you make a decision? It’s like the old party game of phone, where someone shared a secret through the time the tenth person observed the secret it experienced grown to epic dimensions and changed completely.
Acquiring a moment to step back and questioning the likelihood of the fact takes time. Whatever we can only trust is that the truth can – eventually – come away, if only with anti-propaganda and fact-checking to overcome the falsehoods.
Can the “good guys” win? There were like to hope so, but time, money and the truth are generally not as easy to verify as they used to be. And, years later, you may discover what you thought the fact was kept a secret to shield some special interest.
Safeguarding Your Sources and The Equipment:
If, for years, you’ve been reading information from sources you trust, make sure your digital sources are linked to the right URLs. With sending junk email, phishing, and other digital scams, making sure you have the right interconnection is important. The “fake” information can look so real!
Also, protecting your own hardware and software is paramount. A security consultant who teaches at a university said that even your printer can become the repository for malware that can impact your entire computer system. It could take changing whole systems and starting from scratch – or a highly rated security consultant or firm – to make a system that is more secure.
As a businessperson, using software and hardware to keep your documents and data intact and inviolable is practically impossible. Nevertheless, using sensible approaches, like limiting business equipment to business-only use, checking links with business trading associates and sources, and putting in the most highly-rated anti-virus and antivirus protection is important.
The cyber crime that distributes falsehoods can make us trust no-one or anything we learn. But, planning to challenge every bit of “fake news” is time-consuming and exhausting. Instead, use precautions and take what you read with a giant grain of sodium.
source: newsblaze.com