#internet trust

[decaffeinatedgentlemanflowe-blog]

Can you trust the internet?

This is such a loaded question. Can I trust the internet? Well for starters I think that the internet has really taken off in the past 10 years, especially for something that everyone thought was never going to work. The internet can be used for social media, answering questions, research and so much more. Now, does everyone use it for just that? No. The internet is such a huge resource for information it can sometimes be hard to decipher what is real or what is fake. With different websites out there such as “The Onion” or “Huffington Post” with such “realistic” names but not accurate information. “The Onion” is widely known for it’s humor and complete parody. I know when I see a post from them on social media such as Facebook or Twitter, I know for a fact it isn’t real. Some of their posts don’t even have a realistic title, one of my favorites being “40 year old dad leaves for airport 14 hours before flight “just in case””.

Huffington Post however, can sometime throw me off. I continually go back and forth on if it’s actually humor or true. I think it’s mainly because there headlines are pretty realistic. I always have to stop and say “Wait, who is this from….OH never mind”. They always show something totally crazy and attractive on the headline, then in the actual text its like a parody or something fake. With all of that being said, there are a few “good” resources out there. Now, news may not be an unbiased or completely accurate resource but a resource nonetheless. If someone misses the 10 o’clock news they can easily pull it up on their laptop or tablet and see everything they missed, maybe even in more detail. This is what I do enjoy about the internet. Regardless the time of day, I can hop on, see what’s going on, then continue throughout my day. Now, one problem that envies is Facebook. Facebook is ever changing and now you can get your “news” off of the social media site. But the problem with this information is that it is in most cases there from someone on the site. Breaking that down, anyone on Facebook can create any sort of article. Mainly because of the 1st amendment, and sometimes they use it to their advantage. In some cases it can be a good thing and help people see the views of others. But, can also be very bad. Say someone dropped their kid in a gorilla exhibit. The mom makes a Facebook article saying how crazy the animal was and deserved to be shot in order to save the life of her child. It is totally okay for her to do that, but someone is going to miss interpret it. Someone could read that article and think “That mother didn’t watch her child and that gorilla’s life was taken because of her. She should be reprimanded”. They have the right to say that, but then when the real article comes out on the news, and everyone sees what actually happened, people will get a change of heart or mind. This is the problem with the internet. I think when the first amendment was written, it was meant mainly for paper. No-one thought about a thing called the internet when the original rules were written. Going a little bit off topic, I do think some of the rules should be changed to a more modern stance on things. Not drastically and of course by unanimous vote. But changed either way. This leads me to my next “topic”. Some sources on the internet can be very good! There’s an entire dictionary, so when you’re writing a paper you know how to spell and know what big words you’re using mean. Also, a thesaurus can be very handy. The only problem with these such sources is the spoofs of them. So for the dictionary there is Urban Dictionary. Which can be in good use if you need to figure out what a kid said means. But can also be bad if you really do just need to look up a definition of an actual word. Other great sources would be college websites. I know that if I type in AMA writing on a Google search bar, I will get a way to write a paper in AMA style. I know that it would be correct because it would also lead me to Purdue University’s website which is a pretty reliable source of information. Otherwise, being able to even apply to college’s form their websites is crucial. My parents always told me that when they wanted to apply for a school they had to write a paper or fill out a paper application. Which sucks now that you think about it, especially if it was an out of state school. Having to go there just to fill out an application. Now we can type in LA Film School and fill out an application for a school across the US. This brings me to Wikipedia. Now a lot of schools or jobs tell people not to use Wikipedia as a source. I can understand that if it was around 10 years ago when it was still being worked on. I remember you could go in to any article and change whatever you wanted to anything you felt like. But now if you make a change on the website it has to go under review before it gets posted. I think that is a great thing, but there will still be that one person that can get passed it, regardless of any reviews. I think it is a source you can use for quick answers, but shouldn’t be one to be cited. With all of this being said, the internet has its ups and downs. Can you trust the internet? I say yes. But you would have to proceed to do that with caution. Cite sources and make sure that where you find your info it can be backed up by different places.

[ujjalnewsnish]

‘Malvertisements’ Undermine Internet Trust

New Post has been published on http://www.newsnish.com/technology/science/malvertisements-undermine-internet-trust-2/

‘Malvertisements’ Undermine Internet Trust

A new form of digital malicious software that preys on users’ implicit trust in major online brands, such as YouTube or Adobe, is rapidly spreading across the Internet.

Worse yet, these “malvertisements” may soon become the primary means of distributing what is known as malware, leaving users with little or no defense, a new study says.

Researchers at the digital security firm RiskIQ will release their study Tuesday at the annual Black Hat cybersecurity and hacking convention in Las Vegas. The RiskIQ researchers monitored more than 2 billion Web pages and 10 million mobile apps over the past year. They found that the incidence of malvertising on those sites jumped by a whopping 260 percent from last year.

The number of unique malvertisements also grew from year-ago levels by 60 percent. “Malvertisements is a combination of ‘malware’ and ‘advertisements,’ or simply malware that comes through an advertisement,” said James Pleger, RiskIQ’s research director and the report’s author. “The litmus test for me is, first, if it’s something I don’t want on my computer, and second, if it was delivered through an advertisement, then it’s malvertising.”

Hiding in plain sight

For most users, a malvertisement would look as legitimate and indistinguishable as any of the other thousand-odd online ads offered up daily on websites, blogs and social networks. Malvertisements’ “hiding-in-the-open” nature makes them effective at skirting our built-up skepticism of online trickery, Pleger said.

Among the most popular malvertisements currently are pop-up ads advising users to update their software from a trusted service, such as Adobe’s popular Flash player.

“So you go to a common website, and you get a pop-up with an ad that says your Flash is out of date,” Pleger said. “… This isn’t actually Flash telling you it’s out of date; it’s an ad on the website that actually delivers malware. People click on that and they’re easily tricked into downloading it.”

Complicating matters, some malvertisements employ what are known as “drive-by exploit kits,” which can deliver malware through software security holes without the user having to click on a link or download anything. As soon as an ad loads onto a computer, smartphone or tablet, the device is infected.

Online advertising ‘ecosystem’

Perhaps the biggest challenge in tracking down and eliminating malvertising is what Pleger calls the “vast, complex ecosystem” that creates online ads in the first place.

Think of the cyber-ad space this way: Each site you visit gathers as much information on you as it can: you identity, your social media activity, your friends, the other websites you visit and what you search for. All that information and more is collected and then shared across a labyrinthine web of marketing firms, allowing advertisers to instantly create highly tailored and customized ads just for you.

That, for example, is how Facebook knows you’re shopping for gym shoes, because earlier you were searching Amazon for the exact same thing. It also explains how the host sites often inadvertantly can play host to malvertising, even while trying to combat it.

“Security was an afterthought in this ad world,” Pleger said. “This retargeting of ads almost makes a perfect platform for malvertising. You can actually use malvertisements to target specific types of users you’re interested in infecting. This is why it’s a huge issue for users.”

Beware, mobile users

Pleger expects malvertising will continue to surge in the coming year. He predicts the attacks increasingly will target mobile devices.

“As more people are mobile, it’s a little easier to target them and they’re a little more used to some of the ad content in there,” Pleger told VOA. “We’re going to see a shift toward mobile and an increase in general of malvertising.”

While cybersecurity firms and e-commerce sites such as Amazon scramble to keep up with the evolving malvertisement threat, users can develop a few commonsense habits to try to keep devices clean. One of the best, said Pleger, is regularly updating a computer’s operating systems and applications.

“The important thing, when you update your software, is that you go to that vendor’s website,” Pleger said. “You don’t wait for pop-ups but proactively update [the device] yourself.”

Other good cyber-hygiene habits include creating strong passwords and using different passwords between various programs. That said, history proves that many users pay lip service to those suggestions, but rarely actually employ them.

Source : Voanews